What was most important to you when choosing your caterer?

We want to have a 100% vegan wedding and buffet meals so we needed a caterer who is open to that. Fortunately, we found an amazing one.

We didn’t get to pick a specific caterer; just a specific hall that provides catering in their package. What was important to us that it was an Italian hall (I’m Italian) and that they had things like an antipasto bar and a porchetta option for a late night table.

#1 is taste. We're getting the top level buffet option at our venue, and it's still only $47.99 per person. There are so many options, and the #1 review about our venue for ANY type of event is how amazing the food is. We're so excited! Haha.

Price was a big factor. And being able to change some things from their standard menu. and of course taste (I've been to plenty of events at my venue. I'm not even worried about taste. they will knock it out of the park!)

around here, family style meals are the norm. with what feels like 8 different courses/platters (antipasto, salad, rolls, 2 meats, potatoes, pasta, veggies, dessert). Out of the option/price point we want to go with I want to see if they will change the veggie and let me have chicken parm vs roasted chicken. still haven't confirmed. that's a future Jenn problem! hahah

Price honestly. My parents are paying for the dinner, and I wanted to make it a reasonably priced meal! But the people we chose also have amazing reviews so I am confident the food will be great.

We are using the venue's in house catering; which we had to do but saves the energy of finding an independent caterer 18 hours away!

I knew they had good food and they have a variety of options we can choose for the menu, even an option that allows guests to choose between 2 things. They are also accommodating for vegetarian/vegan guests!

We knew our venue did their own catering, which was a bonus for us. We have the option to bring in other caterers if we wanted to do one-off stations like poutine, wings, etc. but we aren’t going to do that.

The most important thing for us was that its good food and there are options for those who can’t or don’t eat meat.

For us, there were two important things:

1) The food reflects us, people would enjoy it and the fun vibe we want. A taco buffet for dinner, and gourmet hotdog buffet for midnight supper.

2) That there was enough. We've been to weddings before where there felt like there wasn't enough food, and we have some very big eaters. We did not want to have to worry about running out of anything.

That they could do a mixed cuisine buffet style! Our venue does in house catering and their options were perfect!

We wanted someone who was able to work around diet needs as my grandpa is celiac and the best man is strictly vegan as he has many allergies.

It needed to be in-house catering, able to accommodate my mother-in-law's dietary restrictions, and be GOOD! Food was one of the most important things to us and happily people raved about it afterwards

The biggest thing, for us, was finding a venue that also did their own catering. Living halfway across the country from our wedding venue, we didn't want to have to search for a caterer and figure out whether they could work at 'x' location.

Our venue does their own catering. It was important for us to have dietary restrictions accommodated for as we have a guest with a peanut allergy, a vegetarian, some Muslim guests that require Halal meals, and some guests that are on an organic diet. As mentioned above, we wanted to make sure that the food would be something our guests would enjoy as opposed to just fancy food. Our venue offers a wide option of hors d'oeuvres to choose from for cocktail hour too.

Flexibility! We chose our venue partly because of their in house catering. They're excited and open to doing customized menus which means even our meal can represent us. 😍

Lucky for us, our venue does their own food. So this saved a lot on cost. We have been to a couple weddings there before, so we know the food is good.

There are plenty of options, so it is just making it food that we love. Like Tori said not just getting the fancy stuff because it is a wedding.

FH is Italian and said " Its not an Italian wedding if we don't do antipasto for the cocktail hour" lol so antipasto it is! Our venue is also very Italian so it makes it easier for us to pick food we love because we are used to eating that way!

The most important thing to us was that it was "us" food. Like we didn't want any chicken cordon bleu or beef au jus because it was so typical and boring. Instead we went with something that we love - Pulled pork! lol not classy - but neither is our wedding (on a dock and in a pavilion with bonfires afterwards).

If somebody doesn't want to eat it then they better fill up on s'mores later! (Don't worry, we will let the guests know what food will be available before the big day so they can bring a bagged lunch or eat beforehand if they really detest our choice.)

My fiancé and I’s venue will be doing our catering; however, it was important to us that they cater to dietary restrictions as we have three to four vegans attending our wedding, as well as guests who can handle spice better than others, so flexibility in that regard was also key. Service was important too; we like that they work for the venue itself as the venue will hold them to a high standard and be able to coordinate/work with them closely.

If we had to find our own caterer, majority of this would still apply!