Weddingbee Blog

There was one wedding-related decision Mr. Parasol and I thought would be incredibly easy, and that was choosing a caterer. Given that our reception is pretty laid back and casual, Mr. Parasol and I wanted the food to match, so it seemed like a no-brainer to go with our favorite Mexican restaurant. And really, who doesn’t like good Mexican food? It’s so yummy!

Image via Good Food Pictures

(Note: Because we’ve had a bad experience with this restaurant, I’m not going to publish their name and information here. I don’t want to use my blog to give them bad press. If you’re in the Bay Area, though, and would like to know more about this particular restaurant, please send me a PM.)

We thought things would be pretty straightforward and easy.

The restaurant does catering all the time. In fact, they catered for a dear friend’s wedding just last year, and the food was great! Mr. Parasol and I didn’t need to come in for a tasting; we already loved the food, and we were ready and willing to give them our money. We were thrilled that they were available for our date, and they immediately penciled us into their calendar, though they didn’t require a deposit just yet. (Possible red flag?)

About three weeks ago, Mr. Parasol and I decided that we should probably get in touch with our caterers. We hadn’t heard from them in about two and a half months, and we were anxious to have a few more questions answered and to get our deposit in. So Mr. Parasol called them. They didn’t answer. We waited a few days. And we never heard from them.

Repeat this process five or six times over the course of three weeks. Now add in three or four emails. They never answered the phone and never returned any of our voice messages or emails.

When we reached the one month mark, I officially started freaking out. If our caterers could ignore us, paying customers who are giving them a hefty chunk of business, for three weeks, who’s to say they wouldn’t ignore us on the day of our wedding? I had visions of them never showing up with the food on our wedding day and never answering any of our calls. And I just couldn’t live with that. We were paying these people quite a bit to cater for us, and I expected them to be professional enough to actually return our calls in a timely fashion.

So with one month left to the wedding, Mr. Parasol and I had to act fast. I really didn’t want to stay with our caterers; they had proven unreliable, and quite frankly, were acting completely unprofessional, and I really didn’t feel like giving them our business anymore. So we decided to try the unthinkable: we were going to get new caterers.

To be perfectly honest, I kind of panicked when we decided to go this route. I mean, what caterers would be sitting around waiting for a giant order to come in a month before the actual event? I worried that all the good caterers would already be booked and that we’d end up with really crummy food for our wedding.

But luck was on our side. I had totally forgotten about this other awesome Mexican restaurant near my parents’ house called El Balazo. To be fair, I thought it had gone completely out of business, but it turns out they had only closed on of their locations. My family has used them to cater events on several occasions, and my aunt, who is from Mexico City, says that they are the best and most authentic Mexican catering in the Bay Area. With no time to lose, Mr. Parasol called them up to see if they could cater our wedding.

In about 24 hours, they committed to catering our wedding, Mr. Parasol and I finalized the menu, we received a twice-updated invoice, and we sent in our deposit. We then breathed the biggest sigh of relief in the history of the world.

So aside from working with new caterers who are professional and responsive (and thereby set our addled wedding minds at ease), Mr. Parasol and I are actually getting a better deal and more food for less with El Balazo than we would have if we stuck with our original caterers. Here’s a run-down of what we’re getting:

• Fixings for chicken burritos
• Fixings for carne asada burritos
• Chicken enchiladas
• Cheese enchiladas
• Refried and black beans
• Chips and salsa bar
• All the toppings we could ever want (lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, cheese, etc.)
• Plates, utensils, and napkins for all of our guests

And guess how much all of this is setting us back? $11.95 per guest. Yes, you heard me right. All of this is costing us less than $12 per person. We did have to pay a $40 fee for them to deliver and setup all of the food, but that’s it. I think Mr. Parasol and I scored the deal of the century!

And for the record, Mr. Parasol and I still haven’t heard from our original caterers. I don’t know if we’ll ever get a call from them, but I feel like that might be an awkward conversation.

Have you ever encountered unresponsive or unprofessional vendors? How have you dealt with them?