Catering clean up?

Our catering is through our venue so they take care of all the setup, clean up, etc. My vote would be the caterer that does this for you, honestly. I'm presuming it's in your budget since you're considering it and not having to worry about this is money well spent so you're not spending your wedding night cleaning up.

Our caterer is also through the venue and will handle set up and clean up. I agree with Lacy, you do not want to worry about anything at the end of the night so it might be worth it to seriously consider the venue that will handle clean up. If you are worried about the food at the venue, maybe explore a few more with one of your must haves being that they need to handle clean up. Best of luck to you!

Our venue was all inclusive so I never even thought about this kind of stuff. Does your venue have recommendations on what to do if the caterer does not clean up?

My caterer cleans up, this was something important to me.
I would only go with one of the other 2 if you have someone who will do this for you. You aren’t going to want a bunch of trash round all night

We went full service, and it was worth every penny. At the end of the night, all we had to do was leave!

if I were to go with the cheaper caterer (*because* it was tastier) I’d still hire some staff for clean up!

You mentioned the cheaper ones were tastier. How is the food with the full service? Because if the food is good I would spend a bit extra money to get full service. You don't want to have to be cleaning up your venue on your wedding night. Sometimes it is worth it to spend more money for convenience and IMO not cleaning up on your wedding night yourself is a huge convenience.

My venue is all inclusive. I wouldn’t want to be cleaning up at the end of the night.

We’re going with full service. They provide water goblets, wine glasses, champagne flutes, silverware and plates and will come around to our tables to fill water glasses and take care of all set up and clean up. It was such a sigh of relief to book them for all those reasons, the food is great too luckily.

I would definitely recommend going with the caterer that does cleanup. I went to a wedding where the bride and groom didn’t realize cleanup wasn’t included, the bridesmaids went out with bus tubs cleaning the tables, it didn’t seem right and we felt bad for them. It also upset the bride, definitely put a damper on the day for her.

View Quoted Comment This is what I was thinking as well.

It's not just the end of night cleanup to worry about. It's cleaning up the dirty plates after dinner and empty glasdes as the night goes along.

View Quoted Comment Our caterer is only doing food. Our venue is a winery so they are the only ones who provide alcohol and clean up the glasses.

Our caterers are full service. They set up the ceremony chairs, move the ceremony chairs into the reception during cocktail hour, provide china & linens & servers, and clean up at the end.

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That sounds awesome. Our caterers only take care of their things - cleanup of their buffet servers & utensils, & their table linens. But that's okay because our venue sets up ceremony chairs and the reception tables/chairs and my family has already volunteered to help pick up any plates/trash that didn't get thrown out and to take the garbage out.

Can you hire extra servers through the caterer or your venue? I would only go with the non-full service if you can hire someone to clean up because you and your guests definitely won’t want to clean up and take trash out after the party.

I don't think I would hire a company that was not going to handle everything all night. I just wouldn't want to have to worry about it. Our catering company took care of everything. They were amazing. The kitchen (which was brand new) looked like they were never even there after they left. They rinsed all the dishes and even put them away. I would not want to worry about any of that. And I certainly would not want dirty dishes sitting around all night long.

I would ask the other caterers if they could provide that service for an extra fee.

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We won't have any dishes with the caterer we chose. They provide paper plates, plastic utensils, etc. that get tossed in the trash. They only clean up what THEY bring to serve food with. Buffet table linens, and all the serving dishes on the buffet line.

Our venue did our bar/catering (it was a golf club so we had to use their services) we we didn't have to worry about this, and I did that on purpose. I wasn't as few moving pieces as possible! As long as I liked the full-service vendor and felt it was good food, I would do that. That isn't something you want to be worrying about on your wedding day.

Do you have a day-of-coordinator? I wonder if cleaning up is something you could work into their package.

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Right. But someone still needs to go around to each table to throw away the trash, correct? Who will do that? I wouldn't want it sitting in front of my guests all night. And I wouldn't want them to feel obligated to clear their own plates either. Maybe you can hire a couple high school/college age kids to help do that?

If they don't pick up, who will? You, in your nice wedding dress? Please don't say your BP will be doing it. 10/10 would go with the one that takes care of this for you. It's worth a few extra bucks.

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My aunts already volunteered. I didn't even ask them.