Planning your wedding can be joyful, fun, and exciting. It can also give you a fair amount of stress. Thinking about the seating plans, the guest list, and the venue alone will most likely cause you to feel overwhelmed even before you’ve started to think about finding a wedding caterer.
Once you’ve turned your thoughts toward the wedding day menu, you’ll be dealing with a whole new type of stress. How do you make sure everyone’s happy and accounted for, and how do you find Richmond’s best wedding caterer while keeping vegan, gluten-free, and vegetarian options in mind? It might seem like an impossible task, but don’t worry. Once you’re able to sit down and have a talk with your caterer, everything will fall into place soon enough. But before you hire a caterer, here are a few things you should keep in mind to make your special day run smoothly.
You Can Ask Questions
When setting up your wedding celebration, you can afford to be quite picky. Maybe you’ve already picked out a dress and figured out the color scheme for your bridesmaids, but when it comes to finding the right caterer, you’re totally perplexed. How do you find a caterer that’s going to give you not only the kind of menu but the kind of vibe and atmosphere you want? The first way to find out is by asking questions. Don’t ever feel like you’re being too nosy or intrusive. Wedding caterers want to be hired, and they want to be given a chance to show you what they can do. If you’re asking them questions about their comfort level with certain cuisine types and dietary restrictions, it’s totally fair game. Chances are, you’re going to have a lot of different people at your ceremony with lots of different restrictions, preferences, and allergies. Is your caterer of choice up to the task? It’s better to know upfront. Setting up meetings ahead of time will also give you a chance to ask about the different alcoholic and non-alcoholic options, figure out how the courses of the meal will be planned, and come up with a game plan for the big day.
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You Have Different Options for Service
Not everyone has the same wedding. Some people prefer huge, traditional church weddings, while others love the idea of a smaller, tight-knit circle of friends and family. Because there are so many different options available to you, you can take your time figuring out not just what the menu looks like, but what you want the service to look like. Right now, there are a few options that most caterers provide. There’s a formal dinner service, where each guest is given an option and is served individually. There’s a family-style option, where each table gets to share dishes and pick and choose, and there’s the more casual buffet option, where guests can go up to the front for second helpings as desired. Ask your caterer what they think is right for your group, and use your own knowledge of your friends and family to choose the option that you think will make people the most comfortable.
Full-Service Doesn’t Always Mean the Same Thing
When a caterer says they’re “full service,” it doesn’t always mean that they’re ready to take care of everything. Don’t assume that this phrase means what you think it means. For instance, if someone offers a full-service capacity, ask whether or not this includes bartending, seating set-up, packing and storing leftovers, cleaning, and in general making sure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes. If you don’t want to be bothered with any of the aftermath, you’ll want a full-service option. However, if you’re looking to save money or choose a more casual option, you might want to opt for something a bit less all-inclusive.
Food Quality is the Most Important Criteria
Last but not least, always taste the food and go with what your taste buds are telling you. You could have the most diverse, allergy- and preference-specific menu in the world planned, but if nothing tastes that good, your guests won’t be left with a very memorable meal in the end. This is your day, and you want to share it with people you love by planning a beautiful, delicious meal. Even if it means choosing a caterer with a few fewer options for your guests, you should still let yourself go with someone whose work you’re actually passionate about, rather than going all out to please everyone else.
Eleena Timmons 
Roman Cyrus