How Not To Be A Caterer
Last night we had a meeting with a caterer that helped lead us to our final decision on caterer and location. She's not the caterer we hired, but was a good study in what not to do, and now that we're done with her is good for a hearty laugh. This may be long, but that's how much she went wrong:
I met her at the Bridal Show I attended last month. Seemed competent enough, seemed willing to work within our budget, recommended a promising location to us, so I set up a meeting so we could get a proposal from her. We were to meet at the proposed location on a Friday evening after work. She was a no-show, and doesn't have a cell number published on her business card, so we went out to eat that night.
She was so profusely apologetic we decided to give her another chance. Made arrangements to meet with her last night at the proposed location again. In talking to her to set up this meeting I began to think that this location wouldn't be so ideal after all, so she gave me another alternative. In South Seattle, which isn't exactly convenient to the ceremony site. She wanted to recommend a site in Tukwilla, but I wouldn't go there. She didn't seem to understand when I told her "We have a lot of friends and loved ones driving in from out of town, so we'd like to keep things close if at all possible."
We show up for the meeting last night and the location was shut down for the night. So we weren't going to get to see it. She had realized that earlier in the day, but didn't bother to call us and see if we wanted to meet somewhere else or do something else for the meeting. As luck would have it, there was someone there after hours, so we were able to sweet-talk our way in to take a peek at the space. It would work if it HAD to, but just wasn't quite right.
Now it was time for the quote. We went to the local Starbucks. She asked if I wanted something to drink. I said I'd take a latte. She spent 5 minutes gushing over the fact that I just wanted a latte, and didn't want a half-caf skinny almond latte with a twist. My response: I'm capable of ordering drinks like that, I choose not to right now.
The quote. Here is what I've provided to every other caterer that's come up with some sort of proposal for us: We're budgeting for about 175 people for dinner and dancing. Buffet, because there are too many food allergies etc. to reasonably due sit-down. We have to be able to accommodate some severe food allergies (egg, corn, and legumes) and vegetarians. With that information they are able to come up with something for us to look at, a jumping off point.
No, this quote was going to be THOROUGH. First, we went through our rental needs. What sort of china do we want. What color linens do we want. Stuff like that. I started by daring to say we wanted 8 people per table rather than 10. I want my guests to get to know each other, but 10 top tables are a bit too cozy for my taste if we can avoid it. She tried to convince us that 8 people will feel lonely if they are sitting at a table together, because maybe two people will get up and leave and then there will be only 6 people at the table. THE HORROR!
I informed her that I used to work at a party rental store, so I'm familiar with a lot of the different options that are available. She insisted on spending 10 minutes explaining the benefits of a skirted cake table.
She asked if we wanted to rent a bartender. We said yes. She spent 15 minutes explaining the benefits of renting a bartender and why people might want to rent a bartender.
We would be buying our own booze for the bartender to serve. She recommended some dive bars where we could arrange for a keg of Bud Light. I informed her that I refuse to drink Bud Light. She told me how much some people like Bud Light. If you know me you know that there will not be Bud Light at the wedding. If you're a caterer who spent ANY time to get to know me you would know that any beer being served at my wedding will be of the microbrew variety. I don't care how much you like Bud Light, I'm a beer snob so there will be snobby beer at the shindig.
Once we sludged through the rental list she wanted to do a guesstimate of the price thus far. She hadn't brought her calculator. Sweetie offered to just add up the numbers. She was AMAZED that Sweetie could do that math. No wonder we're getting married, sweetie can ADD. And MULTIPLY! Gee, I can do the math too, but sweetie offered to do it first.
She insisted on us putting together a possible menu. Of course, she doesn't know all of the ingredients of all of the dishes, so for all she knew we could be picking some dishes that would most spark the allergies of the loved ones in attendance. We all agreed on doing a cheese tray as an appetizer. Then she suggested we do salmon instead. I reminded her that we have several vegetarians who will be attending the wedding. First, she suggested that some vegetarians eat fish. Then she suggested that we can't please everyone, and the salmon is really good. I recognize that when it comes to dinner not every person will eat every dish. There will be meat for the meat eaters. There will probably be at least one dish with egg, corn and/or legumes in it that someone will need to avoid so as not to prompt allergies. I'm fine with that. I am not, however, fine at saying you don't get to eat an appetizer because you choose to not eat meat.
And I almost missed the best part. We mentioned that we would not hire a caterer without an opportunity to taste their food. The caterer who WILL be catering our reception has a monthly open house that gave us a chance to taste before we went into any real discussions. This caterer requires you to put down a 10% deposit. Then they will let you taste their food. If you don't like it you can cancel and get your deposit back. I DON'T THINK SO!
It was with much joy I informed Ms. Caterer we would not be utilizing her services today.
I met her at the Bridal Show I attended last month. Seemed competent enough, seemed willing to work within our budget, recommended a promising location to us, so I set up a meeting so we could get a proposal from her. We were to meet at the proposed location on a Friday evening after work. She was a no-show, and doesn't have a cell number published on her business card, so we went out to eat that night.
She was so profusely apologetic we decided to give her another chance. Made arrangements to meet with her last night at the proposed location again. In talking to her to set up this meeting I began to think that this location wouldn't be so ideal after all, so she gave me another alternative. In South Seattle, which isn't exactly convenient to the ceremony site. She wanted to recommend a site in Tukwilla, but I wouldn't go there. She didn't seem to understand when I told her "We have a lot of friends and loved ones driving in from out of town, so we'd like to keep things close if at all possible."
We show up for the meeting last night and the location was shut down for the night. So we weren't going to get to see it. She had realized that earlier in the day, but didn't bother to call us and see if we wanted to meet somewhere else or do something else for the meeting. As luck would have it, there was someone there after hours, so we were able to sweet-talk our way in to take a peek at the space. It would work if it HAD to, but just wasn't quite right.
Now it was time for the quote. We went to the local Starbucks. She asked if I wanted something to drink. I said I'd take a latte. She spent 5 minutes gushing over the fact that I just wanted a latte, and didn't want a half-caf skinny almond latte with a twist. My response: I'm capable of ordering drinks like that, I choose not to right now.
The quote. Here is what I've provided to every other caterer that's come up with some sort of proposal for us: We're budgeting for about 175 people for dinner and dancing. Buffet, because there are too many food allergies etc. to reasonably due sit-down. We have to be able to accommodate some severe food allergies (egg, corn, and legumes) and vegetarians. With that information they are able to come up with something for us to look at, a jumping off point.
No, this quote was going to be THOROUGH. First, we went through our rental needs. What sort of china do we want. What color linens do we want. Stuff like that. I started by daring to say we wanted 8 people per table rather than 10. I want my guests to get to know each other, but 10 top tables are a bit too cozy for my taste if we can avoid it. She tried to convince us that 8 people will feel lonely if they are sitting at a table together, because maybe two people will get up and leave and then there will be only 6 people at the table. THE HORROR!
I informed her that I used to work at a party rental store, so I'm familiar with a lot of the different options that are available. She insisted on spending 10 minutes explaining the benefits of a skirted cake table.
She asked if we wanted to rent a bartender. We said yes. She spent 15 minutes explaining the benefits of renting a bartender and why people might want to rent a bartender.
We would be buying our own booze for the bartender to serve. She recommended some dive bars where we could arrange for a keg of Bud Light. I informed her that I refuse to drink Bud Light. She told me how much some people like Bud Light. If you know me you know that there will not be Bud Light at the wedding. If you're a caterer who spent ANY time to get to know me you would know that any beer being served at my wedding will be of the microbrew variety. I don't care how much you like Bud Light, I'm a beer snob so there will be snobby beer at the shindig.
Once we sludged through the rental list she wanted to do a guesstimate of the price thus far. She hadn't brought her calculator. Sweetie offered to just add up the numbers. She was AMAZED that Sweetie could do that math. No wonder we're getting married, sweetie can ADD. And MULTIPLY! Gee, I can do the math too, but sweetie offered to do it first.
She insisted on us putting together a possible menu. Of course, she doesn't know all of the ingredients of all of the dishes, so for all she knew we could be picking some dishes that would most spark the allergies of the loved ones in attendance. We all agreed on doing a cheese tray as an appetizer. Then she suggested we do salmon instead. I reminded her that we have several vegetarians who will be attending the wedding. First, she suggested that some vegetarians eat fish. Then she suggested that we can't please everyone, and the salmon is really good. I recognize that when it comes to dinner not every person will eat every dish. There will be meat for the meat eaters. There will probably be at least one dish with egg, corn and/or legumes in it that someone will need to avoid so as not to prompt allergies. I'm fine with that. I am not, however, fine at saying you don't get to eat an appetizer because you choose to not eat meat.
And I almost missed the best part. We mentioned that we would not hire a caterer without an opportunity to taste their food. The caterer who WILL be catering our reception has a monthly open house that gave us a chance to taste before we went into any real discussions. This caterer requires you to put down a 10% deposit. Then they will let you taste their food. If you don't like it you can cancel and get your deposit back. I DON'T THINK SO!
It was with much joy I informed Ms. Caterer we would not be utilizing her services today.
posted by Swankette at 8:56 PM
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