event through June to put a hold on a backup date... And then the clients have to let us know which date they are going with at least three weeks prior to their contracted date. It’s very challenging for our brides and grooms to pick a new wedding date... especially when they have to find a date that works for all vendors – venue, photographer, DJ/band, videographer, etc... Overall, things have been going pretty smoothly for most of our clients and we are doing everything we can to provide them with their desired backup date. We had almost $200,000 on the books for the month of May, but COVID-19 has postponed or canceled all events through the end We have two salary kitchen staff members at the moment and a salaried operating manager... And we have two hourly office assistants. We are lucky that we were in the midst of hiring hourly kitchen staff for the season, so we have put that on hold for now. At this time we are still paying our salaried employees and the two office admins are working minimal hours from home. We are using this time wisely and revamping our back-of-the-house operating system, so my two kitchen managers are working from home daily to update the operating system. This should take them a month or of May – and we have a feeling that more will postpone after that.
KIM HERNANDEZ is the creator and owner of Tasteful Occasions, a top-rated custom catering company in Pennsylvania
Tasteful Occasions was a vision my husband and I had for many years. We were both fed up with working for other people’s bars and restaurants and wanted to open our own... We got our start as the premier caterer for the Baltimore Orioles and
the Washington Nationals baseball teams. From there, we expanded into weddings and larger events. We stand out as a creative caterer who uses fresh, delicious ingredients – no dried-out chicken in chafing pans at our events! Tasteful Occasions’ annual sales in 2019 were just over $1 million. We cater weddings, corporate events, and also offer delivery service. We catered about 175 events in 2019. While Tasteful Occasions is open year-round, 90% of our business is conducted from mid- April through December 31. Most of our business comes from outdoor events such as backyard weddings, barn weddings, tent weddings, and large corporate events. We had almost $200,000 on the books for the month of May, but COVID-19 has postponed or canceled all events through the end of May – and we have a feeling that more will postpone after that. At the moment, we have had one event cancel completely, and another 10 have postponed to a date in 2020 or moved their wedding a year out to 2021. We are allowing all clients that have a booked
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April 2020
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