Wedding Catering
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Guide To Wedding Catering
Guests after a wedding become very hungry especially if they have been following the newly coupled to photo shoots. Especially many of the guests may have scaled back on eating in order to look good for pictures. Be prepared that your guests will be ready to eat.
So feed them right.
Different needs
Realize that your guests will have different eating needs. Especially when you’re putting together such a large assortment of people, there are bound to be those that have certain ways or preferences of eating. You may find that there are vegetarians or those that can not eat dairy. You might have a diabetic in the crowd or some other health restriction.
Do you have to make arrangements for everyone?
Be prepared to have options available for any sort of eating arrangement. In the case of those that don’t eat meat, you might want to have a cheese lasagne available or other pasta dish. This is becoming widely popular to have two options anyways, so why not offer them?
Another way to cope with varied needs is to serve dinner in a buffet style. This allows each person to pick only what they want or what they can eat.
How to find good food?
Usually wedding caterers rely on word of mouth to get their services recognized. If you can, talk to other people that have gotten married in your town to see who they recommend. Another useful tip to finding good catering is to talk to the reception hall coordinators. Many times they will either require the use of a particular caterer or they have a list of those that they recommend.
Make sure that you schedule an appointment with all of the catering candidates in order to do a taste test of their menu options. This is then your opportunity where you can pick what you think your guests will enjoy.
Keep in mind that a good meal is a great way to send your thanks to your guests for coming to your wedding. This is the part that shouldn’t be skimped on for any reason. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you can’t find moderately priced options.
Options of Catering:
1) Try your favourite restaurant or the first restaurant that you went to for dinner, for example. If they’re able to cater, then you may be able to get a better deal because you’re buying food in bulk.
Having a friend who is a cook is even better—so long as they don’t mind working through the wedding.
Alcohol?
So now you know what your cater has to offer your guests tastebuds. What about drinks?
What’s on tap
It is important to factor in what kinds of drinks everyone would like to drink. The easiest way to take care of this is to offer a full service bar. In this way, guests can have mixed drinks of all varieties or they can stick to wine and beer.
Be careful though with this option. Plan this option out carefully as you may end up paying more than you would like. Check with the provider as to how many drinks each guest can have, or can expect from the supply that will be brought. In most cases, there is no limit.
A word of advice: Don’t ever have a cash bar. Making your guests pay for their drinks when they may also have paid for their outfits and transportation is just a lot to ask.
What alcohol to choose for everyone?
In terms of wine and beer, tastes and varieties are enormous—how does someone choose?
The best advice is to select four to five different kinds of beer with each one having enough to fill everyone’s glass. This may surprise you, but sometimes all of your guests will like the same thing and you may want to make sure that they can have it.
As for wine, you may want to have at least one of each, a red varietal and a white varietal. This ensures a milder and more acidic selection. A way to make sure that everyone is happy is to find blends of each of these wines. By blends, this means to find a red that includes a merlot, syrah, and pinot noir, while the white might include a chardonnay, reisling, and zinfandel.
These can be tricky to find, but they are crowd pleasers.
Champagne for toasts
Toasts are just not toasts without a little glass (or two) of champagne. It is common sense to make sure that the new couple and their wedding party have the very finest in champagne (as determined by the budget), while the rest of the guests have another variety. In many reception halls or catering services, the champagne for the wedding party is provided.
Of course, there will also be designated drivers at the wedding, so you will also want to have water, sodas, coffee, and juices available as well. When you’re planned it thoroughly, everyone will be well-watered throughout the evening.
