"Bake off" style dessert table - caterers not keen

I don't understand why they are so against it. If people bring cakes and either the bakers or you provide cake stands surely it's cut and serve. Is the rest of the meal a buffet where people help themselves? I'm sure if I were a caterer I would be saying yes of course we will have to make an extra charge of x admits more work but I want your business so that's fine.

Must be some health regulations I dnt know about maybe.

Sorry by much help but I feel your pain. What about wedding cake. Do the caterers serve that? They presumably didn't supply it. Say it's all your wedding cake. Youre having ,11wedding cakes one large and ten small !!

I don't know any but I would go back to the venue and explain you're struggling to find anyone and see what they say. Are the venue doing the rest of the food? Or are you getting caterers in?

When people bring in the cakes and stuff could you get them to cut it so it's already portioned and provide your own paper plates? Then ask people to clear away their own stuff?

Hmm, that's a strange one! I've not heard of anyone not being allowed to do it. I can understand them not wanting to as it means you're ordering less food from them but don't know if there are rules about it.

We're having a mix of catered and supplying our own to both our venues but these are both pubs and they are both fine with it. For our afternoon reception we are ordering main courses but we're having a friend who runs a coffee shop/bakery make cheesecakes for us. We're going to be displaying them as wedding cakes and cutting them for photos but then they'll be taken away and served as dessert. For the evening we're having part buffet and then supplying a massive pork pie and tiers of cheese and they're happy with that!

As previously suggested, just say it's your wedding cake and hope they relent! Hope you get it sorted! My partner would love a cake table!! He's a proper cake fiend!

Anna x

Thanks guys that's really helpful.

The caterers have all said no due to food hygiene - they can't guarantee food they haven't cooked is safe. They also said that if the cakes are bad it could ruin their reputation. Unfortunately we're in a bit of a vicious cycle as the venue say we can only do a cake table if the caterers will be responsible for it! Having 12 weddig cakes is a good idea -but the owner is pretty strict and worried he might get pretty annoyed which would be difficult to manage on the day. We're really keen cooks and on a budget and would love to also do our own canapes/serving plates but sadly just can't find a caterer who will agree to it .

I've seen that before. In one of the hotels I worked in previously if someone was baking the wedding cake themselves we made them sign a form to say they took full responsibility for the cake and if it made people ill then we wouldn't be liable.

It's a tough one - if you get sick at a wedding you are going to assume it was the venue/caterers food that made you sick, regardless of whether it was cooked by them or not. They're twitchy about their reputation so they're reluctant to help. On the other hand you're on a budget and can actually cook! Can you sit the guy down and explain your situation. See if he can be a bit more accommodating? Tell him you're happy to make it clear the cakes haven't been made by the venue, sign something taking responsibility for them and give him final say. If one of the cakes looks dodgy let him taste it and if he doesn't like it you won't serve it?

We're not having a dessert table as such, but a family member is making our wedding cake - we've had to agree with our caterers that we'll provide a full list of ingredients in the cake before the wedding - I''m guessing as someone else has already mentioned that for insurance purposes they have to be aware of everything they're 'serving' - they will be responsible for nothing untoward happening to the cake on the day, & are also cutting it up to be served in the evening.

Tough one! Our venue were happy for us to bring our own canapes in as were most of the caterers we talked to - but I guess they all have different rules & regs & we're lucky our venue are very flexible. How annoying for you though - cake is a crazy expense when you've got talented friends & relations that can make them for you.

We're doing a dessert table and our caterers are providing the plates and cutlery and serving it for us. We've had to sign a form to say they are not liable etc. Caterers were happy to do it if venue were. And venue were ok about it. We're using McBaile Catering but that's a Bristol based company. Not sure if they would cover Surrey, but worth trying.

Its actually a positive thing that your caterers do not want to serve food in that way.

In a roundabout way this policy is also for your protection - lets just say that they were happy to do this for you (without any signed waivers ) then that would mean that quite possibly they also did this for a wedding a couple of weeks ago but something went wrong and as they were the servers they are now being held responsible and as a result have ceased trading and so now leaving you without any caterers with 2 weeks to go.

Not sure on the situ with a porkpie tower as that would be traceable back to the manufacturer I suppose.

So for the same reason that is why you should always ask if your photographer has full insurance including public liability because if they caused an injury they could find themselves being sued and then will have to shut down if they had no insurance cover.

This doesn't surprise me, and I agree that it is a good thing. The caterers won't have any control over the ingredients or quality of the food which is being brought in. If anyone falls ill with food poisoning following your wedding, or had an allergic reaction to any of the ingredients, it would be extremely difficult to prove whether the source was the food provided by the caterers or the cakes which had been brought in. If that guest then needed to seek compensation (say for lost days at work while recovering), the caterers would dispute the claim and blame you as the hosts. Your wedding insurance would get involved and dispute the claim (if they agreed you were covered for it in the first place), and you would get embroiled in a very lengthy and nasty battle between insurance companies.

Hiya,

We did this at our wedding and it worked really well. People served themselves, binned their own plates and took the remaining cakes home in little favour boxes as their gifts. Hardly any clearing was needed at the end. I made a hessian tablecloth for the table, one of our mums just scooped up the table cloth and hey presto, cleared table!

Have a beautiful wedding