Should I have Staff at my Catered Event?

Our catered events are broken into three main segments: On-Site, Delivery, and Pickup. We will go through each and talk about the pros and cons.

ON-SITE

On-Site means you will have staff at the event for the duration of the meal.

When you have Saddleback’s staff is on-site we are responsible for:

  • Setting the food
  • Serving the food – unless you would like the guest to serve themselves, this leads to faster lines
  • Answering all questions about the food
  • Replenishing pans of food
  • Cleaning our serving station
  • Packaging the leftovers

So what are the downsides to having staff on-site? Saddleback, like most catering companies, charges for each hour of labor the event will need. So if the event requires 3 people to be on-site for 4 hours, we will have to charge 12 hours of labor.

Typically, for any wedding we highly recommend having on-site staff. It’s not an absolute must, but it does alleviate all effort for the guests. We also recommend staff for any events that will need frequent replenishing of the pans of food — Each pan has about 15lbs of food, so if you are ordering many types of food with more than 15lbs of food it may be a good idea.

Another option aside from having staff on-site for the duration of your event is to have the food delivered. When Saddleback delivers a catering event, we will set everything up for you. We light the sternos, place the food in the chafing dishes, and organize all of the food.

DELIVERIES

As the name suggests, we will deliver the food, but we will also set your event up for success.

When we deliver food to an event, we will:

  • Arrive at your desired location and unload all of the foo
  • Organize the placement in the most optimal order
  • Light the sternos and set up the chafing dishes
  • Provide disposable serving utensils

Deliveries are our most popular type of catering. They take almost all of the work out of food at an event. We highly recommend these!

PICK UP

Great for smaller events (80 people or less)

Just let us know what time you would like to pick the food up, we will have it ready. The food will come packaged and ready to be served. We pack the food in large aluminum containers that fit perfectly in chafing dishes. We also have a post explaining best practices for pick up orders, you can find that here: https://www.saddlebackbbq.com/tips-picking-catering-order

*** Some things to keep in mind, our dates fill up quickly. If you need your event catered on-site we will need more time to plan the event. We can provide food for pick-up caterings on very short notice. If you’re in a pickle and need food quickly, we will direct you towards pick-up. ***

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