And if you prefer to read, here's the summary of the podcast episode!

Hi guys! In today’s post, I'm unpacking everything YOU need to be asking your wedding caterer at your wedding food tasting.  The wedding tasting is a big deal, and you want to be sure you pick the right food that not only you, but also your guests will LOVE. 

Discuss Your Event Setup and  Floorplan

1. Bring your floorplan and make sure you know how the tables and chairs will be set up.
2. Make sure everyone knows when they can arrive and when they need to return to pick up their items.
3. Confirm who's providing the tables and chairs and who's setting it all up.

Picking Hors D'œuvres for Your Wedding Catering

1.  Keep it to one bite – For items that are on a cracker or chip, or resemble a sandwich, if it’s bigger than one bit, it can get messy. There’s nothing less elegant than trying to take 2 bites of something and it spilling on your clothes OR trying to eat in one bit something that really takes 2 and having your mouth stuffed. 
2.  Stay away from anything that leads your guests with trash. – Anything that’s on a stick or a bone is a no no to me. I hate eating something that’s on a stick and then being left with trash that I have to hold on to and wait for another server to come take. Also, anything on a bone. No one wants to see me gnawing on a bone while I’m wearing my nice clothes. No thank you.
3. As far as flavor profiles, it’s great to have your personal tastes come through. If you’re more adventurous, be adventurous with your menu! But remember that not everyone will have the same tastes as you, so picking some crowd pleasers will help.
4. Avoid anything that gives people bad breath, like strong garlic, onions, or even blue cheese. 

Wedding Catering: Picking Your Dinner Menu 

1. For your first course, which is usually a salad, and your entree, select menu items to taste that you’re curious about. Don't tasting dishes that you're already planning to serve. For example, if you’re definitely going to serve a steak, I’d taste the chicken, fish, and veggie options, if you can so you can decide what the other choices will be for your guests. 
2. Ask how the dishes can accommodate people with dietary restrictions
3. Think about what’s in season locally
4. Consider what can be easily prepared for large amounts of people, without the quality of the food being sacrificed

Discussing Wine and Beverages for Your Wedding Catering

If your family is anything like mine, chances are the wine and alcohol choices are an important factor in your meal. This can be tricky because people’s tastes are so individualized, especially when it comes to wine. It’s important to try the wine with the meal as you’re tasting it. The flavor profiles will affect how the wine tastes and vice versa. Also, many tastings take place during the winter and spring because that’s when caterers are less busy and have time before they get busy with weddings. So think of the time of year when the wedding will be. 

If it’s in the summer, you might go for something lighter, like a Malbec or a pinot noir. If it’s in the fall, maybe select something that's more robust, like a cabernet sauvignon. 

Now, some of you might wondering if you should buy your own wine or if you should rely on the caterer or whoever is supplying the bar to purchase the wine. 

Multiple clients of mine have tried to buy their own wine and to be honest, in most cases, you will not save any money. Unless you’re in the alcohol industry and have access to wholesale discounts, you will not save money because you will likely spend the same amount per person and end up with a lot of extra alcohol. To me, it’s just not worth the hassle and having cases of extra wine that I have to keep drinking until Christmas because I overbought. But that’s me.

However, if you feel strongly about purchasing your own wine for your wedding, there are a couple formulas you can use to estimate how much alcohol to buy.

Typically I estimate 2 drinks per person during cocktail hour, 1 drink per person for the next 3 or 4 hours, and then drop it down to 0.5 drink per person the final hour.

Dessert

And finally, dessert. I’m not going to talk about what to choose for your wedding cake or dessert because that’s a whole episode in itself. But if you want ideas for what kind of unique flavors or approaches you could take with the cake during your wedding tasting, check out Episode 23 and Episode 09 of the show. On Episode 23: How to Budget for Your Wedding Cake, I spoke with Randi Smith from Sugar Euphoria. 

Randi is an amazing cake baker who breaks down the budgeting process as well as fun flavors for your wedding cake.

On Episode 9: Creative Wedding Cakes: Think Outside the Wedding Cake Box with Molly Hartly From Scratch Bake Shop, we discussed a lot of ideas about fun and unique flavors, designs, and other really fun and creative ways to show your personality with your wedding cake.

For the purpose of this blog post, I will note that it's important to discuss how your dessert going to be served. Think through these questions:

• When are you going to cut the cake?
• Are you going to cut your wedding cake in front of all your guests or do something smaller and quiet for just you two?
• How is the caterer going serve the cake?
• Will they serve it tableside and offer guests coffee?

Wedding Catering Tasting: Discuss Your Event Flow and Timing

1. 1 Will your first course be pre-set before your guests come into the dining room? This saves time, but it can compromise a salad if there’s a lot of acid in the dressing. If that’s the case, or it’s a particularly warm day, your salad will start to wilt quickly. So it’s something to think about. 
2. Your introductions – Are you introducing yourselves and the wedding party? Also, when a speaker is coming up to do a toast or blessing, who is introducing them and what will they say?
3. Will you have anyone do a welcome or blessing at the beginning before guests eat? Sometimes the couple will do this or the parents of the bride or the father’s toast will happen here.
4. When are you doing your dances? Will you have your first dance at the beginning right when you’re introduced into the room or will you let your guests eat first and then start the dances after the second course has been served? 
5. When are you doing your toasts and speeches? This can be by your best man, a maid or matron of honor, or other VIPs in your wedding party, like a Best Woman or Man of Honor. 

As a planner, when I’m putting together the dinner run of show, I don’t love interrupting guests every course with remarks. I prefer to let them sit down and eat and enjoy their meal, talk to their tablemates, and then after the 2nd course has been served, I’ll resume the programming with speeches and dancing. And usually, the dancing opens the dance floor and we transition quickly into the band or DJ. 

A lot of this is personal preference, but I also think this flows really well and gives the guests enough time to enjoy their meal but not so much time that they’re wondering what’s happening next. 

Wedding Speeches and Toasts

The one thing I will say about speeches and toasts is this:

Less is always more. I’ve said it before and I”ll say it again. No one ever said, “Man, I wish that speech was longer.”

I’ve definitely seen a wedding attendant hijack a reception and kept everyone for 20 minutes as they list their life history with one or both of the wedding couple. 

But it’s really best to keep the speech to 3-5 minutes max. 

The most memorable speech was the Gettysburg address. It was under 2 and a half minutes and 275 words. 

So if you think your speakers are going to take a long time, I strongly recommend you make it clear to them they only have 3 minutes.  They’ll probably run over and go to 5 anyways.  But, this will allow you more time for dancing and other fun things. 

For more on this specific topic, make sure you go back to Episode 19 of the podcast, How to Put Together Your Wedding Day Timeline. 

Conclusion: Wedding Catering: All the Questions to Ask at Your Food Tasting