I got married almost three years ago. Our wedding had about 200 people and the size played a large role in our planning process. Many boutique caterers can't handle 100, 150, 200, etc. people. (In particular, I talked to FIG before our wedding and they weren't able to accommodate our size.) So your size might also rule out having your favorite restaurant do the catering. Many venues can only handle that size if you make other compromises (i.e. no dance floor). We came to the conclusion that for 200 people, it was best to stick with one of the established, larger companies.
We got married at the Chicago Cultural Center. They pretty much allow any licensed caterer. They also allow you to bring in your own alcohol. This is a big deal because you save a lot of money by not having to buy alcohol from your caterer. It also meant that we could buy whatever we wanted. The caterer charged us a very small fee to run the bar, provide glassware, etc. Greg Christian was our caterer, but he is unfortunately not in business any more.
Naturally, cost is a major factor in deciding on a venue and caterer. For example, do you want a traditional wedding with a formal dinner, dance floor, etc? Or would buying out a large (for example) Chinese restaurant be more your style? Ours was the former and so my notes below reflect this. In any case, be clear about your price range to venues and caterers. Most of the companies that we dealt with were quite flexible on working with our price range.
There are tons of venues around town. Some have a short list of allowable caterers, some have a very long list, some have a list but allow new companies to get on the list, some don't have any restrictions. The variation in the look and feel of venues is huge. Many places host weddings that you would never expect. We ruled out some places that we liked because of the catering issue, but ultimately were just lucky that the CCC was the right venue for us and happened to have the best food/alcohol policies. It is worth I think it is worth putting together a short list of venues to help guide your search. Plus, a lot of venues gave us names of caterers that work their frequently. Certainly these weren't necessarily unbiased reviews, but we found some value in knowing who worked well with whom.
A key thing with caterers is how flexible they can be while working with you. My wife and I had a fairly specific vision for what we wanted. We also wanted to serve some things that we bought on our own. Most caterers will tell you that they can do anything you want, but the more you talk to them about how they will do it, the better sense you will get about whether they really are flexible. For example, they all have menus of dishes that they make. Some caterers will try to keep you on their list of dishes (this is understandable since they know how to make these dishes well). Others were more willing to adapt. For example, we tasted a particular appetizer of something on a little piece of toasted bread. We told the coordinator that we thought there was too much bread. She made a note of this and the next time we tasted it (months later), they had tweaked it. Another example is that our caterer liked to use ingredients from the Green City Market. We shop there almost every week during the summer. Greg Christian invited us to go around the market with him and his assistant the week before our wedding to pick out products and we even ended up spit-balling a few new ideas to serve based on things we saw at the market.
Plan to do a few tastings. We got prices and had conversations with many caterers. We then narrowed it down to about 4 companies. We set up tastings at these companies. We discussed the concept we were after, dishes we had in mind, etc. At the tasting, you sit at a table that is all decked out and they bring you enough food for four weddings. You taste tons of options, say what you like, what you don't like, what dishes need to be tweaked, etc. It is a lot of fun. Once we picked a caterer, we do another "final" tasting with them closer to the wedding date to make final decisions. You learn a lot from these tastings. I wouldn't have felt confident picking a company without going through this process.
One thing that differentiated catering companies was the experience and, frankly, taste level of the people who worked with us. At some companies, we felt like we were assigned a 22 year old newby who didn't know much about food. When we first talked to companies about the concept we were going for, we'd mention the restaurant Avec. It was surprising to us that someone in the food industry in Chicago would be unfamiliar with this restaurant. At the three companies that we narrowed our choice down to, worked with very experienced people who were familiar with the Chicago food scene. Another thing that differentiates companies is the scale of the operation. We preferred to work with a smaller company where we would have more personalized service.
Finally, we put a premium on being sure that the company could handle the job and deliver. Catering a 200 person wedding is very different from catering for 50 people or from running a restaurant. There are no guarantees, but do ask yourself whether you trust the company to get this right.
Two companies that we really liked that definitely handle larger weddings are Entertaining Company and Calihan. Two companies that didn't impress us were Blue Plate and Food for Thought. I'm sure there are others that used these companies and had a very good experience, though.
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