Wedding catering guide

Whether your wed­ding cater­ing is a part of your venue hire or you’re intend­ing to organ­ise your own wed­ding cater­ing, there are a few impor­tant things to remember.

Cater­ing at your wed­ding venue

The cater­ing at your wed­ding venue can account for a large part of your wed­ding bud­get. It’s impor­tant to get it right, and can be a major sell­ing point for many wed­ding venues.

Will your wed­ding break­fast look as good as it tastes? Credit: TP Photography

Top tips for cater­ing at your wed­ding venue

1. Sam­ple the wed­ding menu. Go for a tast­ing ses­sion before your big day. Arrange this with your venue’s wed­ding co-ordinator and ask if the same chef will pre­pare the food for your wedding.

2. Think about reduc­ing costs by buy­ing your own wed­ding wine — but remem­ber some venues charge a high price for corkage.

3. Ask for an idea of tim­ings for the wed­ding meal. Feed­ing 80 guests a five course meal might take longer than you think — and you’ll need to have an idea how long you’ll have for the pho­tos before the meal, the speeches and to pre­pare for the evening entertainment.

DIY wed­ding catering

For smaller wed­dings, wed­dings at home and inti­mate wed­ding recep­tions, it’s quite fea­si­ble to organ­ise the cater­ing your­selves. But remem­ber it’s your wed­ding day — don’t plan to get involved on the day itself!

Wed­ding cater­ing at home. Pho­tog­ra­phy by Joseph Yarrow

Top tips for DIY wed­ding catering

1. Del­e­gate! Hire an expe­ri­enced cater­ing com­pany, com­plete with wait­ing staff, to do all the hard work. Alter­na­tively, your friends and rel­a­tives may love to get involved — but make sure they’re not tak­ing on more than they can han­dle. You’ll still want them to enjoy the wed­ding day.

2. Keep your wed­ding menu sim­ple! Plan meals which can be made before­hand and heated just before serv­ing. Don’t attempt a Sun­day roast or bangers and mash. Think posh out­door pic­nic (canapes and cham­pers) or buffet.

3. Do the maths! If you’re feed­ing 80 wed­ding guests, plan ahead to make sure you have the right amount of food. Include veg­e­tar­ian options and side dishes in your calculations.