Nothing happened that was too horrible at my wedding. Our fountain that we rented didn't work, because the pump was bad, so the florist (who we rented it from) had to stay and fix it the morning of the wedding. AND, our wedding cake had pink flowers on it instead of red ones, and it looked very odd, because our color was red. But the little old lady (a friend of a friend, who charges an EXTREMELY reasonable price) didn't notice (color blind??? or something!!!), so I didn't have the heart to tell her it wasn't what we wanted. Plus, she didn't add the draping on the sides that we wanted either. But it still tasted good!
One of my friends is a different story!!!!!! They had the WORST time with their caterer!!!!!
So Friday morning, we all got to the church to decorate at 10am. The caterer was supposed to have met the bride's mother at 9am to drop off all the table linins. No show. Called her home. No answer. She has no work phone, because evidently she has no kitchen at the moment and "shares" one with another establishment. She has no store front, because she sold it, and is in the process of setting up a new business. (AND in the past, she had moved and had not contacted bride and her family for some time as to where she was)
Oh, and just so you know, by this point, this woman has been paid in full already as a part of their contract.
So we did as much as we could. We got everything ready, including centerpieces. We even had them out on the chairs ready to go. All we needed were the stinking tablecloths!!!!! FINALLY, bride's dad had to drive to where this woman's husband worked, and waited until he got back from his lunch hour, and had to ask him where in the world his wife was.
So then the caterer finally came. She breezed in and said......Oh, I'm soooooo busy! i have 2 weddings tomorrow, and i've been cooking all day!!! (Um, EXCUSE me?!?!?!?) She dropped of the linens and left. The bride at this point, is pretty much in tears!! She didn't say a word to the caterer - I'm glad she didn't. But if it had been me...that woman would have gotten it!!!
And as we were putting the table skirts on.......they were DIRTY!!!! Evidently (says they caterer, AFTER the fact) It costs EXTRA for clean linens. Um, Who wouldn't want CLEAN LINENS!!!?!?!?!? AND, the woman had borrowed them from a hotel in town. What!!?!? So we did our best to hide the spots, but it was so gross, and the bride was so worrie dthat people were going to see them!
Fast forward to wedding day....(yep, there's more)
Everything was going great.....until the caterer was supposed to get there. Yep. She didn't. The wedding coordinater (one of the most wonderful women in the world!!) had to send one of the guests....yes....one of the GUESTS....out to the store to buy materials for punch, because they had a punch fountain that needed to be running when everyone got out of the ceremony. And a couple people helped with that.
When the caterer finally got there, she breezed in and said, "WE just go so caught up in the other wedding, I have two today you know, and we were so busy.." So she was like an hour late at least! We were able to keep most of that information from the bride, THANK GOODNESS!!!!
(By the way, the food was great, but I should have mentioned that we had created a pizza backup plan :) )
then after the wedding we all started to help clean up. One of the women walked in on the cater....THROWING FOOD AWAY!!!!! She said"Well, I have to take my trays with me, and I can't take the food home!" Um, these people paid for the food. It's theirs!! So we ended up boxing up what was left over ourselves so that the bride's family could take it home. But then, get this - the caterer before she left, had the GALL to tell everyone about her new business - something about putting a bistro conjunciton with someone else's business or something. I'm sorry, but 200 members of this church just witnessed your rudeness and unprofessionalism, and you want US to frequent your restaurant? I don't think so! AND (this is even better) she even as the bride's mother to write her a letter of reccommendation!!!!! HA!!!! Like that's ever going to happen!!!
I just could not believe this woman!!! the bride handled everything fairly well, all things considered. Had it been me, I would have let her have it! I don't know what they're going to do, since they had already paid her, but I think they might look into if they can get some of their money back.But I couldn't believe what happened!!!
