When it comes to planning the perfect wedding, every detail matters. From asking loved ones to save the date to deciding on a date, you want the nuptials of your dreams. While there are many important things to cover, most would agree the reception menu is a big deal. The reception is one of the things people anticipate most about a wedding, and yours is no exception. Finding the right caterer is a detail that requires your care and consideration. Here are some things engaged Canadian couples should know.
Choosing the Event Type
You know you’re getting married, and you certainly want to have a reception. Have you thought about the type of event you’re having? Will it be a smaller affair with food served family-style per table? Will you have a buffet-style service where guests get their food and return to their seats to eat? Maybe you want to serve a grand meal made of several small courses featuring gourmet dishes and ingredients. Before you can choose a caterer, you need to have an idea of the type of reception you’re envisioning. The right caterer will be able to execute your vision splendidly.
Determining a Budget With A Caterer
Just as casual restaurants are less expensive than fine dining establishments, casual catering is generally less expensive than gourmet or exotic catering. How much can you afford to spend on food? It’s important to have a realistic budget based on what you want. Fancier dishes often require more expensive ingredients and more complicated cooking techniques. Look for a caterer that can provide the menu you want at a price you can afford. A good caterer can also explore cost-saving options.
Prioritizing Based on the Food
Many couples will focus on booking a venue first and then check to see if that venue can accommodate their reception plans. It might be better to start with the caterer. Most professionals will have knowledge about local venues that “cater” best to their food preparation and service. If your caterer and menu require food to be cooked at the venue, you’ll want a place with a full kitchen that can accommodate cooking for a crowd. If not, then you’ll need a provider who can cook at another location and bring equipment to keep dishes at the proper temperature.
Accommodating Special Diets With A Caterer
Between food intolerances, dietary restrictions, and special lifestyles, it’s important to know if the caterer can accommodate special diets. Imagine your bestie has agreed to be a maid of honor or best man, but due to their lactose intolerance, they won’t be able to eat much of what’s served. Think about the people who will be celebrating with you, including vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians, and people who avoid certain foods for health or religious reasons. Many caterers can provide multiple options to make sure everyone enjoys a full meal.
Confirming What Is Covered
It’s important to have a clear understanding of what’s included with a caterer’s services. Some caterers only provide the food, but it’s up to you or the venue to provide servers, bartenders, and other personnel. You may have other wedding vendors such as a planner, a photographer, or DJ working the event. Will the catering include meals for those vendors? Some wedding chefs also provide tools and equipment needed to serve and dispose of food. Don’t assume when it comes to what’s included. Ask lots of questions and get answers before agreeing to a contract.
Your special day is about so much more than the food, but your menu is an important part of the event. Weddings should be joyous affairs, but hiring the wrong caterer or ignoring certain food-related details can negatively impact your special occasion. Consider these important details when planning your wedding eats.
Keeping these wedding concerns in mind and planning ahead can help make your wedding run more smoothly and make both your guests and the vendors happy.
No one ever said planning a wedding would be easy. In fact, even the simplest and most intimate of gatherings can require a lot of work on your end. Though you’ve spent countless hours looking over all the details of your big day, there could very well be potential issues that you’ve not yet considered. Luckily, now is a great time to think about last-minute concerns and potential solutions.
From broke bridesmaids to disappearing guests, there are lots of issues you could be facing with your wedding. Explore these suggestions and find solutions that can help you keep your sanity, knowing all your effort will pay off in the form of a beautiful and seamless event.
Bridesmaids Who Don’t Budget
The members of your wedding party take on a lot of responsibilities for your big day. You’re likely asking them to help plan your wedding, run errands, throw small events like showers, and take on a million little duties that you can’t handle yourself. Unfortunately, your friends and relatives also have their own lives and can’t always rise to the occasion. This is especially true when it comes to bridesmaids or groomsmen who are dealing with money problems. Broke wedding party members can easily cause concerns or even derail all of your carefully laid plans.
You might not be able to pay for everything, but you can definitely prepare in advance for a bridesmaid who can’t foot the bill. Your best option in this scenario is to show compassion and be as considerate as possible. Don’t forget, you’re the one putting these demands on your friends. If your solution to a bridesmaid or groomsman who can’t pay is to cut them from the wedding, then you might need to do damage control on your friendships when all is said and done.
RSVP Delays
Among other concerns is the issue of RSVPs. Though you likely have given guests ample time to reply to your invitations, you’re still going to deal with people who forgot to respond or lost their RSVP cards and all sorts of other issues. In almost all cases, someone who replied “yes” to your invitation is definitely going to show on your big day. Unfortunately, you also are probably going to deal with guests who show up but never even bothered to respond to your RSVP.
The worst thing you can do is assume that anyone who didn’t respond by the RSVP deadline is not coming to the event. Give yourself extra time after the RSVPs are due, and you’ll notice how many late responses start flooding in. Since you might still have to deal with people who show up without responding to the invitations, the best way to handle this is by planning for more guests than responded. Account for a few extra chairs and meals, and you should have no problem fitting everyone into the venue without having to turn people away.
Feed Your Vendors
Finally, many couples forget to show proper thanks when it concerns the hard-working men and women who cater their weddings. While you might already be planning on tipping your vendors, you also should give these individuals a set time where they can sit and eat. You can even mention this to the caterers early so that they can prepare additional meals for the DJ, photographers, and anyone else working your event who will need to stop and recharge at some point. Typically, allowing the vendors to eat at the same time as the guests can keep the night flowing without any frustrating delays.
Try as you might to cover all your bases, there are always going to be unforeseen concerns that you didn’t anticipate. The best you can do to keep your wedding free from mistakes is to take the right precautionary steps and try to plan for whatever you think could be an issue.
2015 is a great year to get married, no matter the season. For Canadian couples planning their nuptials, there are many fun and stylish wedding trends to consider incorporating into their weddings. Some are tried and true classics and others are more recent additions.
Non-Traditional Reception Venues
Having your reception in a formal ballroom is no longer a must. More and more couples are seeking out less conventional spaces such as galleries, museums, lofts, restaurants and outdoor areas. Avoiding a hotel ballroom can also make way for a greater variety of catering options. Many hotels insist you use their in-house services if you use their venue.
Innovative Menus
Food options for Canadian weddings have substantially evolved over time. Instead of a sit-down dinner or buffet, many couples are opting for more innovative alternatives. Some hire food trucks to cater their reception or hold events at independent restaurants. Serving sustainable, locally sourced cuisine is also becoming more important for a number of couples. Another popular trend is to provide comfort food like mac-n-cheese and BBQ rather than serving a more formal meal. The progression to more casual dining has also impacted desserts; cupcakes, macaroons and other bite size sweets are favorites. However, don’t assume food trucks, comfort food and smaller desserts means the tab will be lower.
Pastel Garden Flowers
Feminine pastel colored wedding flowers such as peonies, hydrangeas, freesias and lilacs are very en vogue. They can often be found all mixed together in bouquets and centerpieces which can create a fluffy light look with lots of texture and depth.
Pretty Stationary
A wedding is one of the few occasions where people still mail invitations. The postal service and stationary companies are undoubtedly happy this trend has endured the test of time.
No Formal Ceremony
A popular alternative to a formal ceremony at a church or synagogue is to use a justice of the peace or clerk of the court, and have only a handful of witnesses. There are also websites where people can easily get ordained online so another option is to have a friend or family member officiate the service. After the vows are done, couples may throw a big party at a later date.
Smaller Wedding Parties
The downsizing of wedding parties is a trend that has picked up steam. Many brides are now opting for one to four attendants and any more is increasingly uncommon. Couples are marrying later in life and attendants are typically older as well.
Different Bridesmaids Dresses
There are many more alternatives for bridesmaids’ dresses these days. Instead of picking one dress for everyone to wear, some brides pick a color and let their attendants choose the style of the dress. This often results in dresses that are more figure-flattering. Another option is to pick a dress style and let your bridesmaids’ choose the color they want to wear.
2014 Canadian Wedding Trends
The Annual Reader Survey from Weddingbells.ca (link) provides interesting information on Canadian wedding trends. Here are some of the statistics:
There were approximately 162,056 weddings in 2014 in the Great White North.
The average cost of a wedding was $31,685. July and August nuptials are a little pricier.
In Canada, the average age of a bride is 31 years old.
The top month in which to get engaged is December; 18 percent of Canadian grooms propose then.
August is the most preferred time to marry with 25 percent of couples choosing that month to tie the knot.
There are an average of 128 guests per Canadian wedding.
Since 2010 the Bahamas has been the top honeymoon destination for Canadian couples.
These are a few trends that can provide inspiration when planning your big day. A wedding is a once in a lifetime event and should reflect the unique style of the happy couple.
When it comes to planning the perfect wedding, every detail matters. From asking loved ones to save the date to deciding on a date, you want the nuptials of your dreams. While there are many important things to cover, most would agree the reception menu is a big deal. The reception is one of the things people anticipate most about a wedding, and yours is no exception. Finding the right caterer is a detail that requires your care and consideration. Here are some things engaged Canadian couples should know.
Choosing the Event Type
You know you’re getting married, and you certainly want to have a reception. Have you thought about the type of event you’re having? Will it be a smaller affair with food served family-style per table? Will you have a buffet-style service where guests get their food and return to their seats to eat? Maybe you want to serve a grand meal made of several small courses featuring gourmet dishes and ingredients. Before you can choose a caterer, you need to have an idea of the type of reception you’re envisioning. The right caterer will be able to execute your vision splendidly.
Determining a Budget With A Caterer
Just as casual restaurants are less expensive than fine dining establishments, casual catering is generally less expensive than gourmet or exotic catering. How much can you afford to spend on food? It’s important to have a realistic budget based on what you want. Fancier dishes often require more expensive ingredients and more complicated cooking techniques. Look for a caterer that can provide the menu you want at a price you can afford. A good caterer can also explore cost-saving options.
Prioritizing Based on the Food
Many couples will focus on booking a venue first and then check to see if that venue can accommodate their reception plans. It might be better to start with the caterer. Most professionals will have knowledge about local venues that “cater” best to their food preparation and service. If your caterer and menu require food to be cooked at the venue, you’ll want a place with a full kitchen that can accommodate cooking for a crowd. If not, then you’ll need a provider who can cook at another location and bring equipment to keep dishes at the proper temperature.
Accommodating Special Diets With A Caterer
Between food intolerances, dietary restrictions, and special lifestyles, it’s important to know if the caterer can accommodate special diets. Imagine your bestie has agreed to be a maid of honor or best man, but due to their lactose intolerance, they won’t be able to eat much of what’s served. Think about the people who will be celebrating with you, including vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians, and people who avoid certain foods for health or religious reasons. Many caterers can provide multiple options to make sure everyone enjoys a full meal.
Confirming What Is Covered
It’s important to have a clear understanding of what’s included with a caterer’s services. Some caterers only provide the food, but it’s up to you or the venue to provide servers, bartenders, and other personnel. You may have other wedding vendors such as a planner, a photographer, or DJ working the event. Will the catering include meals for those vendors? Some wedding chefs also provide tools and equipment needed to serve and dispose of food. Don’t assume when it comes to what’s included. Ask lots of questions and get answers before agreeing to a contract.
Your special day is about so much more than the food, but your menu is an important part of the event. Weddings should be joyous affairs, but hiring the wrong caterer or ignoring certain food-related details can negatively impact your special occasion. Consider these important details when planning your wedding eats.
Keeping these wedding concerns in mind and planning ahead can help make your wedding run more smoothly and make both your guests and the vendors happy.
No one ever said planning a wedding would be easy. In fact, even the simplest and most intimate of gatherings can require a lot of work on your end. Though you’ve spent countless hours looking over all the details of your big day, there could very well be potential issues that you’ve not yet considered. Luckily, now is a great time to think about last-minute concerns and potential solutions.
From broke bridesmaids to disappearing guests, there are lots of issues you could be facing with your wedding. Explore these suggestions and find solutions that can help you keep your sanity, knowing all your effort will pay off in the form of a beautiful and seamless event.
Bridesmaids Who Don’t Budget
The members of your wedding party take on a lot of responsibilities for your big day. You’re likely asking them to help plan your wedding, run errands, throw small events like showers, and take on a million little duties that you can’t handle yourself. Unfortunately, your friends and relatives also have their own lives and can’t always rise to the occasion. This is especially true when it comes to bridesmaids or groomsmen who are dealing with money problems. Broke wedding party members can easily cause concerns or even derail all of your carefully laid plans.
You might not be able to pay for everything, but you can definitely prepare in advance for a bridesmaid who can’t foot the bill. Your best option in this scenario is to show compassion and be as considerate as possible. Don’t forget, you’re the one putting these demands on your friends. If your solution to a bridesmaid or groomsman who can’t pay is to cut them from the wedding, then you might need to do damage control on your friendships when all is said and done.
RSVP Delays
Among other concerns is the issue of RSVPs. Though you likely have given guests ample time to reply to your invitations, you’re still going to deal with people who forgot to respond or lost their RSVP cards and all sorts of other issues. In almost all cases, someone who replied “yes” to your invitation is definitely going to show on your big day. Unfortunately, you also are probably going to deal with guests who show up but never even bothered to respond to your RSVP.
The worst thing you can do is assume that anyone who didn’t respond by the RSVP deadline is not coming to the event. Give yourself extra time after the RSVPs are due, and you’ll notice how many late responses start flooding in. Since you might still have to deal with people who show up without responding to the invitations, the best way to handle this is by planning for more guests than responded. Account for a few extra chairs and meals, and you should have no problem fitting everyone into the venue without having to turn people away.
Feed Your Vendors
Finally, many couples forget to show proper thanks when it concerns the hard-working men and women who cater their weddings. While you might already be planning on tipping your vendors, you also should give these individuals a set time where they can sit and eat. You can even mention this to the caterers early so that they can prepare additional meals for the DJ, photographers, and anyone else working your event who will need to stop and recharge at some point. Typically, allowing the vendors to eat at the same time as the guests can keep the night flowing without any frustrating delays.
Try as you might to cover all your bases, there are always going to be unforeseen concerns that you didn’t anticipate. The best you can do to keep your wedding free from mistakes is to take the right precautionary steps and try to plan for whatever you think could be an issue.
2015 is a great year to get married, no matter the season. For Canadian couples planning their nuptials, there are many fun and stylish wedding trends to consider incorporating into their weddings. Some are tried and true classics and others are more recent additions.
Non-Traditional Reception Venues
Having your reception in a formal ballroom is no longer a must. More and more couples are seeking out less conventional spaces such as galleries, museums, lofts, restaurants and outdoor areas. Avoiding a hotel ballroom can also make way for a greater variety of catering options. Many hotels insist you use their in-house services if you use their venue.
Innovative Menus
Food options for Canadian weddings have substantially evolved over time. Instead of a sit-down dinner or buffet, many couples are opting for more innovative alternatives. Some hire food trucks to cater their reception or hold events at independent restaurants. Serving sustainable, locally sourced cuisine is also becoming more important for a number of couples. Another popular trend is to provide comfort food like mac-n-cheese and BBQ rather than serving a more formal meal. The progression to more casual dining has also impacted desserts; cupcakes, macaroons and other bite size sweets are favorites. However, don’t assume food trucks, comfort food and smaller desserts means the tab will be lower.
Pastel Garden Flowers
Feminine pastel colored wedding flowers such as peonies, hydrangeas, freesias and lilacs are very en vogue. They can often be found all mixed together in bouquets and centerpieces which can create a fluffy light look with lots of texture and depth.
Pretty Stationary
A wedding is one of the few occasions where people still mail invitations. The postal service and stationary companies are undoubtedly happy this trend has endured the test of time.
No Formal Ceremony
A popular alternative to a formal ceremony at a church or synagogue is to use a justice of the peace or clerk of the court, and have only a handful of witnesses. There are also websites where people can easily get ordained online so another option is to have a friend or family member officiate the service. After the vows are done, couples may throw a big party at a later date.
Smaller Wedding Parties
The downsizing of wedding parties is a trend that has picked up steam. Many brides are now opting for one to four attendants and any more is increasingly uncommon. Couples are marrying later in life and attendants are typically older as well.
Different Bridesmaids Dresses
There are many more alternatives for bridesmaids’ dresses these days. Instead of picking one dress for everyone to wear, some brides pick a color and let their attendants choose the style of the dress. This often results in dresses that are more figure-flattering. Another option is to pick a dress style and let your bridesmaids’ choose the color they want to wear.
2014 Canadian Wedding Trends
The Annual Reader Survey from Weddingbells.ca (link) provides interesting information on Canadian wedding trends. Here are some of the statistics:
There were approximately 162,056 weddings in 2014 in the Great White North.
The average cost of a wedding was $31,685. July and August nuptials are a little pricier.
In Canada, the average age of a bride is 31 years old.
The top month in which to get engaged is December; 18 percent of Canadian grooms propose then.
August is the most preferred time to marry with 25 percent of couples choosing that month to tie the knot.
There are an average of 128 guests per Canadian wedding.
Since 2010 the Bahamas has been the top honeymoon destination for Canadian couples.
These are a few trends that can provide inspiration when planning your big day. A wedding is a once in a lifetime event and should reflect the unique style of the happy couple.
