If you’re planning a wedding or other large-scale special event, you may want to call on a full-service caterer to help pull it all together. In addition to providing great food, full-service caterers can also help to coordinate a range of important details, including meal presentation, table settings, serving, and centerpieces so your big day will live up to all of your high expectations.

One-Stop Shopping

In the past, catering services used to specialize in providing the meals for guests at special events. But today, some catering services have gone way beyond the basics to offer a one-stop shopping approach to make sure all of the pieces of your party will flow smoothly. This means that instead of you needing to contract with multiple vendors to handle different areas, you may be able to go to just one person who offers a full-service approach and let him or her do all of the work for you to be sure your party goes off without a hitch.

Planning Your Event

You can think of a modern caterer as a form of a wedding planner. If you’re hosting a wedding, bar or bat mitzvah, christening, corporate function or other large party, once you know the scale of your event and your budget, you can shop around for a full-service caterer to find one who is a good fit for your needs and your vision.

Many caterers today can handle as much (or as little) as you require, from helping to select the site, overseeing the decorations and floral arrangements, coordinating lighting, setting the menu and seating plan, servicing the bar, serving guests and working with the musicians or DJ to ensure that the timing of the meal and music flow well. But keep in mind that each company is different, so you will want to ask lots of questions to find the best match for your preferences.

Whether you want to hand over all of the control or want to handle some of the details yourself, having a good caterer by your side is essential to ensuring a successful event. A good rule of thumb is to start looking for your caterer early, at least eight or nine months before your big day if you can, to give yourself enough time to find the right person for the job and to negotiate the details so you will know who will handle what.

Generally, you will want to look for a caterer who excels at the type of function and food you desire. For instance, if you have your heart set on a Hawaiian luau, you should seek out someone who has planned these before and knows what works well. Or if you want to serve a vegetarian dinner, select a caterer who is known for his or her excellent gourmet vegetarian fare. Also keep in mind that a caterer who is a regular at the venue you choose will be a real asset in helping you to navigate the landscape. Some function sites have fully-operational kitchens, while others have only minimal equipment. A caterer who knows these things up front will be able to make some important decisions about where and how the food will be prepared.