How Does Catering Enhance the Wedding Experience?

As a bride, you’re excited, glowing, and gracious in accepting the congratulations and well-wishes that follow your engagement. Deep down, however, you may be feeling a little anxiety as you try to figure out how you’ll get everything done by the wedding day. One of the first decisions you’ll need to make is also among the most important: Whether to hire New York wedding catering to handle the event.

You can make a list of pros and cons, as you keep your budget and chosen venue in mind. However, it’s also important to consider whether:

• You simply want to check an item off your Wedding To-Do list; OR,
• You strive to enhance the wedding experience for yourself, your partner, and your guests.

Once you recognize the difference, you’ll appreciate the ways that catering can take the event from mundane to memorable.

Wedding Caterers Assist with Planning the Menu:

Catering professionals are knowledgeable about what’s necessary to feed any size group, from a few dozen family and friends to a large bash for a few hundred. These services can assist you in choosing dishes based upon your vision, as well as:

• Your chosen cuisine and style;
• What works for the wedding venue;
• Portion sizes;
• Sizes and accompaniments;
• Kosher, vegetarian, and specific needs of guests; and,
• Many other details.

You Can Rest Assured the Food is High Quality and Consistent:

People may rave about your chicken marsala, but you can probably see how the quality of any dish may suffer if you try to prepare it in large quantities. Caterers excel in creating large portions of food on a large scale, so you can be sure the meal is as flavorful as it is plentiful. Plus, they have solid, long-term relationships with food purveyors and suppliers. You’ll know that quality ingredients go into the preparation of your wedding feast, and you’re getting the best prices on fresh, seasonal items.

Caterers Deliver Show-Stopping Meal Presentation:

As the saying goes, “we eat first with our eyes.” Therefore, aside from quality of the food, you’ll also want it to look fabulous for guests and photo opportunities. A catering professional will focus on the visual aspects of food service, so that the presentation compliments the venue, décor, and overall style of your wedding.

Hiring a Wedding Caterer Saves You Time:

Taking matters into your own hands and planning your own wedding reception is the equivalent of a part-time job if you want to do it well. Though you can tackle the big picture preparations, it’s the little details that you don’t expect – but which can derail your hard work up to the moments before the wedding.

Wedding caterers anticipate the challenges in planning these events, down to the minutiae you may not have considered. They’re also prepared to take on other tasks that have nothing to do with food service. Based upon your needs, you can trust a caterer to help with:

• Booking the ideal venue;
• Retaining an officiant;
• Design, preparation, transportation, and presentation of your wedding cake;
• Vetting and working with the band or DJ;
• Choosing and assembling flowers;
• Taking the lead on other wedding décor; and,
• Hiring bartending staff or other types of beverage service.

You Won’t Stress About Last-Minute Emergencies:

Even best laid plans can go awry when unforeseen circumstances arise – and Murphy’s Law dictates that these emergencies will occur at the worst possible time. A wedding caterer is your go-to resource when disaster strikes, so the stress of a crisis doesn’t creep in to affect your big day.

Wedding Catering Allows You to Be the Bride:

To a certain extent, the role of a bride encompasses hostess duties. If there are issues with the food, drinks, music, unruly guests, or service, who will be the first to hear about it? YOU, unless you have a wedding caterer to run interference. On the biggest day of your life, you don’t want to be finding a clean fork for your nephew, uncorking bottles of wine, or hearing about your cousin’s gluten intolerance.

Your wedding day is the one, rare opportunity where you should be wearing a veil – not multiple hats. Be the bride and let wedding caterers tackle the rest.

Learn More About the Benefits of New York Wedding Catering

If you’d like to hear about additional ways that a catering service enhances the wedding experience, please contact Thomas Oliver’s Gourmet Catering & Events. Our professionals offer the full array of catering services for weddings, including assistance with the menu, flowers, cake, venue, and other essentials.