Look, I get the DIY ethos of hiring your friends or “amateur caterers” for your big day. Not only do you get to save a few bucks plus that good feeling of keeping it local. It’s a romantic idea and easy to talk yourself into.
Don’t.
Just don’t....
First, catering is really, really hard! It’s “open a new restaurant and serve a perfect meal the first day to packed house hard.” There’s no practice and no room for error. And this is your big day!
And no, it’s not the same as “cooking for that big house party” the one time. There’s venues to consider, chairs, tables, linens. There’s knowing how different kitchens operate, how to get food out in an orderly fashion, how to clear tables in an orderly and unobtrusive way. There’s silverware, condiments, serving utensils and handling special requests, allergies and about a billion other different things that never cross the mind of non-professionals. That’s all without touching upon food safety and sanitation.
Second, take a look at everything listed above. It’s a lot. Now think about all the cosmic tumblers you’re trusting to amateurs to come together to create what’s probably one of the most important meals you’ve ever planned. Yes, it’s about the couple and not about the food. But bad wedding food is just a bummer and not what you want to be serving friends and family who are going out of their way to be a part of your big day.
Third, think about what your menu says about you, your spouse, your future. You probably know some people who have their own “killer” version of some dish. But is this what you want? What about other parts of the meal? Can they handle the special requests?
Before we knew what we wanted to do for the food part of our big day, we went and interviewed a couple of places. This included Pierpont Restaurant, where we sat down with Chef Nancy Longo. During the conversation, we jokingly mentioned something about a “seafood turducken” based on us being from Baltimore (crabs) and Boston (lobster). To our endless fascination, Chef thought about for a moment and excused herself. A short while later she came out with the … well, it didn’t have a name. But it was a lobster tail, stuffed with jumbo shrimp, stuffed with crab, wrapped in bacon. It was broiled and then sliced up sushi style.
It was amazing.
So we did our due diligence and asked around, and there was nothing but good things to say. Then we hired Nancy and her staff to cater our wedding.
Not only did she know the owner of our wedding location (the Elm in Hampden, highly recommend it), but the two of them worked seamlessly together to coordinate all the little details. How many chairs, how to set up, when to deliver stuff.
In the end, the meal was perfect, We got so many compliments on the unique menu and quality. There were vegetarian and vegan options that were well done and creative. Everything ran perfectly and she even knew when to grab us to make sure we got to eat too. (hint: it’s easy to not get the chance to eat at your own wedding).
So two takeaways from this: first, go the professional route. You only get married once and the food part is an incredibly complex operation. The last thing you want to be doing is worrying about things. Second, if you’re in the Maryland area and are looking for a professional caterer, Nancy Longo and Pierpont are top notch and they will do an amazing job for you.
We still have people tell us how good "our" wedding food was!
Cheers and eat well,
Dan and Elizabeth Reed