Wedding Forum - What to know when booking venue...

Hi girls

I found this advice while looking for centrepeices and thought i would share it with u all as its good advice xx

Here's a few tips regarding drinks & food from my experience of working inside the wedding industry.

If you're getting a package deal make sure you get all you've been promised. You are entitled to ask for dockets/reciepts of what was used on the day.

Wine Allocation
If your wine allocation is 1/2 bottle pp, they will work the allocation by how many adults attend, not taking into account the non-drinkers. You're allocation will probably work out more than the 1/2 per head.

Now, if you were paying for the wine by the bottle, beforehand the staff would be told that the allocation is 50 bottles (for example) and they would be expected to make sure they reach that limit. So the venue can charge you the maximum amount you have agreed for your wine.

HOWEVER if it's in a package deal, you are paying for it regardless of whether or not it is served. It's common for places not to be bothered if they serve the full allocation. And i can certainly imagine on the day the wine allocation is that last thing you'll be thinking about! I'm not saying all places operate like this, however you do have to be careful that they don't under-serve. If the staff haven't reached their allocation by the time coffee is served, unless you have specified otherwise, that's generally the end of the wine, especially if that's when speeches are about to start.

From experience, I would ask them how they serve the wine. Do they put all bottles on the table and leave them to the guests? Difficulty with this is that if you have a table of redwine drinkers and two bottles of red and two white on the table, you'll have two bottles of white left over - and probably a table of white wine drinkers on the otherside of the room with the same problem.
Do they personally serve all the wine, and keep a note of the allocation from Back of House? Do they have a set amount of Red and White on the day? or is that flexible depending on what is more popular on the day? (you'd want it to be flexible)
I would also ask that any wine left over from the meal is either put on the tables for the evening reception (ask the white to be rechilled) or you could have a little table at the side with the left over wine, and people can help themselves to a glass or a bottle. Or you can ask for it to be left behind the bar, and used for guests ordering wine.

Toast Drinks
If you choose to have drinks for the speeches, and it isn't covered in the package, a cheap way can often be offering everyone to choose their own drink (within reason!). This sounds expensive, but not everyone likes bubbly, and if you consider the price of a pint vs a glass of bubbly, it's often half the price. Also, check that you are being charged by the bottle for bubbly not by the glass, and that if there is a bottle opened, and only a glass taken from it, make sure you get the rest of the bottle as you have paid for it!

Evening Buffet
For your buffet alot of people make the mistake of over-catering. Unless you have evening guests, or day guests that have a huge appetite, you won't need a buffet that caters for your full guests numbers. You'll be finishing your meal about 6-7 and by that time everyone should be stuffed, so by 10pm not everyone will need feeding, and if they do i shouldn't be a lot. I'd probably cater for 50-75% of the guests. Unless you know your guests are big eaters. It's very rare the buffet gets finished.

If you are staying in the venue and moving onto the bar afterwards, you can always ask the staff to keep any remaining buffet food for the bar later on, people will be more peckish by then. This works best with cold food - hot food will have dried out.

Special Diets
Also ask what would happen if someone turned up on the day and hadn't requested a special diet, but in fact can't eat the menu offered. Some places are really good and will cater for anyone on the day the best they can, others places will have no other options to offer them. I've seen people go hungry before. And there's always at least one at every wedding, trust me!!

thats really useful, thank you. xx

Yeah, that's great, hadn't thought of a lot of that!