Curious...

[museikchik]

Today I sent an email to a possible wedding venue asking if it would be possible to schedule a tasting of their food. I received an email back that it wasn''t normally their policy to allow people who were not already clients to schedule a tasting. I emailed the lady back and explained that we just wanted to sample the food before we signed the contract and that most likely we will be signing the contract shortly afterwards. I just don''t understand, we have to pay like $30 a person to taste the food so it is not like they are losing out on any money. Maybe it is just me but I don''t believe in signing any sort of contract without knowing what the food is going to taste like (hello that is where almost all of the money is going). Is anyone else with me on this, or am I just totally crazy?

 

[Lynnie]

hey, muse. It''s not you, you''re not crazy... I''ve been to 5 different venues. 3 of them were really nice about tastings. They said to just call and make an appointment.
THE OTHER TWO:
At the first place we checked out, the guy was like "We do 2 tastings a year... one in February and one in September" I''m planning a 4/18/09 wedding. He must''ve seen the bewildered look on my face, ''cause he quickly added "You can always go to the chef''s restaurant", but then, what? Would we have to order 4 entrees and 12 appetizers? And he couldn''t even guarantee that what is on HIS menu is the same as the restaurant''s.... crazy.
Another place said "We do complimentary tastings once you have booked with us"... um, HELLO? Yeah, right... like I''ll just plop down thousands of dollars with the "hope" of getting a decent meal for the guests... I really don''t understand places like this. It''s just bad business.

 

[SarahLovesJS]

I don''t think you''re crazy! I signed with kind of tasting the food. They have a place that serves some of the food (rotates what they have) on site, so I tried it and it was really good. Those options are offered by the caterer. My venue is another one of the 2x a year tasting kind of places with invitation after you sign. It annoyed me, but eh. I''ll survive.

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

Your not crazy at all. My caterer asked us what we wanted and prepared an entire meal then invited us over to his home to have dinner. It was great and we went with him, but food is the most expensive part of the wedding for us and I certainly wasn''t going to sign without trying it. Any place that badly set up for it makes me suspect the food is not up to par

 

[ladyciel]

I''ll admit that we booked our venue without a tasting first, but that was based on the experience of friends and a great reputation. They very well might have allowed us to do the tasting first - to be honest we didn''t ask. We''d gotten to the bottom of our venue list, and this one was miles above the others in terms of location, room, friendly staff, etc. We just had our tasting last weekend and the food was phenomenal.

Thinking back, NONE of the places we went to offered to do an up front tasting. If they allowed them, they kept them under wraps. Maybe it''s a regional thing?

 

[newbie124]

All of the places I contacted both in Chicago and the Bay Area had no problems setting up tastings. One of them did charge $50, but that would have gone towards the event contract had we signed with them, and apparently they provided a full-meal's worth of food for up to 4 people.

We even got the ones in CA to agree upfront to letting us have potentially 2 tastings...an initial one for my sister to go to. Then, if we decided to sign with them, have a second tasting for my FI and I when we visit in August.

I have heard, though, that some places can be reluctant to do tastings upfront. It really doesn't make sense to me, though, when you're spending that much money. I mean, would they buy a car w/o first giving it a test drive?

 

[crystalheart1]

I had some thoughts about this too when looking for a venue. In one way - you can''t blame them for wanting to be reimbursed for the food they are preparing, in the event you don''t book with them

I thought it was so odd that when we went to these places we were not even offered a cold beverage to drink.. like a soda or ice tea.

One very rude event manager made a joke when we passed the bartender saying I would offer you a drink, but I know you dont drink

??????????? Not sure what that was even about.... then he spent the entire meeting staring at my chest.. My FI even mentioned he saw him staring.... and no follow up or THank you for visiting. This is an INN that is very well known and does a lot of business in the area.

They act like they are doing you a favor ( some ) to show you the place.

 

[buttercup80]

You are not at all crazy! Food is probably the only thing FI REALLY cares about - there''s no way on earth we''d reserve a venue without tasting first - but the venues we spoke to all seemed to have that as standard - maybe it depends what part of the country you are in?

There was one place where to reserve our date they were requiring a deposit and it was before their next available tasting - but they put a clause on the contract that the deposit was completely refundable after the tasting if we didn''t like the food. Maybe your venue just doesn''t want a ton of people coming in expecting free food without even considering the place? Ask if they''ll refund your $$$ if you don''t like the food - otherwise, I''d definitely go elsewhere.

 

[zoebartlett]

I don''t think it''s crazy to want a tasting before booking a venue, but I know that a lot of venues don''t offer tastings for a variety of reasons. Ours is a restaurant and they don''t offer tastings. I guess they thought that if you wanted to taste their food, you''d just make a reservation for dinner and check it out on your own dime. We booked before we realized that though. I''d ask the venue for references -- see if they can give you names of people to contact to see how the food and service was.

 

[museikchik]

Still haven''t heard back from the venue yet as to whether or not they will allow the tasting. That''s a bummer because we really like everything else about the place. Thank you ladies for all of your input. At least I know that I am not requesting anything out of the ordinary.

 

[monarch64]

No, I don''t think you''re crazy. Different venues certainly have their own ways of doing tastings, but it seems a bit silly to me to sign a contract without knowing what you''re getting. I think our venue did scheduled tastings for groups, and we did attend one of those and it worked out pretty well. DH and I took his sister who is known for being a foodie and she gave it a thumbs-up, so we felt fine signing a contract after that. We would not have signed without doing a tasting, though, too many other venues in our area who were glad to offer them.

Hope you hear back that your potential venue will do a tasting for you.

 

[museikchik]

Yeah, I just got an email yesterday saying they are going to ok our tasting. We go next Sunday, I am soo excited. If everything goes ok, then we will sign the contract and we will have our wedding venue !!!

 

[miraclesrule]

Phew!! I''m glad they came through for you. It would seem to me that in these economic times, the venue would pony up the cost to taste some food items in exchange for the likely opportunity to get the business. Especially in light of the fact that you have to pay money to offset the cost of the food they use for the tasting.

Let us know how it tastes!!

 

[museikchik]

So we drove to the place for our tasting Sunday and found out the chef had a "family emergency" and we would not be able to have our tasting. The lady tried to say she called me to let me know (um hello she called me at 10:15 am when our appt was at 11:00 am) who does that? Anyway the only good thing is that we got to reschedule and it is going to be free of charge. We will find out on July 6th if their food is any good.

 

[miraclesrule]

You need to check your phone all the time for these things and definately don't keep it on silent or vibrate. Like when the person you are interviewing with has an emergency and needs to change the place and time.

You don't get a lot of notice with emergencies. At least you had a nice drive through the area you will getting married.

 

[museikchik]

So we went and had the tasting today and the food was fantastic!!! I am bringing my mom with me next week and I am going to sign the contract. I am soo stoked that everything is just falling into place. That is soo what I need right now. Its really weird though because once we actually sign the contract then we will need to get the ball rolling on all of the other stuff (then after 9 years we will actually be married by this time next year). It is just a really weird feeling but in a good way.

 

[miraclesrule]

Yayayaya, museik: I''m so glad the tasting went well. I was crossing my fingers for you. So, glad it went well. Signing on the dotted line....point of no return.

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Yaaay always good to hear a tasting went well!!