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Details
Food & Catering
- Buffet
- Catering Delivery & Setup
- Passed Appetizers
- Servers
Reviews
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4.7
out of 5.012 reviews
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When looking for a caterer we wanted to find a company that did not do the "standard" wedding food and provided an all encompassing service from servers to bartenders. We first met Barb a year and a half before our wedding. We went to her house for a tasting and boy was it delicious! She was open to customizing the meal and working with us to find options for our gluten free, vegan and lactose intolerant friends. She was so helpful in the last few months before our wedding. She helped us think about the flow of the event and even helped us identify how much alcohol to buy. Our wedding day was perfect and everyone raved about the food. Honestly I am going to keep hiring bowl of cherries for every event I have in the future. Worth every penny as it brings quality service and a nice person to work with.
I could tell from our first meeting that Barb is a master of her craft. She got my vision and went through several revisions of a menu with us. She is not just another wedding food caterer. There really is an art, thought, and magic to her menus and you can feel it in the food. We chose to go mediteranean style and everyone RAVED about it. We had many vegetarians and vegans and this gave them many options. The word everyone uses was "thoughtful" and "intentional" which made me so happy.
Wonderful! Barb and her team were amazing. Barb went above and beyond to help us make our event run smoothly. The food was fantastic and Barb made wonderful recommendations. Barb and her team were incredibly friendly and accommodating for our guests. We can't thank her enough for everything she did for us before and on our wedding day.
We worked with Bowl of Cherries to cater the brunch following our wedding. The team was great to work with and very responsive leading up to the event and made sure the menu was exactly what we wanted. The set up was absolutely beautiful and the food was incredible! Highly recommend!
Barb was great in the beginning but brought unneeded stress to the day of. Working in the event planning business previously, I was very disappointed that the items I paid for were not displayed as discussed or worse not displayed at all.
Food
- Our crab cake sliders were on saltine crackers not on rolls...not sure where the disconnect on that one was. They were on slider buns at our tasting and living in Annapolis all my life i've never had a crab cake served on a saltine cracker.
- 2/4 desserts that were on the list were displayed. There were no chocolate peanut butter ganache bars - instead chocolate chip cookies were displayed.
- The displayed food wasn't ready to go at the start of the reception. It also was displayed for about 50 people when we had 200.
Staff
- With the staff she had hired - they ran out of limes at the bars within 5 minutes.
- They dumped out our bowl of matches that were to be displayed so that they could use to bowl as a tip jar. Very unprofessional.
- They never cut our cheese wheel cake which was supposed to be displayed with dessert. I noticed it 30 minutes before the reception ended and now have $550 worth of cheese in my fridge that no one got to eat.
My biggest heartache was the line at the bars. I specifically asked that servers be there to greet guests with beer and wine on trays to help with the first rush after the ceremony. Instead the bars were still being set up with boxes and ice everywhere when the ceremony ended. They were not prepared which caused lines for the first 45 minutes of the reception.
Another pain point was plates. On my way to my first look I got a call that plates were not ordered. I met with Barb twice and told her I would be doing the utensils because I wanted them wrapped in a napkin and tied with twine. At one of our meetings we even looked online at the plates she was going to order because I wanted bamboo plates that were enviro-friendly. In the end no plates were ordered and someone had to run to Sams Club to get plastic plates. This was not a call I wanted to receive 30 minutes before go time.
Overall I was very disappointed with how everything turned out.
Bowl of Cherries /Barb's team did an amazing job for my son's wedding reception. The food was incredibly delicious and presented in such a stylized fashion, they really needed little else on the buffet stations. It was a cocktail style reception with heavy hors d'oeuvres, some passed and some stationary... and it just kept coming all night! We had wonderful reviews from the guests and could not have been happier. Barb created a unique menu with something to fit all tastes! The planning with Barb was seamless. The bride and groom were located out west, but Barb made it all easy and fun. Thank you all so much!
Barb catered our daughter's wedding, and everything was amazing. So creative (like ice cream sandwiches for dessert), and Barb was incredibly easy to work with (so flexible about menu, and respectful of the groom's peanut allergy too). The father of the groom said 'I just ate a Brussels sprout. And I liked it!' Something for everyone, and maybe some new stuff too. Highly recommend!
Barb catered my December reception at the Annapolis Maritime Museum. The Museum provides a list of their preferred caterers and after some research, narrowed it down to the ones that seemed most geared to my tastes and budget, with a preference for the small and local options. I reached out to a few, and Barb was instantly responsive and sent over several sample menus. I was impressed with her proactiveness and after exchanging a few emails, felt she was the one. I could not have made a better decision!
Barb struck the perfect balance of providing me with enough of her own ideas but also listening to my tastes and preferences to come up with the perfect menu for our event. She also met with my parents and I to walk through the venue and show us how she envisioned everything being set up. As we got closer to the date, she held a tasting at her house for my husband, his family, and me so we could try everything on the menu. Unsurprisingly, it was all delicious and I don't know that we made a single change after that!
We wanted a healthy, fresh menu with a local flair that was also seasonal, so some highlights included: crab dip; a raw bar; rockfish; steak; tons of roasted vegetables; a butternut squash, arugula, and quinoa salad; and a hot chocolate/coffee bar! My only regret from my event is that I never had the opportunity to check out the appetizer and dessert spread as I was too busy chatting with guests but these got rave reviews. I really did not want the food to feel like standard wedding fare and Barb really accomplished this -- my plate of food felt like it was cooked just for me, not for 130 other people.
Beyond just the food, Barb also was "basically a wedding planner" to use my husband's words. She coordinated the rental equipment, advised us on alcohol amounts, brought all the mixers, helped us with our timeline, and generally made us feel at ease during a stressful time. I highly recommend Barb and her team to cater your next event!
Barb made our rehearsal dinner perfect - it was better than we ever imagined! We wanted to do a traditional New England lobster bake and she executed it perfectly. We have gotten so many compliments on the food! Not only does she prepare top quality food full of flavor, but her presentation and displays are exquisite. Barb is easy to work with, creative, willing to work within your budget, and very professional. She creates custom menus for each event and is full of creative ideas and ways to bring your vision to life. She has a true passion for food and it shows. We are so happy we found Barb and can’t wait to use her for another event in the future!
Barb catered not only our wedding, but also our rehearsal dinner. The quality of her food, coupled with a beautiful presentation can't be topped. She was with us from the early stages of planning all the way to our big day. We did several taste tests, but as soon as we tried Barb's food we had our answer. She really personalizes the food, is very mindful of your budget and is super creative. Everyone complimented the food at the wedding. If you're getting married in Annapolis, look no further.
Barb absolutely made my wedding perfect. I couldn’t have done it without her. She was prompt and responsive, always returning my calls and replying to emails quickly, which was important to me as a long-distance bride. The food was amazing, the staff was wonderful, and I got so many compliments.
She was very accommodating and made my vision for the food a reality. We went for a “Maryland in the summer” theme, with crab dip (of course!), local seafood, and local fresh veggies. She made an amazing thin-sliced steak for us that was perfectly cooked and seasoned. It was so incredibly opposite of all the wedding food I’ve ever had, where it’s overcooked, bland, un-inspiring options. She even made us a spaghetti squash martini bar, with all sorts of excellent toppings! (Seriously – get that, my veggie-hating, meat-loving husband said it was his favorite thing that night.) She even designed mini ice cream sandwiches with local Annapolis Ice Cream Co. ice cream to be passed instead of desserts. Mmm, I’m hungry just thinking about all that great food!
She was very reasonably priced, which is amazing for the quality of food and service she provided. She did a last-minute walk-through with us two days before, and she diagrammed the whole venue so that we could see exactly what it would look like. She coordinated all of the event rentals (but let us pay directly and took no surcharge), the drinks deliveries, and even returned the spare alcohol at the end of the night! Her staff even made sure that my husband and I got enough food to eat. We hid out during cocktail hour and they brought us a meal-sized tray of appetizers (yum!) then prepared us plates so that we could sit and eat them while everyone else got dinner. I cannot recommend Barb highly enough – I had so many amazing compliments about the food, the setup, the staff – and it was honestly the best meal I’ve eaten in a very long time.
Bowl of Cherries was one of the preferred vendors at my venue. I was impressed, first, by the website. Then, when I met Barb, I knew we had to have her cater our wedding.
Barb has some trademark dishes; but I waxed a little exotic with a couple of dishes that I just had to have, and she was willing and excited to make them for me and to make some additional menu suggestions that were compatible with my choices, and that went along with my autumn/fairy/vintage theme perfectly. In fact, she even helped to find a baker for my kransekage and ordered and assembled it for me!!!
Sometimes wedding food can be blah, but, seriously, my guests cannot stop talking about how amazing everything was. It truly could not have been more perfect. Everything tasted incredible; the presentation was gorgeous and right on-theme; and not only was the cost right around what I expected, but Barb also did a great job helping me to stay on budget with rentals.
If you want someone with experience, flexibility, the creativity to see your vision through, and a willingness to work with your budget, I highly recommend Barb and Bowl of Cherries.
Contact
PO Box 572, Crownsville, MD
Bowl of Cherries Catering & Events
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