Spice Catering Group w/Tim MacNamera

In this episode of The We Do Wedding Podcast, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Tim, a seasoned restaurant manager turned catering coordinator of the highly regarded Spice Catering Group. Tim enlightened us with his wealth of experience in the wedding industry, sharing valuable insights and tips to help couples navigate the often overwhelming world of wedding catering.

Tim's journey from restaurant manager to caterer has instilled in him a deep understanding of the importance of communication and attention to detail. His philosophy of being helpful and accommodating, even to non-clients, has earned him a reputation for exceptional customer service. Spice Catering Group specializes in crafting custom menus that cater to clients' unique dietary needs and preferences, ensuring that all guests are well-fed and satisfied on the big day.

During our conversation, Tim also stressed the importance of taking the time to choose the right catering partner and creating checklists to keep the planning process organized and stress-free. His "less is more" approach to wedding planning allows couples to enjoy a comfortable, fun experience without feeling overwhelmed by endless options. With Spice Catering Group's focus on good food and meticulous planning, couples can trust that their wedding day will be a memorable event for all the right reasons.

If you're interested in learning more about Tim and Spice Catering Group, be sure to check out their website and follow them on social media for updates on upcoming events and mouthwatering menu offerings. Remember, wedding planning should be an enjoyable journey, and with the right caterer by your side, you can have the stress-free, delicious wedding you've always dreamed of.

Don't miss out on more expert advice and wedding planning tips! Tune in to the next episode of The We Do Wedding Podcast, and as always, happy planning!

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Transcript

00:01
Regina
I'm Regina Burris, owner and lead wedding planner and coordinator at weddings by Regina Marie. 

00:07
Cate
And I'm Kate Barry, owner of Kate Barry Photography. We are friends and workwives and we are both located in Connecticut. 

00:14
Regina
We started the We Do Wedding podcast as a way to introduce couples to wedding professionals in our area while also giving them a behind the scenes look at what it takes to pull off a successful wedding day and addition. We wanted to help vendors better understand the roles their colleagues play in bringing a wedding day to life. 

00:31
Cate
Since launching the podcast, we've seen our community of wedding professionals grow and we've connected more and more couples to the perfect vendors for them. Through our conversations and stories, we explore the roles we all play in bringing a wedding day to life and we get to the heart of why weddings really matter. Hello everyone. 

00:56
Regina
I am Regina. 

00:57
Cate
And I'm Kate. 

00:59
Regina
And this is the We Do wedding podcast. On today's episode, we spoke with Tim McNamara of Spice Catering Group. Spice Catering is obviously catering company and other catering company plus located in Derby, Connecticut, servicing all of Connecticut and beyond. They specialize in off premise catering which means they will come to you. So if you are having a tinted backyard wedding, if you're having a wedding in someplace like Barn or somewhere that you normally wouldn't have an event, they are the perfect couples for you or perfect catering company for you because they come to you fully prepared with everything that you need to run your day. So Tim was, as you guys will see, great to talk to. I feel like we say this a lot, but I'm a little bit biased. I've worked with Tim a lot in the last few years and have really gotten to know him and Spice Catering and love them as a catering company. 

01:54
Regina
They are one of my go to referrals and his energy is awesome. And this is his energy. If you worked with Spice all the way through the planning process from your initial consultation with them all the way through till your final meeting with them leading up to your wedding, he's just an awesome person to work with. I will also just throw out. You guys may not even notice, but I am losing my voice. So if I sound like a little boy voice whose voice is cracking going through puberty, that's probably why as he who listens to the episode. So please don't mind my voice. And with that, I will shut the heck up. 

02:30
Cate
I think you sound sultry and delicious, but that's just I'll take what I can get. Yeah, tim was awesome. Always loved talking to caters. I was a catering server way back in the day, so I always like to kind of get a peek back into that business, into that world. He's super knowledgeable and I can tell that working with him would set my mind at ease. Because he's all about precrastination and getting s*** done as soon as humanly possible, which in event planning, I think, is key. So let's take you guys to the episode, and you can enjoy Regina's low, sultry voice. 

03:15
Regina
And with that, let's jump into the episode. All right, Tim, thanks for being on the show today. 

03:20
Tim
My pleasure. 

03:22
Regina
Awesome. So tell us a little bit about you and what it is that you do with Spice Catering. So. 

03:28
Tim
My name is Tim McNamara. I'm currently the catering executive and event planner for Spice Catering Group. Spice Catering is a smaller company, smaller catering company. We're located in Derby, Connecticut, and we've been in business for, I want to say about ten or eleven years now, probably early 2010, probably 2011. The current owner started his tenure for Jordan Caterers. I'm sure that is a very familiar caterer name back in the day, especially across Connecticut. Back in 2014, that company sort of went away. Liquefied stopped being a cater, if you will. So the current owner of Spice kind of branched off, started Spice, and now they've been in Derby, in our Derby location for about, I want to say, six or seven years now. Six or seven years now, which is really great. We have a wonderful facility called Sage. Okay? It's called sage on high. It's a great facility that you can rent. 

04:29
Tim
We do mostly birthday parties there. Anniversaries graduations are a big time this year, so we're doing a lot of graduation parties in our facility. But in Derby, that's where the magic happens. That's where our offices are, that's where our kitchen is. That's where we do all of our planning, all of our wedding tastings for couples that want to come in and try our food and whatnot. And we have a strong foothold across the Connecticut shoreline and beyond. We do most of our events in Connecticut. We've done a few maybe in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, but this is our home base. Okay. What I specialize in is off premise events, mostly weddings, mostly social events. But I do also have some larger corporate clients as part of my portfolio as well. Okay. And we are typically your full service caterer, from initial inquiry to consultation to menu development to venue specifics, such as visiting the venue, doing a walk through, doing a wedding tasting, up to a point where a client decides that we're a good fit for them and they're a good fit for us. 

05:35
Tim
Most importantly, not as important, but we want to make sure that the feeling is very mutual. Every cater is not for everyone. Weddings are a big investment. They require a lot of time, a lot of planning. So I always encourage my clients, both contracted and prospective clients, to really take your time choosing your cater, take your time trying the food, developing a menu. That does not happen overnight. So that's one of the things that I really specialize in at my time at Spice, I really work directly with clients, really work with them on a personal level for the purposes of this podcast and for these conversations, I'd probably talk about weddings more, but weddings aren't always the only thing that I do. But with this pandemic, I have learned that weddings are bulletproof. They really are. That's what I mainly focus on, just because I always feel like weddings are going to be striving. 

06:31
Tim
And that's where I put a lot of my time and a lot of my effort in, because the corporate sector is kind of not really rebounding as much as we'd like it to. So Spice is really revamping our website. Our website is www.spicecateringgroup.com. We're developing new menus that are gearing towards today's wedding clientele. And then what we also do as part time and not only working with clients is that strictly being an off premise caterer? I only work at other locations, people's homes, residential weddings and so forth. We do have a number of venues across the Connecticut, the state of Connecticut that we are a preferred vendor at, that we work at very frequently, but we aren't exclusive to any one venue. That really brings out the customization of us that I'll get into a little bit of what clients can expect when they contact us for the first time. 

07:24
Tim
But really the customization of it because we really bring things from the ground up, really starting with a blank canvas because it could be at a new venue that we've never worked at before, clients, obviously, that we've never met before and know nothing about. So a lot of the initial process of what I do is meeting clients for the first time and really extracting all that information and then putting the whole package together for them. 

07:47
Cate
Got you. And what would you say people are initially reaching out to Spice Catering for? What are you guys kind of known for? Is it a particular style of food? Is it a particular style of service? Like, tell us a little bit about what makes you guys unique. 

08:03
Tim
We're unique because we're sort of that middle ground in terms of size of caterer. Some people want to look for this large caterer that works in multiple states and has 13 different trucks available. Some people really like that. They like the options. They like to work on a really grand level. Other people really want to work with somebody very intimately. They only want to work with one person to do their wedding, regardless of the size. We're like kind of the middle ground. Okay. We're a smaller to a middle sized catering company. We have three trucks. We have two or three salespeople, including myself. We have one chef and one executive chef and one sous chef. Okay. So I tell a lot of my clients that if you're really focused on customization, you're really focused on being able to incorporate certain unique aspects as part of your wedding menu that really speaks to you while also getting the opportunity to incorporate global cuisines, not just American foods. 

09:10
Tim
I'm doing an Ethiopian wedding this year. We're doing 100% gluten free menus. We're doing 100% vegan menus and so forth. So that customization part really sets us apart from a lot of people, because I feel like many caterers these days in working with today's clientele, everybody wants something rather quickly, okay, how can I get pricing? How can I get menu items? How can I get your options very quickly? And what a lot of caterers are doing is, hey, here's a package for you. Okay? Here's. A, B and C. Here's. One, two, three. Here's bronze, silver, and gold. Choose one. Okay? We don't do that. We tend to take it a step further. I can give you menus and packages all day, but that may not speak to you as a person and what you envision for your wedding. So if you want somebody that takes the time to really get to know you and really develop something for you, I can firmly say that I'm confident that we are one of those very few caterer breeds that you can find where you really feel like you're getting the one one service that other people may lack these days. 

10:14
Regina
And I could attest to that. Having worked with you for a few weddings and absolutely seen that whole, I'm sending you this client, and I've said this a lot on the podcast. I like to pair couples with vendors that I feel will match their personality, that will work best with them. And I have had couples that I'm like. I literally will sit and have a conversation with them and ask them about the dining experience that they want. And I'm like, yeah, let me call Tim. Let me guys in and let's say and have a conversation. We literally have not a lot of times, we haven't even moved on to the next, let's talk to another caterer. They're just like, okay, cool. We're going to go with spice, because they get that customization and that one one attention. They get it right away. 

10:58
Tim
Yeah. Like I said, there's people that kind of want to make a decision and be good with it. I find it that people's planning process for their weddings, or for any gathering for that matter, is constantly evolving. It's constantly changing. I think today it's changing. More so ever than not, people are wanting to be a little bit more careful about what they spend money on and what's more important to spend money on than a wedding. Okay. I think people are taking a little bit more time figuring out what their budgets are, figuring out a little bit more time about what they're able to accomplish. I think the major battle, Regina, is that you were just kind of touching up on is, where do I start? Okay. Where do I start? I'm a person I'm just getting married. Where do I start? I don't know who to call. 

11:46
Tim
I don't know. The first thing that comes to mind were some people that I contact for the first time. I'm like, hey, how are you? Where are you from? Give me a little bit of you. How can I know you? And how can I put that on paper? And how can I put that on a menu? What most people's reaction is, I have no idea. Right? They won't even start to even have the conversation be about food or their wedding in general. They could say something like, do you guys do linens? All right, we're talking about linen right now. Okay, let's talk about you. Let's talk about your wedding first and worry about linens later. I feel like today's clientele, they're really getting so much information, and their minds are going through every detail a mile a minute, that when they meet with me and they meet with Spice, they get reassurance that somebody knows what they're doing. 

12:36
Tim
They know they can take you through the process step by step. And then the bottom line is to kind of make it enjoyable for them as possible. Because my famous statement is the food is always going to be good. Okay? Food is always going to be great. I can attest to that. But the experience and the service and the enjoyment that you're getting throughout the process from when you contact somebody up until your wedding date, that's equally as important as well, okay, if you're not happy and you're not streamlining the process during your wedding planning closer to the event time, you're not going to be as happy. You're not going to be as comfortable. You're going to have too much weight on your shoulders. So staying in tune with kind of what separates us or taking through the process of when people meet you for the first time, that's sort of what I kind of garner into their minds. 

13:25
Tim
And it really kind of develops a really nice relationship. People, in a manner of speaking, a lot of people don't necessarily choose Spice because of Spice. They ultimately do, but they choose Spice because they like working with a certain individual. They like working with me. Maybe we have something in common. I happen to think I'm very prompt, very energetic individual. I like to get things done well ahead of time. So if you're that type of client that likes to do things ahead of time, so you're not pulling your hair out closer to event time, then I'm your guy. We're your company. Okay? So a lot of those things go hand in hand with the clientele these days. What's the inquiry process like? Take me through why should you be our caterer? But really kind of that feeling, that experience that you get like, wow, I had a really good conversation, had really good tasting. 

14:18
Tim
I'm feeling really good about this. Only that moment where you know that it's a good team from start to finish. 

14:24
Cate
I'm going to take Regina's normal question and ask, how does that process go with Spice? Are you kind of leading the client through a series of things, or is it kind of client timeline led? Like, tell us about how that looks. 

14:40
Tim
Yeah. One thing that I've been hearing from a lot of my venue contacts, so I work with a lot of people that work at different venues guilford Yacht Club, Wadsworth Mansion, a lot of the well known ones across the state. What I'm hearing from a lot of these clients is they want things then and there. They want menus. They want pricing information, lists and things of that nature. That's always easy to do when you're meeting people for the first time. You get an inquiry, great, where is your wedding? When is it? How many people? You get the nuts and bolts, and then you fire off some content for them to consider, and then the ball is in their court. Great. Love that idea. It's a way to put the client in the driver's seat, which is a tactic that I also take with a lot of my clients. 

15:25
Tim
I mentioned to them my goal is to really kind of put a personal touch on your wedding and your menu as a whole. What can you tell me a little bit about you in order for me to do that? Some people like this process of things don't happen overnight. The information that I get to people may take a few days. Some people like that, other people don't. Other people say, no, I want a quote right now. I want your packages right now. I want pricing lists right now. That's fine. Somebody like me may need to adjust and just give the information that people want. But how it usually works is initial consultation, either in person, over the phone, just like, kind of anybody in this industry. And then I immediately start firing off some sample content lists of Or D'oeuvres based on the information that they're providing me. 

16:12
Tim
I can look up menus that we've done similar in the past. Maybe they're getting married at a venue that we've done a number of weddings at for, and I can share some menus and well received items that we've done in the past. And this is information that people are getting that's really garnering some inspiration and developing their menu for them. Okay. And this is my tactic, what I was saying before, to put them in the driver's seat, because my ultimate goal is not to create a menu for them. I want them to create their own menu for themselves and just have me kind of collaborate with them. You know what I mean? Same thing with rentals. People ask me all the time, hey, what do I do with rentals? Well, I work with lots of different rental companies, but the type of plate glassware and fork that you want, and linen is completely up to you. 

16:57
Tim
I can offer you all these samples and then you make a decision, okay? And that's really all it is getting people information that they need, having them make a decision probably earlier than better than later is better, I should say. And then the process moves forward with an initial proposal, multiple edits to the menu because it is customized, as I was saying before, okay, wedding tastings, walk through. And then you're really hitting the ground running with the planning process in terms of bringing everything else all together. And Regina and UK can attest to this. You start with the menu that dictates everything else for a wedding reception, okay? Because people are gathering for what? Food, beverage and music, entertainment. Right? But food and beverage are the biggest ones, right? So a lot of the nuts and bolts you start off with. Once you have that finalized menu, everything else comes into play. 

17:52
Tim
And we work with people on their level. Everyone's got lives. I may work with people where I don't hear from them for several weeks, maybe even months, if we're planning the wedding in that far in advance. So it really is a good partnership with me and my clients, and there's good boundaries actually set in place in this type of industry. I'm not an insurance salesman. I'm not trying to sell you a car or a house. I'm trying to sell you a wedding. I'm trying to sell you wonderful food. I'm trying to sell you a really great experience. And that kind of just happens through mutual consent and through mutual conversation, which could take several days, maybe even up to a couple of weeks when they're ready to book. 

18:30
Regina
Yes, and all of that. So catering, maybe people know this for me, like, for us in the industry, it seems kind of obvious. Some people listening may not know, but catering is usually the largest part of your budget. So for me, when I'm working with a client, getting your caterer down and factoring it like you mentioned, the style of food, the dinnerware, the plate wear, is your table going to be set? What is your dinner service going to be like? That dictates the style and usually the cost of your wedding. So if you're having a casual buffet style or family style dinner with normal, let's just say normal, non upgraded, like dishes and plate weather, never normal. Never normal. But just like, if you're not upgrading, you're not doing all the upgrades, you're not doing anything fancy, and it's buffet style. It's going to be more casual and obviously a little bit less expensive. 

19:25
Regina
But then you get into, if you're like, no, I want a plated dinner, and I want, like, Pastor D'oeuvres, and I want to upgrade my china, and I want these fancy rental goblets, and I want to upgrade my linens. And now you're talking about making that one your dinner is more elevated, but now that sets the tone for the rest of your wedding, so you can't go off and have backyard jenga and cornhole. Cornhole, yeah, exactly. It sets the tone. But I do want to ask you a question that someone listening may think, because there's also a misconception that I hear a lot. So I want to throw this at you. Do you find that there is a major price difference between, like, a plated dinner and buffet style dinner? And if yes or if no? Why is that? 

20:14
Tim
That's a really good question. That's probably a question I get asked on the Daily. 

20:18
Regina
Me too. 

20:20
Tim
My answer is no. My answer is no, and I'll tell you why. I think I'm going against the grain here and saying no. Because people can say a plated meal is a little bit more affordable just because we know exactly how much food we're bringing to the wedding. You know what I mean? Two things to consider with catering pricing. One is the content itself, okay? Lobster costs more than a bag of lentils, and that's just historic. That's what I explained to people. Oh, you want a raw bar. Raw bar is historically very high priced item. Is that within your budget that starts at this and so forth? Exactly. So it's the content of the menu item as well. So a lobster and fillet meal will cost a lot more than chicken and rice or pasta. You know what I mean? It's just that's the content, this food item costs more than this item. 

21:26
Tim
Then there's also the quantity part of it. Okay, I use the conversation of going to the grocery store. Hate going to the grocery store these days because everything's so freaking expensive. But the more groceries you put in your car, the higher your bill is going to be. So that's a quantitative cost as well. So the more food bulk that you have at your wedding, that your menu price is going to be up too. So some people may think, because I have a buffet, I need to spec more food to bring to the wedding as a caterer because Uncle Jimmy can grab 15 scoops of this, or people want to go up to the buffet for seconds. We need to accommodate more and a higher increase of food to accommodate that. Okay, that may be the case. Certain caterers bring a certain percentage of extra food to a wedding for obvious reasons. 

22:13
Tim
We don't want to run out. So if I only need 100 pieces of chicken, my chef may bring 105 110. Horrible example. I know, but the difference between a plated and a buffet sort of menu cost yes, they're never usually the same. Sometimes buffets are more, sometimes plated meals are more. But in the grand scheme of things, the reason why people ask that question is because why? They want to save money, right? And they always probably want to go for the cheaper option, but there are other variables that go into it, the quantitative part and the actual content part. But in the grand scheme of trying to save money, the difference between the two, you're saving a little, maybe a few hundred, not thousands in the grand scheme of things. Okay, so I may have a buffet dinner that's $32 a person and then a plated meal maybe at like 29 or $30 a person. 

23:07
Tim
So that $2 person difference. Sounds like a lot. It should be. For some people, this is a nickel and dime business. We want to keep cost as low as possible, but I don't see much of a fluctuation that much. It really all depends on the actual content. 

23:22
Regina
Thank you for that. Yeah, once upon a time, that was a really easy question to answer and now I'm like, you know what, let's throw it to a specific cater. Because as you mentioned, one cater might say, oh yeah, no, our buffet meals are way cheaper than our plated meals. And another might say the opposite. 

23:42
Tim
Yeah. A good example is a buffet, traditional ala carte buffet. Maybe you have two entrees, vegetarian entree. So that's like two or three kind of main dishes, two or three side dishes, maybe a garden salad, some breads and rolls. That is your typical buffet, right? So that may cost what, $25 a person, but maybe somebody wants an extra side dish. And that side dish could be just some steamed vegetables, right? Doesn't sound like much, doesn't sound too expensive. It will cost more because it's more food. Let's say for argument's sake, $3 more person. Now that buffet just turned in from the just simply by a personal client preference to add another side dish, you know what I mean? So even going from there is such a big jump in terms of what one thing costs to another. So yes, content, yes, quantity, but really all comes down to personal preference. 

24:37
Tim
And going back to how that gets accomplished really can't happen overnight. Really the first several days, up to several weeks that I'm connecting with clients is a lot of just discussion and a lot of emails back and forth until you get to a point where you're jiving on the same level in terms of what the wedding vision is and how I can put that on paper, it's never a home run to start. But as you continue to grow and sort of make, edits and evolve that menu, as soon as that happens, then you move over to next steps, for sure. 

25:08
Regina
Awesome. And I want to ask you another question. I'm going to throw you another sort of difficult question that I get asked that I'm going to defer to the catering rep. So as far as tastings go, that's another thing that I see a lot that varies on a spectrum. So some catering companies will say, yeah, sure, you can come in and have a tasting, and then if you like us, awesome. Book with us. If not, then you don't have to book with us, and then others will. You're locked into your contract, and then you have a tasting. And then I have very rarely seen it happen, but what happens in that situation where and I'm going to ask you what your policy is. I know what your policy is. Not asking you to state it over the podcast. So what happens if there's a couple who stays locked into a contract and then they have their tasting a little ways down the line and they don't like it? 

26:00
Regina
Literally, just I'm going to throw this out here because it's the hot topic that I get asked a lot when I'm looking for catered by couples. 

26:08
Tim
Yeah, it is a hot topic. A tastings are at all time demand, in my opinion, going back with people being very careful about what they want to spend money on these days. I'm a huge fan of tastings. They are the last line of defense, in my opinion, to see if that caterer we are a right fit for you. You've gone through the process. You've seen Cost. You've seen the proposal a dozen times. If you come in and try the food and it's not your liking, then totally it's not a good fit. I don't get every wedding that I book. I don't get every tasting that I have. Okay. Some clients don't live local where they can't come into a tasting, so they have to wait even longer, maybe even closer to the wedding. Not ideal. I just did a tasting two weeks ago, and they're getting married June 11. 

26:58
Tim
Not ideal. That's back to my the menu dictates everything else. Once you have the menu in place, give yourself a round of applause because you get to check it off and then move on to the next fun stuff. Okay. To have to go back and redo the menu, not ideal, but I haven't had that happen to me too many times. Most of the time, people that do want to spend the time travel and effort to come in to try the food, they have an inkling that we're a top choice. I think people are so busy these days that they'll sort of kind of cancel out the ones that they aren't interested in and not schedule something. Okay. Somebody that's contracted with us, unfortunately, it's a non refundable deposit for obvious reasons. If were to give your deposit back, we lose the date. We couldn't book another event for the date. 

27:49
Tim
We lose out. Not a good way to operate business. We could be out of business if we kept doing that policy. Okay. Similar to tastings, people do contract with us because they can't come in for a tasting. I have clients that are planning weddings in Connecticut from California, Philadelphia, Savannah, Georgia, you name it, all across the country. Okay. 

28:11
Regina
If. 

28:11
Tim
They feel like we're not a good fit. Unfortunately, I can't give them their deposit unless we can work something out. But even from when they do come in for the tasting, nothing needs to be finalized then. I always would love to give my clients an opportunity for us to make it better for them, give us a second chance. Let's continue to evolve and develop the menu, and we can have it do a second tasting, if you will. At that point, it becomes everything we can do to try to get their business. If they aren't willing to still work with us and they've gone another route, it depends on what the owner thinks. He can maybe be as flexible with their deposits. If we can try to get another, we can give their deposit back if we've got another event for that date. Okay, we are flexible these days. 

28:58
Tim
We are a little bit more forgiving with people because of COVID And so many people have had to cancel and adjust and so forth. So it is sort of kind of an open ended question a little bit. There's no right or wrong answer to what we should do. I guess every situation is different and every sort of client is different. Some people have had to postpone or cancel their weddings due to unforeseen circumstances. They've had to move. They have health concerns, things of that nature. Budget constraints really change. So, you know, we want people to be we want to be as forgiving as possible, because we know that weddings are just something that can happen anytime. They hopefully just happen once in somebody's life. So the pressure is on to really kind of make sure that even though they may not be one of our clients, we still have a reputation to hold true. 

29:52
Tim
If we could still garner a relationship with them, help them be a good resource for them, refer them to some vendors that we like working with, or even another caterer company that we highly respect that we think would be a good fit for them, we'd be the first person to do that. 

30:06
Cate
And I feel like that's just smart business. It's like, why not be a resource for people? Even if in that very specific moment it doesn't necessarily serve you in the broader spectrum. 

30:19
Tim
It always does. 

30:20
Cate
And it always serves you to serve clients and people well. 

30:24
Tim
Yeah, we're in this business to make money. We need to strive. This is what we do for a living. It's an industry that I don't think people choose. It chooses us. So that's sort of like a restaurant kind of food service kind of thing. If you're a restaurant manager like me for four years, working as early as five in the morning, all the way till two, three o'clock the following morning, it's never great. But weddings are different. Catering, catering is different. You have a bad experience at a restaurant, okay, whatever you can probably give them a chance in the future. With wedding catering, there's no second chances. You get one chance. Well, hopefully most of the time there's only one chance, but you need to make sure that caterer is good. And we highly respect anybody that feels that spice isn't a good fit for whatever reason. 

31:14
Tim
It could be anything. Don't like Tim, don't like the cost. Wasn't happy with this particular dish or whatever. This goes with the territory. We are a custom caterer. We create things in a way that each item is never really the same. My chef is always making a similar item with different ingredients and so forth. A good example is I have a lasagna as a vegetarian entree for a wedding coming up. Not your typical vegetarian wedding. You usually have a pasta or maybe like a stuffed squash or like a vegetable stack or something like that. But this particular client wanted lasagna, and my chef has seven different lasagnas. He can make he can make a traditional one, he can make a vegetarian one, he can make a southwestern one, he can make an Asian one. I was like, wow, I'd like to try that. So there's different ways that we can attain to what people's needs and vision are and how we could sort of adjust to that liking or adjust to that not liking of what somebody's experience was. 

32:18
Tim
As long as we give ourselves an opportunity to fix it, great. And if it doesn't go from there's always more people that are getting married. And heck, those people can probably find somebody where they're going to be much happier, and we highly respect that. 

32:34
Regina
Love it. And you said a few things that leads me into a couple of different questions that I'm going to ask. So that actually leads me to a mutual client that we have, who I referred for people listening. We have a client who had a caterer, and this is kind of where I was going with that question of they thought they had put a deposit down and had a tasting with caterer and hated it, and we're planning their wedding on their own and realized there must have been some kind of miscommunication. This cater wasn't getting it wasn't getting their menu. Case in point, the groom is vegan, and they really wanted vegan options. And the groom is like, my parents drove down from upstate New York and we had this tasting, and the cater presents this menu that's got dairy and non vegan products, and he's like, what the heck? 

33:30
Regina
I specifically said I was vegan, and I wanted a heavy vegan menu, and we have all these things that I can't even eat. So they hired me and said, our biggest thing is we need to find a caterer, like, now and refer them to Tim, who had this awesome vegan menu. And as far as the groom is like, I really want dessert. And Tim's like, there's a bakery that we work with that does, like, awesome vegan desserts, and that was something that they were super excited about. But that just kind of leads me to that. Where was I going with my question? Guys, you guys know me. I'm going on a tangent. But that led me to that point that led to that question of what happens if you have a tasty and you hate it because they have gone through this, but also the fact that you have an alternative menu and can work with people with different diets. 

34:18
Regina
There's my question coming back. So tell me a little bit more about what these menus are like. What are some that you've seen a little bit more that your chef can do? 

34:27
Tim
Well, I think one thing that some of the downfalls of some other caterers where the client has had a bad experience, the food was bad, and like you said, Regina miscommunication. But people need to understand that this is food that people are consuming. You're working with people health is a concern. Other caterers may not take other things outside from what the actual menu item is. When people come in for a tasting, I'm always like, thank you. Thank you for giving us a try. Oh, you live an hour and a half away. You just traveled an hour and a half to come try this food. I mean, finding somebody that's willing to do that is really hard to come by these days. So the pressure is on. Game is on to make sure the food is good, to make sure the chef is on point, making sure that my communication with the chef is on point. 

35:14
Tim
Going back to we're all human people have dietary restrictions. Allergies if you don't ask this information ahead of time, and clearly this caterer didn't oh, okay. They're vegan or whatever. Yeah, we'll figure that out another time. Here, I'm going to present some things to you. No, you're trying to gain their business. There may not be another time if you don't make it the time right now. You know what I mean? So that's sort of the mentality going forward with me at a lot of my tastings. Not only do I want the food to look good, I want the napkins to be nice, I want the silverware to be polished. I don't want any water spots in your glassware. That may seem over the top, but impressions are everything, too. So that's what I sort of do at the start of every tasting and knowing exactly what their needs are, because that's ultimately why they're there. 

36:04
Tim
What a lot of these other caterers don't realize, too, is that, like you just mentioned, my mom is coming and yada, yada. So when they arrive, the caterer and chef don't know that what they're going through just to try the food, just to give us a shot, just to have them walk in the door. Okay, going back to that last line of defense, like, wow, they're actually giving us a shot. If they like this food, then we have a shot. This is a good wedding. This is going to give other people the opportunity to work our off premise staff. It's very rewarding. If I ever book a wedding, that gives me the opportunity to give other people work. That's a very powerful reward that you get in this business when you've gained something like that. You know what I mean? But strict communication. You're very happy to swoop in and play wedding menu superhero over here. 

36:57
Tim
I really feel like it's not that hard to really just listen to people's needs. Hey, I'm vegan. Got it. Okay. I will be the first person to tell you that a lot of these small details are very difficult to really kind of uphold. I've gone through it. When I meet people for the first time, they may say, my partner and I are vegetarian. Great, you're both vegetarian. We want this to be a highly vegetable rich menu, but they also want different actual meat items as well. Perfect. Several weeks go by. I hand my chef the tasting. We're creating the tasting, and then, like, a day or two before, boom. Oh, my God, I forgot they're both vegetarian. Chef. I didn't realize it. I found out they were vegetarian two months ago. This is a big thing that we need to go over. My chef goes, grabs these items, redoes the menu, redoes the tasting menu, highly vegetarian items, very rich in vegetarian item. 

37:57
Tim
And then the tasting is underway. So even us will be the first person to tell you that we've missed a mark on something or we've gotten a curveball sent to us right away. But it's how you adjust. It's how you go back and look at whole stack of sheets this thick. Okay, this looks like five sheets of paper, but this is, like, 2030 sheets of paper. All for one client, all for one wedding, all the way from I met them June 7 of 2021, and their weddings are on the corner. You know what I mean? So it's been reiteration, reiteration. Notes, notes, notes. So when they come for the tasting seven months from when I first met them, I have to go to my first sheet and learn all about them. Oh, they're vegetarian. No shellfish. Stacy's allergic to shellfish. You read me? So you have to go back and tell yourself, these people are human. 

38:58
Tim
They're trying food. You need to treat them like they're not a machine or they're not a puppy dog that you could just feed anything to. So my point of your whole question, Regina, is really just kind of double check your work and make sure you're communicating well with your chef and your clients. I love that because that'll make the tasting that much more enjoyable, and it's really not that hard. Just spend the time to get ready for it. And that's half the battle, really, is. 

39:25
Regina
Your stack looks like Caitlin. I literally will oftentimes have just spread out behind me just those exact same. 

39:33
Tim
Stacks, like sheets and sheets and 17th cup of coffee. 

39:41
Regina
Yes. So I do want to ask, so if you were to give couples listening well, so two part question. If you were to give couples listening a piece of advice on booking their caterer, what would you say? Caterer specific. And then also, as a married man and someone who's been in the wedding industry for years, what is a piece of wedding planning advice that you would just overall wedding planning advice that you would give to a couple listening? 

40:07
Tim
I think the first part of that question is kind of like what I've been saying before. Take the time to choose your cater. Ask questions. Ask the question about what's more expensive, a plated dinner or a buffet dinner. I work with so many different clients that it becomes overwhelming sometimes. Like, I'll call somebody by the wrong name because I'll call somebody Susan when their name is Madison, because I just got off the phone with Susan two minutes ago, and now I'm writing an email to Madison calling her Susan. Did you get all that? So it's kind of crazy. So for me, it's almost, like, impossible to have a consult with them and relay all the information that they should know about wedding planning process. Okay. I can be on the phone for hours with them. And quite frankly, during my initial consultation with people, my schedule is only like, okay, 1520 minutes top. 

41:10
Tim
Sometimes it may even last 45, 50 minutes, just through good conversation and questions. But I talk a lot. I talk a lot. You should do this. This is that. This is what we do. So ask the questions. Take your time. Wedding planning, big investment. Regina said caterer could be the biggest cost for a wedding. It most 100%. Most certainly is. Anywhere up to half, up to 60% in most cases of your overall wedding budget is just for food and beverage and staff and rentals, too, if you want to call it that. Okay, so because of that, take your time. It doesn't happen overnight. Don't just choose somebody that's the first available. Okay? Ask around. Okay. I'm kind of going against what I want my clients to do. Don't ask around. Just call Tim. He'll take care of everything. So that's kind of the bottom line, is take your time. 

41:58
Tim
It's not just somebody that you call and you're happy with and you want them to come power wash your house, okay? This is a company that you want reputable to come and work the most special day of your life because of that. Okay? Now, the second part of the question kind of was a similar question, but just the overall wedding planning process. Right. You know what? I'm going to say do it ahead of time. Do as much as you can. Well ahead of time. Okay. Once you've connected with your caterer I feel like I've said this to so many people during the same conversation. Talk about a broken record. But make a checklist and start checking things off your to do list as a bride and groom or groom and groom or bride and bride. If you start checking things off your to do list, you're going to be that much happier as a person about to get married. 

42:52
Tim
Guaranteed. Guaranteed. Yeah. 

42:55
Cate
I would agree. As someone who, as Regina knows, pretty terrible at that when it comes to event planning. So I would add on hire someone who doesn't. 

43:05
Tim
Look at this. You provided me with questions you may ask about one that I circled. Here was tell us about a lesson you've learned, maybe the hard way about mistake couples can make when planning their wedding. There's no mistakes, I guess, if you will. There's just guidelines. And the guideline for me is create the menu first and then be happy with it and move on. If you keep second guessing everything, the process is going to be miserable for you. And then closer to your wedding. All these decisions need to be so crammed and made that you're going to get so overwhelmed that it's actually going to deter you from making the decision in the first place. Because you're so antsy and you want it. To be perfect, that the longer you wait to make a decision, that perfectionist sort of gets dwindled away because the actual event is going to start happening. 

44:03
Regina
Yes. 

44:04
Tim
You know what I mean? So do things well ahead of time. Make the menu first, then move on. Don't select a caterer and wait three weeks before your wedding to do a tasting and talk about the menu because you're not doing yourself any service. You're taking three steps back instead of three steps forward. And that will create the planning process for you to plateau, which you never want to do, in my opinion. 

44:29
Cate
I love it, Tim. I can't believe it, but we have reached the end of our time. 

44:36
Tim
Come on. 

44:37
Cate
You, right off the bat, kind of answered the question that I always ask people, which is, who are you perfect for? I think you are really clear about that. But is there anything else that was really important for you that people know about Spice Catering that we have not talked about? 

44:54
Tim
Yeah, I was thinking about this before I came on with you ladies. I've talked about kind of what sets us apart in terms of a caterer and things like that. And people can find out more on our website. They can call us, they can learn more about not just the company, but kind of what we do on a weekly and monthly basis and all the great people that are a part of our team. But going back to what I said before about who's a good fit for us? Well, we're a medium sized company, things of that nature. One thing that I really try to stick with, my sort of philosophy in terms of wedding planning and catering is less is more. And that doesn't mean that you have a smaller menu that your wedding is going to better or less details or logistics or decor or flowers or whatever it may be. 

45:48
Tim
That's not what I mean by less is more. What I mean is go into come work with us if you feel like you don't need to kind of reinvent the wheel for your whole wedding. You have individuals that have been in this business for decades. We know how to cook, we know good food, we know how to plan. I've worked at this venue before. I've worked with several different clientele similar to your likes and dislikes before. Okay. I work with certain people that give me a reminder of a certain person I've worked with before. So I understand their vibe, I understand their comfortableness. Are they adventurous eaters? Are they strict eaters? Are they looking for something very elegant? Are they looking for something a little bit more down to earth and comfortable? You know what I mean? I'm more on the comfortable side. We're a company that's a little bit more on the comfortable side. 

46:43
Tim
Notice how I don't use the word casual anymore because people's interpretation of that word are different. But if you come work with us, you'll have a great time. We're a fun company. Less is more. We won't make your life harder than it has to be. Oh, my God. 

46:59
Cate
Those are amazing final words. That's really all I ever want any business to tell me. We are not going to make life any harder than it needs to be. 

47:10
Tim
Yeah, I mean, for me, I don't cook the food. I don't serve the food. I don't pour you drinks. I try to be at a lot of my weddings. Obviously I can't be at everyone, but I usually give my clients the gist of that. They don't have a wedding planner and they want an extra security blanket. I try to be at a lot of my weddings, but I'm the type of person that kind of I love gatherings, I love parties, I love people. Nothing's more fun than a gathering of people where food and beverage is needed. And what's the epitome of that than a wedding. And that's why I'm currently in the business that I'm in. I've decided to stick with it after COVID hit and losing my job for over a year and not sure if I wanted to stick in this industry and catering. 

47:54
Tim
But like I said before, weddings are bulletproof. They're going to go on forever, and this year and next year are going to be the most since World War II. So I'm sticking with it. 

48:03
Cate
Oh, my gosh, Tim. Thank you so much for being a great guest. Where can people find you in Spice Catering? Online? 

48:10
Tim
Our website, spicegateringgroup.com. We're on Facebook. We're on Instagram. At Spice Catering Group. We're all over the state. We do chamber events all across the state. We're highly in the Cheshire Chamber of Commerce where we're doing wonderful networking events where you should come and try some of our food. We're always providing beverages and snacks for these type of events. We have a lot of things coming up in the mix. We're always creating new menus. We're trying to be part of a couple of wedding fairs coming up and partnering up with a couple of our preferred venues across the state. So a lot of great things coming. Come check us out. 

48:42
Cate
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us. Tim, you've helped our Monday start out, right? 

48:48
Tim
Yeah, my pleasure. It's great to connect with you ladies. Regina, I love working with you. Kate, hopefully I get a chance to work with you directly again very soon, other than today. And congratulations again for motherhood. Come around the corner.