Weddingbee Blog

… a beer tasting…

and walk out with a catering contact for a wedding they haven’t started planning yet. Easy-peasy-done. Sometimes it seems too easy—but really, that was the extent of our search for a caterer.

One of our ushers invested in a local micro-brewery, Two Beers. A complete shocker, I know! Around May of last year he invited us to a beer tasting. We arrived at the location, which happened to be the City Catering Company’s Little City space. The tasting was part of a series where City Catering teams up with a local micro-brewery and pairs the brewery’s beer with complimentary food.

They had us at “pairs the brewery’s beer with complimentary food.” The food, all small plate items passed by wait staff, was amazing. We NOM NOM NOM-ed on finger lickin’ pulled pork sliders, garlic fries, and other goodies. Later, we remarked that this was the type of food meant to be served with great beer, the type of food we wanted at our wedding. *light bulb illuminates over Miss Pretzel’s head*

I tucked away City Catering’s business card and decided that when we got engaged, we would talk to them. Yeah, ummm… I didn’t last that long. I got a little excited around late June/early July and sent a rambling e-mail that introduced Mr Pretzel and me to them. I am glad that I did. It was the City Catering event planner, Rebecca, who saved the day in our venue search a couple of weeks later.

At our initial meeting we shared our inspiration board and tossed around a few ideas of what we were looking for.

• A creative twist on pub fare
• Breezy summer picnic
• Lounge seating
• No head table/sweetheart table
• Mingling—organic movement of guests through the space
• German Polish heritage
• Food must go well with beer
• Serve something distinctly “Seattle”

Rebecca left us full of ideas to incorporate into a proposal and we walked away hungry, dying to schedule our tasting. We never looked at any other catering companies. Easy-peasy-done.

Did you book any vendors without looking at others? What sort of inspiration did you give your catering company to work with?

P.S. As a treat for those who like to cook, Cooking Light featured two City Catering recipes in an April 2009 feature on farm to table cooking. Enjoy the recipes for Halibut with Citrus Fennel Relish and Soy-Sesame Kale.