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I am being unreasonable?

misslizlovesmisslizloves member
10 Comments
in Arizona-Phoenix

My fiancé and I are getting married this April.  We booked our venue and signed our contract with them in June.  We chose a full service package for our morning wedding.  After attending the open house last week and chatting with the caterer, we were informed that there will be no tasting!  I was a little confused, so I e-mailed the staff and asked… they came back and said a tasting is only included in the full service option (which I am paying for).  She said that we can pay $25.00 per person for a tasting if we would like to have one, but the tasting we are going to be paying for is a quality type tasting not necessarily the food that will be served at our wedding.

 I am having such a hard time with this.  Who has a wedding and does not taste the food that they are serving to their guests first?  We have 3 options to choose from breakfast, brunch or lunch.  I have never been married before so this is new to me and I am so upset and confused.  My fiancé says that if this is their policy then we just have to suck it up and pay for a tasting but I am having such a hard time accepting this.  Is this normal??? 

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Re: I am being unreasonable?

  • aacobsaacobs
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I have no idea what is normal. I'll just tell you what I'm doing. My venue is not full service. The caterer that I think I want is doing a tasting for us - at no charge to bride and groom. If we want to bring others, it is $25/per person. The food is NOT what will be served at our wedding. It's a very standard menu.. salad, some sides, meats, etc. (like you said - tasting quality, not our actual choices).

    If we decide that's the caterer we will go with, we can set up another tasting where we can sample the actual food we will be serving at our wedding.

    I can't remember for sure, but I feel like I was told there will be no charge for that - IF we sign with them for sure. If we want to taste specific dishes before we commit, then we will have to pay for the additional tasting.

    Like I said, I don't know what's normal and what's not. My guess is that it's up to the specific caterer and the way they run their businesses? Ask with some different people at the actual company. Maybe you spoke with someone who doesn't know for sure???? But.. you also might have to 'suck it up'!

    Either way, try to enjoy. It might sound like an annoying thing to spend money on, but call it a date night and move on to the next headache of wedding planning!!
    Good luck!!!
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  • alschmidalschmid member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011

    We are booked somewhere where you get to bring in your own caterer and several of the caterers we talked with did the same thing.  I was really kind of amazed that they wouldn't give you a tasting for free before signing with them.  The company we did go with, did offer a free tasting.  Although it was just things that they selected for you to taste and we'll be picking from a full menu. 

    I think its totally reasonable to want to taste the food beforehand, but seemed like the caterers disagreed.
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  • misslizlovesmisslizloves member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Thank you so much for your opinions! I am happy to know it is not just this venue and caterer! 
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  • chiwawachiwawa
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Don't pay for a tasting.  Ever.  Vendors should be perfectly willing to offer you a tasting for free because OF COURSE you're going to want to taste their food before committing to book them.  (If they want to charge you for additional people other than you and your fiancé, that's alright.)  How much do you love this venue?  There are still openings at some lovely places in April.  Maybe you should look into having your wedding somewhere they'll take better care of you, and not just take your money with no customer service. 
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  • janjan550janjan550
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    We are getting married at a resort, so the food is through them.  We had a free tasting of the actual menu we wanted for our wedding.  Not sure what's normal, I haven't worked with caterers much, but a free tasting seems reasonable to me.
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  • 731brnigirl731brnigirl
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Not at all! You have every right to sample what you are going to have at your wedding.  I have been married before and had a tasting before so we could decide what we wanted. I have always believed it is standard to receive a free tasting. We are getting married in April too and the resort we are at offers a tasting.  Hold your ground and let them know you are active on the knot.  All the vendors I have spoke to knew of the knot and the power of good reviews vs bad one.   Good luck!
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  • BeckityBeckity
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    My venue does not provide catering, so I went out in search of our own caterer.

    One of them did a free tasting of one item of our choosing- very limited.

    The caterer we ended up booking with held a tasting event for prospective clients, and charged $15 a head.  They served 2 salads, about 6 side dishes, and 6 main dishes.  They also offered for us to take home as many leftovers as we wanted.  We decided to book with them, and the $15 that we each paid went toward our total cost- so we didn't actually end up paying any extra.

    I believe that the $25 charge they are wanting from you should be applied toward your balance with them.  That's my opinion.
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  • misslizlovesmisslizloves member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Thanks for all the advice... We have already signed the contract with our venue and this is their caterer, so I do not think I can back out at this point... especially because I chose the full service option. I was going to ask them what my credit would be if I decided to use a different caterer. I have already paid $3,000 to the venue and if I cancel and even move my date I will not get my money back unless they fill my date and time with another wedding.
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