You’ve got the ring, you’ve got the venue – but what next? Our advice to you as a leading Sussex wedding caterer and a team who has worked and helped plan many weddings – is to start booking in your big ticket items. Your photographer, videographer (if you are having one), your florist and caterer.

To avoid disappointment, do this as soon as you have a date and shop around with recommended suppliers for your venue. Know what you would like from your suppliers and make sure you have the same visions and values. Get multiple prices and weigh out what is important to you.

Pricing…

This might not go down well, but we are honest and we won’t sugar coat it. You get what you pay for. It might sound cliche, but it’s true, especially when it comes to wedding catering.

After for a more budget options? You will sacrifice on ingredient quality, locality, sustainable values and kitchen experience.

Looking for the best local, sustainable conscious ingredients with farm to fork catering – this naturally will come at a slightly higher price point. And I say slightly, because there really isn’t a huge difference! We’ve been in the industry long enough to know (and seen on shared kitchen days) you won’t get both, so if you’re being sold both – there’s something not right!

Either way, whatever is right for you – is the right choice for your day.

We will never sacrifice our values to lower our prices, it’s just against everything we believe in. We even get called out by our suppliers offering different cuts of meat at a cheaper price point that still works for the dish we are creating – absolutely not! We care about food, flavour and quality far too much. This is why we promote ourselves as the caterer for the foodies, people who love food – just like us. We’re able to play around with our quotes when it comes to the non-food items, such as changing the tablecloth spec, hiring spec etc – but with food, it’s not an option for us.

Timings…

As a caterer, we sadly have to disappoint lovely couples quite a lot as we’re already booked and we really don’t like it, we’re people pleasers so its really hard for us to say no. So our biggest piece of advice is start this early. A year in advance is the goal but still doesn’t guarantee availability. A lot of caterers will have multiple weddings on one evening, but for us – we have one A team and we will only come with our A team, so as soon as we’re booked – we won’t take another job for the same date. This isn’t the case for everyone, so this is when finding a few suppliers is great, so you have back ups to follow up with.

Take the time to have a chat…

Sometimes our clients book with us instantly, and thats great – our values are the same and we have the same mission. But having a chat with your suppliers is really important for both sides, for you guys to be sure you’ve picked the right supplier and for us to make sure we are the right supplier for you. It’s a chance for us to tell you about us and same for you. A meet face to face is best, but phone calls or zoom calls are just as good!

Once you’ve booked…

Hooray! You’ve picked your suppliers. If you haven’t had a chance to have a chat and a coffee – now is the time to do so! If you have, then your suppliers will have grasped in all of your details and will be working away in the background – in our case, starting to create a menu for you.

Our advice as a Sussex Wedding Caterer…

Pinterest! Make a board and share with your suppliers! For us as a caterers, its great to see your style, what you have in plan for your day in terms of styling – even if it is your florist mood board or bridesmaid dresses – anything that can influence your presentation of food. Unlike other caterers – we have an in-house dedicated stylist who can work with you (at no extra cost) to create something bespoke to you. This can be from creating new canapés displays for you, making sure we have edible flowers in your colour palate in for your day, styling our flower canapés, making our famous floral ice cubes – the list goes on! So to make full use of this service, share as much as you can with us and happy pinning!

Need a Sussex wedding caterer and ready to have a chat? Contact Tom today to get the ball rolling. Need more inspiration? Check out our instagram page with all of our recent weddings.