Unresponsive Caterers

Said by noon on Friday 12/1. Here we are on Tuesday 12/4 and no quote. Another was supposed to get a quote to us by Saturday 11/25. Nothing. Another said an executive would be in contact with me weeks ago and I had to email twice to get someone to talk to me. I am frustrated. Is this normal in the industry?

That's definitely frustrating. I had a little trouble initially, but most that I contacted were up front about being exceptionally busy because of the holidays. Have you been reaching out via e-mail or have you spoken with any of them on the phone?

Just curious, what's your unorthodox vision consist of? Also, if the emails you are sending out are an obvious copy and paste mass-mail job just so that you can price shop (i.e., it appears that you are not actually interested in their specific service), vendors are less likely to respond.

I only had one caterer not contact me out of the four quotes I requested. The rest were pretty prompt and had them to me within 48 hours. I would keep looking.

Call.

The ones I have corresponded with have been a mix of phone and email. The initial request for proposals have been via their websites, it is a form I fill out and then someone gets back to me from there. Some do not provide any contact information on their sites other than the forms

Ah, I see. IMO, if a vendor doesn't want your business badly enough to respond to an inquiry, move on until you find one that does.

Do you think maybe they're booked on your date and just never bothered getting back to you?

I think I reached out to about 12 initially and had a 50% immediate (well within a day or two) response (maybe 1 or 2 who said they were unavailable) after about a week or maybe even 2, 2 more delayed responses straggled in (another one of whom was unavailable)

But I will say the turn around time between initial conversation and actual quote was much longer. Prob averaged about a week or two, and most of the "I'll have it to you tomorrow"s took a couple days longer. All of my initial contacts were via wedding wire. I think I ended up with 5 actual quotes (out of the 12) after the non responders, those that responded only after I had already "moved on" and hose that after initial conversations turned out to be out of budget or not what I wanted or otherwise not a good fit

It's just super frustrating to do the research, fill out all their forms, and for the ones that do get back to me it is usually a half hour to an hour phone call to give them the information they need to quote us a custom proposal. Which when I am working full time and planning a wedding is not insignificant. And then waiting and waiting on the proposals and having to chase them down. If a proposal takes 3 weeks I would rather them be honest about that up front. It would have been ok! But when they tell me a time they will get it to me and blow past it by over a week it makes me nervous to give them my business even if I love the proposal they come up with.

Ash- thanks, it is actually comforting to hear that someone else experienced something similar

So I just reached out to one of the ones who has a pending proposal that was supposed to be to me more than a week ago, and she blamed the delay on a demanding client, and NAMED the client. Is it just me or is that sooooo unprofessional

Yup, I had the same problem. Reached out to probably 7-10 caterers and heard back from 2, one of which later went dark on me. Luckily I love the one who has been responsive and we are planning to book them!

Interestingly enough, I contacted the caterer my venue exclusively works with since we still need to get a separate contract through them, and they're taking a while to respond. We're advised to reach out within 30 days to secure the exclusive pricing for the venue and I'm about 10 days out from the 30 day mark. Emailed once, no response. Tried to email again two weeks later, the emails bounced back. Called yesterday, straight to voicemail. I'm just hoping they're busy with the holidays and other weddings in the area but I emailed the venue for their advice while I wait for them to return my call.

I hope you hear back from the others soon!

Asta- basically we don't want a plated dinner or a formal buffet where tables get called up one by one and wait in line. We want there to be different food stations all around the room, and have more like small plate style food and a wide variety, and the stations have different themes. We want food to be available throughout the night as well and not a structured "eating time"......basically almost like a cocktail party but for the entire night. So the stations would rotate what food they would have, and some would go away. So for example from 7-8:30 we would have Stations A, B, C and D. One would be a salad station, one would be a slider station, one would be a seafood station, one would be a meat carving station. Then at 8:30 it would go down to 2 stations, and they would change. So like Station A would now be a pasta station and Station B would be a mashed potato station or something (the exact food at each is not set in stone I am just giving general ideas). Then at 9:30 it would switch to dessert stations. Then maybe at the end of the night have a station of like bar snacks.

@Kristin, that sounds amazing as a guest but kind of complicated for the staff, so maybe that is why they are slow getting back to you. I am not saying it cant be done, just that it is probably out of their norm, so maybe they are trying to figure out logistics before getting back to you.

@cantwait.....maybe, but I would appreciate them TELLING me that, instead of giving themselves arbitrary deadlines and blowing past them by 1-3 WEEKS. The one catering company said by Thanksgiving they would have a quote to me (this was after talking on the phone about my vision and answering all of each other's questions for an hour so she understood what it was she was promising to quote), and when it didn't come in on Thanksgiving or the few days after I was understanding because of the holiday, but a week later I hadn't heard from her and when I reached out she told me I would have it by noon the next day (I did not say I needed it by noon the next day, she did...all I asked is when she thought she would get the quote to me because we were looking forward to it), and then literally 100 hours later, nothing. And the other company with a pending quote is blaming another client. And other people haven't responded at all. So......yeah......lol. I would be COMPLETELY fine if anyone had said, "Due to this busy time of year and the logistics of your vision, this may take us 3 weeks to get together," I would have been fine, but it feels like these people just forgot about me.

Anyhoo.....was just kind of venting, and also wondering if this was common with caterers in other people's experiences. I have not had issues like this with any other type of vendor. Photographers, HMUAs, transportation companies, DJs, florists, wedding coordinators, everyone else we have booked or started getting quotes from have been so responsive, so I know it isn't a wedding industry thing. I know for caterers their quotes are a lot more complicated and involved, and also the holidays are likely busy, but I would appreciate communication is all.