2. We are doing a buffet dinner and we can't decide whether or not we are doing a plated salad or having the salad as part of the buffet. Our salad station would look like this:

Mixed Greens, Spinach and Arugula with roasted pears, gorgonzola, red peppers, grape tomatoes, dried cherries, toasted walnuts, all arranged in bowls with choice of dressings to include pear balsamic, herbed crème fraiche or other dressing of choice

If we did a plated salad, we would make up a salad with some of these items, minus the walnuts because of one of my BM's has a nut allergy. I can't decide, because I like all of these items, but I know others will not. I feel like it could speed up the process if we had a plated salad, but dinner could get started earlier if we didn't have one..

3. Silverware, wrapped in cloth napkins and at the buffet, or set at the table? I didn't think of these, but they are things that my caterer has asked me..

Thank you!

Pure Kitchen Catering did not make us feel that their company really was determined to go above and beyond to make our wedding extraordinary. They made us feel like a smaller job, delegated to inexperienced staff, and that our legitimate concerns were not worth a proper, professional resolution.

We heard from our guests that they were impressed with the food at our wedding; it surpassed their expectations. Sadly, the service did not surpass ours. Communication and day-of service was extremely poor.

We chose Pure Kitchen because we felt that they understood our vision and passion for an innovative wedding meal. In the end, communication turned out to be the most important factor. We met with Joshua and Dan a number of times throughout our planning process, and I appreciated that they both attended these meetings. Communication outside of these in-person meetings, however, resulted in errors, delays, and excuses rather than solutions.

1.     Communication throughout our planning process was inconsistent and frustrating. When we first signed on with Pure Kitchen, they told us that new customers would get a 24 hour response time (which we did), and existing customers could expect a 48 hour response time. On average, it took our planner Dan 7 days to respond to any email, and those responses were usually prompted by a follow-up inquiry from me and started off with an apology and/or excuse. We tried very hard on our end to have everything decided and done at least one week ahead of time; it was incredibly frustrating to be haggling over a final $17 with 24 hours to go.

2.     We would have appreciated an immediate greeting, and consistent attention. No one introduced themselves to us, or made a point to make sure that my husband and I had what we needed at all times. As the person in charge of the event, we would especially have appreciated a greeting, check in, or even a goodbye from Dan. We received none of the above: he waved to us from across the room after we sat down, and that was the last we saw of him all night.

3.     The rest of the wait staff was courteous and helpful, and many of our guests commented on the friendliness of the bartenders. But when we and our parents sat down at our table, it took a good 5 minutes to place our drink order, and that was only after one of our guests flagged down a server at our request, and asked the server to come over to us. (The head table is kind of hard to miss.)

4.     Dan promised me via email that he was waiting for final answers from the chef on some final questions we had about the ingredients for our food, based on our experience at the final tasting. These questions were never answered.

5.     We were also extremely disappointed that a vegetable dish was completely omitted. This wasn't a last-minute add -- it was one of our requests from the beginning. Not to mention, it was a dish that was quite meaningful to us, as part of our story! In fact, when we asked two separate servers when it was coming, each said it would be coming out shortly. It never showed up, and there has been absolutely no explanation as to why.

6.     We were charged $6 per “bowl” of berries, which amounted to a ramekin per table. This was also supposed to be the non-gluten dessert option for our guests.

7.     Our custom-designed cake looked awesome – if you overlooked the four fingerprints right in the middle of it. The cake sat out for hours on the dance floor. For anyone other than my husband & I to have a piece, each guest had to carve it off for themselves.

8.     The end of a wedding is a good time for someone from the professional side to look out for the customers, i.e. the bride and groom, and take just a little more time to make sure they go home happy. We were charged for to-go containers, but no one from the staff made certain that we left with any of our leftover food, and Joshua confirmed later that there had been extras.

Our expectations were not met, and food that we pre-paid a good amount of money for was not served. We requested a refund, which Joshua promised he would look into. He then chose to pretend that we had forgotten about the whole thing. When we followed up, he promised a check would be in the mail shortly. That was the last we heard from Pure Kitchen – Joshua has not responded to any follow-up phone calls or emails since. This is our response.