Full-Service Catering: What It Covers and How to Compare Quotes

Full-service catering means one company handles the food from the first menu conversation to the last bag of trash leaving the property. You are not only buying dinner. You are buying people, equipment and a plan, and the quote is only easy to compare once you know which of those pieces it includes. I have planned church suppers, reunions and backyard weddings both ways, with a caterer and with a crew of relatives, and the questions below are the ones I wish someone had handed me the first time.

What full service usually covers

The exact package varies, but a full-service caterer generally takes on most of this list. Read each quote against it line by line.

• Menu planning and tasting. A proposed menu built around your guest count, season, budget and any dietary needs, often with a tasting for weddings.
• Food, cooked and served. Prepared in their kitchen, finished on site, set out or plated, and replenished.
• Staff. Servers, a kitchen crew, bartenders if you are serving drinks, and an on-site captain or lead who runs the event.
• Rentals. Plates, flatware, glassware, serving pieces, chafing dishes, and sometimes tables, chairs and tents. Some caterers own these; many coordinate with a rental company and pass the cost along.
• Linens. Tablecloths and napkins in your colors, delivered and taken away.
• Coordination with other vendors. Working with the florist on table and cake flowers, with the baker on cake delivery and cutting, with the venue on load-in times, and with the band or DJ on when dinner is served.
• Setup and cleanup. Setting tables, building the buffet, clearing plates through the evening, packing up, and leaving the kitchen and site as they found them.

Some extras appear on one quote and not on another: cake cutting fees, a coffee and tea service, a site visit, ice, trash removal, and theme displays such as a cheese and fruit table dressed with grape vines or an abundant crudite table.

Staffing ratios

Staff is where quotes differ most, and where cutting corners shows. These are the ratios I plan from, counting servers and buffet attendants, not kitchen staff or bartenders.

Add one bartender per 75 to 100 guests for beer and wine, more for a full bar. A captain is separate from the server count. If a quote shows three servers for a plated dinner of 100, ask how they plan to clear the salad plates before the main course goes cold.

How to compare quotes

Quotes come in different shapes. One gives a per-person price with everything in it; another gives food per person plus a staff line, a rental line and a service charge. Put them on one sheet.

A worked example for a wedding of 100 guests:

The lower per-person food price turned out to be the more expensive dinner. Also check whether a "service charge" is a gratuity for the staff or a fee kept by the company, because that changes whether you plan to tip on top.

Look at deposits and payment terms as well. A nonrefundable deposit to hold the date is normal; so is a payment schedule with the balance due before or on the day. Ask when the final guest count is due and what happens if it drops.

What to ask a caterer

1. Have you worked at this venue? If not, will you visit beforehand to see the kitchen, the power, the water and where the trucks park?
2. Who will be in charge on the day, and will I meet that person before the event?
3. Are your staff your own employees, and do you carry liability insurance? Can the venue be added to the certificate?
4. What happens to leftover food? Some caterers will pack it for the family, some cannot for safety reasons.
5. How do you handle allergies and dietary meals? Are they labeled on the buffet?
6. How do you count vendor meals for the photographer, musicians and other crew?
7. What is included in setup and cleanup, exactly? Who takes the trash and the recycling?
8. Who brings the cake knife, the coffee urns and the ice?

The answers matter less than how readily they come. A caterer who has a clear answer to every one of these has done it before.

What the timeline looks like

Planning starts early for weddings and big anniversaries. Six to twelve months out, choose the caterer and hold the date. Two to three months out, settle the menu after a tasting and book rentals. Three to four weeks out, confirm the layout and vendor arrival times. One to two weeks out, give the final count and the list of dietary meals.

Here is a day-of timeline for an evening reception for 100 with dinner at 6:30:

The fall wedding dinner for 85 shows what a full menu looks like for a group of this size, and the cakes guide covers how the cake fits into the evening.

When full service is worth it

It is worth it when the host wants to be a guest. If you are the mother of the bride, the couple celebrating fifty years, or the family at a memorial, you do not want to be watching the chafing dishes. It is also worth it when the site has no real kitchen, when the guest list is over about 60, or when you need rentals and a tent anyway, because a caterer coordinating them saves a dozen phone calls.

If the party is smaller, at home, and you have helpers who like to be useful, drop-off food may serve you better. And if the sweets are the part you care about most, a dessert-only order from a baker paired with a simple meal is another path; see the just desserts guide.

Before signing, ask for the whole quote in writing with every line spelled out, and read it against the guest count you actually expect, not the hopeful one.