When your happiest day is approaching, you’ll want to share your joy with your friends and family and give them a wedding that they won’t soon forget.
After picking out your wedding dress or suit and deciding on the perfect venue, the next step is to plan out catering.
At any wedding, catering can be a hit or miss, but you’ll want yours to be stellar. The best way to have great catering for a wedding buffet is to work with a good caterer in your area.
While the caterer will cover everything related to the wedding buffet, set-up and menus included, there are a few things you’ll need to think about when ordering catering for a wedding buffet—let’s take a look!
1. Decide on Your Guest Count and Budget
Before you start dialing up caterers, you need to consider your budget. Weddings can be pretty expensive events, especially when you’re planning on inviting many guests and you’re picking a pricey venue.
A good chunk of your budget will be allocated for outfits, invitations, and booking the venue, so establish a budget exclusively for your wedding catering. When planning your budget, you’ll also need to consider the cost per person.
Once you have a reliable count of how many people will be attending the wedding, speak to your caterer about the amount of food that will be needed—once you find a good caterer, that is—which brings us to our next tip.
2. Research Caterers
Once you’ve got your budget all planned out, it’s time to look for a good caterer!
Do some research to find some good caterers in your locality. The closer they are to your chosen venue, the better. This will cut travel time and allow the caterers to have things set up faster.
Also, speak to the caterers about their wedding menus and see which food options are right for your wedding.
3. Schedule Tastings
When you’ve decided on a specific caterer with the kind of wedding menu you want, you should schedule a tasting so that you can try the menu items for yourself.
During the tastings, you can assess the quality of the cuisine the catering company offers, their presentation, and of course, the taste. Shortlist the best catering companies you can find and schedule tastings with each of them to help you decide which one suits your requirements.
4. Customize Your Wedding Menu
After picking the perfect caterer, you’ll need to work on the wedding menu. Many caterers offer flexible catering for a wedding buffet so you should take the opportunity to customize the buffet options.
For example, if you’re expecting vegetarian or vegan dishes, try to include a good selection of veggie dishes.
Also, you might want to add some gluten-free options for guests who have a gluten intolerance.
5. Finalize the Details with Your Caterer
After you have everything thought out, you need to finalize the details with your caterer. This includes all the menu options for the wedding buffet.
Also, finalize timings and prices and check if they will provide linen and tableware.
Ask who will be your point of contact from the catering company on the days leading up to your wedding.
6. Set up the Venue
If the wedding venue is going to be your home, you should make space for the caterers to set up the buffet and their equipment.
In addition, make sure that the space you provide is large enough for the caterers to work comfortably.
If your caterer can include decorations as well, be sure to set up your place to accommodate it or request the representative from the venue to check if the space can accommodate everything.
Discover great catering for a wedding buffet
A wedding is one of the most memorable and exciting days of a person’s life. If you’re looking to treat your guests to a great meal on your big day, a good caterer with a wonderful wedding catering menu can make a whole world of difference!
So start hunting for a reliable catering company in Pittsburgh today!
