I have been personally victimized by this topic. So let’s talk about it.

This is a great question. As a planner I get asked this a lot from our clients, and I think it’s just a question that’s very common because we just don’t know what is edicate and how we should handle this. Always provide a nice guest meal for each vendor that is working the duration of your event.

Yes, you should definitely feed your vendors that are with you for more than 4 hours.

1,000%. Yes. Please feed your vendors at your wedding.

Yes. You need to feed your vendors. You can’t have vendors working 12 plus hour days and not be getting fed.

In order for your vendor team to do their best work for you. We need to fuel in the tank.

The easiest way to tackle this is a transparent conversation with your vendor team because the answer is going to lie with them.

Wherever your wedding is. The answer might be a little bit different depending on the style and the approach of your wedding day. Reach out to your vendors and ask them, Would you like me to feed you for the day?

Would you prefer a stipend in exchange for your meal? If you and your vendor team is on the same page and there are no unwelcome surprises? I can remember one wedding vividly like a nightmare. 11 hours into the day when I sat down with photography and entertainment looking for our dinner, we found out that the couple did not pay for our vendor meal and did not share that with us.

We had no food. Everything around the area was closed. Someone in the kitchen took pity on us and we ate rolls and butter inside of a lobby of someone. Sales office. That’s not the way you want your vendors treated on the day. Everyone is not able to invest in paying for multiple vendor meals. I understand that talk to your team.

See what they need, see what they expect, and see what they prefer. The best way to keep everybody happy, including your budget and the people you’re counting on to give you the best day possible.

Making sure that your vendors are also taking care of will give you that in return. They will definitely take care of you as well.

In fact, most of these vendors that are with you for more than 4 hours require a vendor meal for them and their team. So make sure to check your contract.

So first thing I always tell my clients is always go back to that contract. Always go back to the contract you signed with the vendor. 99% of the time it’s going to stay in there. Our team or our team of vendors will be provided a hot meal or a guest meal during our time of service. In my opinion, this is one of the best things you can do to show appreciation to your vendor to allow them to sit down and have a nice break during dinner time and to provide them a guest meal, really to show appreciation.

Please do feed them a hot meal. Doesn’t need to be the same meal that the rest of your guests are eating, but it does need to be a hot meal. Oftentimes a protein and veggies. Make sure you have a vegetarian option for those that do not eat meat as their protein.

Typically, when it comes to the meal choices, check your contracts a lot do require a hot meal, but sometimes it will just say a meal and that could be sandwiches or cold lunch. And your caterers will typically include this. So if you are doing like a plated meal and you don’t want to pay for 13 extra vendors to have a plated option, that’s okay.

Catering will typically come up with a portion of what they’re serving. Otherwise they’ll typically just be included in the guest count for a buffet. If you’re doing catering on your own, this is something that I would then account for and make sure that there is plenty of food for your vendors to eat. And then always just ask them too if there’s any dietary restrictions since they’re not getting a formal RSVP to tell you that.

But I would always assume to ask how many assistance, if there is any dietary restrictions and ask your catering how they can help serve to make sure that the food requirements are met.

Let your venue know or your catering. We have X amount of vendors and we have no dietary restrictions, or we have two vendors that are gluten free, whatever the scenario is, but make sure you get that to your venue. That is in addition to what your guest count is. Sometimes the venue will give a price break for your vendor meal.

So talk to them about that. Some do, some don’t. It’s not always a given.

The vendor meals should cost way less than you’re paying per person. In my area, Philadelphia, it’s usually 30 to $50 per vendor. If you have a large vendor team and you need to feed a lot of people, I would ask your caterer if it can be more of a turkey sandwich situation than a hot entrée, but that’s really between your caterer and yourself as far as the budget is concerned.

Do involve your planner like me so that your planner can tell the vendor team if they’re being fed.

The win, for us, we always say that your media team for sure should be eating. When the couple is eating that way, they’re done at the same time as you’re done. Oftentimes your other vendors can wait until the end of everybody else being served.

Photographers, videographers, dj anyone who is really essential for when dinner is finished to start toast and dancing and all the next formalities they’re going to want to eat right away. So unless there’s a possibility to have the vendors meals ready in a different room before dinner even starts, or they’re going to jump in line for like the buffet, just tell them, Hey, as soon as you see the head table, go, go ahead and get your food.

Ideally, it is very important that your vendors eat at the same time that you are eating because this will ensure that they are ready to go for the next thing in the timeline. Otherwise, if they don’t eat while you are eating, they are definitely not going to get a chance to eat and they’ll probably have to wait till dancing time, which is usually seven, eight, 9 p.m..

And you don’t want to do that to your vendors.

So you’re going to provide them a vendor meal. Now where do they sit? My thing is, please do not sit your vendors out in the general public of a reception. We are hired as a professional, not as a guest. And we’ve had clients that said, I really want you to sit out with us. You’ve done so much for us.

But the one thing about that is it’s our break time. We’re calling home to check in on our kids. We are talking timelines for the rest of the evening. We’re talking about how is the day going? Is there anything we should be aware of? There’s a lot of business chatter going on and it doesn’t have a place out on the reception floor.

So talk to your venue, talk to your planner about finding a designated area where your vendors can go eat, but somewhere where they can be isolated, so to speak. They can store all their equipment, all of their bags, and make that the area where vendors get to eat.

I have worked at venues where there is no vendor room. If there is no vendor room, think about having an extra table. It doesn’t need to be all fancy because they’re not going to sit there for the whole entire time having a table for them where they can just sit and relax for a few minutes. It’s always appreciated.

We usually eat in a place that is tucked away some times it’s your cocktail hour area where your guests are no longer because they’re in the main part of your reception. Ideally, your vendors want to be super close to the action so that if they need to hop up and do something for you, they can, you know, down the hall, around the corner and through these hallways where we’re 10 minutes away from you is not ideal.

Something super close, but somewhat private would be great for us to eat. So thank you for thinking of us. We get hungry too.