Wedding Caterers

Wedding season in the tri-state region blooms with May flowers and flourishes until nature’s crescendo in October. Area caterers are now gearing up for their busiest time of the year, working with bridal couples to put the finishing touches on the plans for that most special day of their lives.

“It is seasonal,” said Emily Sommerhoff who, with her husband, award-winning chef Job Yacubian, operates The Farmer’s Wife in Ancramdale NY. “We are pretty much booked now through October. We don’t get many weddings in winter because that is a totally different esthetic for a wedding. We do get some but most brides want an outdoor wedding with lots of flowers in a beautiful setting.”

She said she usually begins working with clients 10 to 12 months in advance of the wedding. “Sometimes we do have a window (in our schedule) for whatever reason but there are so many logistical details to a wedding. A lot of guests come from distances and you have to think about transportation, lodging, scheduling, etc. All those details require an earlier start.”

David Renner, one of four partners operating The Marketplace, which offers catering services in an area that stretches from southern New Hampshire and Vermont to Kent CT, agrees that a successful wedding day is all about planning.

“The main thing I try to encourage is that, first and foremost, it’s about the bride, it’s what she wants,” he said. “That’s necessary when you have four divorced parents in the room.

“First, we want them to figure out their starting and ending time,” he continued. “If the ceremony is going to be at 3 o’clock, we don’t want to be making noise during the service so we would have to arrive at 11:30 to prepare.

“Then they should think where the ceremony will take place,” Renner continued. “If everything is taking place in your beautiful, level backyard, you have to think where the guests will go when they arrive. Will you offer a beverage—we discourage alcoholic drinks before the ceremony. Upon arrival, they can go to a table and get some nice Harney iced tea, lemonade or sparkling water. People can mill around and have a nice few moments visiting because they haven’t seen each other in a while.”

Most couples have already found a venue by the time they consult with The Farmer’s Wife but that is only part of the process. Depending on the size of the venue and the anticipated guest list, there are many considerations to consider.

The Farmer’s Wife has a laundry list of services ranging from menu planning, specialty cocktails, staffing and onsite coordinators, tents, rentals, wedding cakes and vintage plate rentals. It can help organize florists and floral decor, garbage and bathroom trailer services, hair and makeup professionals, hotel accommodations, lighting design, photography and videography professionals, sound and audio-visual coordination, transportation and venue location.

The Marketplace is also extending its services into coordinating the events. “We’re expanding into party planning,” said Renner. “We can take care of all the food and labor; we do all the set up and break down except for the tent. The rental company puts the tent up and the floor down then we make sure all the rentals are ready. We can recommend venues, do wedding cakes and flowers. Where we work with higher-end party planners is when the couple is taking it to a level beyond our expertise. We admit to where we can’t go. We are at a high-end level but then there is the level of the Kennedy compound.”

Crucial to a successful event in this era of climate change is shelter. “Many weddings are outdoors but weather is fickle,” said Sommerhoff. “We always counsel people to have a contingency tent. If the space is large enough, you might want one tent for cocktails and another for the ceremony—what you need for 250 people is not the same as for 60. We get pretty involved with the coordinators to make sure everything runs smoothly onsite.”

Renner says he prefers that the cocktail hour following the ceremony take place in an area away from the reception tent. “If you need a tent, do you need a standby tent as well or will you use one larger tent? I try to discourage that,” he said. “If you have the cocktail hour in the reception tent, people tend to go sit at their tables which doesn’t work?”

Rental items are essential with so many weddings being staged under tents. “Depending on the venue, some places may have furniture, but for others you need to bring in tables and chairs as well as table settings, linens, and all the items you need for cooking. Most of rental companies have everything you need,” Sommerhoff said.

Cooking usually takes place under a tent with the team bringing in everything needed to complete the meal. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, we have a cook tent and must bring everything that is necessary. We start a lot of the food at our site and finish it at the event,” she said.

Sommerhoff said she prefers it when her team is in charge of those details. “My team has worked together a long time. The day of the event is more fluid when you’re not trying to navigate with another team.”

She said some rental firms are thematic in their offerings. “Some carry vintage lounge furniture which is a popular thing now. Indeed, she said lawn furniture is becoming popular for the outdoor events, a move toward a more relaxed wedding style.

Food is another area being treated differently by bridal couples. “We try to work locally and seasonally,” said Sommerhoff. “We have a lot of great local farms and that is important to clients. So, as much as possible, we like a menu that highlights the Hudson Valley growing season.

“My husband is the chef and I guess you would call his cuisine New American country fare but that depends on the client,” she continued. “Some want a specific ethnic food; others want dishes prepared over an open fire. You see lots of clients doing a family-style serving with platters of food instead of individual plates being served and a lot of people are not having a traditional wedding cake. They will have a ceremonial cutting cake with bites on the side—which makes sense because a lot of time you serve dessert and then people get up to dance and the cake goes uneaten.”

Renner said he sees a trend toward more flexibility in weddings. “Twenty-first-century clients are looking for an experience. They want more action-type things happening, which is challenging. Some like food trucks or it could be someone coming in with pizza. Others want food that is formal but with casual spell. It’s not like it was 25 years ago.”

As with The Farmer’s Wife, much of his food preparation is done onsite but Renner notes that “for three or four months during the hot weather, people are happy with room-temperature foods. We specialize in foods like that,” he said.

Sommerhoff also sees flexibility in modern weddings reflected in the shedding of old customs. “It’s all a little more fluid,” she said. “Garter belts and the bouquet toss are gone. People still do the first dance and parent dances but we have done weddings without dancing.”

And when the party is over, it isn’t necessarily over. “A wedding usually runs five hours so by 8:30 it is over—although we are more than happy to stay if they want to go later,” said Renner. “Sometimes there is a late-night snack time.”

Sommerhoff agrees that after-parties are a growing trend. “Weddings used to end after a few hours,” she said, “but if the venue allows it, we see a lot of people trying to keep the party going, extending the event as much as possible.”

Sommerhoff and Yacubian are second-generation owners of The Farmers Wife which was begun in 2002 by Dorcas Sommerhoff. Yacubian joined the business in 2006. By 2010, stepdaughter Emily became co-owner and general manager, eventually marrying Yacubian.
Together they plan events that range from the small and intimate to galas seating 500 guests.
Their service area stretches along the Hudson Valley from upper Dutchess County to lower Columbia County and across state lines into Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The Marketplace incorporates the skills of four accomplished chefs. Renner, a veteran of four-star New York City restaurants and his partner Kevin Schmitz who came to the White Hart in Salisbury via the Shearson Lehman Hutton executive dining room in New York, started the MarketPlace in 1993. They were later joined by Douglas Luf, an executive chef at Four Seasons restaurants in both Boston and Chicago, who became a partner and Christopher Brooks, a former executive chef at Blantyre, also a partner.

The Farmers Wife can be reached at (518) 329-5431; www.thefarmerswife.biz
Contact The Marketplace at (413) 248-5040, ext 1; marketplacekitchen.com