Wedding Caterers Information
When I got married, we agreed with the Hotel that was providing the catering for the reception what sort of menu we would have. It was to be a simple finger buffet with typical tasty morsels such as savoury vol au vents, asparagus rolls, Hors d’oeuvres, vegetable crudités, prawns in filo pastry, delicate open sandwiches, delicious mini strawberry tartlets and other such delicious things. When we arrived at our reception, an elderly couple were sitting having their lunch and no reception food was in sight. At that point the staff panicked, the elderly couple were hastily ushered out and various doors were flung open and plates of food were hurriedly plonked on tables. The food consisted of slabs of pizza, enormous workman size rolls, piles of chicken drumsticks, tinned fruit salad and the rest just looked as though it was a teenage party in the local village hall. We had agreed that our guests should be served drinks as soon as they arrived – they had to ask for them eventually and to cap it all, a cousin with a new born baby asked if there was somewhere she could breastfeed her baby and was shown to the loo! Would you want to eat you dinner in the loo? Probably not. All of this is incredibly rare and our day was still magical due to our wonderful friends and family, but in our naivety we hadn’t got anything in writing, so when we said we would be arrived at 2pm the Hotel insisted we had said 3pm. We did eventually go to court and won our case, but it just goes to show what can go wrong if you don’t get every detail in writing. The most important day of your life deserves the utmost care and attention, so it is absolutely vital to do your homework.
So how do you go about choosing a professional wedding caterer who is right for you? First of all you need to decide on your budget and rates can vary enormously. The most expensive is not necessarily the best. The next thing you need to do is decide the type of wedding catering you want. Do you want a gourmet five course banquet, a relaxed barbeque or perhaps a refined afternoon tea.
The Internet is the obvious starting point. There are literally thousand of wedding caterers so once you have narrowed it down, it is important to ask for references and follow them up. Of course personal recommendation is the best, so If you have attended a wedding where you were impressed with the wedding catering, make sure you take the name of the company.
Discuss you requirements at length with the wedding caterers – it is your day, not theirs so if you want the cheese course first, followed by pudding and then the main course – then that is what they should give you. By all means ask their advice, after all they will have had a lot of experience catering at many different styles of wedding, but ultimately it’s your decision. Discuss your ideas and talk through every step right from colour schemes, number of staff, reception drinks and canapés to an evening buffet. They will offer guidance on serving suggestions and the suitability of each selection, based on your guest numbers, equipment requirements and the limitations and facilities of your venue. Ask for a breakdown of costs – you really don’t want any surprises and, if the budget is wearing a little thin, you can look at where you can save costs.
Make sure your caterers visit the venue, whether it is a Hotel, a marquee, a village hall or a private residence, they need to check all the facilities, including parking. They will then be able to judge timings to ensure your event goes without a hitch.
A good wedding caterer’s reputation is on the line at every event, so they will want everything to run as smoothly as you will and should take a pride in adding extra wow factor to your day.
Above all make sure you have everything in writing, then you can relax, enjoy your day and everything will run like clockwork.