White dress? Check.

Bridesmaids’ shoes? Check.

Music? Check.

Groom? Check.

Food? …Oh no!

It happens. Maybe you completely forgot about the food aspect midst all the other details. After all, weddings have a lot to them! Or, maybe you had a plan for the food and it completely fell apart; that is, a caterer you had planned on can no longer help out, or the food you were planning on doing has become so complicated it would take a massive (and expensive) team to get it done. Now, the wedding is weeks, maybe days, away, and you’re panicking. Relax! Saint Germain Catering can help!

Whether you had a caterer who no longer can help, or you had planned to do the food yourself and now realize how overwhelming this can be, or simply forgot about food for the wedding reception, we can make it happen! Before calling, sit down and answer the following questions, which will help us better cater for your wedding reception:

• When is the wedding reception? Date, time, and location.
• How many people are coming? Estimate as closely as you can if your RSVPs are not exact. The better the estimate, the better we can help you.
• What sort of audience is this? Are most of your invites to adults and your wedding more adults-only, or is this a family-friendly event? (This can influence your choice of menu and drinks.)
• What sort of menu are you looking for? Are you in need of multi-course meals, or looking for hors d’oeuvres? Do you want a buffet-style or meals brought out to seated guests? You’ll also want to figure out if you’d like to have snacks or beverages available for your guests while waiting for the bride and groom to arrive after the ceremony.
• Do any guests have allergies? Although you probably don’t know every health detail of all of your guests, if anyone in the bridal party has a serious food allergy (particularly the bride or groom), this might be something to plan around.
• Do you need a cake? If you haven’t ordered a cake yet, let us know, we can help with that too! Think about what kind of cake you’d like.
• What is your budget? How much per plate have you budgeted?

Having parts of your wedding plan fail can cause a lot of extra stress, but don’t let an emergency for the wedding reception food ruin your big day, or your daughter’s big day! Saint Germain Catering will be happy to help make the wedding day a delicious success!

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A graduation party for your son or daughter might not seem like an occasion to book a professional caterer, but actually, it’s an excellent occasion for it! Whether it’s a small, much more intimate celebration, or whether you’ve invited your child’s entire class of 2013, catering provides a number of opportunities for you and your child to sit back and enjoy the day with family, friends, and even other graduates!

1.     Less Stress & Less Work

Even if you are planning a buffet-style or hors d’oeuvres, it’s a lot of planning, purchasing, preparing, and cooking for the day. On top of that, you have to be in charge of making sure that the food stays stocked during the day. You want to be able to enjoy this occasion with your graduate, not spend it running around frazzled and busy.

2.     More Attention for Other Things

Expounding on the last point, if you’re busy laboring over the food for the day, you’ll also miss the opportunity to mingle with other people, perhaps family you haven’t seen in a while, take watch over things like the photography, and so forth. This enables you to make sure that the other details of the graduation party go just as planned.

3.     Make the Day Unforgettable

We aren’t claiming that you can’t cook or couldn’t do an excellent job. Yet with so many other things vying for your attention, wouldn’t it be nice to let someone else manage the food and make it memorable? Having your former-student’s graduation party catered gives you the opportunity to have an awesome day with great food and less stress.

4.     Have Someone Else Design the Menu

If you know what you want, this doesn’t really apply, and a good caterer will work with what you have in mind. On the other hand, if you are completely overwhelmed with the idea of creating a menu for the graduation party, a caterer could be the perfect solution! They will talk about what your expectations for the party are, who the guests will be, and so forth. Saint Germain Catering even has customized menus to give you an idea of things to do as well.

With everything else you have to worry about with the graduation party, the last thing you need is something else on your plate (excuse the pun) other than good food! Let Saint Germain Catering help with your son or daughter’s graduation party this year!

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High school isn’t easy, especially for girls. But every girl gets her day in the spotlight, and when it happens you want it to be perfect. A Sweet 16 party is a great way to celebrate that important moment in every young woman’s life, but it needs to be fun too! There’s no reason for a Sweet 16 party to be one more overnight like every other. A good theme, a little creativity and the right catering can make it a truly memorable experience. Here are six of our best party ideas.

1. Top 40 Party. Everyone loves music, so why not build that into the theme itself? With the Top 40 Party every guest is invited to dress as her favorite pop star. At the party, the girls can choose songs to make their own mix CD, or set up a karaoke machine to really get the party started. Club lights and non-alcoholic champagne are the perfect finishing touches.

2. Alice in Wonderland. Tea parties are a little lame, but a Mad Hatter tea party is something different. Ask your caterers to base finger food, cookies and muffins on the film and set an oversize table with all manner of strangely mismatched cups. Of course, make sure everyone switches chairs as the tea party goes on!

3. Steampunk Ball. What’s cooler than steam-powered Victorian fantasy? Not much. Guests will have a blast designing their costumes for this, so be sure to make the venue worthy of them when they arrive. Goth it out a little bit with dark décor and use a dry ice smoke machine to put real “steam” in the room. What to serve? Try brightly colored juices in lab beakers or test tubes.

4. Hollywood. Make it a movie star party! Each guest can come dressed as her favorite star, and you can have an actual red carpet leading into the doorway. Decorate the party space with stars and movie posters, and have a projector looping a favorite movie on the wall.

5. Cleopatra. Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome offer fertile ground for costumes—and food ideas. The girls will have a blast reclining in their togas and getting pampered Cleopatra style. Maybe with a full mani/pedi from a hired manicurist?

6. Retro Party. Choose a decade of the past and theme your entire party around it. What was a Sweet 16 party like in the 1960s? The walls can be decked in flower power and the girls can show up rocking their very best hippie looks. Or fast forward a little to the era of big hair and bangles with a 1980s party. The 80s were also the decade of the most famous teen movies, and you can have them playing in one room while a DJ rocks vintage beats in another.

These are just a few ways to make a Sweet 16 party unique and special. The theme is a good start, but you’ll also need to have the perfect food to bring it all together. Saint Germain Catering specializes in Sweet 16 catering and would love to brainstorm ideas to match your theme, no matter how out there it is! If you’re in the Northern VA or Washington, DC areas, give Saint Germain a call and see what we can do for you.

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Caterers are a necessity for large events. However, for many of us it’s pretty uncommon to plan an event large enough to need one. If you have a wedding coming up, or another special occasion, it could easily be the first time you’ll ever have to book a caterer. So what do you do, and what should you expect?

Experienced caterers will want to make your event a success and will strive to bring it to life exactly the way you imagined it. Thus, getting good catering service is a combination of shopping around for the right company, and maintaining very open and clear communication with them about what you want. Here are the basics.

1. Shopping around. It’s worth it to talk to several catering companies, to get a feel for what each offers and what you can expect across the board. Instead of cold calling, we highly recommend reaching out to friends and family to see if they have recommendations on caterers. In particular, you’re looking for caterers who were easy to work with, took care of all the details and created an event that everyone was pleased with.

2. First contact. When you first talk to a caterer, you’ll need three key pieces of information to give them: the date, the number of guests (approximate is fine), and a sense of your budget. If you’re not sure on the budget yet, the caterer can help give you a better sense of what to expect the event to cost, and what can be changed to make it more economical.

3. Know what questions to ask. You should be prepared to ask your caterer some key questions. Ask about their specialties, if any, and what other events similar to yours they have done. Ask them what is included in their service. Do you need to rent tables separately? Are there any hidden fees? And ask them if you will be able to sample dishes from the proposed menu ahead of the event.

4. Be prepared to pay a deposit. Your caterer will give you a quote on your event and, if it sounds good, you’ll be asked to pay a deposit or pre-pay part of the price. This is normal. Caterers can’t put in hours planning your event unless they know you have committed to them and that they will get paid.

5. Get a contract. You should have a signed catering contract, but more importantly, make sure it reflects everything you talked about. If the caterer agreed to provide napkins and flatware and that there would be no extra charge, then this needs to be in the contract.

6. Stay in regular contact. Your caterer is your employee, and you’re entrusting them with an important event. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or check in on them at any step of the process.

Hiring a caterer doesn’t have to be hard and, if you take the time to ask all your questions and get to know what your caterer offers, it can actually be a very relaxing experience because you’ll know your event is in good hands.

If your event happens to be in the Washington, DC or northern VA areas, consider Saint Germain Catering to guide you through the process. Saint Germain Catering is one of the Virginia’s most experienced caterers and is always happy to work with a first-time event planner.

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One of our favorite programs that we support is coming to Washington, DC: The Jack Ebrahimi-Miller Program for Interventional Radiology. The program was founded and is supported by Mina Ebrahimi’s generous donations. While interventional radiology is an established tool in human medicine in order to perform minimally invasive medical and surgical procedures, only a few veterinary programs offer it throughout the country, though it is quickly catching on as its benefits are being discovered and demonstrated. Since 2006, we have been providing a portion of our profits to support the program, and have never failed in our support to this day.

The event will be held on May 30 in the DC area by the University of Pennsylvania for the Jack Miller-Ebrahimi Program for Interventional Radiology. The goal of this event is to show research findings which demonstrate the successful use of interventional radiology in animals, particularly small pets such as dogs and cats. Interventional radiology has been successfully used in various applications, and we know of one very successful treatment and very happy patient: Jack Ebrahimi-Miller himself.

Jack was born with a liver shunt, which deprives the liver of blood supply and prevents it from developing properly. Without correcting such a problem, a puppy will usually die within the first year of life. It is possible to correct liver shunts by surgically closing them, but an interventional radiology technique often used on humans involves promoting coagulation using metal coils inserted into the shunt. This is what the team at the University of Penn attempted to use to heal Jack, and the operation was a success. However, following the treatment, Jack developed ulcers, prompting the team to again treat Jack. Two occurrences of the ulcers and a perforated and septic intestine occurred within the course of one year, and over the course of the next year he was weaned off all of his medicines.

Today, you would never even know that Jack was born a runt. He’s a 92-pound chocolate Labrador, and has been the source of great joy for all of us at Saint Germain Catering. It may only be an anecdote to the scientific community, but we know for a fact that there is much to be said for interventional radiology at the University of Pennsylvania. It’s why we continue to support the program there, and will continue to support them for years to come.

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Almost everyone will need a caterer at some point in their lives. Perhaps it’s for your wedding reception, a graduation party, or some other once-in-a-lifetime event. But unless you work as an event planner, chances are you don’t have to think about caterers very often. On that rare occasion when you do, therefore, you might not know what to expect.

Getting nervous about trying to tackle the catering at your big event? Don’t be. A catering company’s job is to take work and stress off your plate, and make things happen the way you want them to. And with this guide, you’ll know exactly what to expect at every stage of the process.

Understanding Catering

Caterers don’t just handle food. This is what they’re best known for, and it’s exactly why you hired them. However, caterers are also event professionals who want to make your vision for the evening come to life. A good caterer is also going to oversee, or at least coordinate with, the drink service for the night and the décor at your venue, making sure everything comes together into one seamless experience.

That mean your caterer wants to get a very clear idea of what you want your event to be like. They’ll want to set up an initial meeting with you, and they will have questions.

The Initial Meeting

Whether it’s by phone or in person, at the first meeting the caterer is going to want to get a detailed idea of what you’re imagining. If you’re still not sure, that’s okay. Caterers are great helping suggest ideas or tweak details to make sure you’re happy with the plan. They will want to know:

• How many people you expect
• Where you’re holding the event, and details about the venue
• Whether this is a formal or casual occasion
• Whether you want a full meal or something simpler like hors d’oeuvres
• If you have a theme in mind
• What your approximate budget is

For many people this last question is the toughest, because most of us are on a very tight budget and don’t know what to expect in terms of catering costs. It’s important to start off discussing what you’d ideally like to see at your event. Your caterer can give you a sense of the cost for that, and if it’s too much they can help you prioritize to bring the cost down into the right range without compromising the event.

What You Get

Once your caterer understands your vision and budget, they will prepare a menu for you. You have the power to change or approve this menu before it is final and before anything starts. Once you approve it, they will proceed to choose other elements like napkins, glassware, and tablecloths to match the menu, theme and budget.

From this point on, the caterer takes care of all the hard work. Managing the food for a large event is demanding work, and they will put professionals on the job to make sure everything is ready at exactly the right moment with no snags.

Do you need a caterer? If you live in Northern VA or the Washington, DC area, Saint Germain Catering would be happy to answer all your questions about the catering process and help you make your next event a success. Visit SaintGermainCatering.com today to learn more.

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Catering can completely transform an event, both for the host and the guests, but it can also be expensive. Caterers allow you to outsource the most grueling and stressful part of any event, the food and drink, to professionals who know how to do it right. And often, it means you’ll be able to serve unique and amazing dishes that would be hard to do on your own. So does all this have to come at a premium price? Not necessarily. Here are four of our top suggestions for saving big dollars on your catering bill.

1. Outside Catering. When you’re shopping for venues, your first question should be whether you can bring in your own catering. If the answer is no, or if there’s an added fee for that, you may want to find somewhere else to have your event instead. Many venues that routinely host weddings and other large events will have their own in-house or contracted catering service, and they can zealously guard the right to serve food on the premises. That’s understandable; it’s part of their bread and butter. But when you’re bound to one caterer and can’t shop around, chances are strong that you’ll overpay on the bill. Make sure you can comparison shop and find the caterer with the best price. The venue may even offer you a discount if you stay with their in-house caterers.

2. No waiters. When you envision a catered event, chances are you see waiters in black vests moving elegantly among white-cloth tables to deliver course after course. This is known as a “plated dinner” and it’s the most expensive kind of catering. If you’re willing to give up the waiters, there are much cheaper options available. Buffet style dinners can work even at formal events, as long as you have enough buffet tables that the lines don’t get long. Alternately, consider having different themed “stations” (the salad station, the Southern food station, the build-your-own-pizza station, etc.) so that your guests can try out different things and stick with what they like.

3. Cut back on the alcohol. We’re not saying don’t serve, but there are several ways to save big on the alcohol. If it’s allowed, purchase your own alcohol for the event. When you place a large order at a liquor store you can often get a discount, and even at the retail price it’s cheaper than what a venue bar will charge you. Your venue or catering service may charge you a corking fee to serve it, but chances are you’ll still come out ahead.

4. Downsize dessert. Dessert is overdone, and guests will already be feeling good before you try to wow them with the latest chocolate lava brulee. Consider putting out a simple dessert bar with brownies, candies and other options where they can help themselves. If it’s a wedding reception, consider using a smaller wedding cake – two or three layers is plenty – as the center of the show, with simple layer cakes in reserve to keep your guests’ sweet tooth happy.

These are just a few ways to save money on a catered event. If your event is in Northern VA or Washington DC, event experts with Saint Germain Catering would be happy to help you design an event that meets your tastes, and your budget.

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If you’re planning a big event, chances are good that you need to book caterers. Catering is an essential part of any large social event, from wedding receptions to fundraisers to anniversary festivities and hundreds of other kinds of gatherings. It’s a way of taking some of the most demanding work, the preparation and serving of food, off of the host and making the event easier and less stressful. But you’ll quickly find out that the term “catering” is used many different ways by many different people. So what exactly is catering and what options do you have?

Types of Catering

Catering refers to any kind of food service, or usually food and beverage service, arranged on a one-off basis for a special event. As you might imagine, depending on the budget and the type of event, that can cover a lot of different setups. But there are several levels of catering available and most events will match up nicely with one of them:

Food and delivery. At a basic level, any service that makes food and gets it to your event is catering, and sometimes that’s all you need. If you plan to serve your guests yourself, or you’re setting the food out on a simple buffet, this kind of delivery-only service is ideal. It works great for small meetings and office parties. As events get larger, however, it becomes less practical. Generally if you have more than 20 guests you will want someone to be in charge of serving, even if it’s just to man a buffet table, as the job becomes too big for the host or a volunteer.

Food, delivery and service. The next step up is catering that includes managing the service at the event itself. This can mean running buffet tables and keeping them stocked with fresh fare as guests fill up their plates, or it can mean bringing large platters out to tables for guests to pass around and help themselves. Other services, such as bar service, can also be included.

Full service. This means the caterer is completely managing the food and beverage end of your event, and quite possibly other crucial aspects of the night as well. The caterers may prepare food on site, and will have dedicated wait staff to bring out individual plates to each table. This creates the experience of a full seated meal in your venue.

Hors d’oeuvres. Rather than a meal, sometimes you will want simple finger food or hors d’oeuvres at an event. This means having waiters carrying trays among the guests, but typically not serving a full meal.

More than Food

Many caterers offer much more than just food and wait staff as part of their full service packages, and can manage other elements of the event that need to be coordinated such as tableware, flowers, and decorations. The best caterers take an active role in your theme and event planning to make sure your vision comes to life and every aspect of the evening is perfect. Saint Germain Catering is proud to provide this completely event management service, or any level of catering, in the Northern VA and Washington, DC areas.

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Whether you’re planning a corporate event, a fundraiser or your wedding day, if you’re looking for a caterer chances are you have a very specific vision of what you want. Caterers are responsible for many different aspects of an event beyond just preparing the food, and can be a crucial part of the plan for your occasion. But many people don’t realize that there are different types of caterers and that they will offer different services and do things quite differently.

Although there are many specialized catering companies focusing on specific kinds of events, the big distinction in the catering industry is between on-premises caterers and off-premises caterers. On-premises caterers are typically attached to the venue. Their home kitchen is located in the building and they will do all the prep and cooking on the site. Off-premises caterers cook the food and bring it to the site, meaning they serve many different venues.

There are companies that offer both, but the two kinds of service are distinctly different and have their own pros and cons. So which one is right for you? Here’s our recommendation.

On-Premises
On-premises caterers have a lot of advantages. They work in the same space every day and they’re able to walk directly from their kitchen to the venue floor where your event is being held. This means it’s easy to make last-minute changes or corrections if needed.

But the main thing setting apart on-premise caterers is that they typically offer a lot more than food. Since they are attached to the venue, they have access to its supply of tables, tablecloths, stemware, dishes, and décor which allows them to manage many aspects of the event presentation. They are also likely to provide the bar service if needed.

However, on-premise catering can be expensive. As the official venue caterer, they can charge a premium, potentially far more than you would pay for the same food from someone else.

Off-Premises

Off-premises caterers are essentially food delivery and service personnel. Since their kitchen is removed from the venue, they will arrive at the set time with everything you ordered, but making last minute changes may be harder. Many off-premise caterers offer full waiter service, and once they bring the food to your event site they can set up to begin table service. In general, your guests will never know the difference; all they see is that hot, delicious food arrives at their table.

Because they don’t control the venue, off-premise caterers will likely not provide all the tables and flatware needed, though some may be able to or may have a vendor they recommend. The advantage is that off-premise caterers are highly competitive. You can get a better price and, often, they will work harder to help you plan your menu far ahead of time and make sure everything is what you want.

Which to Choose?

If your chosen venue doesn’t allow outside catering, the choice may be made for you. Otherwise, look to off-premise caterers for a better price, or to on-premise caterers if you want to pay a premium to have everything managed for you.

If you live in the Northern VA or Washington, DC area, Saint Germain Catering offers one of the best catering experiences you can ask for. Not sure what you need? Call Saint Germain Catering and let us help you.

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Hiring a caterer can be intimidating. Most of us don’t use caterers very often, and when we do it’s for a really big occasion that you want to make sure goes off without a hitch. At the same time, you don’t want to overpay and blow your budget. That means you need to know exactly what to expect from your caterer, and make sure they know what you expect. As with so many things in life, clear communication is the key to success.

So what do you need to tell your caterer? Most caterers will have a long list of questions for you, but here are the four most important things to have in mind before you pick up the phone.

1. The “holy trinity.” That is, venue, date and time, and guest count. Without these three pieces of information, a caterer will have a very hard time giving you an accurate quote or planning any kind of menu for you.

Knowing your venue is helpful because it means you will know what kind of cooking facilities are available for the caterers to use. If you haven’t settled on a venue yet, know your top several options. Likewise, at the early stage, the guest count can be approximate but you should have at least a general idea.

2. What type of meal? Coming up with suggested menus is the caterer’s job, but they will at least need to know what kind of meal you have in mind. That doesn’t mean what kinds of dishes (not yet!) but how it will be set up. The four main kinds are plated dinners, family style dinners, buffet service, or hors d’oeuvres.

Plated dinners are what many people think of when they picture catering: Guests are seated at tables and waiters bring out the different courses to them, like in a formal restaurant. Family style is similar, but the waiters bring large platters of several dishes to each table so that guests can pass them among themselves and choose what they want. It tends to be less formal but similar in cost.

Buffet style is a great option to save money. You may need multiple buffet stations, with a good rule of thumb being one station per 75 guests to avoid long lines.

Hors d’oeuvres of course are light snacks brought around by mobile waiters, ideal for cocktail parties and early evening events where no full meal is needed.

3. Budget. This is hard for many people, so it’s okay to have only a general sense of budget before you talk to a caterer. Be open to the caterer’s suggestions. If they know what you’re looking for they can help suggest lower-cost alternatives in keeping with your theme, to help preserve your budget.

4. Your Vision. Do you have a theme in mind? Will this be formal or casual? Do you want hundreds of flickering candles in a spotless banquet hall, or hanging paper lanterns and fiddle music in a garden? Again, you don’t need every detail. Your caterer can help you decide on specifics. But they want to bring your vision to life, and the more you can tell them about what you’re picturing, the better.

Of course, the best caterers will also know exactly what to ask you to make sure they don’t miss a thing. If you’re planning an event that needs catering in the Washington, DC or Northern VA areas, Saint Germain Catering is ready to help you work out all the details and make your event perfect.

Let us know if we missed anything you believe to be important.  If you think this is valuable please share and thanks for reading.

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