Food and Catering

The task of finding a good caterer let alone the perfect caterer for your wedding can be a daunting task. Some wedding venues like major hotel chains require you to order the food from their onsite restaurant. Its easy and efficient and takes the whole selection work out of your busy schedule but then your are limited to the standard menu. One golf club had fried zucchini and cheese sticks and the other had surf and turf. Sure you can pick from their limited menu but the list is listless.

Other venues give you the flexibility to choose your own caterer or to select from their narrowed down list of preferred vendors. The idea of preferred caterers at first can be intimidating, maybe even suggesting kick backs to the venue for recommending them (politely called a referral fee). But preferred vendors are generally repeatedly working with the same venue and know all the ins and outs of the site…. everything from where to find the electrical outlets to where the extra stock of champagne glasses are stored when a drunk guest accidentally bumps into the table and breaks twenty like a perfect domino effect of a bowling ball toss. These vendors have used the dishwasher on numerous occasions to know which buttons to push and conversely know which one of the venue manager’s buttons not to push. The venue manager trusts them and is willing to work with them on exceptions to the rule such as allowing the caterer to show up early or pick up their supplies the next day. These little conveniences in turn result in happier vendors helping with your wedding reception.

Passed hors d'houevres

Our Story: We had to select a caterer among a list of 12 preferreds. First I looked at their websites to get ideas, followed by initial calls to each to get price ranges. To do this, you need to have an idea of the type of menu you’re looking for and let the first caterer you chat with guide you through thinking about quantities and selection. Once you have that in mind, to compare apples to apples, you ask each subsequent caterer for a quote based on the intial selection. And if you like their price you then ask their opinion on the selection and if they have recommendations to improve the selection or make it more unique.

We knew upfront that given our early afternoon wedding we wanted to host a cocktail party reception with passed hors d’hoeuvres. I had to be very firm with the caterer to remind them on a regular basis that passed hors d’hoeuvres did not mean a combination of passed and stationary ones. I did not want to see people shmearing cheese on crackers while the cracker split and half of it landed in the next person’s lap. Leave it to the caterers and they will understandably take the most economical route from a resource perspective. But there’s an air of elegance I was seeking and wanted to maintain that image of cranberry bread crostini with goat cheese or mini cheese gougeres instead of a cheese platter with cheddar cheese and supermarket crackers.

Should you opt for the surf and turf and full sit down dinner, you still need to work with your caterer to make sure their menu idea matches yours. Ask what kind of rolls they serve and when you go to a tasting to narrow down your top three caterers based on flavor and presentation, ask to see portion sizes and don’t be shy to ask them to substitute walnuts for almonds in the green salad if that’s what you like. Your wedding menu should represent the foods that are you and if you’re a gourmand that’s what the guests come to expect. And if you normally met my friends for dinner at TGIF, maybe fried zucchini sticks with tomato sauce would not be a bad idea.