Here are a few things you might want to know about our wedding catering service. While we are not wedding planners per se, we plan many of the aspects of a successfully catered wedding. We place a great emphasis in getting every detail "on paper" to serve as a blueprint for a successful day. Many of the services we provide are akin to "Day of" wedding coordination. We are happy to work with your planner if you have one. Many smaller weddings often rely on a friend or relative. We are happy to supplement this with our our experienced staff.
Planning Your Wedding
Details we assist you with:
How do you approach menu planning? We plan a menu around your personal food preferences, the style of your wedding, your budget and what is seasonal and local.
What style of service do you offer? We offer several style that reflect personal preference, budget and level of formality of your wedding and this includes Tray Passed, Stationary, Small Plates (Tapas), Family Style, Buffet, Served (Sit Down), Food Stations, Butler Style and Seated Family Style. We will expand on this theme in a later blog.
What other factors influence style of service? Oftentimes, location will influence service style, whether there is a kitchen available, time considerations and time of year.
Do you offer tastings? We are delighted to do tastings. Due to the high cost of preparing small portions for a tasting, we may have a small fee. We often waive that fee for larger wedding that have booked already and want to have a sense of the cuisine we prepare.
How do you plan the various details for the location? We will meet with you at the location and walk through the entire event. From this we do a detailed scenario, event blueprint, time line, kitchen and scullery plan and power assessment.
Do you charge for cake cutting? We do not.
Do you permit outside food? No, liability consideration means we are the only source of food.
Do you provide food for the other vendors? We need to know what you needs are ahead of time and will provide a meal at an agree upon cost.
What about equipment and rentals? We work with all the rental companies to get you the right equipment at the best price. We suggest what you need, obtain bids and adjust the qantities based on your final guest counts. The delivery and pick up times are specified. You will pay the rental companies directly.
When do you arrive at the catering site? We will work with you to determine the best timing for our arrival. Often we do basic set up earlier in the day with a lower cost crew. At times, we must work around the venues time lines. We put all of this into our time line. We like to be "guest ready" thirty minutes before start time just in case there are early guests arrivals.
What happens when guests arrive? We will help greet your guest with any beverages that have been planned, help with any gifts, direct them to the ceremonial area if applicable or assist with seating as needed.
How do you interact with other vendors? We work with other vendors and the time line to help insure that all that was planned comes to pass including, toasts, first dances and cutting the cake.
What do you do at the close of the event? We restore the event site to its original condition as required by the site contact or better. Rentals are pack for pick up and stored in a pre-determined location. We will inventory the rentals for an additional hourly rate.
There are a thousand other details that are part of the key to success. Call us today to arrange a meeting to start planning your wedding day.
Chef Michael
Owner Michael's Catering
Santa Barbara, CA
