What's included in a wedding catering booking
A wedding booking covers everything between the menu being agreed and the kitchen being packed down. We don't run a "bronze / silver / gold" tier system — every wedding gets the same standard of cooking, plate-up and service. The per-head price varies with the menu, not the level of attention.
- Pre-tasting menu sketch (we send three or four directions before the tasting)
- Tasting at Synge Street kitchen — Tuesday evening, 19.00 start, two hours
- Final menu with allergen and dietary breakdown
- Site recce at the venue 2–3 weeks before the date (if it's a venue we haven't worked before)
- All food prep, transport, hot-hold and on-site finishing
- One head chef on the day (Niamh or, on the rare occasion she's away, Tomás)
- Full crew on site three hours before plated service / two hours before canapés
- Service ware for events of 30+: plates, cutlery, glassware (still & wine), serving boards, linen napkins
- Pack-down to the van — venue handed back kitchen-clean
- Invoice the following morning by email, balance due seven days after the date
Plated vs family-style — when each makes sense
About sixty per cent of our weddings are family-style, the rest plated. The choice usually comes down to room layout, head count, and how relaxed you want the rhythm to feel.
- Plated. Each course goes out as individual plates from a service kitchen. Looks formal, photographs cleanly, easier to manage dietary requirements per-guest. Adds €8–€12 per head in plating-up time and service-ware vs family-style. Works best when the room has standing service space and the head count is between 60 and 160.
- Family-style. Large boards and platters land on each table — guests serve themselves and pass. Feels warmer, gets people talking earlier, lets us serve heritage cuts (whole bream, lamb shoulder on the bone) that don't plate well. Allergen plates are still individually managed alongside. Works at almost any head count from 40 to 250.
- Hybrid (canapés + family-style + plated dessert). Our most common booking. Standing canapés during drinks, family-style mains, plated desserts and the cake plated alongside. Reads less rehearsed than a full plated, more polished than full family.
The tasting at Synge Street
Tastings happen on a Tuesday evening, 19.00 start, at the kitchen on Synge Street. Two hours. We send a menu sketch a week ahead — usually three directions, each with two starter / two main / two pudding options — and you arrive having marked the ones you fancy. We cook those, you taste, we adjust on the night and you leave with a written menu.
- Tasting is free, but we ask you to confirm the date by the following weekend after
- Up to four people for the tasting (couple plus two parents / planners is typical)
- Wine pairings are on you — bring whatever you're thinking of, we'll happily serve it alongside
- Tasting timing: two months before the date for summer weddings, three months for any date involving game (Sept–Feb)
- Dietary requirements: tell us at booking, not at the tasting — we'll incorporate from the start
Dublin venues we know well
We've catered in roughly forty Dublin and surrounding-county venues since 2017. The ones below are venues we've worked enough times that the site recce can be light or skipped — we know where the kitchen is, where the van parks, and what to expect for power.
- Marlfield House (Wexford) · Tankardstown (Meath) · Cliff at Lyons (Kildare) — marquee & tent setups, our standard hot-hold rig handles all three
- Powerscourt Hotel (Wicklow) · Brooklodge (Wicklow) · Druids Glen (Wicklow) — hotel-style with their own kitchens; we coordinate with their head chef
- Smock Alley Theatre (D8) · Pearse Lyons Distillery (Liberties) · The Workhouse Union (city centre) — non-traditional, no kitchen, we bring everything
- Private homes in Wicklow, Rathmichael, Killiney — typical brief is a marquee in the garden, family-style service for 50–80
- Mount Druid (Westmeath) · Cloughjordan House (Tipperary) — out-of-county weddings we do regularly, with a distance fee on the quote
Per-head pricing — what changes the number
Wedding catering quotes land between €65pp and €110pp depending on menu, head count and venue type. The per-head figure includes the 13.5% Irish food-service VAT rate.
- €65–€75pp: 3-course family-style, vegetarian-heavy mains, simple plated dessert, mid-size head count (80–150)
- €75–€90pp: 4-course (canapé / starter / main / pudding), mixed protein, family-style mains
- €90–€105pp: 4-course fully plated, premium proteins (lamb, monkfish, dry-aged beef), 60–120 head count
- €105–€110pp: 5-course tasting-menu plated, smaller head count (30–80), wine-pairing service from your own bottles
- Cake plating included if we are doing the wedding (no extra fee)
- Travel inside the M50 included; Wicklow / North Meath / Kildare €1.20pp surcharge; beyond that quoted per booking
What doesn't move the number: number of allergen plates (built into the menu, free), evening canapés if you've booked the wedding (we tend to throw these in), dietary briefings (free).
Booking & timing
- Saturday May–Sept: book 6–9 months ahead
- Friday or Sunday May–Sept: book 4–6 months ahead
- Off-peak (Nov–Mar, excl. Christmas week): often 6–8 weeks is enough
- Tasting booked 2–3 months before the date
- 25% deposit holds the date; balance due seven days after the wedding
- Final head count confirmed 14 days before the date — we can adjust ±10% inside that window
- Cancellation: more than 8 weeks out, deposit only; inside 8 weeks the schedule rises (full terms on the booking confirmation)
Related services
- Private dinners & pop-ups — for the rehearsal dinner the night before
- Corporate lunches — if a wedding-week brunch for arriving guests is on the list
- City Centre venues — Dublin 1, 2 and 4 weddings