A couple want something better than a hotel carvery. They have seen street food at a friend's wedding, they love the idea, and they have no idea what it costs, whether their venue allows it or how it works for a hundred people at once.
Three traders have websites describing festivals. None of them mention weddings at all.
Step 1: publish a wedding page
Separate from event work, addressed to couples, using the words they search for. It is where the highest value bookings come from and almost nobody writes one.
Step 2: publish the per head price
With what it includes. Couples budget per head across the whole wedding and cannot consider a trader whose price they cannot model.
Step 3: explain the service formats
The main meal, an evening offering, a late night option or canapes. Each is a different product and couples need to know which they are buying.
Step 4: explain the service speed
How many people you can serve per hour and what that means for a hundred guests. It is the question venues and planners ask first and couples never think of.
Step 5: explain the queue question
How service is managed, whether guests queue, whether tables are called and what the couple should plan for. A queue at a wedding is the main objection.
Step 6: explain the timing
Arrival, setup, service window, clear down and how it fits around speeches and photographs. Couples are building a timeline and need yours.
Step 7: publish what you need from the venue
Space, ground, access, power and water, which is the site checklist in event booking enquiries that need location and power.
Step 8: explain the venue permission question
That some venues restrict outside caterers, what they usually require and what documentation you provide. Couples should check before falling in love with the idea.
Step 9: publish the documentation you hold
Insurance, hygiene rating and anything a venue requires, because a couple will be asked for it.
Step 10: explain the dietary handling
How requirements are captured and what you can provide. Weddings have a known guest list and there is no excuse for improvising on the day.
Step 11: explain the weather plan
What happens in rain, whether you can serve under cover and what the couple needs to arrange. It is the anxiety behind every outdoor wedding.
Step 12: publish the deposit and cancellation terms
Because a booking eighteen months out needs terms both sides can live with, and couples are cautious after everything they have read.
Step 13: offer the evening option to couples using another caterer
A late night addition after a formal meal, which is a smaller booking, an easier yes and frequently the way in, as in private hire enquiries for food trucks at weddings and parties.
Step 14: answer at the hour couples plan
Late evenings and weekends, months ahead, which is the same out of hours capture as breakdown recovery requests late at night and an AI receptionist for locksmiths in very different trades.
Getting started
Publish a wedding page with per head pricing, service speed and what you need from a venue, then capture dates and numbers at any hour. SpideyChat for food businesses answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.