Sorting out the wedding breakfast can be one of the most difficult parts of planning your wedding. There are seating plans to think about, costs to consider, menus to work out, dietary preferences to accommodate… it really can be tricky to get right. But with all that worrying about feeding all your guests there are some people at your wedding who are sometimes forgotten – those working on the event itself. Should you cater for your wedding suppliers on the day or should they be left to look after themselves?
Time to step into the ring and find out!
Catering for Suppliers Vs Supplier Self Catering
In the Red Corner, battling it out for the wedding suppliers dinners, she was so determined to look after the photographer for her own wedding that she not only provided him with dinner but invited along his whole family… and for the BBQ the night before as well! It’s Dom “The Tog Bride”
In the Blue Corner, fighting the cause for suppliers catering for themselves, well… he does make a mean sandwich after all! It’s Matt “The Gormless Groom”
FIGHT!!
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Photo by York Place Studios
Dom: By the time the wedding breakfast comes around suppliers like your photographer, videographer and planner may have been working for 8 hours or more, constantly on their feet and often without eating anything at all. By that point a hot meal is always much appreciated!
Matt: Wedding breakfast meals may be costing you upwards of £35 per head. When you’re already paying a lot of money for your suppliers adding that extra cost can seem like rather a lot, particularly when there are numerous suppliers to cater for.
Dom: Particularly with your photographer and/or videographer you’re paying so much presumably because you want amazing images and their creative ideas. It’s very difficult to be at your best when you’re hungry and lacking in energy, and the meal is often just what you need to recharge.
Matt: It’s generally perfectly possible for suppliers to bring a packed lunch for themselves and eat that whilst the breakfast is being served.
Dom: Inviting your suppliers to join your guests for the meal helps to make them feel more welcome and part of the wedding day which in turn helps to put them at ease and do their best work!
Matt: Photographers and videographers often use the dinner period away from the guests to check what images they’ve got, back up cards, talk through the rest of the day with their second shooters. That’s often impossible when eating with the guests.
Dom: Sharing a meal with the guests gives your photographer/videographer a chance to talk to the guests a little, get to know them and help to put them at their ease rather than just coming across as some sort of paparazzi photographing them all day!
Matt: Suppliers can sometimes feel awkward being seated for a meal with the guests – they’re there to do a job and some prefer to keep some degree of separation between themselves and the guests.
Dom: The suppliers don’t necessarily have to sit with the guests to enjoy their meal. Suppliers are normally more than happy to eat their meals separately but appreciate the gesture of being provided with a good hot meal.
Matt: When eating separately the caterers tend to understandably prioritise the guests dinners over the suppliers, meaning that often the suppliers won’t be fed until the end of the guests meals, by which point they generally need to return to work. When eating their own packed lunch they have the freedom to choose when to eat and make sure the timings work!.
So those are our arguments but which side of the debate are you on? Place your votes below or add to the debate in the comments section!
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Everything Dom says is true, although the gesture of feeding your suppliers is lovely, it has so many impracticalities.
As a supplier, I’m all for catering for myself. I don’t know where to put all my camera equipment when seated with the guests…. do I leave it in the car and potentially miss some good moments? If you’re fed separately, it’s usually served just as the speeches start.
I hate packing my own lunch, but it does seem the best way forward
As a musician who works alot at weddings I have a couple of thoughts about this! I don’t know if photographers and videographers write in a rider into their contract but I’m too dammed spoilt by the music industry not to! I ask for a minimum of free soft drinks for myself and my assistant (roadie) although a glass of wine and a few beers for the roadie I mean assistant is always much appreciated! I also state in my rider that if we are required to be there longer than 4 hrs that we should also be provided with food. (And then like the diva I am have to make clear I’m vegetarian!)
I think it’s important to remember that wedding venues are often on some country estate in the middle of nowhere so it’s not like I can pop out for 5minutes to fetch a cheese sandwich and a bag of Monster Munch!
The food supplied doesn’t have to be the big £x per head that the guests have. Quite often there’s a staff canteen or another bar or café on the venue and I am given a tab for drinks and food.
I’ve never come across anybody who’s had a problem with the rider in fact people always seem very eager to feed me. Though I have been told that I have a look of perpetual hunger about me so maybe that has something to do with it!
My grandad recently was passing through a table top sale and a lady took him to her house round the corner and fed him a full roast and apple pie. When we asked him how he had managed to pull off this little treat he told us that she’d just said that he seemed to look so hungry!
So there we go folks! When working a wedding just look hungry!