Separate drop-off catering and serving?

I would prefer to hire one company, especially for logistics. You'd probably end up paying fees twice too like travel fees, rather than just paying it once when you use one vendor. Then the catering company knows their food and can fix stuff if needed because they are familiar with it. Our catering staff cooks some on site too so they need to serve it.

Hi Sara! Is there a specific reason why you would want to hire a separate waitstaff? For example, does your caterer not supply waitstaff or your venue already includes waitstaff? I think it may be in your best interest to have the catering company's wait staff serve the food, considering they would know how to plate it and would be responsible for clearing plates as well! I think it would just overall be simpler to use one company, rather than multiple! Does your catering company offer waitstaff?

Hi Sam! We're really on a budget, and we found a catering company with a great price per head for just food, but the other prices added up to way more than the food portion. The cost for the wait staff and bar staff (event and their travel time), clean-up and set-up, and staffing fees were way more than we thought they'd be. The figure is already $1,500 more than our total expected amount, and that figure didnt even include other things like rentals, alcohol, liquor license, or gratuity, like we had added into our expected total catering price. We wanted to explore using the same caterer for food, but another more budget-friendly option for the staffing.

If you can find a reliable serving company then I think it would be okay. I agree with PPs that it's always better to have one, but if it'll save you a significant amount of money than go for it. We were looking into something similar before we found a better caterer, so I would make sure that there isn't anyone else at your price point that could do everything that you need