When couples first hear that Secret Little Garden has an open vendor policy, the reaction is usually one of two things: relief or confusion. The relief comes from couples who have already toured venues that bundle catering, bar service, and décor into a single mandatory package — and who felt, rightly, that something was being taken from them. The confusion comes from couples who have never encountered a venue that trusts them to build their own team.
Both reactions make sense. The open vendor model is genuinely different from how most venues operate, and it is worth explaining clearly — including the parts that have a cost attached.
The Three-Tier Catering Structure
At Secret Little Garden, catering works on a three-tier system. Understanding which tier applies to your event is the most important practical decision you will make after choosing your venue date.
Tier 1 — Ciao & Zen (On-Premise): Our in-house culinary team, Ciao & Zen Hospitality Co., is the most seamless option. No coordination fee, no surcharge. Ciao & Zen operates out of our kitchen, knows our garden intimately, and has built a menu that reflects the culinary character of Southtown San Antonio — from the Garden Social daytime format at $38 per person to the Chef's Table multi-course experience at $155 per person. When you choose Ciao & Zen, the entire culinary experience is managed under one roof.
Tier 2 — Preferred Outside Caterer: If you have a caterer in mind who is already in our Preferred Partners network — a team we know, have worked with, and trust to operate in our space — a flat $750 coordination fee applies. No percentage surcharge on their invoice. This fee covers the additional coordination work our team does to schedule load-in, brief the caterer on our property standards, and ensure the evening flows correctly. Many of San Antonio's finest culinary teams fall into this tier.
Tier 3 — Unlisted Outside Caterer: If you want to bring in a caterer who is not in our network — a family caterer, a chef from another city, a team we have not worked with before — the same $750 coordination fee applies, plus a 17% surcharge on the outside caterer's food and beverage invoice. This surcharge reflects the additional operational and quality-assurance work required to onboard and manage a vendor who is not already familiar with our property, our standards, and our flow. It is not a penalty. It is an honest accounting of the real cost of that coordination.
What the 20% Service Charge Covers
A 20% hospitality service charge applies to all food, beverage, and labor provided or coordinated by Secret Little Garden. For Ciao & Zen events, this covers the full culinary team. For outside caterers who bring their own fully staffed service team, the service charge applies only to any labor that Secret Little Garden provides or coordinates — not to the outside caterer's own invoice.
This distinction matters. If your outside caterer arrives with their own servers, their own captain, and their own bar team, you are not paying a service charge on their work. You are paying it only on the work our team does.
Why We Built It This Way
The honest answer is that we believe your wedding should taste like you. Not like us.
When a venue mandates its own catering, what you are really buying is a package that was designed to be operationally efficient for the venue, not culinarily meaningful for you. The menu is often generic. The service is often adequate. The experience is often forgettable.
We are surrounded by some of the finest culinary talent in Texas. Chefs who have earned James Beard recognition, who have been featured on national television, who have spent decades building menus that reflect their own cultural heritage and culinary philosophy. To require couples to bypass all of that in favor of a house caterer would be, frankly, a waste of San Antonio's extraordinary food culture.
So we built a model that connects couples to that talent directly. We vet the vendors. We manage the coordination. We ensure that every team working in our garden meets our standards. But the creative choices — the menu, the style, the voice — belong to you.
How to Use the Open Vendor Policy Well
The freedom of an open vendor policy is only as good as the decisions you make with it. Here is how to use it well.
Start with your caterer. Food is the most memorable part of any event. Before you finalize your guest list or your florals or your music, know who is feeding your guests. Browse our Preferred Partners directory, request introductions to two or three culinary teams, and schedule tastings. The caterer sets the tone for the entire culinary experience.
Understand the tier before you commit. If you have a caterer in mind who is not in our network, ask us whether they qualify as a Preferred Partner before you sign anything. Sometimes the answer is yes — and the conversation saves you the 17% Tier 3 surcharge. Sometimes the conversation leads couples to discover a Preferred Partner they love even more.
Think about coherence. The best events feel like a single vision, not a collection of vendors who happened to show up on the same day. When you choose vendors who share an aesthetic sensibility — a florist whose work complements your caterer's plating style, a photographer who understands the light in our garden — the result is something that feels intentional rather than assembled.
Use our introductions. One of the most underused features of our Preferred Partners model is the personal introduction. When you request an introduction through our directory, we do not send you a contact card. We personally connect you — we tell the vendor about your event, your vision, your priorities. That warm handoff changes the quality of the first conversation.
The open vendor policy is not a loophole or a compromise. It is a philosophy. We believe the best events are built by people who care deeply about the choices they make — and we built a venue that makes those choices possible.