Hello all,
New here - I'm not new to the business but I *am* new to owning my own company! Last December, my husband and I launched our own business and have really enjoyed the work that we do and the clients that we work with. Currently, we're still small (our largest event to date has been for 300) but, of course, we dream of growing and are working toward our goals!
That said, this past weekend, we experienced our first negative event but, on the positive side, we learned a LOT of lessons!!
The event was very complicated (7 course meal with wine pairings following h'ors d'oeuvres and cocktails in which my servers had to pass out a specialty drink using a script the groom gave us) and the clients were extremely needy (we offer one free tasting; they required two and an extra visit to their place and they were still making changes to their menu the week of the event).
As we arrived at the reception site (outdoors at the groom's parents' HUGE house), the tableware (rented by the wedding couple) was nowhere to be seen. We looked in the kitchen, the prep area, on the tables... no luck. Asked the wedding coordinator - again, no luck. Asked the decorator - nope.
I'm trying not to panic and, as my chefs and servers were prepping the h.d., of course, the guests show up 45 minutes early. The dishes were eventually found but relocating them to where they needed to be set us back a good 20 minutes. When we received the wine list, we found out that the vegetarians would be receiving different wine than the meat eaters for each course. And, as if that wasn't enough, someone complained that there was a gnat in her vichyssoise (hello? Not sure if you realized this or not, lady, but you are eating OUTDOORS under a TENT!)
Let's see... what else... two of my servers and two of my runners didn't show up (we needed a staff of 20 for the event but it was workable with 16), the power supply blew (we requested that we rent a generator but the groom's father insisted that their power supply was efficient) which set the serving of the main course back another 20 minutes - and infuriated the client. The beef wasn't cooked to their satisfaction (that, obviously, IS our fault), my servers had to walk 300 feet in pitch black (no lighting for us) to and from the cooking area with their fully loaded trays and the reception went three hours longer than we'd been told it would.
Even though the vast majority of the mishaps weren't due to error on our part, we felt badly and chose not to charge them anything for the bar service. They told us this wasn't enough so we deducted more than $1,500 from their bill (roughly 25%). Their response was, "That's a good start but what else are you going to do?" Uhm. We've already done more than duty requires and now we're done.
Yeesh - glad that's over! And, like I said, there were LOTS of lessons learned after that event! Thank goodness our events are usually nothing like that one - who needs drugs when you can get the adrenaline rush you get from catering???
I wanted to know if anyone else would be willing to share their own catering disaster stories, too!
New here - I'm not new to the business but I *am* new to owning my own company! Last December, my husband and I launched our own business and have really enjoyed the work that we do and the clients that we work with. Currently, we're still small (our largest event to date has been for 300) but, of course, we dream of growing and are working toward our goals!
That said, this past weekend, we experienced our first negative event but, on the positive side, we learned a LOT of lessons!!
The event was very complicated (7 course meal with wine pairings following h'ors d'oeuvres and cocktails in which my servers had to pass out a specialty drink using a script the groom gave us) and the clients were extremely needy (we offer one free tasting; they required two and an extra visit to their place and they were still making changes to their menu the week of the event).
As we arrived at the reception site (outdoors at the groom's parents' HUGE house), the tableware (rented by the wedding couple) was nowhere to be seen. We looked in the kitchen, the prep area, on the tables... no luck. Asked the wedding coordinator - again, no luck. Asked the decorator - nope.
I'm trying not to panic and, as my chefs and servers were prepping the h.d., of course, the guests show up 45 minutes early. The dishes were eventually found but relocating them to where they needed to be set us back a good 20 minutes. When we received the wine list, we found out that the vegetarians would be receiving different wine than the meat eaters for each course. And, as if that wasn't enough, someone complained that there was a gnat in her vichyssoise (hello? Not sure if you realized this or not, lady, but you are eating OUTDOORS under a TENT!)
Let's see... what else... two of my servers and two of my runners didn't show up (we needed a staff of 20 for the event but it was workable with 16), the power supply blew (we requested that we rent a generator but the groom's father insisted that their power supply was efficient) which set the serving of the main course back another 20 minutes - and infuriated the client. The beef wasn't cooked to their satisfaction (that, obviously, IS our fault), my servers had to walk 300 feet in pitch black (no lighting for us) to and from the cooking area with their fully loaded trays and the reception went three hours longer than we'd been told it would.
Even though the vast majority of the mishaps weren't due to error on our part, we felt badly and chose not to charge them anything for the bar service. They told us this wasn't enough so we deducted more than $1,500 from their bill (roughly 25%). Their response was, "That's a good start but what else are you going to do?" Uhm. We've already done more than duty requires and now we're done.
Yeesh - glad that's over! And, like I said, there were LOTS of lessons learned after that event! Thank goodness our events are usually nothing like that one - who needs drugs when you can get the adrenaline rush you get from catering???
I wanted to know if anyone else would be willing to share their own catering disaster stories, too!
