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I really want to hear opinions on this topic. I have gotten the impression from reading other posts on the bee that vendor meals are considered rude, not considerate etc...
Right now I am planning on providing my vendors with a vendor meal. My catering company has told us the entree will be chicken with a starch and vegetables of the chef's choosing. At $25 a vendor meal, I feel like this is fine and providing our vendors with a good hot meal. We are providing a total of 8 vendor meals (band members, DOC and photographer) and the cost of providing 8 extra guest meals to our vendors would be expensive!
What is your review on vendor meals?
We haven't really thought about it yet but I suspect if we get an option to give vendors a cheaper option then we will take it, as they aren't friends or family with whom we want to share our special day and we are paying them for their services anyway. I would say your $25 vendor meal would be fine. Not rude, just common sense. Perhaps it is a regional thing though, and in some areas considered rude?
I've never heard that vendor meals are rude. I fully intend on talking to my reception venue about our options for feeding our vendors. There is no way I would pay the same "per head" fee that we are paying for our guests, because that obviously includes open bar, hors devours and cake, which doesn't need to be eaten by our vendors anyway.
I saw an idea on a thread once about asking the service providers if they'd rather have a meal or get the money for the meal. Thought it sounded smart. If I worked at a lot of weddings, I'd rather have money and pack a PB&J than yet another catered meal.
That said, I didn't ask about vendor meals. I gave them the normal options for the rest of our guests. But then I only have 3 service providers attending.
I don't think it is rude at all. Vendors expect vendor meals and this is a typical meal that they usually get and the price is perfect. I have even had vendors mention the meals that they ate at wedding to me and mostly they consited of chicken fingers.
I've heard of some vendor meals being a cold sandwich or something really simple and not filling. If you are having a hot meal for them, a vendor meal sounds fine to me. If it's a PB&J sandwich with some carrot sticks... maybe not so much. A full vendor is a happy vendor and will provide better service than someone who is hungry all night :-)
I think it's appropriate to provide food for your vendors since they might not be able to get away to get a fast food meal (and if I were working in that kind of job I wouldn't want to eat fast food every day for health and weight reasons).
its just good sense to feed your vendors (dj, photog, videog) because if their blood sugar level drops, so does your quality of work! lol
i plan on getting our vendor's boxed lunch type dinners from Panera (or similar sandwich restaurant) which will probably cost about $10 each. easy thing to do to make sure that they are hydrated and satiated for my big day.
I dont think its rude at all I think its actually very considerate! I mean you dont have to feed them! We are providing ours with a meal. They get the same meal as our guests!
we are feeding our vendors the same as any other guest.
hm, i never even thought of that! i guess if you are having expensive catering, i wouldn't expect as a vendor to eat the same as the people that are closest to you in your life. you do, however, have to feed them. why not ask the vendors directly if it is ok with them?
I don't see anything wrong with vendor meals, they are there to work, not eat steak and drink.
@LGenz - the issue for me is the fact that you have hired the person/people for an extensive number of hours, and you basically aren't going to give them a break. If I work for 8 hours at my place of employment I get a 1/2 hour lunch plus 2 fifteen minute breaks. I would be really upset if my photographer (for example) decided to take a 1/2 lunch break so s/he could go find some decent dinner. Yes, the person is there to work, but I know that I want to be accommodating towards them as well.
I'm actually kind of curious - are there labor laws surrounding people who own their own business in the service industry?
My photographer is getting a vendor meal from our venue and will be eating during our seated dinner, I just won't be counting him as part of our head count which would include drinks/food/cake.
I was planning to reserve a table for my vendors in a corner of our venue and have them fed the same thing that everyone else will be fed. The per-head rate for all our adult guests will be roughly $19, and they never mentioned anything about discounted vendor meals and I never knew to ask about it.
Honestly, we didn't miss the photographer or DJ during dinner since we were all eating, so that was the same time they went off to eat as well.
I'm a photographer, and we regularly get vendor meals and it's not a big deal at all. The caterers just catch us and say "Hey, your food's ready in the other room", and we eat quickly and then get back to work. The food is not the focus for us at all.
However, I would definitely schedule in a 15-minute period for your photographers to eat their dinner, because otherwise they'd be stuck not knowing when a good time to take a break would be, and worrying they might miss something. Pick a period where nothing big is going on, and let them know ahead of time. The more you tell them, the better!
We are feeding the vedors a regular meal, without bar, etc. Our venue does the vendor meals based on what you pick as the kids meal entree. My mother and I didn't like the idea of feeding our vendors a kids meal.
My venue gives us the vendor meals for no charge, so it's a non-issue, but I don't think it's rude to provide a less expensive "vendor meal" instead of the regular guest plate if the vendor meal will be hot food. My photographer told me that sometimes the vendor meal will be a hoagie from the grocery store or the like, and it can be really awful, but chicken veggie and starch sounds perfectly acceptable.
Why would vendor meals be considered rude? I don't understand.
We're feeding our vendors. Not sure exactly what the vendors get to eat, but our venue does set up a separate room for our vendors to eat in with food and drinks, so they will be taken care of.
I think it would be rude not to feed your vendors, but that is just me.
I have never heard of meals specifically for vendors. Our vendors will be eating exactly what our guests will be eating, and I plan on paying the same amount per head for them...hopefully minus the alcohol. I think you have the option of not feeding them, but I wouldn't want to do that. It seems kind of mean especially if they are with you for 8 hours. In my contract for my videographer I had either the option to feed them or to let them go for an hour to get food. I'd rather feed them there and not wonder if they would be able to make it back on time.
I only think it's rude when you are feeding them junk. Now, if you are serving your guests $100 steaks, but want to give your vendors the $20 chicken- that's absolutely fine. It's still a nice hot meal. But I've heard of people getting their vendors subway sandwiches or some other fast food rather than paying their venues for a meal. I do think that's kind of rude, because chances are they would pick up that food early in the day, it would sit around (maybe even in a hot car!) for hours on end, and in addition to the initial quality being pretty poor, would probably be pretty gross by the end of the evening.
So yeah, feeding your vendors is an absolute must, but don't give them anything you wouldn't want to eat yourself. :)
our photographer has feeding he and his wife in his contract. they are working 10 hours that day. They HAVE to have a break and they will def eat a vendors meal from our venue. it is the same meal as everyone else but without the alcohol/cocktail hour.. i think its like $25 or something. We will also be feeding our DJ and his assistant the same meal.
I'll only have the photographers at the reception and I asked them what they prefered. A sit down meal (not sure if the concept of a vendor meal exists over here...I think they're just expected to provide it themselves) or to graze off the tapas buffet I'm serving guests. They choose the buffet because they could just nibble while taking pictures.
I really don't mind paying for 2 more heads (100 total) since they provide outstanding photographs AND they're saving me about 2000 euro since they're charging only a fourth of what full time wedding photographers do since this is currently a part time gig for them.
How could doing something nice for the vendors be considered rude? If you're asking if its rude to have them served something other than the rest of the guests are eating, I wouldn't think they'd have the time to sit through a full course meal,nor would they expect it. What might be rude would be if you didn't consider feeding them at all or forgot about them completely.
As long as you're providing something for them to eat and drink throughout the course of a long day I think its fine.
I would talk to your caterer and vendors. Most vendors are happy with a vendor meal, but some caterers provide chicken nuggets and chips for the vendor meals, so it depends on what you're comfortable with. One venue we looked at provides the same meal as everyone else for the vendors, but at 50% of the price as no alcohol or fancy table setting is required.
no it is not rude. What is rude is that my photog and his assistant sat down at one of our guest tables and ate the seated meal INSTEAD of their vendor meal......grrrr
I'm including my vendors in the buffet head count. Yes they're there to do a job, but they're not exactly able to get away and eat what they want either.
I'm not really sure how vendor meals would be considered rude, unless you mean a vendor meal as opposed to letting them get the same thing that your guests are getting? That's not happening for us, as there's no way I'm paying that much for almost 10 vendor meals (band, photographers, etc). They'll get a vendor meal, which I'm sure is a fairly standard choice of chicken or vegetarian.
I don't think they're rude. I thought it was ridiculous at first when I heard I had to feed all my vendors. B/C I work 9 hour days and don't get fed! Then I realized the fact that it's pretty much impossible for them to be doing their job AND feed themselves, so no big deal let's buy them dinner. But that doesn't mean they are suddenly invited to your wedding as guests and entitled to the filet and open bar. That's a little ridiculous in my opinion.
Being a photographer I dont care whether or not its a vendor meal, I just want to make sure I'm being fed (procviding a meal is even in my contract). I work an average of 9 hours for my couples, and the only time I get a break is to run to the bathroom. Chances are whatever your serving at the reception is the only food I've had and it should be a decent meal. If you were running around on your feet all day with nothing to eat do you think a PB & J would be satisfying? By the time dinner comes around I am usually starting to drag, and a nice hot meal gives me my second wind to get out there and continue getting you great shots. What I consider rude is that the last reception venue I was at last weekend doesnt even provide a table for vendors. They brought out chairs for us they stuck in the back corner and said we could eat on our laps. What?
Jaylii- My only question is whether your vendors get a choice between two vendor meals, or if they have to have the chicken dish or go hungry? I personally think your meal sounds fabulous, but being that my assistant is vegan- I'd hate to think he'd have to go hungry if you didnt have a vegetarian option.
Also as a vendor, another word of advice is to ask your reception venue if they can serve your vendors while you and your guests are eating. Most places like to serve the vendors last after the guests are finished, and then we have to practically swallow our food whole to finish it in time to get back to the reception so we dont miss anything. People generally dont want their pictures taken while theyre eating anyway, so it would be perfect to feed everyone at the same time.
I guess I don't like to be treated by my clients as just a person they pay to do a job and therefore deserve no consideration (though I understand it), so I'd rather treat my vendors to something a little better than a cold cut and chips.
As far as the open bar -- they're professionals..
Thanks for all of the feedback! I think we will go ahead with vendor meals for our vendors since it is a hot meal and not a gross day old sandwich or something. :)
I am hesitant to provide the normal guest meal to my vendors because that will cost us about $60 per vendor since we are serving a steak/chicken plated meal. With 8 vendors that would cost us almost $500!
It's also been nice to hear the perspective of a couple of professional photographers. I think I will make sure that the caterer sets up a table for our vendors to eat at and I will let our vendors know that they can take time during dinner to eat.
Misscamera- Great suggestion! I will touch base with our vendors to see whether anyone needs a vegetarian/vegan meal.
I think it's rude to serve bad food no matter who you are serving it to. So I think it depends entirely on what the vendor meals consist of. Given how much people pay for photographers it just doesn't seem like a big deal to me to add another $100 to it.
Arachna- We would never serve bad food to our vendors and $100 extra dollars is a lot for me and FI! Also, we are paying for 8 vendor meals, not 1!
For us, vendors had the same meal as everyone else, only it was much cheaper.
Same with my sister's wedding. Just like everyone else, they choose steak or chicken, but it is about half the cost of everyone else's.
I thought that was normal?
All of my vendors (band, photog, DOC, etc) all have it in their contracts that they need to receive a meal. All of them have said that whatever vendor meal option our caterer offers is fine with them. Considering it'll be $35pp for a vendor meal and I'll be paying for 15 of them, I sure hope the food is good!
We're serving our wedding day coordinator and assistant the same meal as our guests - they're going to be with us all day. Our DJs and photographer are friends/guests and are receiving regular meals.
The only "vendors" we have are associated with the venue itself (house manager, site security, sound tech, catering coordinator, and X number of catering staff). The options are a sirloin burger, chicken sandwich, or tofu burger. I figure as they're hired by the venue they're used to the venue meals.
Good thing I don't have to worry about that... Our vendors aside from the DJ are personal friends who are gifting their services... so they are being treated like any otr guest
our reception site is also providing vendor meals for us, which i'm pretty sure are the same meals that our guests get, just less expensive. if i were a vendor i would be extremely happy to be fed and not have to tote around power bars and other food for the night. i'm not sure how i see it as rude though?
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