Caterer

You need to ask them that. Some do and some don't but probably an extra charge if they do.

It depends on the catering contract honestly. Some caterers do provide the linens and dishes, some do only linens, some do only dishes. In the case of caterers who do not provide dishes, you can order nice disposables off of amazon for a decent price!

There isn’t a standard thing here. We opted for a full service caterer who would provide everything and set up and staff the event...for a price. We also met with someone who would only cookie and provide disposable plates & silverware stacked on the buffet. Absolutely everything else was up to us. Though, they also had a connection that if we wanted, we could hire additional staff through them (this then would’ve been serving, bussing, and maybe set up...but still we would have to provide things like table cloths ourselves). There’s all sort of options out there. We essentially rented all our linens/china/etc through our caterer, but they did 100% of the legwork (coordinating delivery, calculating how much of everything we needed, and so on). Our caterer was willing to set everything up whether they brought it or not— so In addition to doing their table settings, they put out my centerpieces. Other caterers *wont* do that, and you’d need to do it yourself or bring in an outside DOC for set up. I spoke to some companies that would allow you to provide your own dishes/linens/etc (if say you had a cheaper source), but they wouldn’t touch them (Ex: if you rented china from a private rental company, it may need to be returned rinsed. Some caterers won’t do this rinsing for you, instead that would be left for you later). So, all the options out there! Our caterers brought in everything and handled everything — that was something I was willing to pay for so I didn’t have to worry about a thing. It wasn’t difficult to find someone willing to provide that level of service.

Every caterer is different. When you start looking at caterers, ask them what their services offer. Most will have different levels of service. We're doing full service for our wedding catering but our full service does not include table cloths or plates, forks, etc. We are purchasing that off of amazon. Their full service catering includes the set up and take down, as well as 3 staff members to serve the food (we're doing a buffet), and they will also assist with the cake cutting.

View Quoted Comment If you dont mind me asking how many people and what price. Ty Traci

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We were quoted for 120 people and our total is $2,092 and some change. That's with having the full service catering option. We paid our deposit and when we give her our final numbers next week, our total will probably go down a little bit. We've received RSVP's for 100 people and our RSVP date has now passed. Once we reach out to those we haven't heard from, and I get a new total from her, I'll let you know how much it's going to end up being.

View Quoted Comment Ty. The gal on utube said it was about 8- 10k so I was starting to worry. Now 2-3k is not bad for full service. That would be are biggest expense then. That makes me so much better about it now. But now since your buying the plates, linings do they put them out or do you?

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No worries! If you're looking to cut costs of catering then think about doing a buffet, it's so much cheaper than doing plated meals. We also went with a local restaurant instead of a catering company in my area (which also lowered the cost). Since we are buying the plates and such, we spoke with our caterers and we want the plates at the front of the buffet so the staff coming to serve the dinner will put those in place for us. Other than that, we are decorating the reception hall ourselves. Our venue is allowing us to set up after our rehearsal the day before the wedding.

View Quoted Comment That is cool. Iam hopping we can set up the day before to. I have to ask. Even if I pay a lil extra I dont care. I rather see it done so i can enjoy the wedding. Oh did I mention it's my daughters wedding not mine. Iam just the DIY person. I been married for 28yrs now. I feel like its mine since I took on the planning bcuz I did my own wedding way back when and I paid for it all our selves. It was hard so I figured I help my daughter and son so they both wouldnt have that on them. She's a reck then she is okay. I feel the same sometimes bcuz we have small house and running out of space. Ty Traci