Its a Southern Thing Catering

their services again!!

r the children at our wedding. And oh MAN the food was delicious!! Susan and her team went above and beyond for us. We had a served buffet, but as the bride and groom we didn’t have much time to go to the food table so one of the staff members brought food to our table for us. They also designed the most gorgeous and delicious wedding cake!! At the end of the night, her team packaged the remaining food and cake for us to take with us. Every single guest said they loved all the food. My 11 year old nephew, who is a very picky eater, even said “this food is almost TOO good”!

pay me the rest of my money. My parents asked for my payroll records and she is refusing to give it to them. I worked really hard and am sad that Susan won’t pay me for my hard work. I wouldn’t recommend this company to work at for sure and I wouldn’t hire a company owned by someone so dishonest.

staff served my guests and even beautifully set up all of the desserts my mother in law made. I wholeheartedly recommend this catering service.

requested and we booked immediately. At the wedding, the buffet presentation was more than I could have hoped for and the food was delicious! Our guests raved! We highly recommend Deana and Susan for wedding catering. Great job ladies!

them. We highly recommend them for your special occasion.

ring and cake. They were great setting up a date and time for the tasting and the tasting was awesome. That’s pretty much all that we have to say that’s positive about their services. Leading up to the wedding their communication with us and our day of coordinator was so poor, it was like pulling teeth to get them to respond and even harder to get the final quote from them. They would say they would have it one day and a week later still nothing. Just added stress to what everyone knows is a stressful time of wedding planning already. Now is where the real trouble begins. First I will list the problems and then go over the email exchange with Deanna who is over the catering portion. 1. Deanna and Susan did not even show up to the wedding they sent their sous chef and staff and they were 45 minutes late. If we wanted the sous chef to be in charge we would of met with him instead of the owners who we expected to be there and had no warning that they would not be. 2. They promised to set aside to go plates for us for after the wedding since bride and groom typically don’t get much of a chance to eat. They didn’t. 3. They were made aware of food allergies at the tasting and the maid of honor has a severe nut allergy and the broccoli had almonds in it and she had to inject her Epipen. 4. The staff were not dressed appropriately 5. The food was cold and not nearly as seasoned and tasted nothing like what we had at the tasting. 6. The chicken was undercooked to the point they had to throw away most of it and people had to go up to get another piece. 7. Two layers of the cake were wrong including the anniversary layer. The other two layers again tasted nothing like they did at the tasting. 8. The staff was unaware of what the flavors were even supposed to be. Now during email exchanges with Deanna she was very rude and defensive and basically blamed us for all their mistakes. Her response to each issue was... 1. Her sous chef was more than capable of handling it and they were late because of a train blocking the building. Now I understand saying he is capable but we did not sign up for him to be there we hired Deanna and Susan to be there to make sure everything was handled and they did not show up or mention that they were not going to be there. I also understand there is circumstances beyond control but as a professionals they should have planned accordingly. They have worked at the venue before and knew there was a train stop literally right in front of the building. Do not make excuses just own up to the fact you’re staff was late. 2. She again blamed our guests for going up and getting seconds as the reason we did not get to go plates but those plates were agreed upon to be set aside before food was handed out to guests. 3. AGAIN she blamed us for the broccoli incident stating that we did not review the final menu on the final quote well enough to see it said it had nuts on it. First of all due to their lack of communication we only got the quote a couple of days before the wedding so with everything else going on ( family arriving and last minute fixes) we did not expect to have to review the final menu since we already had made them aware of the allergy and the final menu was set the day of the tasting. So how the final menu changed and they just forgot about the allergy is beyond me. She was supposed to refund the amount for the broccoli but had yet to do so to my father in laws credit card. 4. She said she would address their appearances but doubtful she did. 5. &6. So the days following the wedding we were able to talk to family members, friends and coworkers who attended the wedding and they all told us that the food was cold, the chicken was undercooked and inedible ( hence why people had to go up for seconds) and barely any shrimp and seasonings in the low country boil. My food was cold personally. The sous chef greeted us as soon as we sat down and asked how it was and we said good because we had yet to really eat any of it. That was the only time he spoke to us all night besides when he asked me if they could leave. Deana basically told us that we had “ no legitimate complaints” because we did not or our guests did not say anything about the problems during the event. She kept calling it an EVENT and forgetting that it was a WEDDING. We are worried about enjoying our wedding and not about arguing with the catering staff so why would we waste the time bringing it up to them then when we should be enjoying ourselves? Also guests aren’t going to complain either for food they did not pay for themselves or at someone’s wedding because it is just rude. So she refused to hear our complaints because nothing was said at the wedding. 6. When addressing the cake she said we would have to speak to Susan about it since she is the overseer of the cake part of the business. She also stated that there were no complaints at the wedding again so our complaint now is not legitimate. My rebuttal to this was you are in business together as one company It’s a southern thing catering. You should know what’s going on with the cakes and vice versa. Not only did she not know anything about the cakes but neither did the staff. I will say this however, Susan, unlike Deanna, texted us separately and was very nice and understand and explained the fact they have two different cookies and cream flavors so there was a mix up and that she would re make our anniversary layer to the correct flavor. BUT we have not heard anything further on that yet. Susan also apologized for Deanna’s behavior and said she does not understand why Deanna is getting so defensive. So Deanna’s own business partner is attesting to the fact that she is being defensive and rude... hmmm. After going back in forth in emails explaining our complaints with Deanna being rude and defensive and not customer oriented. We stated that our only regret was that our parents were nice enough to pay this for us so we didn’t have to because if we had paid for it we would be demanding a refund. Deanna took this an opportunity to say “ yes I understood this was an attempt to get money back from the beginning. Believe me people this was in no way an attempt to get money back because we did not even pay for it! I feel bad for our parents that did but it’s not our money to get back. With that being said after this horrible experience and absolutely horrific display of customer service, all we can do is warn all the others considering using it’s a southern thing catering to STAY AWAY. Find a caterer that will defend you and what you want for your event and not argue with you and tell you that you’re complaints are illegitimate. Thank you for your time and for reading this. We hope it helps!

ite. She showed up at 8am and not only did she not decorate the cake the way we discussed, she also shorted me by 11 dozen cupcakes! I called her as soon as my coordinator got there and told me of the situation. She acted like she was sick and then hung up with me to check my contract. Susan called back and told me I was right and that all of my cupcakes would be there by 2pm. At 1:30pm I arrived at the venue and she was there dropping off some cupcakes. She left yet again and we counted and I was STILL 3 dozen cupcakes short! She never told me that she was still short. She never told my coordinator. Only when i called her yet again did she say "well even though you ordered that there is still enough to feed your expected guests and I cant do anything else about it at this point." Then I was told that because I changed my order slightly so late in the game that it was MY FAULT!?! I told her over 2 months prior that I wanted to add a third tier to my wedding cake because our number of guests had risen. I never once changed the cupcake order. I literally had to send people to Kroger to get cupcakes to finish filling the table and to ensure I had enough for the night. I have never dealt with a professional that was so dishonest or slick in my life. Please do not trust this company. Even with a contract that is plainly spelled out they will still screw up your order and make your special day/event have added stress that is undue! When we met up for me to give her cake pans and stands back she gave me my money back for the lacking cupcakes, but it still doesn't make up for the lack of professionalism and the stress that was added to an already stressful day. One of the biggest memories of my wedding day is how stressed I was that I wasn't going to be able to feed my guests and it was because of Susan Appling and her company!

Throw them a challenge and I guarantee they will meet it with excitement! They even took some changes I wanted from the tasting and were not offended by me wanting something to taste differently! I will hire them for any event I have in the future!

. The day of the wedding they were outrageously helpful and went out of their way to make sure my day was a total success. Cannot recommend them enough as a wedding caterer. 5 stars alllllll the way. :)

nd after the wedding to tell us how DELICIOUS all of the food was. Everyone was so pleased with the menu and they did an excellent job with the service as well. Not only that, but the presentation of the food itself was BEAUTIFUL. Who would've thought that someone could make a salad bar look pretty? Well they did! Haha and they did it with everything else for that matter as well. We had quite a few special requests for our wedding and they catered to every single one of them, including passing out Martinelli's sparkling apple cider for our toasts, serving icecream that we bought, setting out water bottles for our ceremony, and even perfecting my dad's personal egg roll recipe so that we could have them as an appetizer during cocktail hour. Everything they did for us was sooo special and we can't thank them enough for helping us have our perfect wedding day. You won't regret it at all if you go with Susan and Deana and I sure hope you do! :)