Food Tasting & Planning Meeting Tomorrow... Help requested!

AprilH81

I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon with our vendor and we are going to start hashing out some of the details of the day (woohoo!!) and then we will do our tasting to finalize our menu.

Here is a list of the items I want to discuss and questions I have.  We have just under 3 months to go and I'm sure I can meeting with our coordinator again but I would like to maximize my time tomorrow afternoon.  Please help me think of anything I'm missing.  Thanks!

Getting Ready, Ceremony, Cocktail hour and Reception will all take place in the same venue.  Tables, chairs and white linens are included.

 

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Rehearsal time/space

Location of ceremony & cocktail hour

Look at rental items available

Delivery of our decor

DOC-Decorating, Tear Down, vendor deliveries

Coat Check/Closet?

Bride & Groom Getting Ready Areas

Ceremony Set-Up

·         Chairs

·         Aisle Width

·         Side Aisle

·         Altar Area

·         High Table for Unity Cross

·         Keyboard (outlet needed)

·         DJ (outlet needed)

·         Measure wall indentions

Cocktail Hour

·         Ballroom vs Bar vs Lounge

·         Displays refreshed?

·         What is a serving size?

·         Salads presets

 Ballroom Set-Up

·         Gift table

·         Escort cards

·         Guest book (start out at main entrance, move to ballroom after cocktail hour)

·         S’mores Bar

·         DJ

·         Table size (6 vs 8 vs 10)

·         Bar/Coffee Service

·         Cake

·         Dance Floor

Recommended Timing of Reception

·         Bridal Party Entrance

·         First Dance

·         Parent Dances (joint)

·         Cake Cutting (table service?)

·         Toasts

·         Prayer

·         Lunch Service

Lunch/Reception

·         Last call?

·         Separate bar set-up from cocktail hour?

·        Can we limit the bar options?

·         Keep top layer of cake

·         How will you serve cake, table or display?

·         Knife/Server available to use?

·         Do you make extras of meals?

·         Do we get to take home extras from no shows?

·         Allergies/Food sensitivities okay to do special plates?

·         Can we do three entrée choices?

·         Preservative free lettuce/spinach

HisGirlFriday13

Looks good to me!

offthemarket915

I would suggest adding the creation of a timeline of the day, after you sort everything else.  This way you'll see if there's enough time allocated for photos or whatever you have planned, and it can be used a guide for everyone on the day of.  My vendors seemed very relieved when I said I'd have this-

AprilH81

offthemarket915 said:

I would suggest adding the creation of a timeline of the day, after you sort everything else.  This way you'll see if there's enough time allocated for photos or whatever you have planned, and it can be used a guide for everyone on the day of.  My vendors seemed very relieved when I said I'd have this-

Thanks.  I have that ironed out for the most part already with the exception of the reception events.  My thought is to do the introductions, first dance, joint parent dance, cake cutting and then do lunch.  As I think about that more I think that it maybe too much in one block and I may move the cake cutting to after the entrees are served so it can be cut and served as dessert.  I'm going to see what the venue recommends.

lc07

I would ask what time you can arrive and begin using the space (getting ready) and what time your vendors can arrive for set up.

ktjanesmom

Who cleans up?  Takes care of left over cake.  I swear the kitchen help ate my daughters wedding cake that was left.

southernbelle0915

Make sure your coordinator has a list of people who can request things (e.g. only your mom can request that the lights get dimmed or heat gets turned down, etc.). Depending on how detail oriented you are, you might want to draw a map of the venue show the person how you want it set up, where floral arrangements are going to go, and ask them if it works for their staff. 

You don't need to discuss this with your venue, but you'll want to figure out who's responsible for taking your gifts home. Depending on your crowd, it may need to be someone with a big car.

CLI242009

offthemarket915 said:

I would suggest adding the creation of a timeline of the day, after you sort everything else.  This way you'll see if there's enough time allocated for photos or whatever you have planned, and it can be used a guide for everyone on the day of.  My vendors seemed very relieved when I said I'd have this-

Yeah I would recommend tha toot. Our FI and I didn't think to do that and now we have run into some problems because the venue DOES NOT start any events before a certain time, so we are trying to fix some things. Because of that we can't send our invites out till we know these things. So definitely do a rough draft of that! 

AprilH81

lc07 said:

I would ask what time you can arrive and begin using the space (getting ready) and what time your vendors can arrive for set up.

We can drop off our stuff at the rehearsal the day before.  They will do all the set up and tear down of our stuff.  The venue will be staffed starting at 8:00 (11:00 wedding) and the vendors can start delivering then.

AprilH81

ktjanesmom said:

Who cleans up?  Takes care of left over cake.  I swear the kitchen help ate my daughters wedding cake that was left.

Venue does the clean up...  I didn't ask about the cake.  We can't take any extra food home (food safety concerns) but we should be able to take the cake since it is a different vendor.  I will have to make sure they don't eat it.

AprilH81

southernbelle0915 said:

Make sure your coordinator has a list of people who can request things (e.g. only your mom can request that the lights get dimmed or heat gets turned down, etc.). Depending on how detail oriented you are, you might want to draw a map of the venue show the person how you want it set up, where floral arrangements are going to go, and ask them if it works for their staff. 

You don't need to discuss this with your venue, but you'll want to figure out who's responsible for taking your gifts home. Depending on your crowd, it may need to be someone with a big car.

The venue was great about showing me where they normally put things (dance floor, bar, etc.) and I can move it if I want to (I don't).  We are still working on the ceremony set up but I'm not concerned.

I didn't think about designating one other person being allowed to authorize stuff.  Good idea!