Catering Service

Our Favorite Topic — Fantastic Food!

Our Barn Lights Catering team is ready to prepare your hors d’oeuvres (appetizers) and reception dinner, as well as your rehearsal dinner, breakfast, brunch, or lunch. Our executive Chef Rosa and the kitchen team are talented and extremely knowledgeable about wedding catering, so you are in good hands!

Catering with us is required for all venue packages, and is a separate budget from our venue rental packages. Whether you would like a rehearsal dinner, brunch, lunch or dinner (or all four), Barn Lights Catering can provide a range of affordable to gourmet meals. See some examples here.

And, all tableware, glassware, linens, and cleaning is included in our catering plans. All of our rustic-elegant displayware is included, too, to create stunning food displays. And our team will set the place-settings according to your desired layout, and help with decorating the tables — all as part of our full-service catering service. You won’t find this value anywhere else in New England, we’re confident.

We’re happy to create fun, themed menus for your wedding or event (beyond the stalwarts of “fish, chicken or beef”). We can design and plan the menu that matches your tastes. To help you estimate your catering costs, we provide our 4 menu plans at your tour, and can accommodate all kinds of budgets.

For your wedding cake we can recommend a local specialty baker to prepare the most amazing creations. Bonus: we include cake cutting and plating for free in all our in-house catering plans!

Please Contact us to start planning your menu!

Barn Lights provides the catering for all events held at our venue. Generally, no outside caterers are allowed to ensure the best experience possible. Exceptions are possible for specialty ethnic menus.

Our in-house catering services

Catering Amenities

We’d love to create your wedding meal — Our friendly staff, tableware, glassware, displayware, and linens are all included Choice of many colors, chargers, and table decor.

Evening Dinner

All 3 of our Packages are perfect for a cocktail hour and reception dinner. You can choose any start time for your cocktail hour and reception, in any style from traditional to your way!

Brunch

Your wedding package could include an overnight stay for your guests, so you may want to offer a hot or cold brunch as well. Sometimes this is called a Farewell Brunch if after your wedding the next day. And, with Venue Packages 2 and 3, your wedding party and other guests can arrive as early as you like in the morning, and enjoy “brunch boxes” and other treats!

Lunch

We can provide lunch for your wedding party or the entire crowd!

Rehearsal Dinner

Imagine the entire barn and patio reserved for exclusively for your party the night before your wedding. Anyone can request the evening before their wedding, if available. Min. guests 25, using our catering service. Package 3 includes the venue the entire day before your wedding, to host your rehearsal dinner and/or a full party. And 10-12 of your friends or family can enjoy the 2 cottages for a sleepover!

Cocktails & Hors d'oeuvres

The traditional “drinks and apps” reception is an occasion for guests to mingle and socialize, for as long as you prefer. We offer a wide variety of tasty bites to whet appetites until the meal. From oysters to grilled-cheese sliders, oven-baked pretzels to ham and cheese croquettes, and everything in between. (Also, your bar plan can be customized in many ways!)

Catering Photos

See more photos of our catering displays.

About Maine Food & Alcohol Taxes

Many of our wedding couples ask about Maine taxes: there are just two taxes that apply to event venues: (1) prepared food & beverage sales tax (for catering and alcohol) and (2) lodging tax. To quote a Maine.gov source:

The tax rate is 8% on sales of prepared food and alcoholic drinks sold in establishments that are licensed for on-premises consumption of liquor. The tax rate is 9% on certain rentals of living quarters.

For the catering and bartending the 8% prepared food sales tax would be calculated on these service costs (not the venue rental price).

Let’s do an example for catering: the typical food cost per guest range is $60–$120 (depending on how premium the menu offerings), so let’s say $60 x 100 guests = $6,000. So the sales tax of 8% = about $480. We do not include gratuity in our tax calcs, to save you money!

There is no Maine sales tax on venue rentals as of 2023.