Karen Short, founder and chairlady of By Word of Mouth, the go to place for many brides looking for help with catering, hiring, floral design for their wedding. She shares her extensive experience from organizing countless weddings. She offers advice on how to best plan for your big day.
When should a couple start organizing the menu and catering?
As soon as you have your venue, start thinking about the catering. Then organize a meeting with your wedding coordinator and catering company so they understand the couple, their taste and their budget. The most exciting part is to set up the date for the mockup of the table and floral settings, possible bouquets and food tasting. The tasting is really crucial for the bride because sometimes at the actual wedding the bride won’t eat. But the tasting is not only important for taste, but for presentation and choosing portion size as well.
What options do couples have in terms of serving food at the reception?
Station food has become a huge trend over the last year. It is a different way of serving food and is also interactive and entertaining for the guests and a fantastic way of cutting your budget. With station food you serve different foods from different tables in the same area or room, and they can also form part of your decor. Examples are: pot pie station, a mac and cheese station, a steak bar station or even something sweet such as an ice-cream bar station. We create stations for as few as 20 people up to 1000 people. They work well for any number.
Tips and tricks to save money couples catering for an event
Use the cake as the dessert and have bread and spread bar instead of serving canapés after the ceremony – this not only fills guests, it adds to the décor and allows you to do away with the starter. Another trick is to use candles instead of flowers on the tables and re-use the church floral arrangements at the reception. Have a breakfast, less alcohol is consumed.
What is an absolute food must for any wedding
Serve something traditional or a meal or recipe that you were bought up with. For example we did a European/ African wedding. for the passed around canapés we served Mopani worms on mini bowls and then also passed around on mini bowls we served wild mushroom risotto pops a mix of European and African delicacies. We had a sushi bar, but we also had an Afro/ Chic bar with,Umngqusho(samp and beans), Imifino (spinach like vegetable), Umbhako (a kind of cake), phutu (powdery pap), skop (sheep’s head) and tripe.
What are some of the common mistakes that you see couples making planning for their wedding?
As wedding designers we see many of our brides making the same mistakes. Here are a few of the big ones.
Guest Lists – We find that brides rush into planning their weddings and booking venues without even considering their guest list. This is a fundamental priority and no other decisions should be made until you have your guest list firmly in place. A guest list not only determines the size of the wedding but it will establish what budget as well as the venue.
Catering – Try to avoid a choice in the main course as it pushes the cost up as well as confuses the waiters and puts a huge amount of strain on the kitchen. We don’t recommend having a buffet for main course as it can look extremely messy after a few people have helped themselves as well as it delays the entire schedule.
Flowers –Instead of being set on one particular type of flower, couples should see the bigger picture and go for a certain overall look as things seem to change as you go along, trust your florist, they are professional and can recommend the best for your colour scheme and your venue.
Bar – Try to avoid having a cash bar at your wedding as the majority of people do not take cash to a wedding, rather limit the bar to beer and wine only and cut out any spirits and shooters as these tend to push the bar prices up.
Hiring Professionals – One must realise there is a very clear line between a friend and a professional. As good as your relative or friend might be at taking photos or mixing music, you cannot go back in time to capture those special moments.
Personal – Don’t wear too much make-up or use too much fake tan, wear in your shoes and have a trial run with your hair.
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