Our food sucks

Oh no! I'm so sorry Natasha! With the amount of money we all shell out for food at our weddings, you want it to be good! That being said, as a guest I never hold mediocre food against anyone. I totally get how hard it is to serve food for that many people at the same time. I'm more likely surprised when the food is amazing

I think you have a great plan with scheduling another tasting, see what specific feedback your mom and aunt can give the caterer so that they can implement some of it!

Personally when I go to a wedding I never go with high expectation on food. It's catered and prepared a head of time. If the food is good it's a nice surprise and if not I'm not disappointed because I didn't come with high expectations. Also remember everyone has different taste/opinions of what they considered to be good. You also mentioned this is traditional Mexican food which is going to be different then what you are use to.

The world WILL NOT END if your food is less-than, I promise! Like Lydia, I always expect mediocre food at weddings, and if it's better, great! But the party will go on!

Well I'm the greedy fatty that planned my whole wedding around having a certain caterer. So food was pretty important to me. I probably would do a tasting myself to be sure. Even if the food taste good the 2nd time. I would be scared about the inconsistently.

Natasha - Sorry the tasting didn't work out. Is there another chef or caterer that you can work with?

ETA - I had typed out a full post with recommendations and just realized that you are from Mexico. Whoops! My FH's grandparents immigrated from Mexico and he still has family in Monterrey.

Our food was actually really good, and every one commented how great the food was. Food was high on our list, we wanted to do a really good "southern meal" since everyone was mostly from up north, and it went off great!

Just make sure that, good or bad, the food is a good value. Are they charging you 'mmmm delicious' prices for 'eh?' food? Maybe start looking elsewhere, if that's the case. That said, if food isn't high on your priority list paying 'eh' prices for 'eh' food is at least good value. But make sure it's decent enough -- you're serving it to your closest friends and loved ones.

The worst thing about weddings is that the food is typically mediocre. Pretty sure I'm not alone in that opinion. Like Julia, food was our #1 priority! We knew which caterer we'd hire years before we got engaged -- so much so that I got a discount for all my referrals! For me, there's no way I'd serve a meal I couldn't be proud of.

I think I would want to know why it was lackluster. Some things can be tweaked pretty easily. I will say that food is usually better in tastings for a small group than when it is cooked en masse for a larger group. So if it's not good at the tasting, it will be even less tasty or more poorly cooked at the wedding.

If food isn't that high on your priority list, I wouldn't worry too much about it! And if it's cuisine from another culture, and is authentic, a lot of times it tastes a lot different than what you expect (I've had two Hispanic roommates who have cooked me some of their traditional dishes that were wonderful but definitely not the tastes that I was expecting!). And like some others have said, food is not always amazing at weddings, and that's totally fine!!

Thank you for all the replies! II consider myself a fatty too haha but more so for cake versus real meals so I'm being very particular about the cake. I made my mom describe the cake in so much detail (describe the moistness. what % of chocolate do you think it is? does the frosting taste more like butter or more like sugar? etc.)

Anyways, I'm actually from the US but my mom's family is Mexican. They did the tasting and do have high expectations. They told me what parts were bad, good, and great. The bad were the main meat dishes (shredded chicken in a spicy Mole sauce, some spiced pork- all for making tacos). They said the meat was either too dry or had little seasoning. The seasoning I think is an easy remedy, but the dryness is concerning. Considering all the guests will be American... they won't have the same high standards my Mexican family will since they don't know what to compare it to so the seasoning isn't a huge deal but everyone knows when meat is dried out. They also said some of the dishes were lukewarm, like the rice. It's pretty concerning that if they couldn't keep it hot for 2 people, how can I expect them to keep it hot for 70 people? The price is super cheap to me since I'm used to American prices; it's about $3k for the food and staff for 70 people. I'm willing to pay more but the better caterers just do that, catering. The benefit of her is she is also a wedding planner and will do all the decor as well.

I'm in the same boat as most of you, I never expect good food at a wedding and when it is great I'm pleasantly surprised. To be honest, I don't think I've ever remembered any wedding food except for a cousin's wedding where everything was so skimpy. The soup was literally one tiny ladle full. I wish I could have the same experience as many of you with the great food!

My mom wrote the caterer a very nice, but firm, email about her disappointment in detail and requested a second tasting. Fingers crossed.