How to Pick and Work with a Wedding Caterer

Once the blissful chaos of engagement celebrations dies down, the reality of planning your wedding sets in. Seemingly overnight, questions from friends and family morph from, “So, when are you getting engaged?” to “Have you set a date?” If the answer is ‘yes,’ then chances are good that you also picked the venue. That’s two checkmarks off your wedding to-do list. Now what? Time to pick a caterer!

Planner v. No Planner

If you have the budget for a coordinator or planner, he or she will become your new go-to person. If you’re taking more of a DIY approach, your mom, mother-in-law, best friend, and maid of honor will surely play important roles. But sometimes it’s helpful to have a seasoned, objective opinion to serve as a sounding board and partner. Enter your caterer. If you’re not working with a wedding coordinator, in many ways the caterer also assumes the role of day-of planner. Here are a few ways your caterer can give you a hand with the planning:

• Ask for a list of preferred vendors. While this might be your first time at the wedding rodeo, your caterer has likely helped with numerous nuptials and worked with a variety of vendors. The caterer’s preferred vendor list is a great starting place, especially if you’re new to the area or the first of friends and family to take the plunge.
• Work through the caterer to book vendors. Create a mood or Pinterest board and share it with your caterer. Together, you can discuss ideas for any number of food- and beverage-related elements, such as cocktail hour, place settings, a dessert table, and a late-night snack. Then, your caterer can leverage their contacts to reserve the right items and equipment to create the look and feel that you envision.
• Create an itinerary and day-of schedule. No matter what amount of organizing and planning you do leading up to your wedding, when the day arrives, it will inevitably be a bit chaotic. To minimize stress, work with your wedding caterer to create an itinerary for the rehearsal dinner, day-of, and day-after tasks. Since the majority of the day-of vendors are connected to the food and beverage components, your caterer can help you manage those contacts and oversee their activities.
• Elevating Food and BeverageMore and more, food and beverage at weddings have evolved from cookie-cutter meals and cash bars to highlights of the celebration. Now, brides and grooms might use the cocktail hour to highlight food from their first date or a special cocktail from their hometown. Remember when the standard party favor was a spoonful of butter mints in a tulle bundle with a ribbon? Today, hotel welcome gifts and reception party favors have been upgraded to reflect the couple’s story and style, such as custom cookies, monogrammed wine keys, and samples from breweries and distilleries.
• Food and Drink PairingsFood and drink pairings are another fun way to tell your story and delight guests. If the groom’s favorite treat is cookies and milk, you could arrange these on a dessert table with interesting glassware and decorative straws. Or, maybe Mexican food holds special meaning for the two of you. In that case, serve mini al pastor tacos paired with margarita shooters at cocktail hour or for a late-night snack. If you’re from the South, think about a fried chicken and barbecue spread with all the fixings, accompanied by sweet tea and mint juleps. However you choose to personalize your union with special cocktails and unique bites, your caterer can help you explore and execute these components. Remember to stay open to creative food and beverage ideas. And, if you’ve hired the right caterer, then sit back and let them do their thing!