For wedding and event caterers
Event catering websites that turn a date and a venue into a booked tasting
Event catering is bought once, months ahead, by someone comparing you with two or three others line by line. Your website has to carry them from a first look at your food to a booked tasting, whether they are a couple planning a wedding or a company planning its summer party.
Booked long before the day, and compared in detail
Nobody books wedding catering on impulse. A couple usually secures the venue first, then looks for a caterer if the venue allows outside ones, then collects quotes. A company events manager does something similar for an awards dinner or a summer party. Both compare you on the same few things: what the food looks like at a real event, the style of service, what is included, and roughly what it costs per head.
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The site's job is to answer those in the order people ask them, then make the next step a tasting or a call rather than a vague contact form. Every other page supports that.
Venue pages, and why the approved supplier list is only half of it
Many venues keep a list of recommended caterers, and being on it matters. But couples also search for caterers by venue name, and a page for each venue where you have photographs of a real event is one of the most useful things your site can carry. It shows the room laid, the food plated in that space and the logistics you handled, and it answers the question couples actually have: has this caterer worked here before?
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Build these only for venues you have genuinely catered at, with photos you have permission to use. A thin page for a venue you have never set foot in helps no one and makes the good pages look like filler.
Sample menus and a starting price per head
Event catering is often priced by conversation, and there are good reasons for that. But a couple with a budget in mind needs some idea before they will give up an evening for a tasting. Sample menus by style, each with a from price per head, let people qualify themselves. Canapés and bowl food, a sharing feast, a formal three-course wedding breakfast, a hog roast or street food for the evening: each suits a different buyer and deserves its own page.
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State what moves the price, whether guest numbers, service style, distance to the venue or hire items, so the starting figure reads as honest.
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What arrives with the food
Couples rarely realise at first how much of an event caterer's work is not cooking. Front-of-house staff, a chef team, crockery, glassware and linen, a field kitchen for a marquee, bar service and clearing down at midnight are what separate your quote from a cheaper one that turns out to leave half of them out. The website is where you lay this out, so the comparison happens on fair terms.
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- Staffing levels, and who is in charge on the day
- Crockery, glassware and linen, and whether they are included
- Kitchen set-up for marquees and venues without one
- Bar service, corkage arrangements and late-night food
- Clearing down, and what the venue expects afterwards
The tasting is the real conversion
An enquiry is only the start. The form should ask for the event date and venue first, then guest numbers and the style of food, because those tell you straight away whether you are free and suitable. A booked tasting or consultation is the outcome to count, and the site can offer it directly once the basics fit.
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Speed matters at this stage. Couples often contact several caterers at once, and a quick, personal reply with a sample menu that suits their venue will usually get further than a perfect one sent a week later.
Wedding directories, planners' praise and paying for clicks
Wedding directories such as Hitched and Bridebook can bring enquiries, and couples read the reviews on them. Your own Google reviews matter just as much, and so do words from venue managers and planners, who rarely post a public review but will often give you a line for the website if asked. Put those where they answer a doubt, such as a venue manager's comment on that venue's page.
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Paid search can work for event catering because one booking is worth a lot, but the gap between click and booking is long. Tracking shows which enquiries came from adverts, and a note of which of those booked a tasting tells you what the spend actually produced. After launch, Growth Care keeps menus, prices and venue pages current season by season, and a new venue page can be added when you work somewhere new.
What it costs
From £1,400, one-off.
That is the whole Growth Website™ rebuild for an event caterer’s business, up to 6 pages. It covers the audit, rewriting how you explain the work, design, build, the conversion and local search groundwork, tracking, speed and launch. It is about 14 working days from agreed direction to launch, and you own it outright.
Growth Care™ is optional: £149 a month. Cancel any time, with a month’s notice. Every price is fixed and published, so you know the cost before you speak to us.
In our clients’ words
What our clients say.
Questions
The ones that come up.
Should an event caterer publish prices?
Publish a starting price per head for each style of menu rather than a full price list. Couples and event planners need a rough figure before committing an evening to a tasting, and a from price lets them qualify themselves. Say what moves the price, such as numbers, service style, staffing, hire items and venue distance, so the final quote does not come as a surprise.
Is it worth building a page for every venue I have catered at?
Venue pages are worth building only for venues where you have genuinely worked and have good photos you are allowed to use. Those pages answer something couples really want to know, whether you know this venue, and they can be found by people searching the venue name with catering. Pages for venues you have not worked at add nothing and make the rest of the site look less credible.
Do wedding directory listings replace a caterer's website?
No. Wedding directories are useful for being found and for collecting reviews, but they show you alongside competitors in a format they control. Your website is where you set out menus, what is included and your venue experience in your own way, and it is what couples look at once they have a shortlist. Link your directory profiles to it and make a tasting the next step.
Can one website handle weddings and corporate events?
One event catering website can serve weddings and corporate events, as long as each buyer has its own route. A couple and a company events manager care about different things: the couple about the day and how it feels, the events manager about reliability, invoicing, dietary numbers and timings. Separate pages with their own galleries and enquiry forms stop either of them wading through material written for the other.
What should an event catering enquiry form ask for?
An event catering enquiry form should ask for the date and venue first, because they tell you immediately whether you are free and whether you can work there. Then guest numbers, the type of event and the style of food. Budget is useful but best left optional, since many couples do not know it yet. Keep the form short enough to finish on a phone, and reply with a sample menu that fits.
Where to next
Also for event caterers:
Related trades we build for:
Event Caterer websites
Find out what your website is costing you.
A free Growth Audit™: a written, prioritised audit of your website, with the three fixes worth making first. It is yours to keep whatever you decide.
We take on a limited number of builds at once, so there is usually a short wait before a new one starts. Once yours starts, it is about 14 working days from agreed direction to launch.