Heirloom Catering

In short, our experience with Heirloom Catering (H.C.) owned by Brandi Parker, was both disappointing and tinged by dramatic unprofessionalism. We were very surprised that the tables were so often empty throughout the hour and a half or so that we had hired Brandi & H.C. to provide hors devours. Much of the time we, and our guests, had the unexpected experience of approaching the food tables and finding nothing more than a small dish of nuts or a lonely tray of soup shooters tossed unceremoniously on the table. The vegetable skewers were so minuscule as to be almost comical (one guest referred to them as "Lilliputian," which is apt). Considering how under-staffed H.C. was for such a sizable event, it was impractical to put out the very small amounts of food they did, considering that such a serving strategy requires a great deal of diligence and servers to maintain effectively. The museum's event coordinator commented that, for example, usually caterers -- and they see many at the Vermont museum where our event was held -- are good about clearing empty platters in a timely manner and keeping tables filled with food; she was surprised to see the opposite with Heirloom Catering. Such a paltry amount of food was additionally unexpected considering that we had contracted for 200 people but only had 170 guests, with a relative reduction in pricing refused by the caterer. One guest commented it was "tasty but sparse." Additionally, I continue to be taken aback at the caterer's choice to approach me in the middle of the event floor to loudly insult my father, whom I had asked to check in on what was going on with the food. Having to deal gracefully, while completely surrounded by wedding guests, with Brandi's inappropriately timed and extremely off-base comments that my dad was a "strange man" who "didn't know us or what we wanted well" in the middle of my reception was, again, a surprising turn of events and quite disappointing. Perhaps what H.C. thought they could do or had planned for did not work out as they had envisioned; if so, that is a conversation that I would have been very happy to have had a couple days after the wedding. As for the tasting, we wanted to try a very limited amount of things in order to make specific menu decisions (some of which weren't even prepared, making the whole thing of little use). Additionally, on the night of our tasting, it was odd that Brandi of H.C. invented laws about not being allowed to pick up empty plates or glasses as the caterer because of alcohol regulations (not true) rather than simply communicating that she would not have her staff to do so. (I hired my own, extra staff to take on this role). Importantly, nothing at all was done to remedy the issues presented here when I let Heirloom Catering know about them; I shared with Brandi precisely what I have shared here. Overall a stressful and strange experience.