# weddings.....



## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

got an email from a caterer buddy who is going full throttle after wedding business, it makes alot of sense. non-profit business is way down.....both in number and $......wedding receptions still happen, recession or not.

thoughts?


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## cheri (Apr 5, 2006)

We are still going after weddings as well and we are thinking of opening up the kitchen fro classes as well. The thing is, is that the budgets are down.


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## bbally (Jan 2, 2005)

Our wedding business is still very strong.

Your friend needs to know what level of wedding service they are going to go after.

Utility wedding work?

Midlevel work?

High end wedding work?

The equipment and pricing for each niche is very different. And it must be focused on to create a profit while doing it. Failure to focus on a specific niche will result in disaster for several reasons.

We could not use wedding work alone to make a profit as most happen on the weekends, and with our staff we can only cover 9 weddings per weekend. So the other four days we still need work for the kitchen so our corporate catering is still something we work on very hard. And it has stayed strong as well.

There have been casualties, and I bought most of the losers stuff at the bankruptcy auctions. So monitor the profit margins, cause it is about left over money, not turning over money.


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## ed buchanan (May 29, 2006)

If you do 9 weddings per weekend and one or two corp. gigs during the week, you dont have to stay open on a daily basis. At Terrace on the Park in New York we did 17 weddings and other type gigs on weekends and 20 -30 during week in season and we did 17 million per year gross. Why get greedy?


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## bbally (Jan 2, 2005)

Not greedy, we want to dominate the market, and have for about a decade now. To quick the middle week stuff does several things I don't like:

Gives opportunity for other utility caterers to move into my vertical niche:

Does not give my relief crews enough hours to make a living wage set. (they need 50 hours per week to make really excellent money)

Does not allow my RONA to hit the numbers I need to stay viable. Without a consistant return on net assets the company becomes vulnerable to a cash flow crisis.

It is my job to ensure my chefs, cooks and preps as well as my service staff have a good wage.. I take it seriously as they trusted me when they signed on as a chef or cook or whatever, I will not let them down, it affects them greatly if I just do the hours I need to be happy with the money, I need hours for them to do well for their families as well.

I am serving a community of 150,000 with an area of service of 250,000 people, so the demographics are a little different then New York or some of the other large population centers.


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## rsteve (May 3, 2007)

If he/she is is an experienced caterer, there's no reason not to pursue the wedding business.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Bryan Young, Catering Plus in St. Louis has a nice business....his catering business has been active for 10+ years, he's in the 7 figures for a few years.

It just reiterated the direction a successful caterer is going in.....
thought I'd share.


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## rsteve (May 3, 2007)

If I did nine weddings per weekend, I'd currently be typing at a villa on the French Riviera or a sheltered nursing home. My personal *vig *on any wedding had to be a grand+ or I didn't take the event. hmm..Let's see, 9 x 52 = 468 weddings; nearly half a mill *vig *for me, annually, just on wedding business. :lol: I'd be crazy as a loon.


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