Who feeds your guests is decided by the venue's model, not by your preference, and it is the clause that most often turns out to be non-negotiable.
Catering, bars and corkage
North London Venue Guide Catering, bars and corkage
Four models exist. Establish which one applies before you fall in love with a room, because it determines both the cost and the amount of work you are taking on.
In-house only
The venue cooks and serves, and no outside catering is permitted. Standard in hotels, most pub function rooms and some civic suites.
The upside is that it is somebody else's problem, including staff, equipment, food hygiene and clearing. The downside is no price competition and limited flexibility on menu. Dietary requirements are usually well handled; genuinely unusual requests often are not.
Ask whether the price quoted is for a set menu or a choice, what the deadline for final numbers is, and what happens to guests who do not eat what is offered.
Approved list
You choose from a list of caterers the venue has worked with. Common in halls, galleries and arches where there is a kitchen but no catering operation.
Usually the best of the arrangements. The caterers know the building, its kitchen and its access, and the venue knows they clear up. Expect the list to be genuinely short and expect the venue to be reluctant to add to it.
If you want a caterer not on the list, ask what would be required. The answer is normally proof of public liability insurance, a food hygiene rating and a site visit, and venues will often agree for a fee.
Free choice with conditions
You bring whom you like, subject to insurance, hygiene certification and rules about what the kitchen may be used for. Typical of community halls.
The conditions matter. A hall kitchen fitted out for tea and sandwiches is not a production kitchen, and a caterer who plans to cook on site needs to see it in advance. Ask specifically about oven capacity, refrigeration, hot water and whether the kitchen may be used for cooking at all as opposed to reheating and plating.
Dry hire
Empty room, nothing included. You arrange everything, including tables, chairs, linen, glassware, ice, staff and waste removal.
Cheapest headline figure and by a distance the most work. It suits people who have done it before or who are hiring a caterer capable of running the whole floor. It is a poor choice for a first-time hirer with a hundred guests.
The bar
Separate from catering and governed by the licence rather than by preference. See licensing.
Where the venue holds a licence covering alcohol sales, the bar is almost always theirs, the takings are theirs, and this is frequently the economics that allows a low or zero hire fee. Expect no negotiation.
Where the venue holds no such licence, you have two options: no sales, with drink provided free to guests, or a temporary event notice allowing sales. Notice periods are statutory and short-notice applications fail.
A "suggested donation" at a bar is a sale in substance. Venues that have been through a licensing review are alert to this and will not entertain it.
Corkage
Corkage is a charge for serving drink you have supplied, and it exists because the venue is giving up bar revenue. It is offered far less often than people hope.
Where it is offered, establish the rate and the unit: per bottle opened or per bottle brought, whether it differs for wine and spirits, whether it covers glassware, ice and staff, and whether there is a cap on quantity. A rate per bottle brought rather than opened is a meaningfully worse deal if you over-order, which everyone does.
Where corkage is refused, the refusal is usually final and usually commercial rather than legal.
The questions that save the most
What is included in the per head figure, precisely, including service and VAT. See costs.
Who provides glassware, linen, ice and urns, and are they in the price.
What time does the kitchen have to be clear, which is often earlier than the end of the hire.
Who takes the waste away. In arches, studios and halls the answer is frequently you, and a hundred guests generate more than a car will hold.
Whether the caterer needs access before your access time, and whether that is permitted. This is the arrangement most often forgotten and it is the one that delays the start of an evening.
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