Wedding catering
Wedding catering in the Fraser Valley
Armenian and Middle Eastern, from our family kitchen in Abbotsford
Salma's Kitchen caters Armenian and Middle Eastern wedding receptions across the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver, cooked in our Abbotsford kitchen and delivered laid out ready to serve. Grilled mains, mezze, rice and salads on a shared table. Six to eight months of notice suits a summer Saturday. Call us with your date.
- Event Wedding receptions, buffet, family style or a long mezze table.
- Where Across the Fraser Valley and into Metro Vancouver, cooked in Abbotsford.
- Notice Six to eight months for a summer Saturday. Less for a small or off-season date.
- How it arrives Delivered laid out ready to serve, or collected from our Abbotsford kitchen.
- To book Phone only. Call (819) 743-5953 with your date, venue and rough guest count.
How far ahead should you book us for a wedding?
Six to eight months for a Saturday between May and September, and three to six months for a smaller or off-season date. The date is the thing that runs out, not the menu, so the call that settles it is worth making early even if your guest list is nowhere near final.
If your date is closer than that, call before you rule us out. A shared spread is far easier to produce on short notice than a plated, staffed meal, and what narrows on a short timeline is the range of the menu rather than the quality of the food. Our journal sets out the honest lead times event by event if you want the background reading before you dial.
The format decision
Which reception format should you choose?
Pick the one that matches your room and your evening, not the one that sounds most formal. All three work with the same food, because a mezze spread is designed to be shared rather than plated.
| Reception format | How the food sits | Best when | What you line up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buffet | One or two serving lines that guests move along, then return to. | Larger receptions, and rooms where the tables are already full. | Serving tables, and somebody who owns the food table so it stays tidy and topped up. |
| Family style | Platters and bowls placed down the middle of each guest table. | Receptions where you want people seated and talking rather than queuing. | Enough table space per group, and whoever is placing the platters as guests sit. |
| Mezze or grazing table | One long shared table people come back to across the evening. | Long receptions, cocktail-style evenings, and outdoor celebrations. | A table with room to walk both sides, and a plan for refreshing it partway through. |
Still weighing the shape of the menu itself rather than the logistics? Our Fraser Valley wedding catering guide goes through buffet against family style in detail, and there are separate notes on acreage and backyard receptions and on a Vancouver shared table.
How do we work out quantities for your guest count?
On the phone, together, from your headcount and the length of your reception. We plan on the generous side, because a short table is a worse problem at a wedding than leftovers are.
The shape of a spread changes as the number climbs. Twenty guests need a few dishes done properly. Fifty needs three or four grilled mains, rice in quantity, several salads and all the dips. A hundred is the same food doubled plus a serving plan, because one buffet line for a hundred people moves slowly. If you want the arithmetic before you call, our guide to planning food for 20, 50 or 100 guests walks through each size.
Guest counts move, and we expect that. Tell us your best estimate when you book and refine it as replies come in.
Do you drop off, or stay through the reception?
We are a drop off kitchen. We cook your food for your date, deliver it laid out ready to serve, and leave you and your venue to run the evening. Pickup from our Abbotsford kitchen is always an option instead.
That covers most weddings, but not every one. A long reception in a room with no kitchen genuinely benefits from hot holding and extra hands on the day, and if that is your situation, say so on the phone. We will tell you plainly what we can and cannot do for your event rather than promising a service and working it out afterwards. If the words themselves are new, drop off against full service explains what each one means.
Ask your venue about kitchen access, tables for a buffet, power near the serving area, whether open flames are allowed, setup time and the hard end time for clearing out. The cleanup deadline is the one that catches people. We cannot answer those for a venue we have not been given, and we will not guess.
How do you handle vegetarian, vegan and allergy questions?
Straight, and before you book rather than after. Much of a Middle Eastern table is already vegetarian and several dishes are vegan, so those guests eat from the main spread instead of getting a separate plate carried out to them.
On halal we say the same thing every time: we are a small family kitchen, not a certified halal facility. What we can do is tell you exactly what goes into each dish so the people who need to decide are deciding with real information. Allergy questions get the same treatment, dish by dish, for your specific order. Sesame, nuts and dairy run through a lot of this cuisine, so raise them early.
What arrives, and how does it reach your venue?
Trays and platters, arranged to go straight onto your table: grilled kabab and shish tawook, toshka, kibbe, rice, tabouli and Armenian salad, warm bread, and dips by the half kilo. Everything on our menu can be ordered as a catering spread.
We deliver across the whole service area, most often to Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Langley for weddings, and west as far as Vancouver. The further the drive, the more we build the timing around the food arriving in good shape.
What to have ready when you call
- Your date, and whether it is a Saturday in peak summer.
- The venue, and whether the room has kitchen access or only a counter and a sink.
- A rough guest count. It does not need to be final.
- Whether you want the food dropped off ready to serve or collected by you.
- Any dietary needs you already know about in the guest list.
Before you call
Wedding catering questions, answered
Do you cater weddings across the Fraser Valley?
Yes. We cook Armenian and Middle Eastern wedding spreads in our Abbotsford kitchen and cater across the Fraser Valley and into Metro Vancouver, including Chilliwack, Langley, Surrey and Vancouver. Call us with your date, your venue and a rough guest count and we will tell you plainly whether the date is open.
How far in advance should we book wedding catering?
Six to eight months is the comfortable window for a summer Saturday, because every couple in the valley wants the same twenty dates. A smaller wedding or an off-season date often works with three to six months. If your date is sooner than that, call anyway rather than assuming it is too late.
Can you cater a wedding at a venue with no kitchen?
Often, yes, because a mezze spread is built to be set out rather than plated to order. What changes is how long the food can sit and how it is held, so ask your venue about kitchen access, power near the serving table and setup and cleanup times, then tell us what they said.
Do you deliver the food, or do we collect it?
Either. We deliver across the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver laid out ready to serve, so the family hosting is not stuck in a kitchen. Pickup from our Abbotsford kitchen is always an option if you would rather take the delivery window out of your day entirely.
Can you cover vegetarian, vegan and halal guests at a wedding?
Much of a Middle Eastern spread is already vegetarian and several dishes are vegan, so those guests eat from the main table rather than a separate plate. On halal we are straight with you: we are a small family kitchen, not a certified halal facility. We will tell you exactly what is in each dish so you can decide.
How do we book you for a wedding?
By phone. Call us on (819) 743-5953 with your date, your venue and a rough guest count, and we will shape the spread with you from there. There is no booking form and no email address, because a two-minute conversation settles what a week of messages cannot.
Wedding catering by city
From our kitchen to your table
Tell us your date, your venue and your rough guest count. We will shape the spread with you.
Call (819) 743-5953