Weddingbee Blog

[FOOD]
OK, enough on random finds and raves. Time for a real wedding-progress-related entry. We have our caterer! In typical lime fashion, after extensive web and magazine scouring, spreadsheet-ing, and calls and e-mails to multiple cateres, I finally scheduled tastings with three caterers, as we wanted to taste the food before signing a contract. Here’s a quickie summary of our notes:

Caterer #1
- Very nice lady was our contact. She remembered all the details. However, she wasn’t so quick on the follow-up.
- Food was just OK. Your typical banquet food. During a follow-up phone call, she noted that their usual chef wasn’t in and that one of the sous chefs had prepared the food, and she felt it wasn’t at the caliber of their usual food. She offered us another tasting when the head chef was in, but we felt guilty going in for another tasting before booking. Plus we just don’t have time to squeeze yet another WR task in. We must be decisive and move on!
- The decor they offer for stations, buffet tables, etc. wasn’t really my style. You don’t have to use them for this, though. It is a plus if you aren’t as particular as me, your style aligns with theirs, and you want less hassle or to have a slightly lower florist bill (they’re not that much cheaper).
- She was somewhat willing to negotiate, but I think only because we ended up adding stuff and upping certain things.

Caterer #2
- They were able to accommodate our request for a Saturday daytime tasting even though most caterers absolutely will not since it’s their busy day. They solved it by having the owner come in and host us.
- The food was suprisingly very good considering their prices. They also have a really good mix of more typical fare and more exotic fare.
- The owner was very open to negotiation, threw things we wanted in for less instead of pointing out what we could cut to get it.
- Presentation was really good. All the ingredients were very fresh.
- Because they had a wedding that day, they had a few pieces leftover of certain dishes from those. As a result, we got to taste 4 meats (and these were full portions), probably 5-6 appetizers, 2 salads, and 3ish sides. Lots of food = happy lime.

Caterer #3
- Came highly recommended by my DOC and local knotties.
- Leading up to the tasting, they were very responsive.
- Disregarded my request to taste a menu other than the “generic” one the salesgirl constructed for our budgetary quote. As a result, we had a bunch of stuff that Mr. Lime doesn’t like. I even designed a new menu using their huge everything menu, typed it up, and emailed it about a week and a half prior, as they haf requested. They also overlooked other important details.
- We were 15 minutes late and called ahead to let them know we were runnnig late. They were still not ready when we got there. We sat for about 15 minutes more while she finished up with another couple in the adjacent room. About halfway through our food, another couple showed up. She went to go greet/help them mid-sentence.
- The food was mediocre. A few appetizers and one accompaniment were really good.

I was going to post the list of questions for my lovely readers’ use, but I had lists specific to each caterer as I had already been in contact with them, and gotten an initial budgetary quote. Some caterers insisted that they usually do not estimate or quote before meeting face-to-face, but I was able to get all of them to give me quotes as driving all over SoCal to meet people who might not even be within our budget is not an option for us. Just going to three tastings ate up precious time on two weekends.

[KIDDOS]
We also rather decisively (and quickly) decided not to have flowergirls or ring bearers. We don’t know a ton of kids of the right age (either too young or too old), and realized it’ll be a money saver. A question from a potential florist spurred this quick decision. Yes, I am a little sad that we won’t have cuties, but neither of us are really tight with kids at this point in our lives. I’ve been to maybe two weddings that didn’t have any kids in the wedding party, and I’ve been to quite a few just within the past few years. Anyone else not having/did not have kids in your wedding party?