Christiani's VIP Catering & Events

Prompt and on time. Easy to work with & food was delicious! Staff was polite and on top of everything! Highly recommend!

Used them as a catering service for our wedding in November. I understand with covid, things are limited, however we had to take what we heard about it when we booked since they wouldn’t do a tasting for us. During the ceremony we had people not show (covid) and so we couldn’t take the left overs (even though we paid for them) since we booked last year, we were supposed to get a complementary food station.. we opted for the panini bar, and we were given the bruschetta bar. The drunken steak was still cold in the middle. And Peter, the one organizing it was nowhere to be found. Nor has he replied to our emails about the bar mix up. All in all, if you’re looking for a decent caterer, I’d recommend them; However, it isn't worth what they charge.

Peter with Christiani's was great to work with for our 9/19/20 wedding! When I think of wedding food, I think of fairly average food, but several of our guests made sure to comment to us on how amazing the food tasted and we couldn't agree more! We had several appetizers for cocktail hour along with the pasta buffet for dinner and it was all delicious. They were very accommodating to the changes we had to make due to COVID, and the service the night-of was perfect. I would highly recommend!

Peter is amazing to work with! We had to made drastic changes to our wedding due to COVID and one of those unfortunately impacted our caterer. We were looking forward to having Christiani's on our big. We enjoyed the food tasting and new exactly what we were going to have on our wedding day. If you are wavering between caterers, go with Christiani's! I recommend them to my newly engaged friends.

AMAZING food and service. Peter was a breeze to work with and was adaptable to our last minute changes and requests. We got several compliments on how good the food was, and the service, set-up, bar and staff are some of the absolute best you could possibly get. They made this part of the day the most stress-free and easy for us and we couldn't be more thankful!

Used them for my June 2019 wedding. We did a buffet with appetizers. Excellent food. The bruschetta bar was a hit. The buffet table was set up beautifully. Service, set up and decor all went off without a hitch. Peter was easy to work with and accommodated our changes and needs. Communication was good. Things that other people have commented on......you do not get any leftover food for health code reasons. We handled anything cake related as we brought in cake and cupcakes from outside vendors.

Christiani's arrived at 1pm as planned. Peter & I previously emailed that once the supplies were unloaded from the truck, the linens would be placed on the table. Didn't happen. The linens were thrown into a ball on a random table in the facility. My fiance was told "the lady" that was supposed to place the linens was 10 minutes away. Our cake decorator then arrived. The cake decorator waited for the "the lady" to arrive, but 45 minutes later she was not there. There were no linens on the cake table so the cake had to be decorated and placed onto a plate and left on a random table. The linen lady arrived at 2:15pm. Ceremony started at 3pm. This delayed all of the planning and decorating. We were scrambling. My MOH and officiant also had to place the cake bare handed on the stand and then on the cake table, which of course I paid extra money to have done by the cake decorator. "The lady" also told my fiance that the linens that were supplied by Christiani's were the wrong linens and were meant for another event. The dinner was absolutely unorganized. Peter and I had spoken directly about my future brother-in-law and his nut allergy and where he would be seated numerous times. No one could figure out who or where the person with the nut allergy was seated so the nut allergy meal was sent to the best man. We explained this to the wait staff and we ended up passing the meal down the table to my brother-in-law. When then had to ask for another meal for the best man, because he was no longer being served. My brother-in-law has now told us that his stuffed chicken marsala had no stuffing or gravy and 4 green beans. When we met with Peter, we were under the impression that my brother-in-law's salad and green beans would be the only items altered to accommodate the allergy. Also, the wait staff informed us that steak knives were forgotten so our guests were cutting their steaks with butter knives, which didn't go well. Some of our guests used their own personal pocket knives to cut the steak. My fiance and I were both collectively asked over 10 times by the wait staff if our cake was being cut and served to the guests and if there were fake sections inside of it. We were also both questioned multiple times on if we were keeping the top tier of the cake for ourselves. Peter and I had already discussed this. When we thought the issue had been resolved and communicated about day of, but the cake serving was chaotic! There was no communication between the staff members. My father-in-law mentioned to the staff that coffee was supposed to served with the cake. The coffee was served after everyone was done eating cake. It was forgotten. There were also no mint or nut trays. Lastly, we turned out the lights in the reception hall for dancing. We found out the bartender had a medical condition and was blind in one eye so he needed 100% light to see and serve. His service was great, but no one could understand why he would be placed in an area that was going to be dark and why he did not bring his own light source. We ended up placing one our up-lights behind the bar so he could see. The bartender also asked my fiance if we brought limes and other garnishments for the bar to use. In our contract, it states that Christiani's was supposed to bring ice, limes, ect. None of that happened. We luckily had a guest leave and go get extra ice for drinks. There was no one present at the reception venue who was knowledgeable about our plans and day-of coordination.

I hired Christinai's for my wedding last fall. While the end result was beautiful and we received many compliments on the food, the communications leading up the wedding were very frustrating and caused a lot of unnecessary stress. We did not hear from the company for at least two months leading up to the event, and it wasn't until less than 2 weeks before the wedding when we finally heard back from them. We nearly took our business elsewhere. I'm giving them 4 stars because the reception and food were wonderful, but I'm writing this so people are aware that communications may be an issue.

We booked them on the recommendation of several family and friends. Overall they pulled it together, but it was ROUGH getting there. Communication: Terrible. Many of our emails and phone calls went un-returned, even when the wedding was a month away. Service: Awful. On the wedding day, staff were very rude to the bride, groom, and family, snapping at them for asking basic clarifying questions. When we asked about leftovers we were told, "there are no leftovers," as if they magically disappeared, even though we saw the large amount of food left after dinner. We also caught staff eating the food in plain view of the guests. Food/Decor: Amazing. All our guests loved it. The only thing keeping this a 3 star review. If you are willing t completely sacrifice the peace of mind that good service & communication can provide all for the sake of a solid dinner, then go with Christiani's. But I'm sure there are plenty of other caterers in the area that provide quality food without the added drama.

The food was amazing, we had tons of compliments! They also provided a significant amount of our decor, which was nice and look good. The staff working our wedding was great and took excellent care of us. My only negative would be that during the planning process it is hard to keep in contact with them and they were unwilling to adjust their set up time to better accommodate our needs. Overall excellent decor set up, amazing food, and great day of service. All for a very reasonable price.

All the guests raved about the food and service! Top notch catering!!

So easy to work with, beautiful presentation of food, and absolutely delicious!

The food was amazing and our guests loved the food stations at our cocktail style reception. Christiani's willingly adjusted their standard menu by letting us change the lettuce wraps to mini tacos. They were perfect and delicious! Our guests keep telling me how good the food tasted and was presented. We had also saw a previous version of their brochures since I planned so far in advance. Christiani's had no problem letting me pick the options from that brochure as our passed appetizers. Loved working with Peter!

Christiani's had the exclusive bartending contract for our venue. Sally and her staff were very professional to work with. They had several options however for bar selection. Four stars due to the price - found them to be on the pricier side.

Christiani's was very easy to work with and the food tasted amazing! I rated 4 stars because the food was warm and on the pricey side. The staff worked very hard to get the food out...as we did have 240 people attend our wedding, plated style, but thought at least the bride and groom would have hot food. I would choose them again for future events.

We used Christiani's for their bar and catering services at my wedding. I had SO many compliments on the food. Everything was ready on time and tasted amazing! I've never seen so many people go up for seconds at a wedding!! The bar service did a wonderful job and provided quick service to anyone who needed a drink. I can't say enough good things about Christiani's!!

We used Christiani's for their bar services and they were wonderful to work with. Highly recommend.

Sally was fantastic to work with. She answered all my questions, including those insignificant questions 18 months out all the way to last minute questions at 7 pm the day before the wedding. They made a special menu for us, build your own fajitas! It was amazing and we had so many complements on the food. I heard from many people that their staff was kind and efficient. They even helped to box up our desserts. They helped with the schedule of the day and everything went smoothly.

Christiani's is a wonderful catering company. Words cannot describe how excellent their service is and how delicious the food is. They are very helpful in planning and answered every question I had. The wedding day was absolutely beautiful, with a wonderful reception afterwards thanks to Christiani's. They are very professional, respectful, and provide great service.

My now husband and I wanted to do something a little different for catering our reception. Because when we go out to eat we often order 2-3 appetizers rather than entrees, we wanted our reception to have this sort of feel as well. Christian's offers a "tapas" menu, but we wanted to make a whole bunch of changes, additions, and subtractions to their existing plan. Sally at Christiani's was very helpful and accommodating and didn't charge us an arm and leg extra for all of our changes! Plus our guests loved the food... the Primadonna Cheese Station is phenomenal and the Seafood station was also a big hit... mini seafood chowder and bacon wrapped scallops were a big hit!

Everything looked absolutely beautiful they did an amazing job! The staff was excellent and never in the way very polite. You won't find better food it's unbelievable! And the owners are great people, so happy we chose to work with them!

The food was amazing and the staff at my wedding was so wonderful and professional. The customer service during my planning stages did not live up to my expectations. I only used them for catering and it bothered me that they needed to know so much information about other vendors at my wedding. Also when they tried to tell me how to set up things when I already had them situated bothered me as well. The bar packages was where I ran into the most trouble. They were not clear on what they were offering which was very frustrating. Also, they charged us a 20% gratuity/service charge, then had tip jars out at my wedding, when we were paying for everything. I thought it was very tacking and sneaky that they were trying to get even more money.

I had the luxury of having Chrisitianis caterer my reception and the food was DELICIOUS!! All my guests were full and completely satisfied! Chrisitianis also can set up and decorate for you if you would like and there are some great packages for that! It was so nice to know that I didn't have to worry about my reception hall looking tacky and Sally the decorator in charge was quick and friendly to answer my emails.

We loved working with Christiani's for all of our catering and design needs. They let us personally design our own menu for our wedding, helped us find options that were in our budget for decor and made it a really easy experience. We did not have a wedding planner and had no problems because Christiani's made it so easy and worked really well with our other vendors. For the price that we paid for food per person was amazing. It only cost us $35 per person total with alcohol services, buffet, table settings, and appetizers for our wedding. If you want exceptional food and service definitely look at them for wedding needs!

Christiani's was awesome to work with and made the entire process easy and fun! We loved our wedding reception, it was perfect. The appetizers, bar, dinner, centerpieces, etc were all amazing and worth every penny. We definitely felt like we got the biggest bang for our buck by using Christiani's Catering.

The set up crew was late arriving to my wedding which meant that our friends we had on site to add our personal touches to the event had to wait. Almost an hour!! The servers were extremely rude to our family that was there helping set up. The one server told my mother to 'shut up' and told my personal attendant to 'stop following her' when she was asking questions about the set up, which the worker clearly knew nothing about. There were decorations around the reception site that were not in my original plan and that was disappointing. Peter, our planner, was not at the event which was also disappointing. He was the only person that I had talked to during the planning process and was the only one who was 'sharing my reception vision'. It was disappointing that the reception was only half of what I wanted it to be. I tried contacting Peter after the wedding to express my concerns and he never replied to any of the emails I sent him. Extremely disappointing. The food was excellent. I would use them for food again, definitely not for anything else.

The food was amazing and the service was just as good. Peter is the best!

My only issue in working with Christian's was contacting/reaching the event planner.

To be perfectly honest, the difficulties we had in communicating with Christiani's in planning our wedding caused us a lot of anxiety. We booked our event a full year in advance, and were frustrated right from the start. It took 5 months of reminders before we were able to get our confirmation sent to us. Had we not heard such rave reviews from our venue, we absolutely would have looked for another caterer. Difficulties communicating continued for the following 6 months, and it wasn't until two weeks before our wedding that I actually felt that our questions/comments/concerns were made a priority-- and even then, I often felt that my concerns were dismissed as unimportant. To be fair, I don't at all think that this is a reflection of the commitment of the Christiani's staff, but rather a blaring indication that the company either needs to hire more support staff or book fewer events. What's remarkable, however, is that I would still highly recommend the company to friends. Our banquet captain, Delora (I hope I spelled that correctly), was absolutely wonderful-- professional, flexible, accommodating, and available to answer questions and concerns throughout the evening. The rest of the staff was also professional, and they made the venue just beautiful. We were also thrilled with the food and had many guests from all over the country comment that it was by far the best wedding food they'd ever had. So-- although I would also offer several disclaimers in regards to the ease of planning-- I would absolutely recommend Christiani's to a friend.

All of my guests complimented me on how good the food was. They have a huge selection to choose from as well.

Everybody raved about how delicious the food was and how beautiful the ballroom looked with Christiani's decorations. They were great to work with and always answered all of our questions. I found out about them at a bridal show in Ames, IA and it was almost over when I got there so they let me take home a panino sandwich and I knew from then on that I would hire them to be our caterers. They made it easy for us to enjoy our wedding day with the wonderful food and decorations as well as the set-up and tear-down. I highly recommend them!!!

Called them in March, and still haven't been contacted (May 21)

The food was fine. But the before-wedding planning and during-the-event management was poor. I was constantly having to re-email or call about the same requests or issues. They might be okay for a 'i'll have what she had" wedding, but not for anything origional or slightly non-traditional. Food was good and staff were professional during the event, though the event manager was not on top of things.

We couldn't believe how amazing all the food was. We chose the Roasted Chicken Simmered in Wine and it was juicy and perfect. Everything was incredible, from the food all the way down to the coffee station. They also did an incredible job on the decorations. If I were to do it all over again, I would definitely count on Christiani's to make our day perfect.

I have heard so many times how wonderful the food was at our wedding, and I have to agree. They were great to work with and priced very reasonably. My husband's one complaint was that the green beans were canned and not fresh. Everything else was amazing.

This is the most amazing food and people to work with! We had numerous people comment on how great the food was and the event ran so smooth. Would never go to anyone else!

The overwhelming reaction from all of my guests was Christiani's had the best wedding food ever. Compared to other caterers they were very reasonably priced and the food was out of this world!!

We are so happy that we went with Christiani's catering and held our wedding at Jester Park Lodge. The entire experience was great and worry free. Best of all, we received so many awesome compliments about the food and decor at our wedding. They definitely go above and beyond.

I got so many compliments on the food served at our wedding! It was soo good! The only thing I have that wasn't so positive with christiani's was the fact that they were a little hard to get a hold of. It wouldn't have really been an issue except that it was about 2 weeks before the wedding so I was a little worried about finalizing things. Once I did reach them though they were great helping me with everything, so I would still recommend them.

I've always heard great things about them, but they definitely did not meet my expectations at my wedding. Good food, but they failed at decorating/set-up and overall service.

We absolutley loved their food but thought it was a little pricey per person. The staff were very friendly though.

This is a family run business that custom designed my menu and special ordered all my drink options, with only a "Yes, we will get that for you" reply when asked for special items. I provided my own table coverings and decorations, so with food and drink alone (no cake) I was at $45/person. However, very professional, I received many compliments on the staff and the food.

We had a wonderful meal and the service was great apart from their being upset I had more than one flavor of cake (which they were told about beforehand). My aunts ended up cutting the cake instead to prevent additional drama. Everything we've ever sampled from them has tasted great and they were very prompt setting the room up.

My Mom was a nervous wreck because the crew was running a little late, but everything was ready on time and the decorations and food were truly amazing. We had a great venue (Prairie Moon Winery, Ames) but Christianis truly transformed it! I didn't have any of the appetizers, but all of the food I tried off the dinner buffet was amazing and I only heard good things about the food from our guests! Thank you so much for helping to make our wedding a great success!! -Nicole, Chicago

The food was great..However I wish they would have had a taste testing prior to choosing the meal. As well as I wish they would have kept the food out longer for my guests...We spent close to 7K in food and it wasn't out very long..but the taste of the meal was amazing! And we had a lot of happy guests too =)

The food is always amazing. Haven't found a thing I didn't like.

Christiani's did such a wonderful job with our wedding. The food was awesome and the service was great! They brought so many decorations with them as well that I didn't realize they were providing and it added the perfect touch. I was beyond pleased with their overall presentation and how well they worked with us. I would highly recommend them to anyone.