I Do (Eat)
Get the most out of your wedding caterer
Food service is the largest expense of a wedding, according to the Bridal Association of America (BAOA). It’s also one of the hardest things to plan. Here’s what you need to know.
How Do I Find a Caterer?
Word of mouth is best. Besides asking friends, you can search Chowhound boards and check out message boards at DIY Bride, Offbeat Bride Tribe, and The Knot. Check for referrals from big catering and event planning organizations like NACE, ISES, Catersource, Leading Caterers of America, and BizBash. It’s fine to ask a potential caterer for references, so you can chat with people they’ve worked with.
What Information Should I Have When I Meet with a Caterer?
Know the date and location of your event, and have an idea of your budget for food; the average according to BAOA is $9,427 (including service, but not cake or booze). You can do a nice catered meal for a few thousand dollars, or you can hire an alternative type of wedding caterer. Since many locations have an approved list of vendors they work with, make sure you’re pursuing a caterer included on the list. Or, if you love a certain caterer’s food, ask what locations that caterer works with, and book your venue that way. Be sure to do a little research about the “on-list” at your prospective venues before you select a site so that you don’t end up unable to shop around for the best food.
How Can I Hire a Caterer that’s Not on the Approved List?
David Turk, owner and president of Indiana Market & Catering in New York City, says you may be able to go to your venue and discuss the issue, but you might have to pay a significant fee to use an “off-list” caterer. Museums and historic buildings are usually the most rigid about adhering to their lists, because they can’t risk having unfamiliar companies working in their valuable spaces.
What Should I Ask a Caterer?
Here are some basics to cover:- Will they be cooking on-site or reheating the food? If they plan to reheat something delicate like salmon, it won’t taste as good—especially if they microwave it.
- Are they able to create a custom menu, or do you have to choose a menu package? If you’re really into food, you’ll want to be able to work with a caterer to create a unique menu that includes the quality and kinds of ingredients you want.
- What sorts of spreads can they do? The main types are: buffet, sit-down multicourse meal, family-style dinner, brunch, or appetizers only.
- What accents and garnishes will there be? Will they add decorative fruit and flowers to a buffet? Is that cost included in the price per person or is it extra? For a plated dinner, will the plates have any garnish on them or will they be unadorned?
- What type of serving pieces will the food be presented on? If you’re having a traditional wedding, you may not want modern geometric platters. If you’re going for a colorful outdoor event, you probably won’t want restrained white china.
- What will the servers wear? Make sure their uniforms fit with the style of your event.
- Who will be on-site during the event to manage it? Can you meet this person before the day of the event?
- Does the company also make desserts or cakes? If it does, can you use an outside source if you want to?
- Regarding the rentals (plates, flatware, linens, tables, chairs, serving pieces, etc.), will a wide selection of styles and price ranges be available to choose from? And is the caterer responsible for the pickup and return of the rentals?
- Additionally, David Turk emphasizes asking open-ended questions, like those you would pose at a job interview, so you can get a feel for the caterer. (For example: “Tell me about a wedding you were really proud of catering—what worked, what didn’t?”) Turk says he’d “approach it like a date.” You’re going to be spending serious time with this team, and you want people you can trust.
Roxanne Webber is an associate editor at CHOW.
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I Do (Eat) (cont.)
Will I Get to Taste the Food?
“A tasting should be standard for a wedding,” says Evie Loftus, the vice president of sales for the Main Ingredient in Annapolis, Maryland. Many companies put together private tastings based on their menu proposals for clients, but other caterers may only provide group tastings for several clients at a time, with a general sampling of foods on offer. Some will charge for a tasting, and there may be a limited number of people you can bring with you.
What Should Be in My Contract?
- The date of the event.
- The catering company’s arrival time.
- The duration of the event. This should clarify how many hours the company has agreed to be there before it starts charging overtime.
- Overtime rates.
- The hourly rate for any unforeseen duties, such as the venue asking the caterer to remove garbage from the site. This may or may not be the same as the overtime rate, so it’s important to discuss.
- When the final head count is due.
- The cancellation policy (often graduated, so the further out from the event date that you cancel, the less money you owe).
- When the deposits and payments are due and what the refund policy is on the deposit (it’s often nonrefundable). Payments and deposits are usually graduated, so if the event is a year away, you may pay in four installments, but if it’s three months away, you may pay in two installments.
- A service fee. Typically covers things like payroll taxes or transportation for waitstaff. May or may not include a gratuity for servers, so ask.
- A set gratuity. There may be a line item on your contract for gratuity, but ask if it’s for the company or for the servers. If you want to define a tip for your servers and reception staff in the contract, make that clear.
- Stipulations about what happens to leftover food: Many companies include clauses that note that they are not responsible for food once it leaves the event, and some won’t let you take food to avoid liability issues.
- Substitution clauses that outline what happens if a menu item suddenly becomes unavailable. Typically the caterer will be required to call and discuss a substitute with you before changing the menu.
- Decisions about vendor meals. Caterers usually take care of their own staff, but if the band or DJ wants to eat, who’s paying for it? How much will it cost? Will those individuals use disposable serving ware or will additional rentals be needed?
Should I Try to Cut Costs by Renting the Chairs, Tables, and Tableware Myself?
Vickie Peterson, who does business development for Ravishing Radish Catering in Seattle, says doing your own rentals is a bad way to try to save money. “[People] end up breaking a few plates and find out how insanely costly it is to cover those charges. It’s sad to find out you’re paying $90 to replace a linen you rented for $12.”
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I Do (Eat) (cont.)
What Can I Do to Save Money?
- Buy in season. Turk notes that people often don’t realize tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, avocados, and some melons have a peak season. Buy out of season and it will cost you. Other ridiculous off-season requests he’s fielded: fiddlehead ferns in the winter (they’re a spring ingredient), corn in the spring (it’s good in the summer), and morel mushrooms in the autumn (“Most mushrooms flourish at this time of year, but not morels,” he says).
- Offer a buffet. Buffets are less expensive than sit-down dinners because they require fewer pieces of equipment and servers. You can splurge on things like beautiful linens for the buffet table and high-quality ingredients. For around $24 a person, for instance, Ravishing Radish can prepare seasonal buffets with local organic food. The price includes china dinner plates, flatware, linen napkins, and a floral arrangement. Another option Ravishing Radish offers to class up a buffet is tray-passed hors d’oeuvres before dinner like beef saté with Thai-lime dipping sauce or grilled miso-citrus prawns.
- Go family style. If you’re into the idea of a sit-down meal, try family style—that is, large platters of food passed among the diners at the tables. This will be more expensive than a buffet, since you’ll have to rent more serving ware and hire more servers, but it’s cheaper than having a sit-down meal plated in the kitchen and brought out to guests.
- Skimp on silver and china. A typical rental of plates and cutlery costs $35 a head. But choose something cheaper and it’s likely no one will notice. A good caterer will work with you to select budget-appropriate rentals. There’s no shame in making suggestions, such as ditching the bread plates in favor of serving bread Italian style on the table or on the side of the dinner plates. If you’re serving family style, you could lose the salad plates, too.
- Consider the time of day. Evie Loftus says timing has a lot to do with cost because it affects how much food and alcohol people expect to be served. You don’t want to serve only heavy appetizers for a 7 p.m. wedding when your guests are expecting a full dinner. But a reception scheduled for between 2 and 5 p.m., she says, could offer lighter, cold fare like beautiful tea sandwiches and salads. In this case, you would only need to rent small plates and forks, and could probably even get away with paper napkins. At brunches, the expectation for alcohol is a lot lower, and you can offer “filling yet inexpensive” things like a breakfast torte, a fruit display, and pastries.
- Stick with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. These types of receptions can be good or bad for your budget. Turk says they can be less expensive because you need fewer rentals and the event is shorter. But Leah DiBernardo, the founder and chef of Delyte’s in Temecula, California, cautions that you’re going to need six to eight hors d’oeuvres servings to fill someone up, and that people don’t realize how many hors d’oeuvres (like her miniature goat cheese galettes) require “a lot of tedious work” and are pricey. “If we are hand-tying bundles of asparagus in the back,” adds Loftus, “it won’t be budget efficient.”
What If I Want the Caterer to Make a Nontraditional Meal?
Have an idea of what you’re looking for before you talk to caterers, and “just start with, ‘Here’s what we want. Can you do this for us?’” says Ariel Meadow Stallings, the author of Offbeat Bride and founder of the site Offbeat Bride. “If you have a caterer that has very defined packages they do and don’t want to deviate from, you want to know that right up front.” Stallings’s own wedding meal was vegan and included stuffed portobello mushrooms, stuffed zucchini, grilled tofu, salads, sides like Greek country vegetables, appetizers, and a carrot cake that was half vegan and half nonvegan. (She got the whole thing for free because her caterer friend did it.)
Do I Need to Tip the Catering Staff?
If it’s not in the contract already, it’s up to you. Turk says people usually tip the waitstaff around 20 percent of the waiter bill; i.e., if the waitstaff costs $2,000 for the event, tipping $400 “would be substantial.” Some caterers may also make a suggestion appropriate for their area (Turk’s company, based in NYC, suggests two hours’ worth of the waitstaff pay as a tip). If you’re not prepaying the gratuity, Turk suggests giving it to the servers’ captain or to your event manager to distribute properly.
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I Do (Eat) (cont.)
For wedding food that’s fun, economical, and memorable, try forgoing traditional caterers altogether. We’ve put together a handful of casual-yet-tasty alternatives that will run you, at most, $12 a head. (And we’ll bet their offerings will delight your guests more than meat-starch-veg on a rented plate.)
Barbecue
Mobile barbecue caterers bring smokers and grills to your site and prepare old-fashioned ’cue for your guests. For example, Ron’s Mobile Barbeque Services, based out of the Piedmont area of the Carolinas, will serve hickory-smoked pork, beans, slaw, buns, sauces, iced tea, and lemonade for $12 per person (for groups of about 100). That fee includes plates, cups, and ice, and you can get more options (such as burgers, chicken quarters, or ribs) for an additional price. Go to your local barbecue joint and ask for a recommendation, or do a Google search on “mobile catering” and the name of your state (many outfits will be willing to travel a few hours to cater your event). If you live along the Eastern Seaboard, there’s a small mobile barbecue directory available.
Burgers
If you’re in Southern California, In-N-Out Burger offers Cookout Trailers that service most of Los Angeles County and some of Orange and Ventura counties. For a minimum of $1,250 you get any combo of chips, drinks, and burgers (which under the current prices would serve about 200 people a cheeseburger, chips, and a fountain drink) and 1.5 hours of service. The trailers are not equipped to make french fries, unfortunately. If you live in one of White Castle’s restaurant markets, you can place large orders for burgers one week before your wedding. For the normal menu price (an average of 52 cents per Slyder), you can pick up packaged sacks of 10 burgers in an insulated box. (In some cases the chain will deliver.) For areas outside its markets, White Castle will send trucks with griddles to service your event. But it’s expensive: The chain wouldn’t even say the price. Call White Castle headquarters at 800-843-2728 for a quote.
Taco Trucks
For $5 to $10 per person, a truck will roll up to your event and cook and serve fresh tacos to your guests. Tacos Garcia of Napa, California, can serve three kinds of unlimited tacos for 100 people for about $1,000. In other parts of the country, flag down your favorite taco truck and ask if they’d be willing to cater. Or visit your favorite local Mexican restaurant and ask if they know of any trucks in the area. Chowhound mt94610 also suggests asking your local truck if they have any taqueros—taco caterers who will make tacos on a portable grill, which is usually cheaper than bringing the truck.
Takeout
Try negotiating a deal on big trays of food from your favorite restaurant. You could do a delicious dim sum buffet, a bunch of Thai dishes, or a spread of Eritrean food with a little help from friends willing to pick up and set up. Don’t mention the word wedding when ordering, and you may get a better price. Or you could order some beautiful deli platters from a specialty grocer and set up a short champagne reception with light fare. Large antipasti platters from an Italian grocer near CHOW’s office cost $90 and serve around 25 people.
Pig Roast
Another good way to feed a crowd is with a whole roasted pig. For example, in western New York state, Colby’s Pig Roast Catering will slow-roast a whole hog for 14 hours in a custom portable oven, then deliver it to your event. For $529 (plus tax and a 15 percent service charge), you get a medium pig (up to 150 pounds) that will feed 100 to 150 guests, plus fresh rolls, sauces, and a chef to carve the meat hot off the spit. If you potluck the side dishes or get trays of sides from your favorite deli (and pick up some ecofriendly disposable picnic ware), you’ll still come in under 10 bucks a head.
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