As you know, Holly, Sue’s daughter is having her reception in the Village Hall and after much debate we have decided that we need a helping hand. Both of us are excellent cooks, but that is just it we are general cooks, we can put together some fabulous meals but catering for a hoard of people is a very different story and besides that Holly wants something a little more up market than we are capable of producing and to be quite truthful I could do without the stress.

Anyway, Sue has found a great Chef from her Wedding Organizer e-book called Simon Smith and he is fantastic!

Simon has had a varied worldwide culinary career over the past forty years . He trained in Switzerland and then Paris. From there he moved on to London and worked as Chef saucier at ‘’The Inn on The Park’’ Park Lane. In addition he has worked at the British embassies in both Paris and Vienna, catered for a wedding for 4000 in New York (so ours will be a doddle) and worked as a private chef aboard super yachts, but he is so down to earth and easy to talk to.

We had thought of a sit down meal but the ideas Simon came up with for a mix and match (some hot some cold) dishes had us sold  in a matter of seconds. He knows where to source all the tableware, how much food and drink will be required for the number of guests invited and has come up with some beautiful ideas for the table settings and of course we are going to have chair covers

We are meeting up with him for a taster session and I for one just can't wait!

Check for any seasonal variations in the menu – you may be booking the meals at a completely different time of year to that of your wedding.

When sending out information with your invitations, ask vegetarians and any with special dietary needs to inform you with their reply so that you can make appropriate arrangements.

Do you have any tips to add? Let us know in the comments to help each other out!

Self-catering the Wedding Breakfast

Well, it wouldn't strictly speaking be self-catering but family catering – I'm hopeless! If we have the reception at home this could be an option but it would take a lot of planning and borrowing freezer space from friends and neighbours. It is possible though, one of my friends from work self-catered for her wedding breakfast with great success. She recommended the following:

Another option would be to see if any of our local restaurants would consider catering for an external event

Wedding breakfast catering options at hired venues

Several places that we've looked at offer packages that cover all of the catering requirements, from welcoming canapes to evening buffet. Many have set menus, or several options for each course that we can choose from to make our own menu. It makes it much easier to budget for.

I think canapes on arrival will be a good idea so the guests don't start keeling over when we have the receiving line. If we have lots of them with the welcoming drinks we may be able to just go straight into the main course instead of having a separate starter.

Joe is keen to have a simple menu and I think he may be onto something there. We'll probably have lots of guests with different tastes so if we go for simple and popular we may not be the most exciting but at least the most people will enjoy the food. We could always have a more adventurous desert choice.

We need to be sure that we send out a note with the invites asking guests to tell us about any food allergies or vegetarian needs.

To buffet or not to buffet…

We could always go for a buffet, they aren't just sausage rolls and vol-au-vents anymore. It gives us more flexibility in offering two or three choices for the main course plus a vegetarian option. Professional caterers will know how to organise things so that the queues are kept to a minimum and for hot buffets like this they often provide staff to serve.

A finger buffet may be good in the evening as people are less likely to be very hungry if we have a big meal in the day. Mum said it's best to order meals for half the number of guests otherwise there will be loads left over. With the chocolate fountain going too I think she's right.

We could go for something a little more different by having a barbeque or even a spit roast seeing as it will be in the summer but we'd have to make sure that there's a contingency plan for bad weather.

External wedding caterers as an option

There's always the option of getting external caterers into the venue, if it's allowed. When I made enquiries some said that they would consider this if a higher charge is paid for the room hire.

Different catering companies have different ways of costing so when getting firm quotes I need to be sure to ask for a full break down because some charge more for certain menu choices if they have to use heavy pots and pans. The other thing to bear in mind is that if we use caterers for a marquee wedding, we might end up paying much more as they may need to bring fridges and ovens and generators to power them for use on the site.

Some of the caterers were familiar with the venues that we're considering and offered good advice on timing, how to lay out the tables and how many people can be comfortably seated.

Hmm, lots to think about, I can feel a list coming on!