Catering Rant..

MeetTheLaras · September 2016

How many times do I have to admit that I was probably too tough on the caterer over the plastic plates? I was honestly not expecting an additional charge when I saw the invoice. From what's been said here (by people who do and do not work with caterers) and from family/friends, several people did not expect an additional charge. My anger from the situation came from her response to my questioning it. She immediately responded angrily when I asked why I was being charged. My exact quote in that email is somewhere in this thread. So perhaps a portion of my anger/view of her being dishonest with me, came from her reaction. It seemed so angry and unprofessional that perhaps I assumed she was trying to pull one over on me. And perhaps that assumption was incorrect. Either way, I've admitted that I probably harbored more ill feelings over this incident than necessary.

Had that been the only mess-up, fine. But it all kind of came bubbling back and upset me again after this linen debacle.

But it's over now. I've accepted that I'm going to have to pay more for something I didn't actually intend to order. And I'm just letting it go.

Lulawife · September 2016

kimmiinthemitten said:

@lulawife youre a better person than I am because I would be pissed if I showed up and had to carry everything up flights up of stairs and still be expected to have the stamina and muscle to carry trays of champagne or apps. I also think you didn't think about staff hours. If the company traditionally charges for 2 hours of set up and everything has to be hand carried to a difficult location, the client was probably charged for 3 or more hours of set up per staff to allocate for that time spent hauling the equipment. If not, that was a poorly quoted job.

I definitely agree with you that setup time would be increased and I thought I read that OP was charged almost $1K for additional travel and setup time when she changed the venue. So it seemed like a double whammy to be then charged for plastic plates to make it easier on the staff. Especially if plastic plates meant less hauling equipment/less setup time that you were being charged extra for now.

kimmiinthemitten · September 2016

Lulawife said:

kimmiinthemitten said:

@lulawife youre a better person than I am because I would be pissed if I showed up and had to carry everything up flights up of stairs and still be expected to have the stamina and muscle to carry trays of champagne or apps. I also think you didn't think about staff hours. If the company traditionally charges for 2 hours of set up and everything has to be hand carried to a difficult location, the client was probably charged for 3 or more hours of set up per staff to allocate for that time spent hauling the equipment. If not, that was a poorly quoted job.

I definitely agree with you that setup time would be increased and I thought I read that OP was charged almost $1K for additional travel and setup time when she changed the venue. So it seemed like a double whammy to be then charged for plastic plates to make it easier on the staff. Especially if plastic plates meant less hauling equipment/less setup time that you were being charged extra for now.

To me, that $1K sounds like it's only a travel charge.

If the new venue is an hour away from the old one, we can assume that's 60 miles. That's 120 miles travel time for each staff, plus the catering truck. I get $.56/mile driven or $67.20. If she has 4 servers plus kitchen staff (executive chef, sous chef and a porter minimum) that's 9 people or $604.80 plus a travel charge (and possibly a cold storage rental truck for the additional distance the food has to travel).

[Deleted User] · September 2016

@MeetTheLaras I get it. If there's changes, of course that might result in extra costs. But I would expect them to at least say "this might result in extra costs, I'll confirm later". If the change was to increase numbers or upgrade food or whatever, then yes, it's assumed it would result in more money and might not need to be stated. But if it's a change the caterer mentioned as a convinience to her, then no, it wouldn't necessarily occur to me that it would cost more. If she had simply said "we need to do this because it's easier and it might cost more because id have to buy the plates" I doubt there would have been an issue.

MeetTheLaras · September 2016

kimmiinthemitten said:

Lulawife said:

kimmiinthemitten said:

@lulawife youre a better person than I am because I would be pissed if I showed up and had to carry everything up flights up of stairs and still be expected to have the stamina and muscle to carry trays of champagne or apps. I also think you didn't think about staff hours. If the company traditionally charges for 2 hours of set up and everything has to be hand carried to a difficult location, the client was probably charged for 3 or more hours of set up per staff to allocate for that time spent hauling the equipment. If not, that was a poorly quoted job.

I definitely agree with you that setup time would be increased and I thought I read that OP was charged almost $1K for additional travel and setup time when she changed the venue. So it seemed like a double whammy to be then charged for plastic plates to make it easier on the staff. Especially if plastic plates meant less hauling equipment/less setup time that you were being charged extra for now.

To me, that $1K sounds like it's only a travel charge.

If the new venue is an hour away from the old one, we can assume that's 60 miles. That's 120 miles travel time for each staff, plus the catering truck. I get $.56/mile driven or $67.20. If she has 4 servers plus kitchen staff (executive chef, sous chef and a porter minimum) that's 9 people or $604.80 plus a travel charge (and possibly a cold storage rental truck for the additional distance the food has to travel).

It's not based on milage, it's a flat $20/staff per hour. My venue before was only 15 minutes away. I was asked to hire an extra server to help eliminate how many times each server would need to walk up and down steps. Which I agreed to. I was also asked to pay an additional 7% to gratuity due to the stairs. Which I agreed to. I was also asked to provide workers to help carry supplies up and down stairs for setup/tear down, which I agreed to do. The cost of these workers I did not include in the 1k total increase to the catering invoice. I was also asked to pay for an additional hour per server to allow them enough time to set up/tear down, which I agreed to.

I really was not trying to be unreasonable when it came to paying more for the venue change. I understand that there are differences that need to be compensated. None of my venting surrounded those things. I've continuously said that I understand those charges and have no problem with them. I feel like some PPs think I'm unreasonable and pissed off that she's charging extra for a venue change. But that is not at all what is happening.

MeetTheLaras · September 2016

scribe95 said:

I have a linen question. If you didn't need those other five linens then why did you ask about them? Are you not having those cocktail tables? I'm just saying I'm confused that you told her you didn't need them then. As in you aren't going to have the tables or were going to leave them bare?

I am very fortunate to have access to free tables. I originally thought there weren't cocktail tables available, but this past weekend I was told there were a few. We were considering having 3 cocktail tables set up for those people who wanted to stand and chat around the bar. It's not something that we have to do, but I thought it would be nice.

I was under the impression that these were included in our package (as we had discussed cocktail tables previously with the caterer). And there had not been any indication that they were not included.

As for the other two linens, I do actually need black linens for the DJ and the Bar. Again, I wasn't sure what was included, so I was inquiring into if they were included or if I needed to go elsewhere.

When I found out they were additional (at $25 per), I declined. The cocktail tables were just a "oh, if we can then great. If not, that's fine" sort of deal. And the black linens, I know I can buy to keep for $20 each at a local store. So why would I rent them for $25?

So that was the thought process behind my inquiring about the linens, and then why I declined to take them.

But again, she's absorbed the cocktail linens costs, and I've agreed to pay for the black. Because at least it's one less thing I have to go out and buy. And it puts this whole fiasco to rest. So that's worth the extra $10 right now.

kimmiinthemitten · September 2016

MeetTheLaras said:

kimmiinthemitten said:

Lulawife said:

kimmiinthemitten said:

@lulawife youre a better person than I am because I would be pissed if I showed up and had to carry everything up flights up of stairs and still be expected to have the stamina and muscle to carry trays of champagne or apps. I also think you didn't think about staff hours. If the company traditionally charges for 2 hours of set up and everything has to be hand carried to a difficult location, the client was probably charged for 3 or more hours of set up per staff to allocate for that time spent hauling the equipment. If not, that was a poorly quoted job.

I definitely agree with you that setup time would be increased and I thought I read that OP was charged almost $1K for additional travel and setup time when she changed the venue. So it seemed like a double whammy to be then charged for plastic plates to make it easier on the staff. Especially if plastic plates meant less hauling equipment/less setup time that you were being charged extra for now.

To me, that $1K sounds like it's only a travel charge.

If the new venue is an hour away from the old one, we can assume that's 60 miles. That's 120 miles travel time for each staff, plus the catering truck. I get $.56/mile driven or $67.20. If she has 4 servers plus kitchen staff (executive chef, sous chef and a porter minimum) that's 9 people or $604.80 plus a travel charge (and possibly a cold storage rental truck for the additional distance the food has to travel).

It's not based on milage, it's a flat $20/staff per hour. My venue before was only 15 minutes away. I was asked to hire an extra server to help eliminate how many times each server would need to walk up and down steps. Which I agreed to. I was also asked to pay an additional 7% to gratuity due to the stairs. Which I agreed to. I was also asked to provide workers to help carry supplies up and down stairs for setup/tear down, which I agreed to do. The cost of these workers I did not include in the 1k total increase to the catering invoice. I was also asked to pay for an additional hour per server to allow them enough time to set up/tear down, which I agreed to.

I really was not trying to be unreasonable when it came to paying more for the venue change. I understand that there are differences that need to be compensated. None of my venting surrounded those things. I've continuously said that I understand those charges and have no problem with them. I feel like some PPs think I'm unreasonable and pissed off that she's charging extra for a venue change. But that is not at all what is happening.

I understand your point. This post was just literally responding to @lulawife's response about the $1k charge and where I thought the dollar amount came from.

banana468 · September 2016

My feeling on it isn't that all the charges are unwarranted. No one ever sells anything at cost so the Costco plates would of course be up-charged.

But the email asking if you wanted the linens followed by a no followed by a too bad I did it is unprofessional. That's something that you should apologize for and eat or offer to split.

And if the China was hers then I don't think it's unreasonable that there wasn't a discount offered for the usage since they still need to process and dispose of the plastic.

julieanne912 · September 2016

@MeetTheLaras, if she hadn't been snarky about some of the items, and explained why there were charges (ie like for the plates... she owned the china ones already etc) would you have minded as much? I'm thinking no, and that's more of what you're really upset about. Sounds like Ms. Caterer needs to work on her communication skills, and she should be used to dealing with brides who are stressed out.

And, everyone needs to chill the fuck out about the plastic plates. OP already said she overreacted about them.

kimmiinthemitten · September 2016

julieanne912 said:
And, everyone needs to chill the fuck out about the plastic plates. OP already said she overreacted about them.

I think at this point we've most past the OP and are debating the merits of what should and shouldn't be charged in a catering bill and the best way to communicate that.

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