The guests get the gorgeous place setting.  Photo by Carasco Photography.

The guests get the gorgeous place setting. Photo by Carasco Photography.

So, your photographer, your DJ, and your day-of coordinator all gave you contracts saying that you have to feed them dinner during your event.  Fair enough.  Now, how do you manage this?  A surprising (to me) number of my clients insist that I sit at a table with their guests and eat dinner while everyone else is eating.  As much as I enjoy meeting new people and getting to know the family and friends of my clients, this is not always the smoothest way to handle the situation.  Your other vendors have their own schedules and interests, but for the coordinator, during dinner is often a busy time.  I may be able to eat just one bite of food before I need to jump up and do something, like find the best man for a toast or remind the caterer who has ordered a vegetarian meal.  This can be disruptive to the other guests at the table, or at least surprising.

I would suggest that you set aside a small table near the kitchen or in the back room for your vendors and inform the catering manager that he or she should ask the vendors for the most convenient time to serve them dinner.  For me, once the serious dancing gets underway, I finally have time to sit down for a moment and eat.  The DJ may need to eat during the guests’ dinner.  The photographer may hardly have a moment to sit down at all but will eat when she can.

The most important thing is communication.  Talk to your vendors and to the person in charge of serving.  You can save yourself many headaches this way.

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