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Dayna
Expert September 2021

When did you do your tasting?

Dayna, on July 24, 2019 at 10:35 AM Posted in Planning 0 28

We booked our venue a few weeks ago who also provides catering. We just got our contracts back from the venue and they told us that we will be invited to do our tasting 60-90 days before our wedding. Is that normal? It seems really late to me. We are most likely doing a buffet, so we don't need to include menu selections on our invitations, but if we were doing a plated meal I don't think this would be enough time to choose our meals, print and mail invites, and request RSVPs? They also have other vendors at their tasting events, like hair and makeup, so you can see samples of their work, but I plan to have all those things booked by then so that seems kind of pointless to me.

28 Comments

Latest activity by Gen, on July 26, 2019 at 4:23 PM
  • M
    Legend June 2019
    Melle ·
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    That is kind of late just because that's the time frame of when you would be sending invites out usually for responses if you were to do a plated meal, that is.
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  • Kelsey
    VIP September 2020
    Kelsey ·
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    That does seem late to me. We just did our tasting, but had to choose between 3 approved catering companies that the venue works with. We went to 2 places, the 3rd one i have had before and didn't enjoy at another wedding. We already told the venue who we wanted and the menu. We are doing a buffet as well. I would ask if there was any way to do this earlier. We did ours a lot earlier than most, but I wanted to get it done.

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  • Elizabeth
    Expert September 2019
    Elizabeth ·
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    We chose our meals about three months out. We're not assigning tables and want our guests to have the freedom to mingle and sit where they like. Chicken picatta is our dinner entrée and we didn't include an option on our invites (we would need tables numbers and assignments if we did). We have the formal dinner with a relaxed twist and it eases planning stress a bunch!
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  • Dayna
    Expert September 2021
    Dayna ·
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    I think it sounds late too! I'm a huge planner and like to do everything super early so I wasn't sure if I was just paranoid. We have to use the venue's in-house catering (fortunately they have great reviews for their food) so we at least don't have to go to multiple places, but we would still like to know what we will be serving in case people ask and budget for additional items if we want them. I think I will see about doing it earlier. Thanks Smiley smile

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  • Jessica
    VIP June 2020
    Jessica ·
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    Our Venue also came with a caterer. We are doing buffet style dinner and told them what we were looking for they put together a menu with pricing for us and we went through and added and changed what we wanted from there. We asked to do a tasting and they told me they normally don't do one until 3-6 months before hand. I harassed them about it and told them I wanted to do it sooner then later to get everything finalized and they ended up giving in and scheduled my tasting a little over a year in advance. It doesn't hurt to make up a story as to why you need to do the tasting now, that's what I did lol.

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  • Kat_
    Super October 2019
    Kat_ ·
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    Our tasting is tonight! About 73 days out. We’ve picked our preliminary menu but will possibly make adjustments after tonight. It seems similar to your setup as they will have decor, cake and their other in-house vendors there. Ours is a buffet as well so no meal info on invites so it doesn’t matter and I’m fine with the timeline. Have fun with it!
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  • Dayna
    Expert September 2021
    Dayna ·
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    Hahaha that sounds like me. They have a pretty extensive menu with prices that we already have, but there are SO many options I really want to actually see what we like. There are a lot of dietary restrictions in my family and wedding party (allergies, vegan, vegetarian, etc) so maybe I will see if that convinces them to let me do it earlier!

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  • Jazmine
    Expert September 2019
    Jazmine ·
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    You don’t need to print menus for the invitations if you are doing a buffet; only plated dinners. We are 52 days out and have our tasting this Friday. Pretty typical.
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  • Veronica
    Expert June 2021
    Veronica ·
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    Our tasting is about 5-6 months in advance our venue does it with other couples getting married the same month. I’m also a planner and love to do things way ahead of time so 60-90 days does sound a little late but it depends on how your venue is used to doing things I’d assume
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  • Jessica
    VIP June 2020
    Jessica ·
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    I would totally try! We went to a meeting to pick out linens, and dinnerware and told them we wanted BBQ foods and what we were thinking. A few days later they sent over a menu with a few different options for everything we wanted and they asked what we liked or what we wanted to change. We changed a few things and told them which options we wanted to taste and that's what we did! We are having a rustic themed wedding at a very fancy upscale barn and doing a BBQ buffet. Our menu is:

    cocktail hour: pulled pork sliders, buffalo chicken dip with tortilla chips and assorted cheeses

    Dinner: 2 types of salads (caprese and wedge), 2 types of mac & cheese ( 4 cheese and BBQ mac with chicken bacon and bbq sauce drizzle), a baked potato station with all the toppings, beef brisket and pork loin with mini corn muffins.

    I was worried about dietary restrictions too. I have one person who is gluten free, dairy free, everything free lol but I asked her about the menu and she said she can have some of it and not to worry. I have one who is GF and she said she can have a lot of the foods and not to worry and we have one who wont eat buffet style foods because of germs so we are having the caterers serve a plated meal of everything. Also my dad wanted pastas so hes getting a tray of pasta delivered to his table lmao.


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  • Courtney
    Master December 2019
    Courtney ·
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    Since it's a buffet it doesn't really matter because I assume who wouldn't be including your menu on the RSVP cards?

    We're having our tasting this weekend for our December wedding. Our venue changes their menus seasonally based on available produce and seafood.

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  • Gloria
    Super March 2019
    Gloria ·
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    We did buffet sit down style and we went on our food tasting two months prior our wedding
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  • Kim
    Super September 2019
    Kim ·
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    I think we did our tasting like 6 months before our date?

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  • Virginia
    Super June 2021
    Virginia ·
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    Our wedding is in April and our tasting is in January.

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  • Angerra
    VIP August 2019
    Angerra ·
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    That does sound late.
    We had our tasting in December for our August wedding.
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  • Heather
    Devoted February 2020
    Heather ·
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    Our venue requires us to use their catering so we don’t get much of a choice. They do their tastings up to 4 months in advance. So since it’s out of town for us we are going up at the end of September for our February 1 wedding.
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  • Katie
    VIP November 2019
    Katie ·
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    We booked our venue a year in advance and had our tasting 6 months out
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  • Renee
    Super October 2020
    Renee ·
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    Our venue is doing that too. They have catering and do the cake but we dont have a tasting scheduled until Jan or Feb and we get married April 4th. It's cutting it kind of close, especially since all our final decisions and head count need turned in 31 days before the wedding. Maybe its normal for venues that cater to do that 💁
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  • J
    Master October 2019
    Jolie ·
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    90 days is 3 months.. that's plenty of time. That's actually pretty standard. I was supposed to do mine this month as it's 3 months out but won't be able to til next month because our schedules are so busy. Ours is buffet too so we don't need them for the invites! The 3 month tasting mark would be for those who need to put menu selections on their RSVPs!

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  • ASMini914
    Super September 2019
    ASMini914 ·
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    Our venue did the tasting 90 days before, and we are doing a plated meal, so we needed to do this before invites!

    I had the invites ready ready to go, they just needed the 2 different food options. We did our tasting ASAP (the venue was actually really flexible), and we ordered them in plenty of time. Even waited a week to put them together, and another few days once they were done to send them out.
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