I'm discovering the pros and cons of working for catering...

Im doing all my own decorating with the BP the day before. The coordinator at the venue is amazing and ill be hiring a DOC as well.

I don't think it's fair to compare professionals to students. I'm sure if you hire pros that been in the business for years your experience would be different.

I was an event coordinator so am in a similar boat. It kind of jaded me on the wedding professionals. I am having my reception at a restaurant.

@Wendy ditto. I worked on and off part-time for years for a catering business and we pushed our selves to provide a professional and quality service. The owner being a perfectionist and pushing us pretty hard and the fact that we were a higher end restaurant serving more affluent clients could have been factors. I have worked a number of weddings were we were the ones setting up all the rentals including full place setting set-up. Did we personally care about the bride and groom? No, we didn't know them, but we were totally on for ten hours making sure plates, dirty glasses, pits of trash etc were cleared quickly. We would often be working on people's personal estates in their kitchens so we would be making sure that everything washed up, the kitchen swept etc. It certainly depends on what company you hire of course. Just another perspective.

I owned an upscale catering company for years and my staff did weddings almost every weekend. They were very dedicated to making our parties terrific. Now, I notice everything when I go to a wedding, and I'm impressed with almost all the places I go.

This is really another case of 'you get what you pay for'. Cut rate companies will hire cut rate staff who have little pride in what they do. Cut rate companies don't particularly care about their reputation because they build their business on being cheap. But as Julia said; you can't compare good pros with students, which is why there are always warnings about hiring student musicians, photographers and in your case, catering. I've seen all of these in the wild too, and usually, it's not pretty.

You get what you pay for is all I am saying. If you are hiring students to save a buck, you get why you pay for.