Services

We want to understand your values and deliver on what matters most to you. We will set realistic expectations that are aligned with the community’s skillset and your vision. Here are some of the services we provide:

  • Unlimited email consultation

  • Up to 8 hrs of phone/skype consultation (weekday evenings, 8-9:30pm EST)

  • A detailed timeline, food prep and volunteer schedule

  • Food sourcing & ordering

  • Menu design

  • On-site coordination of guests in the kitchen 

  • Rental dishes ordering & coordination

  • 3 days on-site service for a total of 6 - 8 meals

  • All off-site prep and clean up (2 additional days)

  • 2 - 4 staff

  • Late-night snacks

There are also some things that we can’t do:

  • plan your entire wedding for you; we’re here to help

  • bus plates and wash all the dishes; we’ll help your guests orient themselves

  • serve alcohol; we have several partners we can connect you with instead

What we need from you

You, your friends, and your family need to be adventurous, punctual, helpful, generous, and flexible. For reference, it takes at least 150 person hours to cater a 150 person wedding with family style main courses. And that doesn’t include the 7 other meals.

While we’re generally flexible people, we’ve found the following minimum requirements are necessary for success:

  • 50% of guests onsite for 48-72 hours

  • 30% of guests sleeping on location

  • At least 2 home-sized kitchens, or a commercial kitchen on site - summer camps are perfect

  • 70 - 150 person guest list of excellent people who are ready to help

  • $10-15/person/meal*

But wait… our guests don’t know how to cook!

Assuming that’s not actually true, you might be asking whether you need to invite all your restaurant pals to be able to pull this off. We need your friends and family to be available, show up on time (ish) and get that working together to create something is going to be more rewarding than chilling in the hotel pool all day.

If your guests can wash plates, peel and chop vegetables, maybe even dice an onion, we’ll be fine.

We’ll take care of all the mincing and any chiffonading required for the garnish.

Resources and Ideas

If you are going to have a weekend long event, you’ll need a guest packet to keep folks oriented and on schedule. Here’s one sweet way to share that info and play some games too! Send us an email or an inquiry and we’ll send you a copy.

Ask us for a list of venues with commercial kitchens. Many are summer camps and only available in the fall; however, that’s the best time if you ask us. Churches, Grange halls and large vacation rentals (or two next to each other) can also work.

Don’t want to be constrained to a commercial kitchen? We’re experts at adaptation and all have a story about cooking in or near the ground for a crowd. Get in touch and we can discuss rental equipment for your celebration!

* Plan to budget $10,000-$15,000 for a normal 2 ½ day event for 100+ people inclusive of food and services. Compared to typical off-premise catering, that could easily cost that much for a single meal, we utilize your helping hands to keep labor costs down while bringing our skills as event and culinary professionals to the preparation and execution of your event. Shorter duration events, those with fewer guests or those that feature premium ingredients (paella and grilled fish for example) can cost as much as $30/person/meal or more.

For reference, the volunteer needs for recent 100+ person events have averaged between 70 and 100 volunteer hours spread over 50+ 1-3 hour shifts.

  • The folks at Bain Marie were immediately on board and got the exact vibe we wanted to create. A bunch of our friends and family signed up to help in the kitchen and all of them said it was one of the highlights of their weekend! This was more than a catering job- they were collaborators in pulling off the wild wedding of our dreams and we couldn't be more grateful!

    Kaitlyn and Maureen, 2022

  • At the heart of our vision was our belief that community grows from people creating together - and what better than delicious meals? Everyone had a helping role in our multi-day summer wedding festival. All thanks to your leadership!

    Camila and Wes, 2019

  • We are organized and relaxed people and it still came to a crescendo the week of our wedding. Instead of being overwhelmed we leaned on our community. Their leadership, hard work and attention to details inspired an atmosphere of convivality.

    Jem and Is, 2016