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My facility requires a copy of a health license
and proof of liability insurance. Can you provide that? Yes.
We are a licensed and inspected facility. We will need the contact’s name and number at your reception venue
and we will make sure they have this information in their files for you.? As you shop for your reception venue, it's
always a good idea to ask their policy about who can bring in cakes/food. Many venues permit outside food to
be brought in only from licensed and inspected businesses.
Do you take credit cards?Yes, we take MC, Visa, AmerExpr and Discover.
What is your military discount??
We give a 20% discount to active
military, police and fire dept. brides & grooms.
What is your payment policy?
Your event does not go on our calendar until we receive a 50% deposit and a signed contract. The balance
is due 3 weeks before the event, which is when we need a finalized menu and headcount.
What is your deposit refund policy?All
payments and deposits are non-refundable. I will make commitments based on your contract; I will turn down
business based on your contract. When weddings and orders are canceled, I usually have little or no chance
of re-booking that date.
What if we change our date?*IF* we can accommodate the date and *IF* it’s just a few days or weeks, then we can
transfer the deposit to the new date. Otherwise, it is viewed and treated as a cancellation and the deposit is non-refundable.
As stated above, I may have turned down business for your original date and can’t recoup that business.
Can we have more than one flavor of cake and how much is that?We
have flat pricing, which means its one price no matter what, for about 95% of what we do. If you have a
5 tier cake and want 5 different cake flavors, there’s no extra charge. If you want various fillings,
there’s no extra charge.
How far do you deliver and what is the delivery charge?We deliver free to most of the Indianapolis metro area (anywhere
inside the 465 circle, and the north and northeast side of Indy, for example). Locations outside
the free delivery area will be charged $1.25 per round trip mile, based on Mapquest mileage. We’ve
delivered from Plainfield to Richmond, Lafayette to Brownsburg. Basically, if you’re willing to pay
the delivery fee, we’ll get your cake there.
When
are you available to talk about our wedding?We
are open by appointment. Call or email us to set an appointment time so you can sample our cakes and/or
foods, and we can talk about your wedding vision and what you are looking
for. (I do not do Monday appointments.)
Is there a fee for the sampling appointment?
We do not charge for the sampling appointment.
It is limited to 4 (I only have 4 chairs) and you should allocate at least an hour for this appointment.
We select the foods for the sampling, but if there is a specific dish you want to sample, we can see about adding it
for a small fee.
What info do I need to bring with me to the sampling appointment?
· To price a cake and/or buffet, we need to know how many guests you are expecting.
If you have no idea at this point, let us know how many you invited and we’ll help you figure it.
·
We also need to know your budget for catering so we can work with you to create a menu that fits inside
this budget. Divide your total budget by number of guests to get a price-per-person range. Don't forget this price
per person needs to also cover 9% Indiana Sales Taxes, the 20% Service Fee and any Kitchen Access Fee charged by your facility.
For example, a $15/person buffet + 20% Svc Fee + 9% sales taxes = $19.62 actual cost-per-person.· If you have photos/pictures of cakes you like, bring extra copies
that you can leave with us (in your file). · If you have a special color that you’d like incorporated into your cake design, bring a color swatch that you
can leave with us.·
If your venue has been selected, we will
need the name/address (to determine delivery fee, if any, and drive time).
Can you do color match in our cake design? We will get it as close as possible. Doing color match in icing is not the same as doing color match on a can
of paint. Various factors affect the color in icing: Exposure to light, humidity, type of icing, etc. Differentiating
between shades that are very close is difficult, if not down right next to impossible. For example, the colors cream,
off-white, tan, beige, eggshell, champagne, and ivory are all the same to me.
What is the 20% Service Fee? Is this the gratuity?No. We do not charge an up-front gratuity. The Service Fee
is pretty standard in the catering industry and covers the expenses involved in servicing your event. If you ordered
your food as a to-go order (meaning you came to our shop and picked it up), we wouldn't incur these additional expenses.
Remember, when we service your event, we are packing up and moving about half of our kitchen to your location, operating at
least one (and sometimes two) delivery vehicles and usually incurring more labor costs than an on-site provider.
How can I reduce my catering costs?
Decide if you need to reduce the number of people
invited, if you want to reduce the food selections, or if you want to reduce the services. - Getting an accurate headcount is the #1 cost saver. You don't want to pay for those
who will not be there. At $20/person, a difference of just 50 people can save you $1000. - Change your food selections from a 3-entree buffet to a 1 or 2 entree buffet can save you
$300-$500. Omit appetizers or choose our chocolate fountain instead (saves over $400).- Reduce the services provided. Instead of a fully staffed buffet, we can do a drop-off-and-setup
where we will set up the chafer pans and put everything on the buffet table and then leave. Can you pour the champagne for the toasts?
No. By choice, we are not
liquor licensed and cannot serve or touch alcohol in any way. We can help you secure bartending services if you need
us to.Do I need to count children in
my headcount for the caterer? They don't really eat that much.
You're right, they don't. But they still use a plate,
fork, cup, etc., and your caterer needs to know that. If your guest lists includes a large number of children, ask us about
our Special Child Menu Pricing. We can create a special buffet just for those younger guests with foods they just love!
Do you offer fondant icing and how much is it?
We have just recently added fondant to our list of options for brides. There is an add'l fee added to our base
price for the use of fondant, starting at $1.00 per serving, depending on design. Intricate designs and/or designs that take significant hours to complete may have a Design Fee assessed.
Why
is fondant more costly?
Fondant is very labor intensive. A fondant covered cake must still be iced in buttercream
icing and then the fondant added to it, so your cake will have both types of icings for your guests. This means your
cake is actually iced twice. Fondant is also very expensive to purchase or time consuming to make. Visit our Flickr-linked website for photos of some of our
fondant cakes (see link on Wedding Cake Pics 1 page).
Can I use fresh flowers
on my cake?
Fresh flowers are used frequently on wedding cakes. However, you need to be aware that some flowers are poisonous and should
not be placed in contact with food. Here is a link to a list of flowers that are considered safe .... List of Non-Toxic Flowers for garnishing the cake . In
a nutshell, poinsettias, callas and hydrangeas are very toxic and Cater It Simple will not permit these fresh flowers
to be placed on one of our cakes.
What do I need to know about the
cake when I pick out my topper?
You need to know the size of the top tier of cake. (A decorator tells me the story of a couple who picked out an 8" antique car style of topper to put on
a 6" cake.) Most importantly, you need to tell your cake designer what
kind of topper you are planning. Just because a piece is made to go on a cake, doesn't mean that it's MADE to go on a CAKE.
Many toppers require some specific engineering structuring to be able to hold a heavy or not-evenly-balanced topper. Many
a bride has been forced to place her topper on the table in front of the cake instead of on top of the cake because the decorator
was not informed of the style and the cake was not engineered properly to hold the heavy ornament.
How do we properly store
the First Anniversary cake?
Here is a link from the Wilton website with directions on how to safely wrap and store your top tier if you
are saving it for your first anniversary. This link has information on how to properly store a cake: http://www.wilton.com/wedding/wedding-cakes/storing-wedding-cakes.cfm
However, many bakers (including Cater It Simple!)
are now offering brides a choice between saving the top tier for a year .... OR ..... getting a coupon good for a free, fresh
first anniversary cake on your first anniversary!?
When do you need access to the facility to set up?
We can usually get everything
set up in an hour, so we like to arrive one hour prior to when your guests are expected. (Guests will start to arrive
at 5:00 ... we will arrive to set up at 4:00-ish.) This depends on the menus you select, if we are doing on-site cooking,
if it's an outdoor wedding, or if the wedding is being held at the same facility, especially in the same room. We
can work out the details when we meet for your sampling, but in general, one hour usually works for us.
How long do you stay at the event?
Once your guests are done with dinner, we will start tearing
down the buffet and packing up to leave. We are usually long gone before your event ends. Any additional services
that would require our staff to stay longer will incur additional labor fees.
What kind of buffet is it ....
do you serve the guests like in a cafeteria, or do the guests serve themselves?
Our pricing is based on a self-serve buffet where guests can make their own food selections and serve themselves.
When possible, we try to run the buffet line down both sides of the table for faster serving. By setting up a self-serve buffet,
this reduces the number of staff we have to bring to service your event, which saves you a considerable amount of money.
Since the guests serve themselves,
how do you know how much food to bring?
We've been doing this a long time and have a very good idea the quantity of foods to bring for your
expected number of guests. However ..... our Terms of Agreement stipulate that our food portions (as are most caterers) are
based on "average consumption and normal serving sizes". If your family tends to eat like Jethro Bodine, then you
should plan for that by talking with us and ordering additional food quantities (for example, perhaps ordering food for 125
when you are expecting 100 guests). We are providing
the alcohol for our wedding ourselves instead of hiring a caterer with a liquor license, but that seems to restrict us from
finding Wedding Day Insurance for any alcohol-related liability. Any suggestions?
We found a website that offers Wedding Day insurance and we contacted them
to confirm coverage for that very situation. Check them out at http://www.wedsafe.com/. Do you do styrofoam or fake cakes and how much are they?
We
can do styrofoam/fake cakes but you won't really save any money with them. The cost of the styrofoam is comparable to
the cost of the cake ingredients and the baking time. It's the same amount of icing, time, and talent to decorate a
dummy as it is to do a real cake. PLUS you then have the added cost of buying the so-called "cheaper" cakes.
You end up paying more for fake cakes than you would if you just bought a full size, real wedding cake. See my blog
that runs the numbers for you: http://cateritsimple.blogspot.com/search/label/fake%20cake
I love the cake
shows on the food channel. Can you do those kind of cakes?
I also love those shows.
However, they never tell you the price of those ornate masterpieces of sugary art. According to their websites,
Duff Goldman (Ace of Cakes) and Colette Peters (Cake Challenges), have a $1000 minimum for one of their cakes. Buddy
Valastro's website (Cake Boss) suggests pricing of $8 to $15 a serving. Toba Garrett's website has cakes
that run $25 to $40 per serving. Sylvia Weinstock's cakes can run $10,000. The cakes you see on TV are very
labor intensive, taking many man hours of highly skilled artisans over many days to create. We can use many of those
cakes as an inspiration to create your cake .... but be aware that a really ornate cake like you see on TV is going cost much
more than a "regular" wedding cake.
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