Tag Archives: Wedding Catering Checklist

Ways to Make the Most Out of Your Wedding Catering

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How do you make the most out of your wedding catering?

  1. Have a concept in mind
  2. Go for what’s in season
  3. Do as much as you can on your own
  4. Work within a budget

 

Many couples leave the wedding food catering necessities to the experts. All they end up doing is paying their dues and letting the caterers do the magic. But most of these packages are not usually tailor-made for you. Chances are, it’s not going to meet your standards of style.

If you want to make the most out of your wedding catering, you should be hands-on. You should have a solid plan and stick to it. This way, you could make your wedding reception a much more magical occasion. How do you make the most out of your wedding catering services? Simple: work hand in hand with the catering services Here’s how:

 

Have a Concept in Mind

One must lay out a detailed plan when catering a wedding. The food, theme, and the number of guests, while essential, shouldn’t be the only thing in mind. You must have a concept that covers every single detail that would help the wedding catering services fulfill your needs. Providing a comprehensive checklist for the wedding catering service will be of great use for them to fully execute your dream wedding catering.

Without a clear concept, you may end up spending much more than what you initially expected. Following a plan prevents you from making too many changes over the course of your wedding planning. Of course, at times it’s inevitable that you’re going to make some changes. But with a concept in mind, you can stick as close as you can to your original ideas.

Here are some common questions to ask to develop your own wedding catering checklist:

  1. When is the date of your wedding?
  2. Where will it be held?
  3. How many guests are you expecting?
  4. What food will be served?
  5. What food style would you want at the event?
  6. Are there special foods you want to be served?
  7. How much staff do you need at the event? What is the theme of your wedding?

These are but a few questions you need to ask yourself. You can start with these basic questions and then develop your own wedding plan.

 

Go With What’s in Season

Go With What’s in Season

Similar to the approach of choosing seasonal flowers to maximize your total wedding budget, going with in-season products can be applied when choosing ingredients for your wedding catering. To make the most of your budget even more, you could opt for in-season local food or ingredients. It isn’t necessary to really go for offseason food and ingredients to satisfy your guests. There’s always some good or better in season meal and ingredients during the time of your wedding.

Food that is in season is more likely to taste better and easier to order. Keeping your food in season means that you get fresher ingredients at a cost-effective price.

 

Do as Much DIY as You Can

Your wedding catering service will probably offer to decorate the place with their own furnishings. However, this will obviously come with a price. To cut costs and save more money, offer to provide your own decorations. Crafting your own decorations may take up a lot of your time, but it gives you the chance to incorporate how you really want the place to look. You could even ask a couple of friends to help you out to speed things up and have a good time.

Don’t think you’re limited to decorations when you want to DIY, either. You could also help your catering services with the food, provide your own utensils, plates, and table decor. Though this requires a lot of time, effort, and organization, it’s the most fulfilling of all wedding DIY’s to do.

 

Work Within a Budget

Work Within a Budget

Establishing an amount of money to spend is not only important for you but for the wedding caterer as well. It will be easier for the caterer to come up with a perfect menu if they know how much their client is willing to spend. Many caterers can whip up astounding menus with any budget. Leaving them clueless about your budget will be a disaster for you and the caterer.

Finalize a set amount of money you’re willing to spend and let your wedding catering services know about it right away. Don’t make too many shifts in the budget allocation as this will mess up with the plans of the catering services. Don’t forget to give an allowance for a few more people, adjust your budget accordingly.

 

Key Takeaway

Maximizing your budget when it comes to food catering is always possible. Make sure to coordinate everything with your wedding catering services. It’s key to never leave them out of the blue. Working accordingly with everyone involved from the wedding to reception will bring out the most of your big day. This special day of yours doesn’t have to cost millions to make it special. You could work with a tight budget and it can turn out as grand as any other expensive wedding.

6 Popular Wedding Food Catering Styles

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What are popular wedding food catering styles?

  1. Buffet Style
  2. Plated Dinner
  3. Cocktail Style
  4. Family Style
  5. Serve-yourself Style

 

Back then, you didn’t really need to think much about food catering services. After you’ve chosen a venue, you would either go for a sit-down dinner or a buffet-style dinner. In recent years, wedding food catering services have gotten more creative and can fit any type for venue or theme. You could make your reception mealtime more conversation-inducing than ever before!

 

Buffet Style

Buffet Style

A buffet-style catering for your wedding food service is perfect for any kind of reception. Guests will have the freedom to choose the food they want and how many servings they’ll get, making it quite the popular catering style for many. What’s great about buffet style dinners is that there’s sure to be food for everyone. At weddings, it’s common to have a server behind the buffet table to assist with giving food and describing the dish.

This style should definitely be a part of your wedding catering checklist as it gives you the option to save more by not having to hire too many servers and waiters. It also provides your guests with a variety of food choices. Buffets are also a good way to encourage interaction among guests. A few drawbacks of this food catering style is that the guests may have to fall in line to get their food. You’re also going to need larger quantities of food, you should expect every guest to make the most out of the buffet.

 

Plated Dinner

The most traditional and the most formal catering style of all, plated sit-down dinners are perhaps the most eloquent of food services. Usually, guests will be served a three- or four-course meal. Catering services will give the guests a limited selection of appetizers, and entrées. Before the reception, guests are given a menu on what meal course they will have. A sit-down meal service will require more servers, waiters, and most likely more expensive food. This option will require you to shell out much more money than other catering style options.

This may be a costly catering service, but it’s worth the price. Your guests will experience a lush dining event where everyone receives their food at the same time. Having everyone seated gives the event an opportunity for activities such as band performances, dance numbers, and dedication speeches.

 

Cocktail Style

Cocktail Style

This catering style has recently grown in popularity for weddings and other formal events. Instead of serving full meals, guests are served hors-d’oeuvres and bite-sized food throughout the event. Usually, cocktail style catering services offer hot and cold food options. You could have the meals served on a table much like a buffet-style or have servers walking around to offer food to guests. If you have a small venue in your wedding catering checklist, then cocktail catering services will be the ideal option.

This catering style has been trending in recent years due to its space-saving potential. It allows the bride and groom to roam the reception area and interact with friends and family members. This option could prove to be cost-efficient due to the fact that you won’t be serving any main entrées. Cocktail-style receptions highly encourage guests to interact and mingle since there won’t be any set tables or fixed seating arrangements.

 

Family Style

In a family-style setting, guests are served on their table, much like the plated style. But instead of set menus being served to the guests, meals are served on the table for guests to serve themselves. In some events, waiters may even replenish the dishes upon request of the guests. It’s just like having dinner in your own home, hence the name.

This catering style cuts across the buffet style and plated style catering service. Guests are served a meal that has been previously chosen, and they can get as many servings as they want. This makes for a more efficient mealtime as guests can help themselves with the presented foods. This style may be costly due to the serving pieces and serving sizes of food that have to be prepared. Rental for larger tables and more platters may require a large venue.

 

Serve-your-self Style

Serve-your-self Style

A trendy option would be to go for a serve-yourself-catering service. Much like a buffet style catering service, a serve-yourself-service doesn’t require the guests to fall in line and have them all pass through the same table of food. This style sets multiple stations of different cuisines very similar to hotel buffet set-ups. These stations are a great way to spice up your wedding reception’s theme.

Guests can enjoy a wide variety of cuisines and the freedom to choose what they want to eat — minus having to fall in line. You could have different stations that serve different cuisines or you could take the more traditional approach of having separate stations for appetizers, entrees, finger foods, and desserts.

 

Key Takeaway

There are many food catering service styles to choose from, all of which have their own pros and cons. It’s important to allocate your budget properly so that you can have more creative and fun food catering services options to choose from.