*mr. ramen and i enjoying the to-die-for chicken and rice from the halal cart on 53rd and 6th in NYC ~ taken by Mrs. Caramel, one of my college friends! - this goes to show that good food doesn't have to cost a lot of $$!i love food. i even had told mr. ramen that the perfect proposal would be for him to take me to napa to eat at french laundry. and then just hand me a ring. hahah. his proposal was much better than that. but only by a little bit... quite obviously, food means a lot to me. and to mr. ramen as well (i've converted him into a food snob, mwahaha!) AND the food is what most people remember about weddings; especially if the food is bad... or maybe that's just mr. ramen and myself?
* we also enjoy expensive food.... why yes, that is lamb and scallops and a filet. mmmmm, all my fave meats! this was a splurge bc mr. ramen got a gift card to this restaurant. And NO, we did not match on purpose. Gross.so of course when we were trying to choose a caterer, it took forevvvvver! (uhm, are you noticing a trend? maybe it's me? of course it is!) since pretty much all 3 venues we were serious about (bentley projects, TCA, and our beloved PAM) had preferred caterer lists, we were a bit limited to what we could choose; this of course, ended up being very beneficial for us.
I initially just flat-out emailed every single caterer on the list, explaining which venue we were considering, and asked for a sample menu/pricing list/quote so I could get an idea of what caterers were within our price range. If I had 150 guests or less, I honestly would seriously consider dropping $100 per guest on food alone (I realize that in certain areas of the country, that's a pretty low #... but in AZ, this is quite high. Lucky us?) But, as you all know.... we have quite the guestlist. And we're really blessed in the fact that our parents are pretty much hosting our wedding (and still letting us do whatever we want - are they awesome or what?!?!?) At any rate, $100/person x 350 is uhmmmmmm... how shall I say this - INSANE! Although it would be pretty awesome.
I requested a sit-down dinner menu for 250-300 guests, with passed hors d'evoures, and kids menu. I originally wanted to offer our guests a choice of beef or salmon/chicken, and have the appetizers be lamb chops, some kind of seared ahi tuna (mr. ramen's fave), and peking duck. yeahhh, i know, kind of ridiculous, but I just wanted to see! (oh yeah, don't worry, we had to ultimately give up on the passed hors devoures. and i'm still alive.)
I contacted probably about 10 caterers. Some just flat out didn't respond to my emails/phone calls, so I figured they didn't need/want my business. Out of the few that actually responded and after going over their initial quotes, I had chosen my 5 favorites.
M Catering by Michael is the creme de la creme of Phoenix area caterers; or at least this is what the event coordinators at BP and PAM told me. And price-wise, it shows. Their work is HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended by uh, everyone, and again, if I had the big buckaroos (translation: if I wasn't so busy getting highly in debt from opto school) I would have totally hired them! But alas, after drooling over their menu and pictures and website, I brought myself back to reality by taking a look at the quote I received from them. Although was able to bring it into the ballpark, it would have been a really very basic and un-exciting menu.
Santa Barbara Catering was my top choice, as it's been voted numerous times as the best Phoenix area wedding caterer for a few years in a row. Lauren was a dream to work with, and I was really sad when I had to send her the "Sorry, I can't afford to hire you - but i realllly love you and realllllllly wish I could!" email. What I liked about their quotes was that they are meticulously organized. They also have copious lists of the different kinds of menus that you can look through to find what you can afford/etc, which was also really helpful. While the food is affordable, the service fees were a bit higher than some other caterers we were considering. So although we really liked SB, the budget won.
Arizona Taste was on the more affordable end of the budget spectrum; while they were recomended by my favorite venue coordinator Jackie at PAM (they have pretty high standards for vendors, so they really do recommend all the caterers on their list equally), and their customer service was really prompt, for whatever reason I just wasn't really interested; I think I just clicked better with other caterers. Sometimes, that's just what happens! I would still recommend them, because I think you could get a lot of bang for your buck with them, and again they are really prompt!
Fabulous Foods was one that we got pretty serious with (I sound like I'm talking about ex-bfs...). Kathleen is seriously SOOOO awesome! She met with me during a really busy day to talk to me about our different options. When our venue, budget, and guest list changed, she was totally there to work with me and try to get all the different things we wanted to fit in the menu. I'd say she was probably the most creative caterer consultant I worked with; she suggested things like a family style dinner, a mini kids-only buffet, individual dessert fondue.... all sorts of really cool, fun, and innovative ideas.
And then there was Coppersquare Kitchen. I had never heard of them before, mostly because they recently started catering outside of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Phx. I wasn't really expecting much from them because their website was pretty new and didn't have much info on it at the time I looked around. It was another one of those "desperate times" kind of things, where I was about to just say, whatever, let's blow all of our money on food! But then stressing because that would = NO HONEYMOON... So I pretty much almost passed out from excitement when I opened the email from Darcy of CSK. The menu was everything I could have asked for (modern, innovative, unexpected, and still traditional enough to not weird out our elderly asian guests) and at the most affordable prices ever.
so one of the awesome things is that CSK is the caterer for the Hyatt, which means they don't have to rent stuff, it's all in house - AND the Hyatt is reallllly close to PAM, which means if anything goes wrong or they need back up - they have it! The servers would be trained professional hotel staff, not contracted servers. ANNNND we would also get a free night at the Hyatt Regency on our wedding night. ANNNNNNNND the Hyatt was (not sure if they still are) running a special for people who booked their wedding receptions there; with certain food/beverage minimums, you would receive a certain number of free nights at any of the Hyatt Resorts in North America (they had a list).
- ok, to recap...
- they were very much so within our budget (lower than expected, actually, which was great, because by this point, our guestlist exploded by 100 more people)
- we would get a free wedding night room at the Hyatt Regency in Phx.
- we would get 3 free honeymoon nights at the Hyatt Resort of our choice....
- is it not obvious who we chose?!?!?
annnnnd basically Darcy is making all of my wildest food dreams come true. I've probably driven her INSANE with my requests, changes, etc... but she's always been super sweet and taken care of everything really promptly; from my crazy requests for cocktail napkins, to-go coffee cups, and changing what kind of salad I wanted oh..... about 3 times now. Everytime we meet up with her, it's like meeting up with a friend; she's always excited about what kind of wedding shenanigans I'm getting myself into, and has tons of ideas, suggestions, and she's just all around awesome.
We had our tasting at the beginning of August, and we were all really happy with how the food turned out - taste and presentation-wise... Here's some pictures of the tasting...
Our appetizers for the "cocktail" hour. Assorted cheeses, fruit, chutney, honey, grilled veggies, annd salami!
The 2 salads.... we're going with something more like the one on the left.
The entrees... we knew we HAD to have beef... but chicken or salmon??? White cheddar mashed potatoes or polenta??? Oh decisions! (I know, what a rough life, right?)
Our parents got to come along, along with sister/MOH ramen... It was fun to share the experience with them, and they brought up a lot of good points/suggestions on the food that we never would have considered. Good job parents!
Mr. Ramen's food job was to choose the desserts, since we decided to forgo cake (Mr. Ramen is our resident dessert-eater, and does not care for cake.) There's also a certain surprise dessert that I'm just DYING to share about, but you'll just have to wait for AFTER the wedding ;)
So here are the Ramen caterer-search tips:
- Give all of your caterers the EXACT same requests (# of guests, appetizers desired). This is the easiest way to price compare.
- Ask the caterer to give you every single little cost (for each spoon, napkin, tablecloth, salt and pepper shakers, etc). Don't forget service charges!
- Don't be afraid to ask them how you can get a certain look/taste/feel for whatever your budget is. We wanted beef from a caterer, but really couldn't afford their beef options; they suggested going with braised short ribs, which are a really affordable and VERY tasty option.
- You shouldn't be afraid to change things on your menu! When in doubt, always ask for clarification; they should be happy to help you! (Well, I personally only want to work with a vendor who wants to do a good job!)
- Ask whether they include gratuity or not - sometimes they don't and that extra 18-20% can be crucial to killing your budget!
- Be flexible, especially if you are on a strict budget! Depending on the city, venue, and caterer, a plated meal might be cheaper than a buffet and vice versa! A cool alternative to consider is family style....
- Consider a duet plate or offering only one entree to cut costs. I've been to a wedding where they served everyone chicken wellington - one of the best wedding dinners that i've ever had!
- All the caterers I spoke to always have vegetarian options prepared, even if you do go with 1 entree. So you shouldn't really have to worry about giving guests that option to check, unless you are offering more than 1 entree.
- Always ask what ages kids meals are for and the cost involved per kid (you'd be surprised how much some caterers charge for chicken fingers)! We have some kids who aren't quite old enough to get a full dinner, but are too old for chicken fingers; we asked our caterer and are doing little mini plates of what the adults are being served! I also accidentally included some babies in our first kid count - and they don't even have teeth yet... Also don't forget to ask about highchairs/booster seats!
- Don't forget asking about pricing for vendor meals!!! I was always wondering what that would entail; our vendors will be getting a really sweet box lunch w some fancy sandwich, salad, and other goodies for about $20/each. Usually these vendors would be your photogs, videographer, DJ/band, and coordinator. Did I miss anyone?
- And just something weird I learned about Phx area caterers; they don't do tastings unless you already book/pay a tasting fee. I know that in the Bay Area and other areas, caterers often do tastings for potential customers, which to me makes sense. But not so in Phx! So it makes it kinda tricky when you try to hire a caterer, taste untasted. I was a bit stressed prior to our tasting, so we're blessed to have it all work out so awesomely!
How did you decide on your caterer?
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