Caterers 101

The Dubious Bride is not sure where to begin her search for food and drink...but she knows it'll have to be great!

by Sara Cardace

It seems like every time I make a decision (see last week's post about having possibly, miraculously found a dress) 10 more things arise that need to get done. I really don't know how working people find the time to plan these things.

This week, I'm preoccupied with getting the ball rolling on finding a caterer for the reception. Argh, where to begin?

This is a big one, I'm afraid. I may not give a hoot about my dress, but the food--the food has to be copious and awesome, and I don't care if it gobbles up 99.9 percent of my budget. I kid, course. The actual breakdown will probably be more like 98.9999 percent food and drink, 1.19999 percent everything else. (Do those numbers even add up? I fear that the fact that I don't know speaks volumes about how poorly suited I am for this wedding-planning gig.) Regardless, I'm imagining a veritable cornucopia of passed hors d'oeuvres, tons of free-flowing wine and cocktails, and an array of clever stations--maybe a slider bar? Or a whole suckling pig! I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

I've been researching up a storm and I've come up with a tentative short list of caterers that I think might fit the bill. So I guess the next step is to find out which ones are available on our big day, and to get some sort of estimates as to how much they think this is all going to cost. Or is the next step finding out if they have any tastings coming up, so we can narrow the list that way? Help?

Regarding alcohol, I run in a big crowd of boozers, so there's no chance of a dry wedding. (Speaking of which, I've been to one and it was lovely! Though I drank so many diet Cokes that I thought my head was going to explode. But I digress.)

Given my friends' and family's propensities for drinking, I definitely want to find a caterer that will let me bring in my own alcohol--apparently I might be able to save something like a thousand dollars just by not paying their absurdly marked-up prices. (Seriously--brides on a budget, definitely look into this.) Plus, my father's an old hand at this, having already supplied all the alcohol himself for my sister's gorgeous, elegant wedding in Lake George.

Thank God at least one person involved in my wedding knows what he's doing.