Chain Restaurant Catering?

We didn’t use a chain restaurant for catering, but some pros and cons that I can think of...

Pros: inexpensive, most people are familiar with the menu and will have something that they like
Cons: very casual, no professional caterer to keep an eye on food temps = potential safety hazard, self serve, guests will serve themselves more than one serving so you will need extra food, your FH doesn’t want it and it’s his wedding just as much as it is yours

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My fiance would prefer us to pay his friend (who has yet to respond to his original inquiry a week and a half ago) to cater, so we have to start exploring other options. And it's 100% not in the cards to pay the prevailing rate of $20 x plate, which he knows.

My fiance and I are going to do Olive Garden for catering. We are supet excited about it!

I used to work at Olive Garden as a waitress and in the catering/to-go area and my biggest thing about if you choose Olive Garden to cater is to avoid any meals with alfredo. It congeals after sitting or will turn brown sometimes. I have an older coworker who went to a wedding that had Chipotle and everyone at the wedding couldn't stop talking about how spicy the food was. The older generations seem to be a little particular when a chain caters, I've also noticed.

A day of coordinator can locate serving staff (or hire your own) to oversee the food tables and make sure everything is how it should be.