How to Find Your Perfect Wedding Caterer

All roads lead to The Wild Oven, right? Wrong.

We love what we do and we’re the perfect fit for couples looking for great food served with theatre, but equally for those of you looking for silver service and fanciness it’s time to look elsewhere. So where to begin?

Find Your Style

First off you’ve got to figure out what you’re looking for to make sure your research heads out in the right direction. The best way to do this is to find your style. When you remember your wedding day, and the food, what words would you like to use? If you get stuck, head over to Pinterest and get a mood board together.

Check Your Venue

Venues often have a list of recommended caterers or exclusive caterers. If you’re not getting married at a venue, it’s worth just taking a peek at their approved caterers list for some inspiration.  If you are holding your wedding reception at a venue, then this could either make your job really easy as you can just pick one from a list. Or, if you don’t like what’s on their list you’ll have to ask them if they’ll allow an external caterer to come in. Most venues are amenable to this, as at the centre of it, they are there to help you have the day you want. Just be aware that some venues charge caterers a percentage fee for catering with them, so as frustrating as it is, you may have to add a cost on.

Ask friends and family

Newsflash: your wedding isn’t just about you two. It’s about the friends and family that you are choosing to celebrate it with. By this I don’t mean that you have to pick your catering purely based on what everyone else likes, though there may come a point where compromise has to be made, but your friends and family are there to support you through your wedding planning as well the important marriage after.  Not only may they be able to find you your perfect caterer, but comments such as “my sister used this caterer, but they’re too ‘x’, ‘y’ or ‘z’ for you” will help with deciding what style to go for.  Also, as I’m about to delve into, there are some great caterers out there who may not even have a website and word of mouth is just about the only way to find them.

Use Google search, well

This may seem ultra obvious, but I’m not about to tell you to use Google search, it’s more about how you use it. There are some great caterers out there, and the Google search bots aren’t necessarily the best ones at finding them. Some caterers get lucky and manage to build a website that performs well on Google and some don’t. Be that because they’re too busy in the kitchen and at events or because their website is optimised for phrases that you’re not searching for. It costs a lot of money/time to get to the top of Google for phrases such as “outside caterer”, and your perfect caterer isn’t necessarily going to be there.

  1. Use the location that your wedding is going to be in. Start specific, for example the local town then go larger.
  2. Use phrases specific to what you would hope to find on their website. “Alternative”, “Rustic”,   
  3. Use variations of one lead word followed by one follow word: Lead words: “Outside” “Private” “Wedding” Follow words: “Caterer”, “Catering” “Food”

Once you’ve found potential perfect wedding caterers, the time has come to choose one. For help with that see here:

How to choose your perfect wedding caterer

Catering for Weddings

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