Today’s topic is important because your food and alcohol take up a huge percentage of your budget. Depending on your total budget, it can be 30-45%!

Putting together your wedding menu and figuring out the logistics of your food, alcohol, and catering can be pretty intricate and requires a lot of thought and attention. This part of your wedding planning takes more than just tasting food and deciding what you like and don’t like. 

Whether you’re searching for a caterer or you’ve already booked one and signed the contract, this episode will give you a lot to think about and help you decide just what kind of meal you want to serve and the type of caterer you want to work with. 

Whether you’re having a rustic backyard wedding or a formal, elegant dinner in a ballroom, all these questions will apply.

Some of these questions I share with you in one of my products in the Resource Shop – the Wedding Vendor Email Templates and Interview Questions. But this episode talks specifically about catering questions.

However, if you’ve ever wondered what questions you should be asking a specific vendor, knowing there are lots of important things you might be missing, definitely check out my wedding vendor email templates and interview questions. All you need to do is literally copy and paste them from my document into your email and you will be well on your way. You’ll be happy to know you asked the right questions and saved yourself so much time. 

WEDDING CATERER SERVICE STYLE & GUEST COUNT

First, one of the most basic questions you need to ask when it comes to your wedding caterer is, what kind of meal are you having and how many people are you serving?

When you reach out to a wedding caterer, this is going to be one of the first questions they ask you so they can put together a proper proposal. 

Pricing for a 4-course dinner for 200 guests is going to look and cost very differently from a buffet with chicken and pasta for 120 guests. 

You don’t have to decide your menu right away, but at least have an idea of the type of meal you want to have so they can put together that’s in the ballpark of what you’re looking for. 

THE BAR 

Next, what kind of bar are you having? Do you want to serve just beer and wine, or would you like a full bar with liquor? 

The type and variety of beers, liquors, and wines you would like to offer, as well as the price, will affect the per-person price of your alcohol package.

Usually, wedding caterers or venues have different tiers. 

It will start with house brand (or the cheapest) beer and wine ONLY.

Then you can add house brand liquors. These will be the less expensive liquors in addition to beer and wine.

Next, you’ll have “call” brands of beer, wine, and liquor. “Call” brands are specific names of spirits providers, like Grey Goose Vodka or Bombay Sapphire gin. 

Also, do you want to serve a signature cocktail? Did you have anything in mind or do you want their mixologist to craft something special for you?

Going along with alcohol, how many hours is the bar going to be open? 

You’ll have an hour for your cocktail hour before the reception. Then you can keep it open for a certain number of hours while everyone’s dancing or choose to switch from an open bar or hosted bar (where the host pays for it), to a cash bar, where the guest then pays. 

TASTINGS

Next, let’s talk about tastings. If you’re not familiar, tastings are where wedding caterers will allow you, the prospective client, to sample their food prior to your wedding day to help you decide on your wedding menu.

Tastings can happen in larger group settings where the caterer has an open-house type of event and serves everything on their menu and allows couples the chance to taste everything. If you’re listening to this in 2021, they’re probably not happening like that because of the pandemic, but hopefully, those days will be behind us soon. 

Other caterers have private tastings with just the couple and maybe 2-3 guests, with a more focused menu of only a few options for each category, allowing the couple to choose between their final favorite items.

Other caterers will allow a private tasting prior to you booking them, and if you sign them, they will put the cost of the tasting towards your final bill. 

It all depends. 

I think it’s best to choose a caterer based on their menu options and pricing. Then you can fine-tune the actual menu you serve at your tasting and in conversations leading up to the day. 

You’ll be able to get a good idea prior to working with them on how they’ll be at the wedding. Questions to consider when choosing the wedding caterer are:

• Is their food rustic and family-style? Or are they more formal? 
• Do they respond to your emails quickly or does it take a few days?
• Are they willing to make changes and be flexible, or do they follow set menus and pricing? 

TASTING QUESTIONS 

Once you’ve selected your caterer, it’s time to think about your menu and have your tasting. 

At my tastings, I bring a whole agenda and a list of questions to finalize the details prior to the wedding. This is another reason why I advocate for having a wedding planner so you can make sure you're asking the right questions.

All my full-service couples have private tasting in person, as opposed to sitting at one table in a room with many other couples. This allows for us to fully flesh out the catering service and style, the schedule of the day, logistics, and many other questions.  

I’m going to share a lot of the questions from my tasting agenda with you today. It’s important to discuss these questions with your caterer to make sure everyone’s on the same page and to help you decide what to serve.

These will also help you talk through the logistics of the day. 

Before the wedding or at your tasting, ask your caterer:

• When is the final guarantee due? This is the number that confirms to the caterer how many actual guests are coming and you need meals for. After you provide this, you usually cannot go down in the number of guests. You might be able to go up, but only by a small amount, if any as they’ve already ordered the food.
• How are they able to accommodate guests with allergies or dietary restrictions. 
• When is the caterer arriving to set up and begin prep?

For the Cocktail Hour, questions you should think about and discuss with the caterer are:

• How will the food be displayed or passed?
• If you’re displaying the food, who’s providing the tables and linens for the displays?
• If anything is being passed, I DESPISE anything that’s served on a stick or leaves the guest with trash. It’s just not elegant to have to be stuck with a napkin and a stick while you look for a place to put it. I also don’t like stuff on a bone. It’s not elegant to see people chewing meat off a bone, and again, to be left with the bone to dispose of.
• You’ll also want to make sure you provide different vegetarian and meat options, based on what the majority of your guests will like. 

For the Dinner Menu, here are some questions you should be asking yourself when choosing the menu:

• How formal do we want the wedding to feel?
• Are we picking menu items that the majority of guests will like? It’s okay to be a little adventurous with your menu, depending on your guests, but you have to remember that you’ll need something that will be well-received by most of your guests, too. 
• Avoid picking items that people have strong aversions to, like raw onions, blue cheese, or too much garlic that can leave guests' breath smelling a little offensive.

There will definitely be other questions that come up during and after your tasting, but I’ve covered the main points in today’s episode. 

IN SUMMARY

Even though today’s episode was short, it was still full of a ton of questions and probably sparked new ones in your head. 

Before I wrap up today’s episode, I’m going to repeat for you the main questions we discussed today that will help you better plan for a memorable and delicious wedding:

• What type of meal are you serving (formal or casual) and how many guests will there be?

• What kind of bar are you going to have?

• How does the caterer handle tastings and is there a fee to attend one? Also, how many guests may attend?

• When is the final guarantee due?

• At what time is the caterer arriving on the day of the wedding?

• How will the food be served at cocktail hour?

• And finally, when picking out your menu, have you chosen a variety of options to satisfy a majority of your wedding guests?

Conclusion

Your wedding catering is important as everyone looks forward to the meal. It can also significantly impact the way your guests experience and enjoy your wedding. 

While you can take the simpler route when it comes to flowers or decor, if you skimp on your food and alcohol, guests will more likely notice it than if spend less on flowers or your escort card display. 

So choose your menu wisely.

If you have ANY questions on this topic or any others, I’m always more than happy to answer them! 

Send me a DM me on IG at @asktheplannerpodcast. I respond to everyone – usually with voice texts! 

If you want even more help with your wedding planning, I’m only a phone call away, and you can set up a 90-minute clarity call with me at verveeventco.com/clarity.