I had my wedding and the person in charge at the event left sick towards the middle of my wedding. That was not a problem, since there were plenty of staff on hand. However, cake and coffee service was not served the my guests. The contract said "WEDDING CAKE SERVICE." The plate design for the dinner was wrong too that night.
On the other hand, the chef did prepare a plate of two dinners that were left over and wrapped it up for me to take with us, but the plate was dripping and spilled on my wedding dress!
I am not sure how to address these issues with the caterer? Is it possible to get some sort of compensation for the dress? I have never heard of this happening? Any ideas, comments would help. THXS.
2007-07-19 10:50:50 · 3 answers · asked by Curious 1 in Food & Drink ➔ Entertaining
Hi,
Congrats on your wedding. =)
Wow, I'd be mortified if that happened on of our events! The event supervisor leaving shouldn't have anything to do with cake or coffee service. The staff should know what do do without him or her.
To be fair, on a buffet reception, "Wedding Cake Service"should refer to cutting and plating the cake ONLY. The cake is not technically supposed to be "served", it's just plated and the guests come get it. (This is because buffet staffing ratios aren't enough to properly "serve" anything.) But you referred to the plate design, so I assume you're referring to a plated dinner. If you had a plated dinner, the cake should have been served.
Ditto for coffee: if you have a buffet, you should have a self-serve coffee station. If you had a plated dinner, you definitely should have had coffee served (or at least put on the table, which is sometimes better).
I'm just saying make sure you didn't book less service than you expected. I've had clients expect that before.
You don't mean the china design was wrong, do you? If the china pattern was wrong, you should get a partial refund for the china rental. We mark our china up 20%, so I think you should get a 30% refund on the china rentals, so you get their profit plus a little. If you can't tell from your paperwork what the china part of the reception cost you, figure it cost the caterer .52 per piece plus probably a 100.00 delivery fee to get it in to their warehouse, and if it's a plated dinner, you probably had 6 pieces per person (plus, say 20 pieces of china for overage) and if it's a buffet, you probably had three pieces of china per person (plus, say, 12% overage for people going through the buffet twice).
If the plate design was off, meaning that the presentation of a plated meal wasn't what you expected, I think you should let it go, unless a presentation was specifically articulated in the contract. When I know a client loves a certain garnish, it goes in the contract. Otherwise, the presentation is up to the chef that happens to get that event. We have lots of chefs...the guys that does the tasting probably won't approach it the same way as the guy that does the event.
I can't believe the chef didn't plastic wrap the heck out of those take-home plates. I don't know if that was sheer laziness or an understandable rookie mistake.Ugh. That's a real shame! I hope you're able to get your dress clean. If he did the actual spilling, the caterer should pay for the cleaning. If you did the actual spilling (like when you handled it later in the evening), I don't know if you can ask for him to be responsible...that's not as clear-cut to me. If you accepted the food, it's not really their responsibility after it leaves their hands. Unfortunate, yes, but....
I'd document all of your complaints in writing to the owner, but I'd only look for a refund on the china, if it was in fact, wrong. And you might as well send them the cleaning bill...what have you got to lose?
Good luck!
2007-07-20 13:52:49 · answer #1 · answered by EventPro 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Discuss your concerns with them and I am sure they will offer to clean the gown and they may even offer a discount on your next affair or if you aren't planning any a small refund for the lack of cake service. Good Luck~
2007-07-19 10:56:46 · answer #2 · answered by Walking on Sunshine 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Oh sure. Just write out in detail exactly what happened and try to include the good with the bad. In other words, be diplomatic. I am sure they will take care of you
2007-07-19 10:54:57 · answer #3 · answered by barthebear 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋