We found our caterer through the recommended list from our venue...
Magpie Catering
When I initially phoned them, the lady I spoke to was very enthusiastic, very helpful and sent out a pack which had lots of different menu plans - plated meals, hot fork buffet, cold fork buffet, canapes, different evening buffet ideas... which grabbed my eye and made me think "these are the caterers for us"
We went through all the different choices and decided that as it was going to be a summer wedding, and given that we have lots of people with different dietary requirements that a cold fork buffet would be the way to go. Whilst our wedding is a formal affair, it's not uber formal, and I wanted to have some informality with the food - people getting up, choosing what they want to eat rather than having a piece of poncy food placed in front of them appealed to me.
We knew we wanted to have a canape reception after the ceremony and there was a long list of different ones to choose from, varying in price from just 50p up to £2.50 per piece.
A little story - we went to a wedding fayre out in deepest darkest Essex - way too far for our guests to travel too, (and also waaay over our budget!) but they had these great caterers there who walked around trays of canapes - duck spring rolls, mini bagels and cute mini hamburgers.... we had to have them! However, they turned out to be waaaay over our budget too! BUT we then saw magpie also did all of the things we thought would be cool at our wedding, so problem solved!
We booked a tasting with Magpie to see if the proof really was in the pudding!
TTFN xx
Showing posts with label Desserts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Desserts. Show all posts
Thursday, 7 May 2009
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....
（ ＾＾）
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
- value for money - we found many packages that came "lumped" with a venue to be way overpriced for what you get
- variety and choice - again, many packages had standard, soup/roast/apple pie combo - much too boring for us!
- dietary requirements - we have Kosher, vegetarians, vegans, lactose intolerant, fussy and kids to contend with!
- something a bit different to what you normally see at weddings in the UK
（ ＾＾）
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
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