Salt of the Earth Catering

by my venue, and two friends who had used them in the past when they got married. I started this search September of 2022 for my wedding October 2023. I reached out to Salt of the earth for my catering needs, in hind sight I should have shopped around a little before booking. Red flag number one... when I initiated my interest via email on Sept 12th 2022 I got zero response, no phone call, no email, nothing. I didn't think much of it since I was over a year out from my wedding. November 2022 rolled around and I inquired again, since I was still getting recommendations for Salt of the Earth as a great caterer. I finally heard back with an apology for not getting back to me because it was wedding season and they were so incredible busy. Understandable, since I have heard such great things. We had our tasting, we got all our questions answered and pricing figured out and I paid a $250 deposit to reserve them for my big day on November 9th 2022 (timeline is important I promise). After I paid my money, they fell off out of communication completely. I had so much else going on with planning that it didn't cross my mind to be concerned about getting a contract or getting them payment because that in my mind was their job to reach out to me to get another portion of my payment and my final head count. July 2023 rolls around and I have my final head count and I reach out to find out if they need that and if there is a contract or payment that needs to be made. I get no response. In August, 2 months out from my wedding I reach out again, and again I get no response. Finally September hits and I call, email, call and email and get no response. Finally Sherry reaches out with an email at 12:19am Sept 16th apologizing for not reaching out but there was a death in the family and they were working on getting caught up. I responded with condolences and gave it a few days. Sept 20th I reached out again (18 days away from wedding day) to finalize details. Again I received no response. I then call the number for their business, no answer, their voicemail also states they will not call back unless a voicemail is left. I left one each day I called and never got a call back. Still no email response either. I even went to their store front since it is so close to my home and there was no one there. At this point I am panicking because I have all my family and friends coming to celebrate our wedding and I have no idea what I am going to feed them. On September 21st I emailed to cancel my booking with them since I had to find another caterer to handle my event. I could not risk not having food, and my confidence in Salt of the Earth was just not there and I had been given zero evidence that I could count on them to actually show up. The minute I sent the email to cancel my booking, Sherry emailed back saying they were all set to take care of me and that she had sent a contract over (hard to believe since I have no evidence of a contract ever being emailed) and basically ended it with keeping my deposit and stating I had to do what made me conformable. I do believe due to the lack of response and professionalism on their end they should have refunded me. Being 2 weeks away from my wedding and not even having a contract or confirmation is unbelievable to me that they can run a business like that. I know this is long, I just hope I can save any other couples out there the headaches and stress I endured from Salt of the Earth catering.