External Caterer v The Dry Hire Venue

Elishba Forde
Feb 12, 2021
5 min read

Okay, so you’ve picked your caterer; whether through a recommendation, having tried their food at another wedding, or your own research, there’s a lot they don’t tell you about the headache that comes with opting for an external caterer.

First of all, you’re probably only allowed to bring an external caterer to your venue because the venue is letting you dry hire. This means that you are simply hiring the venue ONLY, excluding catering, furniture, entertainment, the bar, any fixtures etc. It can be great to work with such a blank canvas to paint anything you want on, but it can also require a lot of organisation and each detail must be particularly thought through especially in terms of the external catering.

Internal catering seems to be the option of lollipops and rainbows; a huge weight that the venue/hotel staff will take off your shoulders and you will never have to begin to worry about where the table cloths and cutlery are coming from, let alone where to source out that skip to dispose of the waste at the end of the night!! It’s all about knowing what your venue/hotel can provide, what your external caterer can provide, and striking the right balance by weighing out the costs and logistics. And we haven’t even got to the menu yet. 😊

It can end up getting a little tedious going backwards and forwards from your caterer to your venue, trying to answer each other’s questions and figuring out who can provide what component of your wedding breakfast. Excluding the food (which is obviously your caterer), there are a lot of nitty gritty bits to think about that can possibly be provided by either party! You simply need to know what you want, communicate with both, and make a decision on the best option for you. You might also discover (as we did) that some venues have restrictions that won’t exactly help the caterer and you must be able to meet in the middle somehow or source out alternative arrangements.

So, you have your menu all figured out, but that’s not all there is to it. Here is my list of 10 essential questions you need to ask between both the Caterer and the Venue/Hotel, to help you prevent wasting time, feel better prepared, have fewer meetings, and just make sure each meeting is as productive as possible:

1. Who is providing the cutlery, crockery, glassware?

Sometimes the venue might be able to do this, although they aren’t supplying the catering; but 9 times out of 10 it will have to be your external caterer, just make sure you double check!

2. Is the catering team allowed to use the dishwasher?

If the venue has restrictions on this, then it may be that you need to account for more numbers of glasses etc as they will not be able to be washed and re-used again. For example, you may need to double or triple the champagne glasses that are used in the drinks reception, as you can’t wash these and use them again later on for your speeches toast.

3. Is your venue able to provide table cloths? If not, can your caterer provide them?

And if not, then you may have to source them out from elsewhere! Chances are, the venue will leave it at a complete dry hire, which means that you are simply hiring the venue from them and this can include tables and chairs, but everything else must be sourced out from other suppliers. And I mean everything. Luckily, your external caterer will most likely have the facilities or know suppliers that can provide these things, but there is no harm in getting everything in writing!

4. Who can set up the tables and clean everything at the end of the night?

If you don’t have a hired team or wedding planner, no one is under the obligation to do this, especially in this scenario where the venue has been dry hired. It is likely that you will have to ask the catering team to clear up.

5. Where can the rubbish be disposed of?

The question above leads onto WHERE the rubbish is to be disposed because, once again, the venue is dry hired and therefore they are under no obligation to let you use their bins. You need to ask the venue if the catering team can use their rubbish bins, if the catering team have agreed to clean up, or if not then you may have to make arrangements for a skip!

6. Do the caterers have any special requirements due to the food that they are cooking?

With Indian catering especially, comes specific requirements. This may also be the case for other foreign cuisines. For example, our venue wasn’t able to cater to the mass cooking of Indian dishes in bulk, so our caterers had to bring their own large stock pots that measure up to 60cm in diameter and contain approximately 100 litres. This led to the requirement of a small outdoor marquee to allow them to cook under shelter.

7. Can the venue provide a fridge and freezer?

You might have desert that needs to be kept in the freezer! And some food may need to be kept refrigerated like the ham on canapes. Either way, your caterer should ask you if the venue can provide everything that they need for all the small details, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask the questions yourself; don’t leave everything to assumption.

8. Who is supplying the bar?

You can’t forget about the bar!! In a dry hire venue, they may not allow you to use their bar facilities, but there is no harm in asking them to make life a little easier. If the venue insists on not allowing use of their bar, then you might consider asking the caterer to supply the bar and drinks, OR provide your own drinks. The latter two options should be considered especially if you’d like an open bar, and this is something that will be discussed in detail in another post.

9. Can your venue provide ice? If not, can your caterer bring bags of ice?

Ideally, you want your venue/hotel to have the ice for you. It saves the hassle of bringing in ice from elsewhere when it can easily be sourced out from the venue. And ice is actually a small crucial detail for drinks, easily forgotten about!

10. Who will be the caterers’ point of contact at the venue on the day?

Most importantly, YOU will be way too busy doing other things to be running around liaising with the caterers all day. At some point, you need to be able to let go and trust others to follow your instructions and communicate with each other to make sure your plans run as smooth as possible. So find out who will be on duty from the venue to oversee your event, and make sure your caterer has their contact details, and that both parties are well informed of all the logistics of the day.

It can all get rather messy, so it is absolutely crucial that you make notes in your specific book for the catering, and keep a track of everything that is discussed at each meeting. If you’re a bit controlling of these things like myself and Ronan, then you will be mad enough to want to keep track of it all yourself; BUT, if you can get help, then taking that help is highly recommended as this aspect can drive you insane, particularly with everything else you have going on in that head. And if you can hire a wedding planner to who you know will be trustworthy and take all of this burden on themselves, then that’s even better! It’s all about deciding what YOU feel comfortable with, after all.