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Two caterers in aprons standing in the open roller door of a kitchen unit with crates of produce behind them, looking at the camera in morning light
The unit, outside Holt · Morning

Glaven & Crumb · Since 2013

Two of us run your day

One cooks, one runs the room. You'll have met both of us before the day, and both of us are there on it.

  • Tess Glaven

    The kitchen

    Writes your menu around what's at its best in your month, and cooks it. Tess on the food

  • Joe Crumb

    The floor

    Runs the room from the first van to the last crate, so you never have to look for anyone. Joe on the day

A chef's hands dressing a Cromer crab at a steel bench under daylight from a high window
Tess · At the bench

Chef

Tess Glaven: the kitchen

I don't start with a menu. I start with the month. If you're marrying in June I know the crab will be sweet and the asparagus is on its last fortnight, so that's where your feast begins. In October it's a shoulder of saltmarsh lamb that's been in the oven since breakfast.

I cook plainly because the produce is good enough to be left alone. Big boards, hot, down the middle of the table, and more of it than you think you need. Allergies and dietary needs are written down when we plan the menu, so the kitchen knows every plate before the day.

You taste it first. Every booked couple comes to the unit and eats the menu with us, and we change what needs changing.

Tess Glaven

What I build the seasons around

  • Cromer crabSpring to early autumn
  • Norfolk asparagusLate April to June
  • Saltmarsh lambLate summer and autumn
  • Local beer and ciderAll year
See each season's sample menu and price a head

Front of house

Joe Crumb: the floor

A good wedding day looks like nothing is happening. That takes a plan I've walked through twice before you've arrived: where the vans go, where the bar sits, which door the boards come through, who's on which table.

On the day I'm the person you can see. If the speeches run long, I move the lamb. If Granny needs a chair in the shade, she gets one before she's asked. You shouldn't need to find me, because I'll already be looking at you.

We leave the kitchen cleaner than we found it and the last crate goes in the van without anyone noticing.

Joe Crumb

How I run it

  • BeforeA site visit, a timing plan agreed with you, and every supplier's name in my notebook.
  • Set-upWe arrive early, build the kitchen and the bar, and are quiet about it.
  • ServiceCanapés in hand, then boards down the table all at once, hot, and kept full.
  • AfterCleared, washed, packed and gone, with the room left as we found it.
The shape of a wedding day with us
A server in an apron carrying a tray of glasses across a daylit barn with guests blurred around him
Joe · On the floor

The team

Two people can't feed a barn of a hundred, and we don't pretend to. Cooks work the pass with Tess; front-of-house staff carry, pour and clear with Joe. The team is sized to your guest list, briefed from the same plan, and most of them have done many of these days with us.

They're the ones who notice a glass is empty before you do, and they're the reason the two of us can stay calm.

The catering team in aprons along a long empty trestle table in a barn before service, with daylight coming through the open doors behind them
Before service · Barn wedding

Since 2013, the plain facts

  • 2013

    Cooking from a kitchen unit outside Holt since then, for barn, marquee and garden days across north Norfolk.

  • 5

    Food hygiene rating, the top mark, at the unit the feasts come from.

  • Every couple

    A tasting for every booked couple, at the unit, with Tess and Joe at the table.

  • 4.9

    From 118 reviews, written by couples and hosts after their day.

Days we have fed

Barns, marquees and gardens across north Norfolk, in daylight, with the team at work. The season is named beside each one, because it changed what was on the table.

  • A long barn table at full feast with boards of lamb and bowls of salad passing between guests in daylight
    Barn wedding · Autumn
  • A trestle bar in a marquee with rows of beer and cider bottles and a server's hands opening one
    Marquee wedding · Summer
  • A server offering a wooden board of canapés to guests on a lawn under bright overcast daylight
    Garden wedding · Summer
  • Servers' hands setting platters of dressed crab and asparagus down on a linen table as guests make room
    Barn wedding · Spring
  • A chef's hands lifting a steaming tray of roast roots onto a steel table at a field kitchen under a gazebo
    Field kitchen · Autumn
  • Colleagues seated along a long outdoor trestle table passing boards of ham and bowls of salad at a company lunch in daylight
    Company lunch · Summer

Check your date

Tell us the month and the kind of day and we'll tell you if we're free. Once your date is booked, you'll meet both of us at your tasting at the unit outside Holt, and eat the menu before anyone else does.

How we handle what you send us

How tastings work Know the exact date? Use the full form Or ring 01632 960 845, Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:00.