10 Ideas For Planning a Self-Catered Wedding Weekend

If you plan to cater your own wedding then you’ll certainly want to make sure you have a plan. Preparing food for a lot of guests requires a good deal of forethought so you certainly don’t want to do things on impulse. In order to help you plan a self-catered wedding weekend, below are 10 great tips to follow. 

Visit The Location And Make Notes

There might be certain things you have in mind, such as how you want the food to be presented but if you haven’t visited the location beforehand then there might be something that scuppers your plans. Always be sure to look around the venue closely and make notes. 

Get Everybody’s Ideas

You can’t think of everything so don’t be afraid to get ideas from friends and family about the type of food and drinks to serve.

Don’t Be Afraid Of Accepting Help

It might be tempting to take everything on yourself but this can soon become overwhelming and you’ll realise that it simply isn’t practical. Recruit anyone you can who’s happy to help you with the planning and execution.

Make It Easy To Store Any Ideas Online

Anyone can open a Dropbox account for free and doing this will enable you to easily store any ideas online and access them at anytime. It’s also great for easily sharing ideas with anyone who’s helping you.

Opt For Food That Can Be Prepared In Advance And Heated Later

When thinking about the food you’re going to serve it’s always important to be practical. Freshly prepared food simply isn’t viable in a lot of cases since it requires a lot of work and preparation on the day.

Don’t Neglect Drinks

It’s very easy to focus too much on food but neglect the drinks you’re going to serve. Make sure there’s a good mix of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks including fruit juice, fizzy drinks for kids, beer, wine, cocktails etc. Also, flavoured coffee always goes over well and is quite cheap to buy.

Don’t Try To Plan How Your Guests Spend Their Time

As long as you make sure there’re adequate food and drinks then your job is done. Guests will mingle on their own so you don’t have to overthink things as far as that’s concerned. 

Find Someone To Coordinate On The Day

On the day of the wedding, you’ll have enough to worry about, so find someone who’s responsible and well organised to help you coordinate things. This will certainly help to relieve your stress and make sure things run smoothly.

Always Keep Your Budget In Mind

When planning a self-catered wedding, it’s very easy to get carried away with things so you should always know exactly what budget is available so you can stick to it.

Look Online For Inspiration

If you’re not entirely certain about the best types of food to serve or how you want to present things then don’t be afraid to look online for inspiration. Pinterest is a fantastic site for getting ideas from other people that you might never have even considered.

Author bio

Samuel is associated with Caterline Ltd and has a strong interest in wedding catering. His articles cover topics such as how to plan a self-catered wedding.

What’s the difference between domestic and commercial kitchen installation?

It doesn’t matter whether you are looking to have your own kitchen installed in a domestic setting, or if you run a business and need a professional kitchen to be designed and installed – you will always want to make sure that you have the very best when it comes to quality and service.

 

Of course, domestic and commercial kitchens do have different needs and requirements, and therefore it is important that you take these in to consideration when you look for a commercial kitchen equipment installer. Someone who has experience of only fitting kitchens in a home environment may not be best placed to offer the most practical advice and think logically when it comes to an industrial sized space.

So what are the main differences?

• Aesthetics

One of the main things that people will concern themselves with when it comes to a domestic kitchen is the aesthetics. After all, the kitchen is for many homes the centre point – where all the action happens. It is where people will gather for a natter, a coffee and a sneaky slice of cake.  It is probably where you will do a lot of your entertaining and therefore you will want it to look good to be able to show it off to friends, family and other visitors.

While you would also want your commercial kitchen to look good, the overall aesthetics are less important.  Clients and patrons are not going to spend a lot of time in there, they will therefore be more concerned about the ambience in the main dining area, or the bar.

• Practicalities

No matter what the setting your kitchen needs to be practical – it has a job to do and it is important that it can do it to the best possible standard. Equipment and apparatus therefore needs to be laid out in a logical manner.

However, this is even more important within a commercial setting. You will need to ensure that you have hot areas and cold areas, as this will help with energy efficiency. You will also need to make sure that you are making the most of all the space that you have on offer, without making the area too cramped. If you do not do this you may find that you quickly outgrow your kitchen area, or that you are experiencing a lot of accidents as too many people are crammed in to too small a space.

Having someone on hand who knows how to install all the items required means that they will know why certain items should not be placed next to each other and may even be able to advise on these issues if you had not previously thought of them.

• Support

While you will always feel the hit if your kitchen is out of action, in a professional environment this can mean huge financial losses. When you get someone in to help with your kitchen installation make sure they are on hand for any future problems so you can get a quick service.