Our six step guide to hiring the right wedding caterer
You want everything to be perfect at your wedding. The dress needs to look immaculate, the weather stunning, and you want every guest smiling ear to ear. That last one is probably most important to you too. If your friends and family are enjoying themselves, you are too, right?
So what can you do to make sure they’re happy? Well hiring a good wedding caterer is one step towards ensuring happy guests, and we’re going to give you a quick rundown on how to do it right.
Recommendations
The easiest way to find a good wedding caterer is to speak to people who have used their service before. One quick way to do this is to head online and look at various review sites to see what’s loved about the catering companies you’re looking at and what’s hated. Remember, you aren’t going to have the time to visit every caterer you see to taste the food; you’re trying to organise a wedding!
That’s why recommendations are so important. Speak to friends and family, find the best of the best online, and then make a short list of the one’s you like the look of. These are the caterers you’ll want to pay a visit to.
Budget
Thankfully, there’s a wedding caterer out there for pretty much any budget. You should know how much money you have to spend on catering exactly, if not, go back to the drawing board and organise your money. Too many weddings are ruined because not enough time is put into budgeting and many end up over paying or realising they don’t have enough for everything they want.
Remember, you’re probably going to have to pay a deposit (usually about 50%) when you sign a contract with a caterer. Make sure that you’re certain that they’re right for you before doing so.
Speak to your venue
You may find quite often that the venues you’re looking at have an approved list of caterers, often because of insurance requirements. But other times it’s simply because these are caterers the venue trusts. If you’ve already booked your venue you should seriously consider going with one of their approved vendors. It’s going to make everything so much easier. They’ll already know the layout, the best place to set up, and how best to serve customers in that environment.
If you’re having difficulty finding a caterer that’s a right fit for you on the list, speak to the wedding venue manager.
Know your guests
It’s unlikely that every single guest attending your wedding will have the same dietary requirement. You must make sure of two things. One is that the wedding caterer you hire can adapt their menu to meet with such dietary requirements and two, that you know what those dietary requirements are. Don’t forget to arrange a special menu for any children attending too.
Ask the right questions
If you want to hire someone great (which of course you do) then you must ask eh right questions of them. Not only will this help you establish the type of business they are, but it’ll help you establish if they’re good enough for your wedding too.
Ask things like:
- Do they specialise in certain types of food?
- What do they provide? I.E – table linens, plates, chairs etc…
- Who is the main point of contact?
- Are they going to be working other weddings the same weekend or even the same day?
- Are wait staff provided? If so, what will they wear?
- Do they work with fresh foods?
- Do they have the necessary licenses?
- Can you speak to previous clients?
Don’t forget about other vendors
If you’ve hired a wedding DJ and a photographer, consider what they’re going to eat too. It may be in the contract that you have to provide them with food, so organise with your caterer a meal that they can have. They won’t be eating with your guests and so the food won’t need to be plated up quite the same, which will probably cost you less.
Get the caterer right and you’re on your way to making your guests very happy.
