Eat, drink and BE MARRIED Catering questions answered Choosing what food and drink to serve on your big day is one of the biggest milestones in the planning process, especially if you’re dedicated foodies like us! After all, this is an essential element not only in ensuring your guests’ enjoyment of the day but also keeping them going so they can maintain the celebratory pace with the two of you! If it’s something you’ve started to think about, you may already have a list of questions. So, here we tackle the need-to-knows. Do I need a wedding caterer, separate from my venue? “Not necessarily,” Rebecca Barker from Dine (www.dine.co.uk) says. “Most venues would have a preferred caterer list to choose from or will work with an in-house caterer. If the venue doesn’t provide catering, this is a good question to ask at your initial venue visit. Chat to them to see who they’d recommend.” If you’d rather have the power of choice, look for a dry hire venue that will either offer you a list of recommended caterers or will otherwise give you complete freedom. You may, of course, decide to go totally DIY and opt for an al fresco, festival style, tipi wedding, in which case, the sky’s the limit! What information do I need to have gathered together for our caterer before booking them? There are some essential pieces of information you’ll need to be armed with before you start looking for wedding caterers. The first is the where. Prospective caterers will need to know where they’ll be cooking in order to ascertain whether it’s a location they can logistically work with and what equipment they may or may not need to bring in. “The location does play a huge role when discussing catering,” Rebecca explains. “It’s also good to have your preferred date to hand along with ideal guest numbers and a rough idea of the style of catering you’d like to have. Styles include relaxed sharing menus to a fine-dining, three-course meal.” Finally, budget. Work out how much of your overall budget you’re allocating to the food. Caterers will often work on a cost per head basis, so this will be essential for your final quote. What questions should we ask potential caterers when approaching them for the first time? Once you’ve narrowed down your shortlist of caterers and it’s time for a planning meeting, you may be wondering how to tackle the next steps. Presumably, you’ll have already addressed point number one: whether they’re available on your wedding date, so here are some more queries you might not have thought of yet... “Initial questions are a great starting point when it comes to seeing if a wedding caterer is the right fit for you,” Rebecca says. “The first step would be to check availability and if they can offer caterering at your chosen venue. Also, I’d ask for a snapshot of costs based on your requirements, just so you can see if it works within your budget. Having a look at example menus online can help with providing inspiration too.” You may also want to address areas such as whether they’ll provide crockery, cutlery and waiting staff and if there’ll be an opportunity to try your selections before the big day. Do, also check whether there’s an additional charge for this. What food do we need to provide on the day aside from the wedding breakfast? There are many points during your wedding where food is important, remember, it’s going to be a long day! While the two of you will be on cloud nine on the day, with food the furthest thing from your minds (hard Curated Lifestyle on Unsplash Pablo Merchan-Montes on Unsplash CATERING 47
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