A Caterer To Call Our Own

When looking for venues, H2b and I were keen on finding a venue that would allow us to have our own choice of caterers. For a few reasons....

1. value for money - we found many packages that came "lumped" with a venue to be way overpriced for what you get
   
2. variety and choice - again, many packages had standard, soup/roast/apple pie combo - much too boring for us!
3. dietary requirements - we have Kosher, vegetarians, vegans, lactose intolerant, fussy and kids to contend with!
   
4. something a bit different to what you normally see at weddings in the UK

So after we tracked down a beautiful venue that we loved, we also had the luxury of having the option of our own catering!! BONUS! As well as being able to supply our own alcohol for during the welcome reception and through the meal - without the addition of corkage!
（ ＾＾）

So the hunt was then on to find a caterer that would fit in with all of that...cue searching Yell.com for local caterers and sending off for brochures, menu plans, quotes etc etc. Some were more than helpful, giving me rough estimates over the phone (reason #1), some were not - some were down right confusing and I couldn't figure out their prices!

Then the brochures and menu plans came through the post - the boring ones (reason #4) went straight out the window!

We narrowed it down to 3 caterers who seemed to have a nice choice of menus (reason #2) on paper and wanted to see what they were like in person. We have found through the whole wedding process that the vendors who are helpful, enthusiastic and polite have got our vote (and our cash deposits) over the, well, total opposite of that - it still amazes me how rude some vendors were/are....

Two of the three caterers came and visited us at home. The first one, on meeting and showing us photos of his food just wasn't for us... food was a little bit too poncy, and to be honest, the photos were very 70s looking - kinda like dad used to do back in his catering days in the 70s and 80s!

The second caterer, well, wow, OVERBEARING is an understatement. By this point we had very clear ideas of what we did and didn't want, and she seemed to shout us down at every opportunity she could, and she walked away with a plan that was the total opposite of what we wanted - she had to go!

I spoke to our third caterer on the telephone, and she was very accommodating at the initial contact - sent us out a great menu/info pack which as I read through I fell in love with...after showing it to H2b who also though their ideas were good, we booked a tasting session with them - I was very confident that they would be the caterers for us!

TTFN xx