Tasting before signing the contracts

Most of the venues I talked to said you could but, you had to pay for it and then they could use that towards your deposit if you went with them. This was definitely venue specific though so I'd just ask your contact.

I've heard if you want a tasting before booking it will cost you. That was my experience.

Ok good to know. It looks like this venue is either "LOVE IT" or "HATE IT" and I just want to make sure I know for myself that I like the food before signing anything that is non-refundable.

Our venue didn't offer it beforehand unless you paid. Luckily there was tons of reviews of previous weddings and we were so in love we booked immediately.

I would never ever ever book a caterer without tasting their food.

We had to pay for one - and it would have been credited if we booked. They get rave reviews their food was fucking awful. Best 80 bucks I ever spent to not have them.

So my suggestion. - pay for it if you have to.

Personally, I wouldn't have booked any caterer without tasting first. It varies based on location and even from company to company but if someone had told me I had to book them before tasting I would have just moved on. Our caterer that we went with did a small tasting initially where we just got to try a few of their items and get an idea for their style and quality and then after booking and picking our menu we had a second tasting where we got to try our full menu so we could change anything we didn't like.

Ok good to know. I read reviews online and it's either love it or hate it. I'll call them tomorrow and make an appointment. thank you!

Our tasting is included post signing of the contract. Our venue, separately, held a group tasting event targeted towards prospective clients. My parents attended it and got to sample some of the menu items, desserts by local bakeries that are preferred vendors, saw some linen samples, and saw various demonstrations. Technically, they attended this after we signed the contract and put down the deposit, but my parents gave me the impression that the venue had invited people that had recently shown interest in holding an event there, not necessarily signed a contract.

I have no idea if that's a common thing for venues to do, but it was free and did not take the place of the free tasting my fiance and I will do later this summer to determine our menu items.

Thank you all for our input it definitely helped me out a lot. I called the venue today and said in not so many words that I'm not comfortable signing a contract without tasting the food and they put it in our contract that our deposit is refundable pending approval of a tasting that will take place with our parents at the end of June (which gives us plenty of time to make a final decision).

I appreciate each and every ones help!!!

Awesome!

We booked our caterer independently. When we arranged a tasting prior to booking we were surprised to find that we each got full meals at no cost! I expected to pay for the tasting.

We booked our venue without a tasting (they do in-house catering) but the reviews everywhere were excellent. If the reviews are mixed, I think it's a good idea to pay for a tasting first.

View Quoted Comment They wouldn’t even let me pay. I can’t stand inflexibility especially when it’s a logical request. It only makes sense.