Catering Reviews? Whitehouse, Williamsburg Concessions, Champagne Taste Catering

weddingplan16

Hi all-- I was wondering if you could offer some advice on catering. I know a lot of people say Whitehouse is great in the meetings leading up, but has anyone used them for their wedding? I saw some bad reviews about the day of and was curious. I haven't been able to find too much on Williamsburg Catering Concessions and Champagne Taste Catering, but somebody recently recommended them to me.

Those of you who have had to/have to rent dishes, silverware, and glasses, what have you done? I find this to be a very expensive venture and almost wonder if it is cheaper to buy them myself. I always thought the caterer provided these.

xBrynnx

I used Williamsburg Concessions and Catering for my Oct. 2010 wedding and have nothing but wonderful things to say about them! The owner, Cassie Whitney, is super friendly and came to my home for our first meeting.  She does both plated meals and buffet/station style and takes into account not only the type of service and food you are interested in but also the overall style and color scheme for your event.  Our ceremony and reception were outside midday on a Sunday so we chose a more casual station set-up for the full meal with hors'devours during the cocktail hour. 

The food was wonderful and she was very budget friendly.  At the time of our wedding we were able to rent all place settings and table linens from her as well.  We paid about $2500 for everything with her.  This included the hors'devours, a carving station with roast beef and turkey (plus a variety of breads, cheeses, and condiments), a station with three pasta choices (portobello mushroom, marinara, and pesto), and a salad station, plus linens and place settings, and a getaway basket containing bottled water and meals for my husband and I which was placed in our getaway car before we left the reception.  We got a lot of compliments on the food and I really loved the getaway basket since we ate very little at our reception.

I don't have any experience with the other caterers you mentioned but I have seen Champagne Taste mentioned quite a bit on here as a great option.  Hope this helps

weddingplan16

Brynn, That was so helpful. Thanks!

xBrynnx

No problem   I probably should have mentioned that the price we paid was for 100 people.  Of course, her prices may have changed in the last two years.

ladysttar

Hey,

I used White House catering. The food was good, the service was good. My only compliant is I asked for all the left overs to be packaged up and somehow that got written down as "two to go meals for bride/groom" Which is COMPLETELY different. To be honest I blame my husband more for this because I was worried about that and he didn't follow up before the wedding and catering was his job, not mine, so I didn't call to verify.

Anyway overall I was happy.

I DID buy all the silverwear!!!! IT WAS SO MUCH CHEAPER! I still have it! I think probably like 120 of desert folk and regular fork, spoon, knife, some serving things as well. Honestly I still have them. If you are interested I'll sell them even cheaper than I bought them for. We didn't end up needing all of them so some of them are still boxed never used. We live near Byrd park. Let me know. You can email me at Ashley_Robin_Wedding@yahoo.com.

As far as plates went- we bought a lot from second hand stores cheaper than we could rent them and did mismatched theme. To save even more money, get the regular plates from each of your friend's and relative's houses (mark with tape on the bottom whos is whos) and borrow them for your wedding. It is kind of cool to see your own plates next to your cake in the photos. Or you can buy disposiables for not too much money at Party Supply stores.They look real but they are plastic.

I ended up renting the glasses. that just seemed easier. And buying the table clothes second hand. The one good thing about renting is if you end up with a fair bit of RSVP "nos" then you can adjust the numbers before the wedding. Where if you buy you can't really return, and you are still stuck selling them after the wedding.

Since you sound as worried as I did about food/rental costs, let me add that if you haven't sent out your invitations, then put an option for attending ceremony only or ceremony/reception (dinner included) on your invites. Seriously I had entire tables only show up to the ceremony and LEAVE before I even got to the reception. I was so mad that I paid for all those extra rental chairs, tables, food etc.