Tipsy's Top Ten Tips For Choosing Your Wedding Caterer

Tipsy’s Top Ten Tips For Choosing Your Wedding Caterer

Your wedding day is probably one of the – if not the – most exciting days of your life. After all it’s one of the few occasions where all the attention will be focused on you and your partner and ultimately it will showcase who you are as a couple.

A key aspect of any wedding celebration is the food – hey, the wedding breakfast is the first meal you will indulge in as a married couple! And it’s the part of your special day that many of your guests will be most looking forward to (after seeing your joyous coupling of course).

So us Tipsy Pigs banged heads together to come up with our ten top tips for choosing your ideal wedding caterer. We hope you find it useful.

DO THEY REALLY CARE? – The number one tip has simply got to be – to consider how interested your wedding caterer is in your day and your needs? When you meet them are they enthusiastic about your day and responsive to your requests? Remember you are paying them to supply food and drink that complements your wedding (not theirs). Make sure that they are prepared to go the extra mile.
WHO IS BEHIND THE CATERING? – Do the wedding caterers have an experienced chef who has the ability and experience to cater for large numbers in a range of venues? Serving up delicious food on a large scale in unusual environments takes a lot of skill and expertise – something our award winning head chef Neil does on a daily basis, so make sure that whoever you pick knows what they are doing.
WHAT ARE THEIR LEVELS OF SERVICE LIKE? – Are your wedding caterer’s staff going to be serving your guests or will it be a help-yourself buffet? Either way you need to know that the serving staff are going to be professional, friendly, polite, helpful and enthusiastic – your guests and you will never forget bad, unfriendly service.
WHAT DOES YOUR HARD-EARNED CASH GET YOU? – Do you know exactly what you are getting for your money? When you are presented with a quote does it include everything. Of course the food & beverages, but what about the cutlery, serving plates, service, napkins etc. Make sure there are no hidden extras and that you know in detail exactly what is included in your bill. Tipsy Pigs are completely transparent with our costs and provided a detailed breakdown, so that you know up-front what to expect.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND TESTIMONIALS – Do the wedding caterers you’ve chosen have a range of testimonials they can show you to find out how they fared at their previous events. There is nothing like hearing straight from the horse’s mouth to get a fuller picture of what you can expect on your wedding day.
LICENSING AND INSURANCE – This is a tad boring but it is essential that your chosen wedding caterer has the correct licensing (e.g. for selling alcohol) and is covered by public liability insurance – if they don’t have the right cover and something doesn’t go according to plan you could end up with a much bigger bill than you anticipated… A good-quality caterer will have no qualms about showing you the relevant certifications if asked.
MENU CHOICES – How flexible is their menu? Naturally most caterers will have standard offerings but in today’s more demanding world they need to be able to cater to a high standard for a varying degree of dietary requirements – vegetarian, vegan, gluten or dairy-free (to name just a few) or just something that complements your theme. If your caterer isn’t willing to bend to suit your needs (within reason) ditch them.
TASTING SESSION – Are you offered a tasting session before you commit to the food? Any wedding caterer worth their wedding salt will agree to a tasting session and Tipsy Pigs welcome anyone to our Seasons Café & Kitchen where you can try our food and understand our style before you have to commit to anything. Either way make sure you know what kind of food you and your guests will be eating on the day.
FLEXIBILITY – Can your they cope with a last-minute change of plans? For example, you may be planning to have an outside buffet in the garden on a beautiful sunny day but your back-up plan is the marquee if it rains… will they be able to seamlessly and calmly deal with whatever challenge arises? One of our core focuses is skilled project management, so we know how to get the job done.
GOOD VIBRATIONS – And finally, do you get a good vibe when you meet the team? Do you get the feeling they are going to enhance both yours and your guests’ day? We love making our clients and their guests happy. It’s why we’re in the business.