Event Planning: Yes We Cater, Food - A+; Event Planning - D
The food was fantastic! It was delicious and the presentation was beautiful. Many of our guests told Drew and I, as well as my parents, that the food was the best food that they had ever had at a wedding (or that they'd ever had ever.) The sushi bar in particular was a big hit, and more than one person (including me) really enjoyed how the pasta was prepared individually using whichever ingredients & sauce you wanted. I was very, very, very pleased with the food. I only wish I had been able to eat more of it!
Unfortunately, I cannot say the same of YWC's event planning services. Things started off well enough and John did a very impressive job of paring down the estimate so that it was more in our price range. As we got closer to the event, however, it became apparent that there had been some miscommunication about some pretty big issues. We found out nine days before the wedding that the tent we were using didn't hold 120 people AND the food stations, etc., but only 120 people seated. That distinction had not been made clear to me and since we had been planning for the food stations, dance floor, bar, & etc. to be in the tent from the start, when I heard it could hold 120 people I figured that was also with all the other stuff, too, because that's what we'd been talking about. When the guest list got a little bigger, I didn't think anything of it because I thought the tent was big enough based on what they had told me. Finding out we needed more tents (and thus more money for them) 9 days before the wedding was a development I was not prepared for and one that caused an enormous amount of anxiety and stress. I don't think this miscommunication was intentional on anyone's part, and I do bear some responsibility for it. I also think that the professionals in such an instance bear a larger portion of the responsibility for making sure everyone is on the same page by virtue of the fact that this is what they are being paid to do. They got us the two extra tents that we needed for the price of one.
My other major complaint was when the dinner tables were not set up correctly and how they dealt with it (or rather, how they didn't.) My parent's yard has a slope to it and while YWC said it was no problem when they first came to check out the yard I knew that it was a challenge we had to contend with. I didn't expect perfection, I did expect usability. John made a big deal of coming to set up the tables personally, so they'd be done right, but they weren't set up right. They were unstable and wobbly. We couldn't very well have guests eating at tables where their plates might slide and glasses tip simply by being set on a table that was not level enough, never mind if the table was jostled, because, as I said, they were wobbly, in some instances very much so.
To add to the whole situation, my SIL couldn't set up the centerpieces in their 24" high vases (filled with glass marbles, so they weighed a ton) because she was afraid they'd tip over, and on most of the tables they would have. When I called John to tell him that I was unhappy with the tables not being set up properly and how were they going to deal with it/would someone be coming out to fix it, his entire approach/reaction left so much to be desired that I am still, quite frankly, astonished that anyone could respond to a client so poorly. I explained the situation and he asked me what I meant, so I explained again and said at minimum they should have shimmed up the tables (i.e. evened them out with wood shims/blocks.) Then he said how there was a slope in the yard and I couldn't expect them to be level, and I said I knew there was a slope and I wasn't expecting perfection, but I did expect stability, at minimum, and then reiterated that they had not been set up properly and that I wasn't happy about it and what were they going to do about it? Then he said, "Anne, I have to disagree with you", and I completely FLIPPED OUT! Wrong answer, wrong approach, wrong everything, especially to the bride coming off all the anxiety about the tent. It would have been one thing if I was wrong, but I wasn't and I knew I wasn't. There's not a bride in the world that should have to tell a vendor that she's not paying them almost $10G to disagree with her, but guess what I essentially ended up saying? Exactly that.
The upshot of that conversation was that my Dad, brother and a bm's boyfriend spent an hour cutting wood blocks, shimming up the tables and digging holes on the opposite sides of the shimmed legs so the tables would be level, stable and wouldn't tip regardless of where stuff was put on them. My dad is a carpenter (my brother too) so he has lots of wood, circular and table saws to get the job done, but he'd also had cataract surgery on Tuesday and was only allowed to do so much. Luckily my also-a-carpenter brother was in from Kentucky for the wedding. If a person didn't have the materials and equipment at their disposal that my dad has, as well as the expertise, I don't want to even think about how many trips to Home Depot they would have had to make or how much time the task would have taken. My mom told me that at the reception John asked her how we got the tables leveled out & stabilized. Yeah... (rolling eyes)
There was no attempt made to level out the dance floor, which was not even installed until some time on Saturday. I had been told they'd bring in as much sand as necessary to level it out but that didn't happen. I was never told the dance floor would not be installed correctly (i.e. as I had been assured it would be, leveled out), or why. By the time the reception rolled around and I found out about the dance floor it was too late to do anything about it. One section of the tent that had four (of eleven) tables in it was very cold by all accounts, although I think that had more to do with the shapes of the tents than the heating units, which worked quite well. Perhaps some fans would have taken care of that.
Don't get me wrong, there were things that YWC did well. The linens were wonderful, the china was beautiful. The bartender they lined us up with was very good and a total sport about having the bar outside (under a huge old tree so very sheltered) for most of the evening. The tents were very beautiful even though we needed more and spent more than we'd initially planned for. My wedding was wonderful despite all the things that YWC did poorly or didn't do at all. I had a great time, as did our guests, and the food was fantastic. YWC are wonderful caterers, and the things that caterers do they can do for you (like rental of china, linens, bar staff, etc.) but in my opinion they are not event planners. They facilitated rentals, which any caterer worth their sald will do for a wedding, but they did not plan the event in the manner that I have subsequently heard that other event planners do. A good event planner will present you with options so that, if you want, all you have to do is choose from those options if that's the level of involvement you desire. That wasn't the case with YWC when I used them. Their customer service and problem-solving leaves too much to be desired in my opinion, especially when confronted with situations where they think a situation can't be improved upon or solved but you know it can (like the tables), or if it's something they just don't want to deal with.
It wasn't just these two incidents that soured my opinion of them. All along they were slow to return phone calls. I cut them slack because my wedding was months away but as it got closer that got to be very annoying and frustrating. They were vague in their answers to our questions to the point that my mother felt they were being evasive while we discussed the menu at the three day meeting. Whenever I'd express concern about something John would come back with "Your wedding's gonna be great, Anne!"; or, "All you're going to have to do is show up on the wedding day and enjoy yourself!", neither of which had anything to do with what I was asking him. Unfortunately by the time I realized that I had a problem it was too late to reconsider our options, time & money-wise. I cannot recommend them as event planners, esp. for something as complicated as a tented, outdoor reception at a private residence. They are personable and quite charming, especially during the sale, but apart from catering what they offer in the way of event planning is, in my opinion, more style than substance.
When a vendor promises the moon & the stars, and YWC did, then they need to deliver the moon & the stars. YWC didn't.
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