Suspendisse Catering provides corporate lunches and buffets for local businesses and meeting rooms, yet also cater for a wide variety of private events from birthday parties and christenings to wakes and wedding receptions for any number. Read on for their savvy advice on hiring caterers for an event.

What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?

To provide a quote for any event we undertake, ideally, we would like to know numbers and the date you are holding the event. A budget always helps us create a menu for your exact needs, as does the type of event you are holding. Finally a brief idea of what sort of food and style of food you are looking for, from this we can come up with a couple of options to offer you.

What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

Do your research, word of mouth is as good as social media and websites for recommendations and even if someone has only been running for a short amount of time they may well provide a better service than someone who has been in the industry a lot longer.
Compare prices, again the cheapest isn't always the best option, no-one wants soggy sandwiches with limp lettuce being served at their party!

Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.

Suspendisse Catering came about because I have always worked in catering since I left school and I have always loved it. I knew at some point I would like to run my business in the industry in some way. I saw first hand how a lot of companies cut corners in order to increase their profits with no regard to customer service or standards of the food itself, I knew I didn't want to be involved with companies in this way so myself and my partner to the step to startup ourselves.
High standards, customer service, quality food at reasonable prices and a passion for food is our core to this business, it seems to be where a lot of others are lacking.

Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?

We have so far completed 2 bookings through Add to Event, the first was a corporate lunch for 70 people and the second was a birthday party for 30. Both left us lovely reviews and were extremely pleased with what was provided.
We now have three more booked in one corporate event, one Sunday lunch for a town mayor and a birthday party, and we generally have a couple of people speaking to us through Add to Event every week.
I would definitely recommend Add to Event, it has been so helpful to us in hearing about events we wouldn't have known about otherwise, and we seem to be getting more bookings all the time. It has most certainly played a part in the start up of our business.