Pure Joy Catering

Pure Joy catered both the rehearsal party and wedding dinner for our son and his bride. Patrick helped me plan the perfect cocktail menu for the rehearsal party, his years of experience were extremely helpful! Dane and Justin were two of the lead servers and they took excellent care of all our guests - such kind people. Overall, Pure Joy provided us delicious food that was displayed beautifully, and all planned within a fantastic level of organization and professionalism. I highly recommend Pure Joy to anyone!

I cannot speak more highly of Pure Joy. I worked with Patrick to do the catering for both my wedding and brunch the day after. All of the staff at Pure Joy were SO kind and friendly throughout the entire process. They helped me choose my meals, offered complimentary welcome drinks, etc. This is to say nothing of how amazing the food was. I am still hearing from my guests how much they enjoyed the food. Beyond that, the service during the events was INCREDIBLE. I planned our wedding from Georgia and the wedding was in Santa Barbara. Pure Joy took the stress of coordinating my rentals and everything. I could not have asked for any better!

Pure Joy Catering did a fantastic job with our wedding. Patrick and the team were incredibly helpful, professional, and easy to get in touch with. The food was to die for! Our guests especially loved their Farmers Market Grazing Table and their signature cocktails. Their website laid out so many delicious ideas and options that helped us create a menu, and any ideas we had they helped bring to life. They guided us through the whole process which we greatly appreciated. It was so nice to have them work with the rental company and ensure that all the details that we may not have thought about were taken care of. On the day of the wedding, their staff were always checking in with us and even brought us a tray of appetizers and drinks while we were busy taking photos. Pure Joy ensured that our wedding day went perfectly. We can't recommend them enough!

Pure joy did an incredible job. They handled our wedding at a first-time wedding venue efficiently and with grace. We had a few minor hiccups that happened the day of (as is life with events) but everything was handled discretely and quickly so no one was the wiser. Oh and also-- get the tri-tip with the peppercorn sauce. My wedding party table asked a server to bring a whole bowl of it to them....

Patrick and team are one-of-a-kind. Aaron and I were welcomed with such organization and personalization from the start. The little touches when visiting their office in SB and the thoughtful suggestions every step of the way were so appreciated from us. We had Pure Joy cater our wedding over Labor Day weekend with the crazy heat (9.3.22) in Buellton, CA. They approached the setup, heat and delivery with ease and the food was wonderful. Everything from the grazing table, small apps (must do the sliders!), watermelon salad and the mains were delicious. One of our guests ate their chicken meal and then proceeded to also finish off the halibut from his wife - to give you an idea of how much it was all enjoyed. We highly recommend Patrick and the whole Pure Joy team for any of your upcoming events - weddings, parties and celebrations! Thank you again for making our planning and day-of so easy and delicious!

We got married on 6/25/22 at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum and Pure Joy catered our wedding. From the initial calls, to the tasting and the big day, Pure Joy team was on top of every single detail. The food is absolutely delicious and presented beautifully. All of our guests raved about how delicious and unique each bite was from cocktail hour to dinner. Having good food at a wedding matters so much and if you want to feel at ease that everyone will love your wedding food, book Pure Joy. Their offerings are one of a kind! Thank you Pure Joy team!

After my planner sent private feedback via email to Pure Joy today and received excuses and deflections, I thought I should share my experience so other couples think twice. The food on the evening was quite good. However, I don't eat meat. They knew this from the beginning and I got a plate of meat and poultry the day of my wedding. Also, we gave clear instructions about putting wine on tables and they weren't followed. PJ's response was to tell us we didn't give instructions. Defensive versus apologetic. We were pouring a friend's wine at our wedding so this mishandling was more than a snafu to us. However, my main issue was their poor customer service and lack of attention to detail during the planning process. Initially, we were told they would collaborate on our menu but months later after the contract was signed, they said they don't do that and to pick off their website. We pressed and they agreed to grill fish for us. (Oh, and the account manager said we made up the bespoke menu part....uhm, no we didn't. I have 4 other witnesses who heard them sell it that way at our initial tasting). In terms of costs, turns out the initial proposal was bare bones so our quote went up 50% and we didn't get the new numbers until it was too late to rethink our catering partner. We didn't add much food so a lot of these overages were labor and rentals and some mistakes. Even when we subtracted food and rentals to try to bring down costs (like taking off an appetizer and some speciality cocktails), numbers didn't seem to go down much. Calculations were opaque so I had to ask a lot of questions. There were tons of mistakes in the revised proposal including incorrect overages that would have been missed if I hadn't checked thoroughly (specialty beverage service for vendors, incorrect timelines despite zero changes since June 2021 which increased labor hours, duplicate rentals, etc). No apologies for any of this just defensive notes about how other customers don't complain or an excuse that someone had only been working there a year. In fact, the account manager escalated to the owner over questions about a rolled up line item. Then the owner lashed out at me a week before my wedding that she wasn't giving any more discounts and 3K customers never complained. We didn't ask for discounts. We asked for clarity on a bill that was over 40K. I think that is reasonable when a vendor has repeatedly made sloppy errors throughout the budgeting process. I see that Kasey E (4/19/22) had a few of the same issues regarding their planning process and service. We actually changed account managers because like Kasey, we found the man initially assigned hard to work with. The response from PJ was '1K people think he's great.' That is absolutely not relevant to me as a customer on the receiving end of bad service.

We originally went with them because they are highly rated on Yelp and Knot. Although, the overall process with working with them was so stressful and not worth it. Catering is the biggest cost and I would of expected better service, especially from Patrick Ward who was very hard to work with. They originally provided a proposal with the bare minimum of everything. This was within budget for me. After the first meeting the cost went up $5K and every meeting after that another cost was added. From the time we contracted with them to the event. The cost went up around $8-$9K. We just had a buffet, no frills. It felt very deceitful. The day of the wedding, we had a lot of compliments on the cheese table presentation and quality of food. The most compliments were from the mains; salmon, chicken, and mushroom ravioli. We had a lot of compliments on the hearty pours of the bar staff lol. I did want to compliment Annie as I thought she was very attentive to our needs and was actively listening throughout the process! I was very impressed by the table layout and was so happy to see my vision come to light. One thing that was pretty upsetting was that I was told Pure Joy puts out wine onto the tables. We paid for 10 cases of wine and over ordered in order to have one red and one white placed on the guest tables. These were never placed so we came home with 4 cases of wine that are not returnable. In addition, no bar staff went around the table to pour wine, so essentially the 150 wine glasses had no use. We also had plastic pint cups served to guest during cocktail hour for McCallan scotch. It was a little embarrassing as it nice scotch. I totally understand new staff and new training but I just want to provide feedback appropriately.

We are so grateful to Pure Joy for catering our wedding. Of all the vendors we hired, Pure Joy was one of our favorites because they were so responsive, organized, and easy to work with. Our main contact at Pure Joy was Patrick, and if you work with him, you’ll be in excellent hands. We completely trusted him throughout the planning process and never once worried about the food situation at our wedding. Our wedding was somewhat logistically complicated, but we had complete faith in Pure Joy in building out the kitchen and taking care of everything they needed to feed our guests. All of the food was so delicious and we were also very impressed with the decor at all the food stations. We felt that Pure Joy went above and beyond for us, and we were blown away by their professionalism and level of experience. We strongly recommend hiring Pure Joy for your catering needs - every dollar will be worth it!

Patrick was an absolute joy to work with! He was amazing and always available to answer any question or last minute changes. Patrick not only helped us with our 2021 wedding and next day brunch but he also helped planned and postponed our May 2020 wedding. He was always a joy to talk to and made anything catering related extremely easy and painless. I would recommend Pure Joy to Everyone getting married or just having a party in the central cost! The food was outstanding! Everything tasted amazing! Our guests continue to talk about the cheese spread and the artichoke bottoms that we had during cocktail hour. I honestly can't say a single bad thing or anything I would have changed, they hit it out of the park! It was perfect!

Unbelievable! Patrick was so incredibly helpful from the very moment we started planning. He's a true professional and knows just about everything that goes into hosting the best weddings in Santa Barbara. His team made our reception absolutely beautiful - from the appetizer stations, to the food displays, and bar. And they coordinated it perfectly - there was never a moment in which anyone was left wanting. Maybe they were just being nice, but all our guests GUSHED over the food and desserts. Truly a great catering operation and could not be more grateful to Patrick and his team! Thank you Pure Joy!

Unrivaled experience. My husband and I had an estate venue wedding that came with every obstacle imaginable for a rental/catering team but PureJoy accomplished every task above and beyond what was requested. Megan Slonski and her team were extremely organized, always timely in their responses, and willing to do multiple walkthroughs and offer planning advice when needed. They were flexible and understanding and even remembered to loop in my parents so they were at ease with the process. The food and drink was delicious and the presentation was nothing short of stunning. They take so much pride in their work and it shows! Thank you Megan!

We are so happy we chose Pure Joy as our caterers for our wedding on 8/3/19. We worked closely with Patrick throughout the planning process. He did a great job helping us choose unique and personalized food options (including seafood paella!). The food was absolutely amazing and we got a ton of compliments from our guests!! Patrick and his team are incredibly professional. We knew we were in great hands and felt so at ease the day of the wedding. We highly recommend Pure Joy.

My mom had used Pure Joy catering for an event before, and - when it came to our wedding - she made sure we went with them again! We started with communicating with Patrick, who was the most attentive and helpful catering coordinator! It was an easy process of looking at food options, requesting estimates for pricing, changing options up, as well as their help in booking rentals (we used Bright rentals). Their office is easy to get to and very welcoming. We were unable to do an official tasting, but we did some Backstage Tastings from other events and devoured every bite of the food! That was all what happened BEFORE the wedding! My husband and I had 100% confidence in the food for the wedding (including the help to decide how much and which alcohols to purchase for the full bar). The final meeting before the wedding included a reassurance that my husband and I (and our bridal/grooms parties) would be fed the delicious passed appetizers and food. The day of the wedding, during cocktail hour, we were served the delicious coconut shrimp with mango chutney, mini hamburger sliders, and artichoke bottoms. To die for! Then, we had buffet style for our dinner, and we were served a little taste of everything at our head table prior to the other tables being dismissed to serve themselves. It allowed us to eat our meal and enjoy each morsel that we'd chosen! We had a delicious gorgonzola/walnut salad, macaroni and cheese with gruyere cheese, roasted farmers market veggies, chicken provencal, chimichurri flank steak, and salmon with sun dried tomatoes. Every bite was heaven! Pure Joy makes the event seamless, and I couldn't have been more pleased. We absolutely recommend!

Pure Joy was a joy to work with! They really listened to what we wanted and the food was sooooo delicious. All fresh and amazing. We had the raw bar which I highly recommend and a few food stations with paella, tacos and ravioli along with amazing veggies. I got sooo many compliments on how good the food was! They were very much willing to work with us and listen to what our vision was and to make sure we got what we wanted while still working with us on the budget. They were very professional and easy to work with. I definitely recommend! Patrick did an amazing job on the night, directing a perfect event. If anything went even remotely wrong behind the scenes we had no idea - it ran perfectly. And this in spite of some unruly guests throwing spanners in the works. Patrick acted with commendable professionalism and dedication throughout. One of our friends - likely (undoubtedly...) the most pretentious foodie we know, who is currently studying culinary sciences in Italy - told us that the tacos were the best he had eaten. Our vegan guests (bless them) loved the market fresh seasonal roasted veg - seasoned to perfection. The oysters and Ponzu scallops were my husband's personal highlight - he had to be dragged away from the Raw bar to go take photos. The French guests, of which there were plenty, couldn't get enough of the ice cream cookie sandwiches.

I had such amazing experience with PURE JOY CATERING and especially Megan! I swear our wedding would have not happen without her! I am busy veterinarian that decided to plan a last-minute destination wedding. Megan was extremely understanding of my schedule and worked with me and my mother! Communication was amazing and I was always able to reach her whenever I needed to! She was extremely thorough and thought of things I never would’ve thought of. Pure joy did an amazing job. The food was delicious and my guess is raved. I would highly recommend PURE JOY CATERING!

Pure Joy is outstanding! They take away all worries and stress from planning any event. There food is to die for and will be talked about from all the guest. Patrick Is very professional and has great ideas to help make your special event perfect in every way!

If you’re thinking about using pure joy catering don’t think just do!!!! They’re absolutely amazing. Every person that we dealt with was so accommodating. They made us feel comfortable with our choices and we’re so knowledgeable in every aspect of our wedding. The food stations and main courses were definitely some of the best food we have ever had!! Presentation was on point just as the service was. We highly recommended using Pure joy catering for your next event. Way to go guys you rock!!!

It's been almost one year since Pure Joy Catering catered our wedding. Even a year later I keep thinking about what a fantastic experience it was from beginning to end. From planning to execution, the entire experience was flawless. Everyone was a joy to work with during the planning stage, the food was exquisite, and the staff on site the night of the wedding was organized, friendly, and tended to our every need with a smile. Pure Joy took the hassle out of planning by managing our rentals and insuring we had everything we needed for our perfect day. They were quick to respond to our questions and worked with us to design the menu and experience that we wanted - not something out of a menu. But don't take it from us. Take it from our guests who have all said it was the best wedding food they have ever had. Thank you so much Pure Joy! One year later, we still have people telling us how amazing everything was.

IF YOU WANT PROS, be sure to hire PROS. We are a family of foodies and chefs ourselves, so naturally we wanted delectable, locally sourced and freshly prepared cuisine for our daughter’s wedding. However, just as importantly, we needed a catering company that could help us plan and execute a beautiful reception in a gorgeous outdoor venue devoid of a kitchen, walls, lighting, but encompassing an amphitheater, lawn for cocktails, and a deck for dinner and dancing. Hiring Pure Joy Catering and getting not just fabulous food, but advice about A-Z, ultimately made for a magical, stress-free day, brimming with love and joy. THE MOST VALUED ASPECT of hiring Pure Joy was getting to work with their executive event planner, Patrick Ward. Patrick has incredible equanimity. He was quick and courteous in responding to every little question we had. Time line. Rentals. Linens. How and where guests to the amphitheater ceremony might be greeted. Choice of appropriate appetizers given our dinner menu and the length of the cocktail period. Where to situate the place card table. When to do toasts. How to shave costs. Whether we would need the heat lamps he had reserved. After every meeting with Patrick, our confidence soared. Every shred of nerves evaporated when he was assigned to superintend our wedding on the day of. Our daughter and her groom were blissfully happy with how their wedding turned out! WE RECOMMEND using the rental company with whom Pure Joy contracts because this smoothly coordinates the set-up, assures the food preparers of clean, working equipment, and eliminates worries on the part of the bridal party that furniture will be in disrepair. Even the heat lamps that were delivered to us gave off exceptional warmth and were nice in appearance. While planning a wedding is no small feat, these subordinate aspects are as important as food choices, and our residual feeling is that we are super happy that we hired the professionals of Pure Joy Catering.

Pure Joy catered our wedding at my grandparents' house in Santa Barbara. We worked with Patrick, and he and his team were immensely helpful in working with us to make our intimate wedding fit our budget while still being a beautiful and memorable event. No matter what came up, Patrick managed to smooth things out. Thank you very much, Patrick! We were very impressed with the food and the presentation. If we had to do it again, we would definitely have included more appetizers -- they were great and looked adorable! Thanks again, Pure Joy!

Working with Pure Joy was great from the beginning. They were very professional and easily created a menu that appealed both to my husband and me. They also helped us manage other vendors as our wedding venue was an "blank slate" venue. On the day of the wedding, all the guests marveled at how good the food was and how professional the staff was. All the food was very fresh and delicious. To top it off, the Pure Joy team got us a little wedding present, which was not even necessary, but so sweet! My husband and I definetly recommend their services.

We hired Pure Joy Catering for our Santa Barbara Historical Museum wedding in April 2018. As food lovers ourselves with many “foodies” among our family and friends, it was important to us to have delicious food served at our wedding. Given the number of guests traveling cross-country as well as internationally, we also wanted to feature California cuisine with fresh, local ingredients. Though not at the most competitive price point, we decided to hire Pure Joy Catering to achieve our vision for the day. We appreciated the responsive communication from Pure Joy Catering as we planned the catering details for our wedding. Patrick was a pleasure to work with, providing helpful insight from his experience in wedding catering and remaining flexible to any changes we requested. The “backstage tastings” are a fantastic way to try different menu options and feel confident in the quality of food being served. Given how quickly costs can increase over the course of wedding planning, we recommend carefully reading the initial Pure Joy proposal before signing a contract. We also suggest requesting from Pure Joy a separate rental proposal from the rental company with whom they collaborate, as the initial Pure Joy catering proposal only includes rental items relevant to the catering team. For the sake of financial planning, it would be helpful to have the total rental estimate including non-catering-related items at the time of contract signing. As for our wedding day itself: our cocktail hour hors d’oeuvres and dinner buffet were delicious and creative. We continue to receive rave reviews from guests on the food, with a number of friends exclaiming it was some of the best wedding food they had ever had. We also appreciated the lovely presentation of the food and food displays, as well as the professional food and bar service of the Pure Joy team. Patrick did an excellent job leading the Pure Joy team and collaborating with our other vendors. We were very happy with the quality, presentation, and service of Pure Joy Catering.

My mother in law used Pure joy for our rehearsal dinner and they were absolutely phenomenal. Adam was the perfect matre d. He was attentive, but inconspicuous. All of the staff was so nice and helpful. They did a beautiful job with the food and it was so creatively displayed. I highly recommend the avocado bar. Thank you again Pure Joy! We will absolutely use you again.

We had our wedding earlier this month at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, and got tons of compliments on the food for the event. Even especially picky and snobby "foodies" let us know immediately after that it was the best food they had ever had at a wedding. They were quick to respond, even when we had multiple changes and requests, and handled the entire day perfectly. I only wish I had more time to eat more of their food on my wedding day!

It has been a little over a week since we got married and we’re on cloud 9 living in wedding bliss. We chose Pure Joy Catering to cater our wedding and it was a fantastic experience from beginning to end. The execution was absolutely flawless, the food was fresh and delicious and they really were Pure Joy. They took the hassle out of planning by managing our rentals and insuring we had everything we needed and provided the most amazing service around. They were quick to respond to any question I had and worked with me to create my dream wedding. I highly recommend them if you want your wedding or event to go off without a hitch. There’s a reason their office walls are full of thank you notes and awards – they’re simply the best in town. And it doesn’t hurt that they cooked the best darn wedding food I’ve ever had! Literally!!! Thank you Pure Joy! Love, The Bennetts

We could not have been happier with the catering Pure Joy provided. From the very beginning they were very accommodating allowing us to personalize our menu. We had a dream of serving Thai Food at our wedding and they made it possible. Everyone was raving about the food! Also, my Husband really wanted to serve a smokes whiskey drink and Pure Joy bought a special smoker for our event, they were smoking the whiskey right there at our wedding and our guests where in awe! Everything was beyond perfect and we can't thank enough for all their hard work!!

Beware! They are very deceitful, particularly Patrick Ward. I have the emails to back up my rating. We initially selected Pure Joy for my daughter's wedding, but when I notified Patrick that they were more expensive than a highly rated caterer he sent me a revised proposal reducing the price. What he didn't disclose is the way he reduced the cost was to substitute lower cost food items. If I hadn't caught this I would have agreed to a sub par menu compared to the caterer we ultimately chose. And when I complained Patrick said he was just trying to match the price of the other caterer. Talk about sneaky! Use caution.

When we started planning our wedding, the only thing I knew was that I wanted Pure Joy to cater! My friends had Pure Joy at their wedding almost ten years ago, and it was some of the very best wedding food I had ever had! When we met with Patrick to discuss our food options, I was so pleased with how helpful, knowledgeable, and informed he was. He helped us to design our menu and even worked with us when we had questions and wanted to adjust the cost to fit our budget. Our food was delicious and my guests raved about it! It also meant so much to me how much the staff cared about keeping the event running smoothly. Everything went so perfectly, and they took such great care of our guests, as well as my husband and me! I was thrilled (as I knew I would be!) with Pure Joy at our wedding.

Pure Joy was such a pleasure to work with. From our initial call to the actual wedding day, every concern/question/comment we had was met with professionalism and understanding. There was one miscommunication snafu, but since we were planning our wedding in Los Olivos from Alaska, it's to be expected. Patrick, Kacie, and the rest of the staff were a dream to work with! The number one comment we keep hearing from our guests is just how amazing our food and desserts were, and we absolutely agree! Thank you for everything!

Ellen was such a great person to work with. From day 1, she was so helpful and dedicated to us. We live out of state so we didn't have a chance to get to do a food tasting but we went with our gut and reviews and went with them. Seriously Pure Joy Catering is amazing! The food was so amazing and our guest couldn't get enough. We wanted to go back for food over and over but we were so full and satisfied we couldn't fit anymore. We had an open bar which PJC staffed the bartenders and the bartenders were great. All the staff that helped out at the wedding were super professional and made everything run so smooth. We are so happy we choose PJC and couldn't be more thankful for making our dream wedding come true.

Working with this company turned out to be a complete nightmare and waste of hard-earned money. I am writing in hopes that my experience will never be repeated for anyone else during their special, happy time. If you are planning on working with this company: - Be very specific with your wedding details from the start. Make sure that your wedding timeline, guest count, and additional details are clearly stated in the company’s proposal. The proposal is difficult to navigate through, so go through it with a fine-toothed comb. You do not want them to fill in the blanks for you. - Make sure you get everything in writing. I used the telephone to communicate on several occasions, which didn’t turn out to be helpful for me, since it was never in writing. Emails or letters are very important. - Request a final meeting BEFORE 90 days out from your big day. After 90 days all deposits are nonrefundable, so you want to get the finalized proposal before you have to put down the second large deposit. Working with Purejoy was the only negative aspect of planning our wedding. I would hope that no bride or groom would have to go through the anxiety and stress that this company put us through.

They were great. It rained unexpectedly and they were so helpful, made the inside beautiful quickly and Food was great too

The food was great but the service and follow through was not so good. The food - was just perfect and amazing so I cannot speak enough about it. The service - was not so good. After telling our counterpart a few times that we did not want wine opened up on the tables as wine was available at the bar. On a side note, we had wine custom blended for the wedding so we did not want it wasted. Anything leftover we would be able to keep. In any event, they opened numerous bottles on all of the tables causing us to waste over case of wine. They also left the private property that we held the wedding on a bit of a mess causing me (the groom) to clean it up the day after my wedding. Lastly, they left the wedding property without telling us (and therefore we couldn't give them gratuity because we know they didn't leave) but then sent us an email asking about gratuity. In short - food was awesome but service and follow through was a bit below average.

We were so happy with our decision to use Pure Joy for our wedding! The food was out-of-control delicious! Many of our guests raved about the food, especially the brussel sprouts! Everyone at Pure Joy seemed to really care about our special day, which turned out just as beautiful and wonderful as we would hoped. Thank you so much, Pure Joy!

Wonderful!

Pure Joy is AMAZING!! I got married in Santa Barbara about a week ago, and Pure Joy catered our welcome dinner, and also our wedding. Since we were doing a destination wedding (we live in NYC), I was doing a reference call for our coordinator (Sophie Spier of Amazing Days Events, who is awesome!) with another NYC bride who had worked with her, and this bride shared that the best vendor that she had worked with was Pure Joy, and so I went for it! I worked with Patrick and Alizabeth and was so impressed by their professionalism and also CREATIVITY!! They came up with such fun ideas for both events, and were incredibly flexible when it came to theme, budget, etc. Patrick was our project manager, and handled our rentals and some design for us as well, and he was so on top of everything, and made great recommendations to help us stay on-theme, and probably most importantly, diplomatically keep us from running off a cliff with some of our less than ideal ideas :) Most importantly, the FOOD. WOW!!! That's all I can say! I know it was my own wedding, so maybe I'm biased, but I truly believe that I've never eaten better food at a large event :) There were definitely lots of foodies in the house - all of our guests were going crazy over the food, and the presentation for everything was gorgeous. We had a fabulous day, and believe that Pure Joy was such an important part of our overall wedding experience (both pre- and during), and we can't thank you enough!!

Now that the post wedding recovery and our mini-honeymoon is over and we are slowly getting back to our day-to-day married routine, we wanted to thank Pure Joy from the bottom of our hearts for such a beautiful and flawless event they have put together! Everything, from set up and decor to the quality and efficiency of service was executed absolutely perfect! I now see why they are the best in business in SB area! We continue to receive feedback from our guests on how DELICIOUS the food was - some said it was the best food they've tried at a wedding! They can work with any budget without compromising the quality of food and service, which I found very helpful! Also, every member of Pure Joy team was such a pleasure to work with from the beginning to the very end! Ellen was extremely responsive and her positive attitude was always very helpful during the last stressfull weeks of our wedding planning! The team on site on our wedding day was phenomenal too! There is not a single thing that we would've changed! Once again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts to Pure Joy team! Your very happy bride and groom, Alexandra and Louis Vasquez

The best wedding planning decision we made was to hire Pure Joy Catering. When the unexpected happened (rain in July in Santa Barbara) they reacted with extraordinary skill and grace to rescue our reception. Somehow, they managed to set up tables and chairs in our very limited space inside, while simultaneously tending bar and passing appetizers. Maneuvering through a crowd of 80 people, they set up and maintained a buffet that (judging from the empty plates and many compliments) everyone thoroughly enjoyed. We chose Pure Joy not only because of their amazing food but also because we had confidence they would make sure that everything would go smoothly. They were truly put to the test and in every way exceeded our very high expectations.

PureJoy had a very helpful staff and were very easy to work with. Overall the food was tasty, but I was disappointed that the food was cold when it arrived to the table and all the meat was well done (we had family style). We should have gone with tritip to save on cost (the way the meat was prepared and served we did not have to pay for the more expensive New York streaks). There was a delay between the salads and main course, so maybe something went wrong with caused the food to be cold. Never the less, the flavors were yummy!

We initially went to Pure Joy because we'd heard that they were the best in Santa Barbara. Although their food is truly amazing, and their service was great during our Big Day, all the hassle, stress, and run-around they gave us before the wedding really shadowed our experience. A few months into planning, and after MUCH research, we decided to hire a planner and do rentals through another company (even though they are kind enough to offer full-service we felt the mark-up they give wasn't worth it). Nevertheless, they tried to make us "Pay" for the additional services in other ways, and we had to ask them on at least two separate occasions to remove the rentals from our quote. Every time they sent us a new quote there was some new unexpected or previously unexplained fee (which we would not have noticed were my dad not extremely detail-oriented). The whole ordeal was extremely frustrating (and when we wrote a negative review elsewhere they wrote us an email essentially trying to shame us into editing or removing it) Bottom line: they DO have excellent food, but their customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

Pure Joy's team was super nice. I wish we had realized how helpful they are sooner... since we wound up paying extra for assistance with rentals and they would probably have helped us with it had we asked earlier. Our mistake. But the back door tastings are a great idea, and they are very kind. The food was pretty good, not mind blowing, but I guess that's to be expected with a satellite kitchen and cooking for 150 people.

Choosing Pure Joy Catering was one of the best decisions that we made while planning our wedding. Patrick was amazing to work with! He helped us from start to finish and ensured that our wedding was beautiful and that everything ran smoothly. It was quite a task considering that our wedding was 6 hours from where we lived, which limited how frequently we could meet in person, and was planned only 4 months in advance. Patrick scheduled a tasting while we were in town, and it was amazing. This sealed the deal immediately, and then we handled everything else via email and telephone. Patrick was professional and personable and brought staff to the wedding who were up for the challenge. Of special note was that the wait staff noticed the wedding party off taking pictures during the cocktail hour and made a special trip to bring us appetizers during our photo shoot! That was very much needed and appreciated! Patrick made sure to handle all of the details behind the scene to ensure that the guests had a good time and that my husband and I could enjoy the wedding with them without us spending time directing the evening. We didn't have a wedding planner but Patrick filled in where necessary to gently remind us when it was the right time to cut the cake and other similar details. Just as important, all of our guests raved about the food, which Pure Joy customized to our tastes. We are vegetarian, but many of our guests are not, and Patrick helped us to select the perfect menu to make sure everybody was well-fed. Not only did Pure Joy handle all of the food, but they also gave us plenty of tips on how to save money along they way, which was very helpful. He also found the perfect linens to match the mood and decor of our venue. In addition, they took the headache out of the rental process by handling all the rental details on our behalf. They were fabulous to work with and made our event a huge success. Patrick made all of the planning a breeze and we cannot express our appreciation enough. I highly recommend Pure Joy Catering and wouldn't consider using anyone else for future events on the central coast. Thank you for everything!

Pure Joy is fantastic! Alizabeth, our event planner, was extremely helpful, answering dozens of e-mail questions in the months leading up to the wedding. Even though I just hired them for catering, they helped me figure out all sorts of details for the wedding. On the day of the event, they were fantastic. Mike was the day of supervisor. All the guests said the food was amazing and the service was excellent. And I (the bride) didn't have to worry about anything! Highly recommend!

Pure Joy was amazing! Their food was awesome...I definitely ate at the wedding! Everything was absolutely perfect down to the last decoration. I don't think anyone could have done a better job, even if I paid 10x the price! I couldn't be more impressed.