Читать книгу So...You Wanna Throw A Party! - Larry Gootkin - Страница 6

You have decided to hire a caterer to help with your event. (If your event is at a location such as a hotel, restaurant, country club, banquet hall… these places usually include caterers as part of their services when you reserve your event room). When you have secured any of these locations, then it’s time to discuss what you are going to feed your guests.

Will you be serving them lunch, dinner, brunch, passed hors d’oeuvres or dessert? Perhaps your food will not be served and you will have a buffet-style meal. This depends on the party you are planning. (I have performed at many weddings where the buffet table’s main course was a platter of cold cuts with some bread. A great football party meal with your friends but not for your wedding).

A good caterer can help you decide what is correct for your event. Everyone is unique and different and an experienced caterer can suggest and guide you to what’s appropriate and available. How will you know the caterer is good? Like most of the event industry, “word-of-mouth” can be an impressive recommendation. Talk to people that have used them. Research who they cater to. See how diverse their menu choices are. Ask how long they’ve been in business. These are just a few questions you should be asking before you hire them. Trust me, a party without suitable food will not be as successful. In fact, the wrong cuisine could ruin your event. Furthermore, don’t let the “most expensive” belief sway you. It doesn’t need to be the most expensive. Just the most fitting and proper for your budget. People will remember if they had a good time and enjoyed themselves. They don’t always remember the food. If your meal wasn’t good, they will remember that. The food you serve is important. Equally important is another ingredient. Unfortunately, many times it goes unnoticed. This can happen for various reasons. I am talking about the timing of the food. How and when are the individual courses served? This is critical to the overall success of the event.

Story Time—-

I remember when I first started out as a bandleader. I would take my cues from the caterer. It would go something like this, “Mr. Bandleader, when I tell you it is time to stop playing and get the guests seated because we are serving dinner, I expect you to do so”. At the tender age of 17, all I cared about was, “does the band sound good?” And, “are the guests dancing when we played dance music?” The hows and whys of food service was not my concern. What I started to notice was the band was sounding great, people were dancing and yet the party would end early. Sometimes I would feel guilty because I felt the party should have gone the distance. The people at the event were happy, but, some clients couldn’t understand why their guests left early. They had hired a good band, good caterer, it was a Saturday night and yet, everyone was leaving around 11:00 p.m.! We’re supposed to play till midnight. I finally figured it out. The caterer and band were at opposite ends. Their objectives were different. The scenario goes something like this.

The caterer felt the food was most important. Serve the guests great food. Make sure that everyone’s fed. After dessert, ”I’ll clean, pack and go home because my role in this party is over. The faster I finish, the sooner I can leave”.

On the other hand, the band is usually hired for a minimum of four hours. Let’s say eight p.m. until midnight. The bandleader would like to keep the guests there and dancing until the end. The bandleader might feel a little insecure if the guests start leaving at 11:00 p.m. In fact, they might get some complaints from the client stating “I hired you for four hours and all my guests left at 11:00 p.m. Perhaps you’re not as good as I thought you were. Do I get a discount because you didn’t play the last hour?” Or even worse, Gloria, who attended the event calls up her best friend Sue, who is considering using the same band for her party. Sue asks, “how was the band?” Gloria replies, “I guess they were okay but everyone left by 11:00 p.m. I don’t know why but most of guests said good-bye to the host and hostess and then left. I guess the band was having an off-night even though I thought they sounded good.”

So, caterer versus bandleader. Two different goals about the same PARTY. They are not, “on-the-same-page”. They should be. Their job is providing their talents and creativity. Most clients prefer a “team effort” from the professionals that they hire. I believe it is a critical to the party’s success. Therefore, I am going to discuss this in the next chapter.