We hired Cuisine for our wedding at Norfolk Botanical Gardens in Renaissance Court, and worked with Jen G who assisted us with the food, event staff, and all rentals - everything confirmed in writing in our contract. When I arrived on my weddin...g day at 2:00, I was first notified that there was an issue with event set up - our main tent had been set up in a different location. When I arrived to the location in the Garden, I saw that it wasn’t just the main tent, but it was a completely different layout, which contradicted the layout in our contract. The 2 catering tents for the staff to work out of were not delivered. Thus, the staff was forced to prepare food in open air area, obviously causing concern for compromised quality of food. The serving stations were in a completely different location because of the missing catering tents. Our ten cocktail tables that we planned to have arranged in front of the tent were all placed together to a side, so that the new outdoor food preparation without catering tents wasn’t visible to guests. And then there were minor/ cosmetic issues - like the legs of our tent weren’t covered and decorated as planned with Jen and written in contract, and we had incomplete lighting in the tent... Our napkins were “delivered to the wrong wedding” so some guests didn’t have napkins at their seats with dinner. Because the main tent was incorrectly placed and catering tents were not delivered, staff present and my wedding planner made layout decisions to simply make it work, and I was not involved. I should also mention that after months of planning with Jen, she notified us week of that she would not be present on our wedding day because of another event scheduled on the same day, and that Carla would fill in.
My biggest issue though was that we had written in contract that staff would be present to serve guests from stations, but guests ended up serving themselves. This was really disappointing to me, because I was completely unaware of it at the time, since my food was brought to me as the bride, while tables were being called to stations. We were told 16 servers and 4 bartenders would be present, both confirmed in contract and two days prior to the event when we were preparing tips for staffs. If there was a staffing issue, I would have assumed I would have been made aware in advance. Cuisine still hasn’t confirmed the number that were actually there (I’m questioning the amount present because of the service provided). Regardless, guests served themselves which was really upsetting, especially during COVID when food safety had been thoroughly discussed with Jen prior to the event. Per my wedding planner, when this mistake was caught, staff wasn’t available to serve because they were occupied with other tasks, so guests continued to serve themselves. When we talked with Cuisine two days after the event, they listened and validated our concerns. We were offered reimbursement money as compensation. They didn’t provide any specific reasoning, except that it was the Rental Company’s fault (Distinctive) that they use. They basically just listened while we freaked out! I never received an explanation about why servers weren’t at the food stations. I am now communicating with other vendors to identify what exactly happened. Unfortunately, this was extremely disappointing. I would discourage anyone from using them for any event after my experience.