Wedding Planners, Wiltshire
I’m in the middle of thirty-two, client food tastings over January and February, it’s relentless and intense, but in a good way. Couples, mostly young, come along to try and decide which dishes to feed to their 140 guests for the day. It’s clearly a daunting task when you’re only 21, or 25 or even 30. You’ve never had 140 friends round for lunch before, so I imagine the prospect can be terrifying, with every choice you make, every aesthetic decision, fluttering on display like a standard hauled above the battlements for everyone to see, and judge.
Brides and groom come along and say, ‘we were at a friend’s wedding last summer and they had this great idea to …….’ Or ‘we were in a restaurant in November and they had a really cool idea to……’ And I think, that’s interesting, but not nearly as interesting as your ideas, if you gave them the freedom to fly and weren’t so intimidated by what everyone else is doing, about what’s on trend, what’s instagramming.
Most people have great ideas if they can only connect with them. Sometimes couples engage a wedding planner to help their ideas come to fruition. Some, like my daughter will have had their wedding day planned from the age of 7, so then it’s just finding the right people to work with to pull it off. The right venue, date, guest list, caterer, DJ, band, bar, florist, rearrange in order of your own priorities.
Some have an inspiring collection of mates to whom they can farm out the plethora of tasks. A collaboration of like minded souls who they can trust to get the jobs done, on time, to budget. Some really haven’t got a clue and dump the whole process on mum and dad, usually mum if I’m honest. Bee, and her mum were the real project managers of our wedding, drilling down into the nitty gritty, the logistics, the flow. They, made it the happiest day of my life, carefree, intoxicating, liberating in a funny way bearing in mind we were both about to hook up for the rest of our lives.
I would describe it as informal, a word often used by couples describing what they are trying to achieve, as if to suggest that informality implies a level of simplicity, relaxation, ease. Which of course it does for the bride and groom and all their guests. But it has the opposite effect for us, the caterer and often the only contractor left on site once the marquee, electricians and generator guys have disappeared, along with the florist and cake maker and venue owner.
Formal is really easy, everyone knows exactly what’s happening when, with everything planned to the smallest detail. All the staff know, and everything is planned in advance, nothing is left to chance, the schedule runs to timetable, everyone is happy.
Then there’s the informal, keeping it fluid, going with the flow, relaxed, let’s see how it unfolds. Then nobody knows what’s happening, the photoshoot runs over by half an hour, unscheduled speeches pop up and add another half an hour to proceedings, everyone is having such a good time at the drinks reception, the drinks keep flowing and guests sit down an hour later than anticipated. Celebrations have barely kicked off and it’s already two hours behind schedule, if there was a schedule. Which is all fine until a week later when the final bill comes in and the client discovers that having 25 catering staff on site for 2 extra hours at a combined cost of £300 per hour, plus VAT, means an extra £720 on the bill.
So yes, planning is important, keep it tight and communicate it well to everyone. Guests like to know what’s happening, what’s coming up, so they can pace themselves, and at the very end, collapse into a taxi, chat about and celebrate every detail on the way home.
We enjoy really great relationships with a whole host of suppliers and venues. The Wedding Planners that we would recommend are
If you would like to speak to us about your wedding food or any other aspect of your event please contact us