An Engaging Predicament

Cruising for caterers is by far the most frustrating of all the tasks to planning a wedding. Not only does one have to sift through all the thousands of caterers offering service to your venue, but then when you choose the handful that propose, seemingly reasonable pricing, you have to filter through the bull to find out all the additional charges they toss in to up the bill in the end. This really is an industry in desperate need of an overhaul.

Many of these businesses take advantage of not telling the client of the charges that the client assumes are included. For instance, a waiting service charge in not the same as a serving service charge. The waiting service charge is included if you want a wait staff on site. The serving service charge is included if you want the wait staff to actually do something. There is a charge for opening bottles, pouring beverages, the use of the cups, an upgrade from cup to glass, the use of utensils, an upgrade from utensil to silverware, the use of linen, an upgrade from standard linen to colored linen, appetizers, drinks, main course, champagne toast, wine toast, desserts, coffee, and bar rental. So many details!

And to top it off I need to know what services and equipment the venue provides and match that with what the caterer is willing to accept as not included in their pricing. Many caterers will have a "policy" whereas they have to charge for table rentals even if the venue provides the tables free of charge.

All this is giving me a headache. I may have an aneurism before I ever even get a chance to see Missy walk down the aisle in her mystery dress. But seriously, I now understand how a bride goes bridezilla!