You have spent a long time planning and preparing for your wedding, and naturally, you want all of the elements to come together successfully. One of these elements is catering. If the food and drink at your wedding are not how you want them to be, it will have an impact on how smoothly the whole day runs. When it comes to organizing a caterer for your wedding, you need to take time to plan and prepare.
Focusing on Great Communication
Communication with a caterer or catering firm is essential. If you want to have specific food or displays, then communication is a must. If you do not have great communication with a caterer, they will miss the mark and this will leave both you (and them) feeling frustrated. Great communication includes being open about the brief that you have. It also means discussing the pricing and costs that you are looking at. If you are keeping anything back from a caterer, then it will impact the results.
Giving Plenty of Notice
Great caterers will get booked up in advance. Therefore, you need to make sure you give them a sufficient amount of notice. If you are not giving enough notice, then you are expecting miracles, and this is going to leave you feeling disappointed and frustrated. Ideally, you will want to give caterers a few months’ notice, as this will allow them to source the ingredients they need. It will also give them time to plan what they need to do, especially if they are juggling your catering job alongside other work.
Looking at Previous Work
When you are looking at event caterers or wedding caterers, you need to look at previous work they have carried out. See if the caterer produces the type of food that you want. See if they can produce what you want, and see if the results are consistent. Some caterers may be open to sharing their previous work with you (and this is always a positive sign). Others may require you to sign an (NDA) non-disclosure agreement before sharing previous work with you, especially if an event was recent, or for a high-profile client.
Decide What Your Catering Requirements and Needs Are
Making sure you are on the same page as a caterer is crucial. To share your vision and ideas with a caterer, you need to know what your catering requirements are. You can do this by putting pen to paper, and writing down what you want. Or, you can utilize pictures of other people’s wedding food and displays. It can sometimes be hard to communicate clearly what you want and need from a caterer, and this is why you need to establish what your requirements are, early on in the process. Catering requirements may mean sharing dietary requirements or allergen information with a caterer in the first instance.
You must build up a good relationship with a caterer to get the most out of your food, and the best from your wedding day. A good relationship can be established (and built) upon trust, honesty, and openness.
