Contemporary Catering and Event Planning Services

We initially heard about them off a web search engine, and of the five caterers this search engine sent our proposal to, Contemporary Catering was the ONLY one that responded with the information we requested and listened to what we wanted. Nathaniel gave us great suggestions for staying within our budget and initially was great about contacting me when I slacked off and forgot. Eric’s food at the tasting was fantastic. They gave us referrals that raved about them. The day-of went really well. The staff was professional and courteous, the food was absolutely incredible, and everyone seemed pretty happy. They get the grade for these reasons:

1) The company exploded in popularity in the 9 months between when we booked them and our wedding. Our smallish wedding became somewhat small potatoes as time got closer. I don't really fault the company at all for that, I just got the feeling they bit off more than they could chew with the growth. We started to feel unnecessary. This is our feelings, not anything anyone there said or did, so take it with a giant grain of salt. That being said, my antique cake set that was a gift from my mother disappeared at the wedding, and I worried that maybe the caterer had assumed it was theirs and accidentally taken it with them. I don't suspect anyone stole it, but I called and asked them to check on it. I was assured they'd check the kitchens and storage and get back to me. 3 weeks later, and I still haven't gotten a return phone call. I called back, and was told they probably didn't have it, but was promised another call after they check storage. I know it's not a big deal to them, but it obviously is to me.

2) The sample menu they put together for us to estimate price was not what we wanted for the final menu. We all discussed this at the time of the deposit, and Nathaniel advised we wait to finalized the menu until about a month before the wedding so we had a better idea of tastes of our guests and actual numbers. Unfortunately for us and him, their menu changed during that time along with their prices. Any old items were given to us at the old price because we had a contract, but any new items were at the new prices (which makes sense since there WAS no old price to go by). Of course, we wanted some of the new stuff. We had to go back and forth about 8 or 9 times trying to finalize the menu. There were items I specifically asked removed or added that he would leave on or off, which was incredibly frustrating. It turns out that his reasoning was simply trying to keep our price at our estimate, but he never told me, "Hey, if you add this one that's going to drive up the price. I'm leaving that one on because it's cheap." I just wish there had been better communication there. I got frustrated when he was really trying to help, he got frustrated because I started getting bridezilla-y, and we both wasted a lot of time. My advice: Be specific and help in the communication from the beginning. Instead of just saying, "No, we really don't want that, we like this better," ASK WHY you're not getting what you asked for. Don’t worry about hurting feelings; this is business.

3) We paid for 69 people; 55 showed and we had almost no leftovers. We did heavy hors d'oeuvres only, so it's not like someone didn't get to eat anything, but I worry that maybe people didn't get enough food. Of course, no one's going to tell the bride, "hey, I'm hungry," but I hope no one was, and I'm glad we had so many no-shows. If you plan on doing heavy hors d'ouevres, get specifics on how many pieces you'll be getting. The caterer may be underestimating.

Would I use Contemporary Catering again? Absolutely. I loved them and hope to have a reason to hire them repeatedly. But I would absolutely stay on top of everything and be very specific right from the beginning. Don't be shy!

I found Contemporary Catering on line and met with Nathaniel about a year before my wedding. He gave us a delicious tasting of a Chinese buffet, then worked with our budget to give us the reception we wanted. They ordered all our rentals, put out decorations we gave them, and set up a beautiful buffet. We had to change our venue at the last minute due to a double-booking nightmare, and Nathaniel and Jenny pulled our new ceremony together. Jenny stayed through the entire reception, checking in with me a few times to make sure everything was fine. They always answered our questions and returned our calls, and were great about any changes we wanted to make. The best thing about them is that they listened to what we want, they reassured us when we were anxious, and they reminded us to do what would make us happy. Wonderful, professional caterers that I highly recommend.