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The benefits of in-house catering
Your wedding meal is one of the most fun aspects to plan but also one that has a significant impact on your guest experience. That’s why the venue you choose – and whether they offer in-house catering or not – is an important consideration as you start wedding planning if you want food and beverage to shine!
In case you’re not familiar with the term, in-house catering refers to a catering service, chef, or staff that’s provided by a venue to make and serve your wedding meal. BYO (bring your own) catering, on the other hand, requires you to find, hire, and schedule your own caterer to feed your guests on your wedding day.
Photo by Jasmin Guest
Now, if you’re already familiar with The Stella Collective you’ll know that both of our venues offer in-house catering from Gilt – our beloved catering personality. As a result, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that at the end of the day we recommend choosing a venue that offers catering on-site (and preferably the venue you choose would be one of ours!). However, even if you don’t choose to get married at Cellar52 or The Timber Barn, we still think that the benefits of in-house catering far outweigh the disadvantages.
Let us tell you why!
In-house catering minimizes costs
We’re not going to beat around the bush – weddings are expensive, and we know it’s important to save money where you can. That’s why in-house catering is a fantastic option!
By already having everything your caterer needs on site, you eliminate additional fees for rentals, staff, and deliveries. In-house catering also eliminates additional costs such as corkage fees or landmark fees.
With in-house catering, you’re able to take care of one of your biggest expenses early, giving you one less thing to decide as your planning continues. Weddings already require so many difficult decisions, so make it one less with an incredible in-house option!
In-house catering requires less coordination
Just as weddings have many costs associated with them, they also have a lot of moving pieces. Between your decorator, florist, wedding party, and venue (with many more in between), you already have a lot of schedules and people to keep track of. Working with a wedding planner or wedding coordinator can help keep everything organized, but why add one more piece to the puzzle?
Working with in-house catering services eliminates the need to talk to multiple people about your wedding meal. Instead, you only need to speak with your venue coordinator who is then responsible for communicating with the back of house catering team.
Having your caterer onsite already also guarantees higher communication between you, your venue coordinator, and your chef. Since they understand the intimate workings of both the venue and dinner service, the flow of service is much better and there’s less room for error. This all creates less stress for you and eliminates the need to answer questions about what equipment is available, how staffing works, and what dinner service looks like. By cutting out the middleman, everything goes much smoother, giving you and your partner the space to simply enjoy your wedding dinner instead of worrying about it.
In-house catering gives you the freedom to customize your wedding meal
Money and coordination aside, one of the biggest benefits of in-house catering is the freedom it gives you to design the wedding meal of your dreams. Whether you’re looking for a more traditional three-course dinner, a relaxed brunch reception, or cocktail style stations, working with an in-house catering team allows you to design the wedding meal you’ve been dreaming about without a million concessions.
In addition, in-house catering makes it easier to accommodate dietary restrictions and preferences. As long as your venue coordinator has an accurate floor plan, they can work with the chef to ensure that everyone is being served a meal that they can safely enjoy without having to ask you and your partner for clarification.
No in-house catering? Hire a catering coordinator!
If you’ve chosen a venue without in-house catering and are now starting to panic, don’t! There are still ways that you can guarantee that your wedding meal isn’t an afterthought.
As we already mentioned, Stella Co is known for both our beautiful venues and our incredible catering. That means that whether you’re getting married onsite or offsite, we will take good care of you! Our event expertise allows us to be the best of the best whether you’re at our venue or we’re coming to you.
When you choose Gilt as your food and beverage team, you also get a catering coordinator – someone who works on your behalf to handle all of the catering logistics as they pertain to your venue and your wedding day timeline. Working on your behalf, we make sure that you don’t need to take any extra steps and that all of the cons we just outlined never happen!
(LEFT) Photo by Kendra Ruth Photography (RIGHT) Photo by Pure and Lovely Photography
Just ask any of our couples who got married at La Petite Chappelle or Storehouse 408. As their preferred caterer, our Gilt team has essentially equipped these two incredible venues with an in-house catering team because we eliminate the need for their couples to coordinate anything themselves. Over the years we’ve developed great relationships with both venues, and know how to operate in their space once we arrive. By understanding the ins and outs of our couples’ needs and the venus they’ve chosen, we work seamlessly so that no one will know the difference between our in-house and offsite catering offerings.
With Gilt Catering, there’s no “who’s job is who’s?” Instead, it’s nothing but great food and good times that will leave you and your guests feeling full and completely satisfied.
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