toothpicks anyone??? restaurant "caterer" vs. professional wedding caterer

With all eyes on our economy and many of today’s couples cutting their wedding budgets drastically you may be looking to cut your catering budget by considering other catering options such as a restaurant to provide the catering for your wedding day. Even though the restaurants “per person prices” may sound tantalizing and excitingly low there is definitely a whole lot to consider when using a restaurant to cater your event off restaurant property.

Is the restaurant caterer…
• Knowledgeable and experienced with your room set-up and room capacities?
• Responsible for the set-up and tear-down of the tables and chairs , clean up of rental facility and all event equipment needed (china, stemware, flatware, chargers, serving utensils, chaffing dishes, coffee and hot water carafes, water pitchers, ice, salt & pepper shakers, beverage napkins, toothpicks… the list goes on and on)?
• Providing the appropriate number of staffing (cooks, servers, bartenders, banquet captains, food runners) to manage your size of group for all facets of your wedding (cocktail hour, dinner, cake-cut, food prep, bar service, etc.)
• Staffing professional in appearance, demeanor and attire?
• Experienced at catering weddings with a large number of guests in attendance?
• Able to provide you with a solid contract for all that will be required for your food and beverage needs, equipment rentals, specific list of their responsibilities and staffing required on your wedding day?
• Prepared and able to work within the limitations of your rental venue kitchen facilities?
• Able to provide the proper license(s) and obtain the necessary permits to serve food and alcohol within the specific county/jurisdiction where you will be holding your wedding reception?

These are just a few things that come to mind.

In the past, at the request of our clients, we have used local area restaurants {which were their absolute favorites} to cater their wedding. On two occasions there was a few a challenging moments working alongside the restaurant caterer. On the day of the wedding, we {the wedding planners} were asked if we had serving utensils and a large platter for a dish they provided… At another client wedding, the restaurant caterers asked us for toothpicks and plastic cups {to serve about 85 people}. Now, I have to tell you… We are definitely prepared onsite with an “emergency kit” for the wedding day; however, our “emergency kit” doesn’t contain these types of items. These requested items were definitely the responsibility of the caterer. An experienced caterer who does catering as a profession would have been prepared.

Lastly, the restaurant caterer was informed during our planning meetings and in the contract what was required of them and part of the services was that they would be required to set-up and tear-down all of the tables and chairs for the reception. The day of the wedding, this did not happen. The restaurant caterers actually showed up late and when they arrived their only and main focus or concern was prepping and setting up the food and wine bar. Thank goodness for our amazing staff, we were able to jump into action and set-up the reception venue promptly without any further delay. To end, this same restaurant caterer also left all of the food behind in the chaffing dishes and did not place any of the remaining food for our client into containers as we had previously requested.

Restaurant "caterer" vs. Professional Wedding Caterer... We'll leave it up to you to decide. As you can imagine, we've certainly come to our own conclusions... :O)

Using professional and experienced caterers from the start will most definitely take a lot of the guess work out of all of the intricate catering details for your special day!

We cannot leave you without telling you about a few amazing and fabulous caterers we have had the pleasure of working alongside for our clients fabulous weddings: Distinctive Catering * R&R Catering * Windows Catering

Happy tasting!

photos courtesy of google images