Twenty years of weddings, in marquees, barns, halls and private houses. The job is different in each of them, which is the main reason we are careful about what we promise and precise about what things cost.

What the price per head covers

The food and the people. Ingredients sourced locally where the season allows it, cooked on site, and the kitchen and front-of-house staff to serve it.

Our team stay with us. Many of the people who will serve your wedding have worked with us for years, which is not a small thing on a day where the difference between good and forgettable is whether somebody notices an empty glass.

Why equipment hire is separate

Cutlery, crockery and linen are not in the per-head price, and that is a deliberate choice rather than an omission.

Couples increasingly want a particular look — a colour, a theme, a table that belongs with the rest of the day. Bundling a standard set into the price quietly takes that decision away from you. So you choose your own, hired through the company we use for all our equipment, and they send you a formal quote directly.

Are there hidden costs?

Not from us. We run through every cost at the enquiry and again at the first planning meeting. Food and staff are the per-head figure, and that figure is what you pay.

The number that surprises people is equipment hire, particularly once you go beyond the standard cutlery and crockery. It is not our charge, but we would rather flag it early than have you discover it late.

How booking works, in order

1. Enquiry. Tell us the date, the venue and roughly how many. We put a quote together.
2. Tasting. Optional, and most couples do it. It is chargeable, and the cost comes off your deposit if you go ahead.
3. Deposit. Once it is paid, the date is yours.
4. Planning. We will be in touch through the year and led by you, not the other way round.
5. Final payment, roughly six weeks before the day.

Menus

The published menus are samples of what we can do, not a list to choose from. Pick from them if they suit, or build something around food you actually like. Most couples do a bit of both.

Dietary requirements

Yes, and the aim is that the plate in front of that guest looks like everybody else’s. A vegan guest gets the full vegan menu rather than the main course with the meat removed.

It is not always possible to match a dish exactly, and where it is not, we will say so at the planning meeting rather than let you find out on the day.

The table plan

We do need one, particularly if anyone has a dietary requirement — we need to know which seat, not just which table. We can help, and there are plenty of apps that do the donkey work.

The evening food

We would be glad to do the whole day, but you are not tied to us for the evening. If you want something outside what we do, we will point you at people we have worked alongside and rate.

If you would like us to do it, the evening and street food menus come out of the same field kitchen that cooked lunch — no second supplier and no second set of timings.

One last thing

Planning a wedding can be stressful and our job is to take as much of that off you as we can. The only advice we would push: do not get bogged down in what friends and family think you ought to be doing. It is your day.

From the Journal

We write about the practical side of planning weekly in Planning — what a caterer costs and why, what to ask at a tasting, when to book what, and the questions couples actually ask.

Changing your mind after you have booked

Numbers move, and everybody’s do. Guests drop out, an aunt is added, and the figure you gave us in January is not the figure in July. That is entirely normal and it is not a problem — we confirm final numbers a few weeks before, and small movements after that are absorbed rather than argued about.

Menus can change too, within reason and within season. What we cannot do is rewrite the whole thing a fortnight out, because by then the ordering has been done. If you are having second thoughts, the useful time to say so is early rather than politely late.

What we need from you, and when

At the start: the date, the venue and roughly how many. Nothing else is required to get a useful answer.

Once booked: a chance to see the venue, and the contact details for the marquee company if there is one.

A few weeks before: final numbers, the running order, and every dietary requirement in writing with a name against it — not a count. See how we handle allergies and preferences.

If any of that slips, tell us rather than hoping. Almost everything can be worked around with notice and almost nothing can be worked around on the morning.

Equipment hire, and why it matters to your budget

Worth being direct about, because it is the cost that surprises people. For a marquee or any venue without a kitchen, the ovens, refrigeration, crockery, cutlery and glassware are all hired in. We use one company for every event, they liaise with us, and it normally arrives the day before once the marquee is up.

Hire is a real cost and it can quietly eat into your spend per head if nobody is watching it. That is why we would rather design a menu around your budget than sell you a menu that spends it on equipment. Once we know your numbers and the site, we can tell you what the kitchen actually needs rather than what a catalogue would suggest.

Corkage: we do not charge it. You buy your own drinks and we take no cut. Where our staff serve at your own bar there is an hourly rate for those hours, set out at the planning stage.

See marquee wedding catering for what a field kitchen involves, or the questions couples actually ask.