Saturday, August 10, 2013

What To Consider When Doing Special Event Catering

By Andrea Davidson


Regardless of whether you are throwing a small party for close friends and family or a large reception, special event catering will always be something that you will need to consider. The food you serve your guests needs to be tasty and also take their personal preferences into account. This will help make your event an unforgettable one.

If you have started planning your party you might already have a few ideas of what type of food you would like to serve. If your event is formal in nature you could be considering a sit down dinner. For a simple cocktail party or informal get together a few appetizers will do the trick.

If you are not a great cook do not despair. There are many companies that can help you come up with the right meal plan or food to serve for the events you planning. By hiring the right events company everything will be taken care of from the preparation of the food to the cleanup, allowing you to simply relax and enjoy the evening or day your guests.

Prior to approaching a caterer it is a good idea to have a few ideas of your own. This will give the caterer some guidelines when they start working on possible menus and options for you to choose from. Many caterers will also provide a private tasting session for you to determine if the food is enjoyable.

Another very important factor to consider when arranging any sort of events be it a wedding, cocktail party or corporate year end function is the amount of guests you will need to cater for. This will allow the caterer to make enough food so that nobody goes home hungry. There is nothing more embarrassing for the hosts then when people start complaining that the food has run out.

You also do not want to risk making to much food that will waste. You could spend a lot of money that will be lost if you have an excess of food that will quickly spoil if it was not eaten. Having a final guest list of confirmed guests will help you cater for enough people.

The next thing you need to consider is whether you would like to guest to be served or if it would be easier to have a buffet. For a formal sit down dinner with not many guests you could consider having them served. Most caterers will provide the sort of service. The advantage of this is that the caterer can then control the portions and ensure everyone gets a good meal.

For events where you can expect many guests, a buffet is always a great option. With a buffet guests are expected to serve themselves. A buffet can save you a lot of money on catering but you need to ensure that there is enough to go round as you will not be able to control the portions that each guest dishes up for them self.

Special event catering can be tricky if you have never arranged any events before. By hiring the right caterers you can ensure that your guests will leave satisfied. A final tip is to always try to serve quality over quantity if you want your guests talking about the food for months to come.




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