Dinner Difficulties
Nov 2nd, 2007 by Jenny
Tom and Jerry Blast Off to Mars! video 
Our venue, a Masonic Centre which is providing a big conference room and a three-course dinner for our wedding, has never been asked about local or ethical food before. Not only that but, because of our small budget, we have had to go for one of the lowest price menus they offer. So it is perhaps understandable that the centre’s chef is not that interested in finding local or ethical suppliers for our dinner!
I have written to the centre offering to try to find local and Fairtrade suppliers who can match the prices of their existing suppliers, but this suggestion has been met with a resounding silence.
And as the centre has been extremely accommodating about all our other requests (such as filling their hall with plants the day before the wedding), I don’t want to be too much of a pain.
However, the venue does source their cheese from a local cheesemaker, which is a start, and they have allowed us to contact their meat supplier, Berkshire Meat Traders. Berkshire Meat Traders have turned out to be sympathetic suppliers. The company has agreed to make sure that the chicken in our dinner is from a British farm. They also took the time to give a proper explanation of why this sort of thing is difficult for catering suppliers, and to tell us where the different meats they sell are sourced.
Other than that, the best we can do is pick a menu that is more likely to be sourced within Britain. For example leek and stilton soup as a starter is probably, we reckon, a better bet than melon. And at least our wedding cake, created entirely at home from Fairtrade and local ingredients, should be about as ethical as cake can get!
Hi Jenny,
We had exactly the same issues! Our budget and head count meant we couldn’t afford the organic caterers but we were still trying to do the best we could. This meant lots of emails back and forth with our caterers trying to pick the most seasonal menu possible, making sure chicken was free range, asking them to provide Fairtrade tea and coffee (which they were happy to do).
It’s not easy but I just think that the more people ask these questions, the more suppliers will start thinking about them and begin to act on them – by popular demand, as it were!
You’ve been so creative with your wedding ideas, growing your own flowers, willow weaving, rings from recycled gold, I think you both deserve a bottle of organic bubbly and a big pat on the back!
Katie