We hired Gigi’s Gourmet Kitchen (gigisgourmetkitchen.com) for my daughter’s wedding, and the experience was extremely disappointing. Here’s what happened: - Cocktail Hour Appetizers: Only one tray each of meatballs and eggrolls were served initially — and only after I asked staff to begin circulating. Once those trays were gone, there was a 30‑minute gap with no food. Eventually, one more tray of each item appeared, and that was all that was served for over 100 guests. My grandson and I even had to step in to distribute charcuterie cups ourselves. - - Dinner Service: While the food had flavor, it was served cold. Guests were discouraged from requesting both shrimp and chicken, even though this was never communicated as a limitation. Caesar salads were barely distributed (only about 10–15 guests received one), and asparagus — which was part of the agreed menu — was never served at all. And she admitted they forgot the asparagus! - - Cake Service: We paid for four servers who were contracted to cut and serve the cake, yet no staff assisted. The coordinator had to bring the cake back herself, and my husband and I ended up passing slices to guests. The mother and father of the bride! - - Agreed Details Ignored: To‑go boxes and cake shooters, which we discussed at length beforehand, were not provided. I even shipped the boxes to her location, per her request to have them ready for that night ! and not one was provided. - . At the end of the night, six large trays of food were left over, despite many guests not receiving items during service. As this was a destination wedding, we had no way to store or transport them, and they went to waste. - - Response Afterward: When these issues were raised, the caterer refused to make things right ! She actually has admitted to these mistakes and yet even though she charged me $425.00 in gratuity - which she took the liberty of adding onto the last invoice - has not refunded one penny.

Happy Sunday Everyone! I'd like to welcome @Jennie Sikes to our group! She is the newest Mother of the Bride! @Shanna Prestenback just helped plan one of her twin daughter's wedding OUT OF STATE! Perhaps @Shanna Prestenback can offer some advice. We know she had some bumps in the road, so you two should connect! Also, @Christine Berencz is our resident day of coordinator in our community, and she always has great advice!

We're starting to budget for beverages. There's not that much difference between beer and wine and full bar. Thoughts on liquor at wedding? I don't want people to get wasted, but i like the idea of options? Thoughts anyone? @Shanna Prestenback ...i see your daughter just got married. How was your bar set up and did you have any concerns?

So this past weekend, our very own @Shanna Prestenback had the pleasure of being Mother of the Bride! FYI, she will be doing it all over again as she has twins! So first of all, let's all congratulate her on surviving the 9-hour drive to the venue, dealing with some unexpected changes and living to tell us all about it! @Shanna Prestenback, we'd love to hear from you firsthand on some DOs and DON'Ts! And of course, we'd love to see some pics of your fave moments!

@Shanna Prestenback and I had a call today to discuss cake size and extra sweets! She is the Mother of the Bride and was worried that she would not have enough cake. Backstory: she is having cake shooters as the favor along with pretzels in a cute take away box: sweet and salty!! LOVE! - Cake serves 54 - Guests count 110 - 100 Cake Shooters as Favors that will be available on the Exit table. My advice: Have baker bring 2-3 dozen of bride and groom's favorite bite size desserts OR have baker bring sheet cake in same flavor as wedding cake: cut and serve from kitchen so no one knows! Either way - win! AND, these options are less expensive than doubling the size of the wedding cake! FYI: You can even use a separate boutique baker for something special on the dessert table! AND I love using local bakers! Another fix would have been a Groom's Cake (see today's post)! We can't wait to see the pictures!!