Catering A Wake: The Hour Between The Service And The Gathering

The hour is the whole job

Almost every wake follows the same shape. The service happens. There is an hour, sometimes less. Then thirty or eighty people arrive at a room somewhere nearby, having not eaten since breakfast.

We deliver into that hour. The food is laid out, covered, and we are gone before the first car arrives. That is the entire operation, and it succeeds or fails on two things that have nothing to do with the food.

Problem one: who lets us in

Everyone connected to the family is at the crematorium. The function room is locked. The person with the key is in the front car.

This is the single most common thing that goes wrong at a wake, and it is entirely avoidable. When you book, tell us the arrangement: the venue is opening up, a neighbour has a key, the club steward will be there from one. Any of those is fine. What does not work is assuming it will resolve itself.

If you genuinely have nobody, tell us, some venues will take a delivery on your behalf and we can often arrange it directly with them.

Problem two: the numbers

Nobody knows how many will come back. People who did not attend the service often come to the gathering; people who did sometimes go straight home.

Give us your best guess and we will send slightly over as a matter of course. It is the one occasion where we build in extra without being asked, because running out at a wake is not a thing anybody should have to think about afterwards.

If the number changes the day before, ring. It is not an imposition.

The seven crematoria we deliver around

Each of the towns we serve has its own, and the gathering afterwards is almost always at a club, hall or hotel a short drive from it rather than at the crematorium itself.

• Mansfield and District Crematorium, Derby Road. Funeral catering in Mansfield
• Chesterfield and District Crematorium, Brimington. Funeral catering in Chesterfield
• Wilford Hill and Bramcote, both serving Nottingham. Funeral catering in Nottingham
• Markeaton Crematorium, Markeaton Lane, Derby. Funeral catering in Derby
• City Road Crematorium, Sheffield. Funeral catering in Sheffield
• Gilroes, Groby Road, Leicester. Funeral catering in Leicester

We deliver to the venues around all of them, and in most cases we have done so before.

What to order

The traditional funeral tea, and there is a reason it has not changed. Sandwiches cut small, sausage rolls, pork pies, quiche, and cake with the tea. Easy to eat standing up, easy to put down when somebody comes over to talk.

• Buffet 1, £5.50 a head. Sandwiches. Enough for a smaller gathering.
• Buffet 5, £7.70 a head. Sandwiches and savouries. The usual choice.
• Buffet 8, £9.40 a head. With crisps, fruit and cake, where the afternoon runs on.

All prices exclude VAT and delivery is free.

How quickly we can do it

Forty-eight hours for a delivered buffet, and often better. We will tell you no on the phone rather than take a booking we cannot keep. A wake is the one job where being let down cannot be put right afterwards.

Anything hot, or served by our staff, needs about a week. Most families are not asking for that.

What we will not do

Ask you to fill in a form. Ring the office and say what has happened; you will get a person, a price and an answer about the date in the same conversation.

Dietary requirements are prepared separately and labelled. Tell us how many of each and nobody has to ask about a sandwich in a room full of people they half know.

Need to arrange something? Funeral catering has the detail, or ring 0115 647 6903.