Photo on thumbnail courtesy of Rowan Noelle Photography. Catering for this wedding was from Churrascos Woodlands.

Given that wedding vendors are so involved throughout many facets of a wedding day, it should come as no surprise that they are also a popular topic of discussion here on our wedding blog! Whether that be tips on building a talented team of vendors for your big day, highlighting the marvelous work of vendors from past weddings held at our venue, or anything else, wedding vendors undoubtedly serve an important role in the wedding planning process!

Having said all of that, you can also safely note that there are quite a few different vendors that you’ll have to book for your wedding. Photographer, florist, cake baker, videographer, DJ and/or live band, the list goes on! If you browse through our past blog posts HERE, you’ll likely find some posts talking about several of these various vendors. In this week’s blog post though, we’re going to be talking about a vendor that I didn’t mention above, but is certainly one that has an important job on the wedding reception side of things. That vendor happens to be the caterer. Everyone loves enjoying delicious food at wedding receptions and throughout this blog post, we’ll provide a few tips for finalizing your Houston wedding caterer selection. 

Before we dive into that though, we would first like to say hello to anyone that may be visiting our blog for the first time. Welcome to Madera Estates! Madera Estates is a luxury wedding venue in Conroe, TX. As briefly mentioned above, we like to utilize our blog as a resource covering a wide range of wedding-related topics. Some of the time, as will be the case this week, we will break down tips for selecting the perfect vendors for your big day. Other times, however, we may be taking inside looks at past weddings held at Madera Estates to provide couples with ideas and inspiration for their own wedding.

Thank you for stopping by and we hope you enjoy these tips on finding the perfect Houston wedding caterer!

Utilize Recommendations

This might sound like a no brainer, but one of the best resources you can utilize when it comes to finding reliable vendors is referrals and recommendations. Particularly if you’ll be tying the knot in a bigger city (such as Houston), it can seem a little overwhelming going through the pages upon pages of search results of potential vendors. Anything you can do to narrow down this list will be well worth it! So…where should you go for these recommendations?

Wedding Venue – When it comes to finding a Houston wedding caterer that you can count on, your wedding venue (assuming you’ve already booked it) can be a great starting point. They’ll likely have experience with various local caterers and can help steer you in the right direction of reliable companies. Not to mention, if you’re still in the process of evaluating different venues, you may even want to inquire about including catering with a customizable all-inclusive package!

Friends & Family – Another route you can take is to reach out to friends or family members that have recently tied the knot. Especially if you attended their wedding, you may even recall what the food was like too. Nonetheless, getting their feedback about working with a particular caterer can be very useful!

To sum it up, recommendations and referrals are a great way to provide you with the peace of mind that everything will be exactly what you’ve envisioned for your wedding day!

Schedule Tastings

Setting up meetings with vendors is going to be an important part of the planning process. Particularly for the vendors that will be more heavily involved (like a photographer), you’ll want to make sure you find the right one! In regards to a wedding caterer though, I’m going to guess you have an idea of why a meeting is necessary and that is to taste the food, of course! After all, how else can you determine whether or not a caterer is right for your wedding reception?

In addition to testing out the different types of food, this can also be the perfect time to ask any questions you or your partner may have. That could be in relation to the packages and pricing, when you need to confirm your guest count by, or anything else that you can think of! All in all, tastings are a key step in booking an ideal wedding caterer. Likewise, before we continue on, I would also like to mention that it would be worth getting started on this step sooner rather than later. As can be said about several other vendors, including venues and photographers, you’ll notice that caterers can get booked up months in-advance, especially for popular dates. With that in mind, try to avoid procrastinating on getting the tastings scheduled!

All of the Details

In the section above, we discussed why it’s important to utilize your tastings as a time to ask any questions you may have. However, as we wrap up this week’s blog post, I also wanted to highlight what these specific details are that you’ll want to clarify.

Type of Catering – With wedding catering, you’re going to be deciding between buffet style or plated meals. If you have a preference to one or the other, you’ll want to make sure your preferred style is possible and how that may affect the pricing.

Availability – This will likely be one of the first things you ask when originally inquiring, but be sure to confirm that your date is available before setting up a tasting (if possible).

Experience at Venue – In the “Recommendations” section, we discussed how all-inclusive packages can help streamline the vendor selection process. Well…regardless of if you choose an all-inclusive package, it wouldn’t hurt to ask the wedding caterer if they have prior experience working weddings and/or other events at that particular venue. While this isn’t necessarily a deal breaker if they don’t have experience, it’s definitely something that can’t hurt!

Specialties – Do you have a particular type of food that you’re looking to have served at your wedding? If so, another question worth asking would be in regards to any specialities they may have. For several of the more established catering companies, you’ll see they have a variety of options, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding something you love. Nonetheless, asking about their specialties or most popular options can help if you’re struggling to make the final decision.

All in all, as can be said about many of the wedding vendors that you’ll book, details are an important part of the selection process. Even though the most critical aspect of a Houston wedding caterer selection is ensuring they’re able to create delicious food, there are also a variety of other details you’ll want to confirm too.

Tie the Knot at Madera Estates!

A caterer will definitely serve an extremely important role in your wedding day. In addition to dancing, toasts, cake cutting and so on, enjoying a delicious meal is another one of the reception activities that will only add to the experience! If you’re planning on tying the knot in the Conroe or Houston area and need some recommendations, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Before you book your Houston wedding caterer though, you’ll likely be touring potential venues first! In doing so, you may even find your venue also offers customizable, all-inclusive packages that include catering (as well as possibly other services too). Because of this and the fact that venues can get booked up quickly, we always recommend prioritizing venue selection early on in the planning journey. For those that are engaged and searching for a wedding venue in Conroe, we would love to show you around our venue and share information about hosting a wedding at Madera Estates. To learn more, we encourage you to check out our Pricing Guide by filling out form HERE. This guide includes plenty of information all about our venue!