Em’s Catering

Talented Chef, Disappointing Wedding Outcome

From the very first phone call, we were drawn to Em's warmth and excitement for honoring my Filipino roots. At our initial tasting, she prepared plentiful plates for myself, my fiancé, and my future brother-in-laws. The tasting blew us away and her food was fresh, tasty, and incredibly delicious. Sadly after our wedding, it did not pan out to be what we expected at all, and instead was an incredibly disappointing experience paired with lackluster communication and guests/vendors going without meals due to running out of food on the wedding night. We had paid for 185 guests and vendors for a buffet-style dinner. Em’s staff serviced the buffet. We had 8 people no-show, which accounted for even less guests that showed up. When my husband and I got our plates served to us by Em herself, the plate did not match the quality or quantity of the food we had initially tasted at our tasting. We couldn’t recognize the food at all. Our meals were incredibly cold. She had forgotten the pesto sauce that paired with the chicken, and the chicken was incredibly dry. My aunt had to wave a server over, stating that her chicken was dry and smelled inedible. A godparent mentioned that his wife couldn’t eat the meat, due to there being a questionable taste and smell. We had a whole table that couldn’t receive the full menu, due to side dishes running out. We had vendors like our wedding coordinator and DJ that did not receive dinner, despite having been paid for. Guests actively counted the number of potatoes they received, due there being so little on the plate. We were confused as to how food ran out, considering it was not a self-serve buffet, the portions were incredibly small, and the guest count was about 8 people less than what was initially paid for. We have expressed this to Em in a phone call after our wedding. She apologized and took accountability of the forgotten pesto, but we had felt she had deflected our concerns and took no accountability of how others perceived her food, explaining that the food was cold due to the temperatures of the night in a tented wedding, and mentioning that although she forgot the pesto, she was kind enough to include a full-on charcuterie grazing board as an appetizer and a gift. She had admitted to running out of a side item, which we appreciated, but completely deflected and said there was enough food for everyone, after having just said that she had run out of a side. After dozens of your guests come to you and mention that they had left the wedding and gone to a fast-food restaurant to satisfy their appetites, how would you feel? Em agreed to partially refund us the cost of the vendors and guests who did not receive a full plate. At the end of the day, regardless of our stellar tasting and initial discussions with Em, with the difference in the standard of food, the quality of the meal, and the lack of complete meals that were served to guests and vendors had left the impression that she was not equipped to handle our guest count and we were left disappointed. We hope that interested couples looking into Em’s Catering discuss the menu, the portions, and the guest count in high detail. We want to emphasize that Em is a talented chef and a kindhearted individual who has been through a lot. There is no doubt about her passion for her events. However, as a client who had invested a lot of time, money, and emotion in this catering process, we were sad that it did not work out for our wedding as we had hoped.