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Maybe you and your fiancé spent your first date devouring
a messy deep-dish pie from your favorite Chicago pizza
joint. Or maybe he hid your engagement ring in a box of
your beloved Dunkin’ Donuts. Or perhaps your mutual love
of Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food has gotten your relationship
through both good times and bad. Now you can’t imagine
getting married without incorporating your favorite local
treat into your day of “I do’s.”
Not to worry – although the details regarding acquisition,
transportation and serving may vary, there’s a good chance
you’ll be able to have your favorite ice cream cake on your
wedding day and eat it too.
Customization of wedding menus is really popular and
very common About 50 percent of couples are choosing
personalized food/beverage/dessert, in comparison to 25
percent in 2006 and 2007.”
One couple served mini Jamba Juices in their favorite
flavors (which happened to match the wedding colors) as
a pre-ceremony treat. They worked with the individual
store closest to the wedding venue to have the smoothies
delivered one hour prior to ceremony, stored in the on-
site freezer and then served by the staff as guests arrived.
Another couple wowed their guests by serving hot burgers
and fries from their favorite local spot, an hour before the
end of the wedding. In this case, it was preplanned that the
best man would pick them up from the drive-thru.
Depending on the company, product and location, your
caterer also might be willing to directly take care of
acquiring your treasured treat. Often times they want to
customize menus with special items and try to raise the bar
of creativity.
You can serve up crowd-pleasing standards like Jimmy
John’s subs or two-packs of Krispy Kreme donuts for a late
night snack as guests are leaving. Other popular treats have
included warm chocolate chip cookies and milk shooters,
as well as “candy bars,” where favorite sweets are served in
glass cookie jars with scoops and glycine bags for the guests
to take the candy home.
Having your caterer take care of these specialty items will
help ensure seamless service, however, keep
in mind that they will likely include a service
charge for the time and additional rentals
involved. Sometimes, depending on the item,
it would be less expensive for you to handle
a personal treat yourself. But for many, the
service charge is worth not having to deal with
the details.
That said, even if you handle the ordering and
delivery yourself, particular venues, especially
fine hotels with in-house catering, may add
additional costs onto the bill if the treat is
similar to something they already provide or if
they are expected to serve it. For example, it’s
common for a hotel that makes cakes in-house
to charge a cake-cutting fee for bringing in an
outside dessert, or a corkage fee for bringing in
an outside wine. But if a venue doesn’t have a
special menu item you’re looking for and can’t easily find it
themselves, they may forgo the fees entirely, or just charge
you for the additional materials and labor.
To make things even easier on you, some outside local
haunts will handle transportation, set-up, service and even
materials as part of the package.
People are definitely trying to think outside of the box with
weddings these days. Even a small special item can make
a wedding unique, and the bride and groom get to share a
piece of their lives with their guests.
© CTW Features
YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANT?
ICE-CREAM SHOPPE?
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT BRINGING IN FARE FROM
ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE SPOTS
TO SHARE ON YOUR WEDDING DAY
By Anna Sachse
Yeah,
You Can
Cater That
B A N Q U E T S , R E C E P T I O N S , S H O W E R S & P A R T I E S