Celebrations catering just helped us with our destination wedding and reception over the weekend and they more than exceeded our expectations! They were prompt, professional and the food was beautiful and incredible! Everything was perfect and would definitely recommend and use them over and over again!!!! So pleased! read more

Celebrations Catering - Amazing Dinner - Party & Event Planning Near Me - Makawao, Hawaii

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For our daughter's Maui wedding in late June, she decided to use Celebrations Catering. Celebrations is part of the empire of the famous Maui chef and restaurateur Bev Gannon. It was a great decision. The wedding and reception were outside, at the oceanfront with waves crashing in the background, late afternoon into evening. The food was fabulous. I'll let the menu speak for itself: Passed appetizers: - Strawberry and pineapple skewers - Coconut shrimp with marmalade - Brie and mushroom in pastry cup with mango chutney - Kalua pork pot stickers with BBQ sauce - plus a terrific sushi and sashimi bar. Dinner stations: - "Island Favorites Buffet." Kalbi ribs, macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi with passionfruit beurre blanc, wasabi potato casserole, and sugar snap peas with sesame and ginger. - "Carving Station and Salads." Sirloin of beef and pork loin, with mint jelly, Maui Gold pineapple chutney, and horseradish sauce. Hawaiian sweet bread rolls. Upcountry baby Romaine with Kula corn, dried mango, toasted macadamia nuts, and citrus vinaigrette. Marinated Kamuela tomatoes, shaved Maui onions, and Surfin Goat dairy cheese crumble. - "Stir Fry Station." Beef, shrimp, scallops, chicken, tofu, an assortment of vegetables, Soba noodles, penne pasta, jasmine rice, ginger garlic sauce, lemongrass sauce and spicy coconut sauce. - And the shusi/sashimi bar continued through dinner. Dessert was Chef Gannon's famous individual pineapple upside down cakes with vanilla ice cream (with bowls of berries for those that couldn't do the dairy/gluten issue). The presentations, serving setups (ie, marble slabs for the sushi station) and attitude of the staff were all as good as it gets. Even Bev Gannon herself showed up pre-wedding to see how the setup was going. read more

What can I say? After months of searching for a beautiful, private, and non-touristy location to get married, we found Celebrations Catering and Sugarhouse through Pacific Weddings Magazine and our event planner, Beth Helmstetter. It was one of the best decisions we made. Sugarhouse, a private estate house that resides on a historical sugar plantation, is a rare find and off the beaten tourist path. The location oozed rustic, vintage Hawaii with its beautiful, muted design and scenic surroundings that included views of the Haleakala mountains, the Pacific Ocean and the sugar cane fields. The estate house is grand but understated with the beautiful, vintage flooring and the lovely antiques and furniture. It's perfect. As for the catering service. They are detailed, customer friendly, flexible, efficient and a pleasure to work with. Our wedding meal was one of the best dinners I've had in my life, and our guests thoroughly enjoyed theirs as well. I will never forget how good the wasabi potato gratin tasted! YUM. In terms of pricing, this is very affordable considering the other options in Maui (e.g. wedding at Four Seasons, comparable luxury hotel or private estate). We were given all day access to Sugarhouse which is a rarity given how popular Maui is for a destination wedding. read more

Celebrations Catering provided absolutely amazing food for our wedding. We only had 15 people at our wedding but went with a pretty high end menu. It was definitely one of the items we splurged on and we don't regret it at all. Everyone loved the passed appetizers at the beginning. People are still raving about them! We chose a family style menu for our dinner and it was executed seamlessly. All of the dishes were flavorful and exceeded our expectations. The only thing that was weirdl was the fact that we couldn't take any of the leftovers with us. We didn't realize exactly how much food there was going to be and we had a ton of leftovers. Apparently there is some law in Hawaii where you can't take food home with you if it's been catered. So stupid. Other than the leftover issue, which is not the caterer's fault, everything was great. We are so glad we went with this company and highly recommend them to anyone looking for a caterer for their wedding or any other event! read more

Celebrations Catering catered my Dad's Celebration of Life last week and they truly knocked it outta the park! My requests were very specific to my Dad's favorite foods--some local, some traditional and some just outright good for anyone who enjoys good food! The pupus were awesome (edamame, boiled peanuts, Maui chips/dip), but the Wild Grilled Salmon (gilled on-site) and Teriyaki Beef were a huge hit. And, the poke was to die for. Oh, and the desserts--mini banana cream pies, chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream (pre-scooped so it was easy to have more than a double!). Rebecca and her team were spot-on in terms of their attention to detail, set-up, attentiveness of the servers and genuine hospitality expressed to my family and all guests. At all times, they were professional, courteous and sincere. Celebrations Catering was FANTASTIC and I'll look forward to using them again for a future event. Mahalo! read more

This is one of those classic I can only give it 1 stars but if I could it Would be a 0 star review.I called over a week ago to get a Cost estimate for my wedding in may of twenny twenny. She took down all my information and let me know she would be calling the in the following days with It's cost estimate all worked out for me. We are over a week out and I have not received any phone call. I called and followed up with them and was told that she is too busy and that she can not guarantee end of day but maybe sometime next week. As you can imagine I was surprised this is a my wedding day and I already feel like I am not a priority when I am spending thousands of dollars hiring this company to do catering and coordinate the whole event. I understand being busy as I also reached out to 3 other carriers and event coordinator and received full cost estimates back with additional options within 72 hours of my request even on the weekends. So sad to say I won't be going with Deb and it sucks that I couldn't even get a chance To work with them as they didn't really seem to care about mu special day. When I was on the phone with the girl she was very short and rude when I called to follow up because she was busy. As some of you brides may know planning a wedding is extremely stressful and when you already feel like you're bothering somebody you probably don't wanna be spending thousands of your hard earned dollars with them to make your special day even more difficult. I truly feel like this with a blessing in disguise and I am happy that they showed their true colors before I spend any money with this company. Brides if you truly want a stress free day don't go with these people unless you fork over thousands of dollars upfront you wont be getting call back. They just dont care. read more

Celebrations catered on the most magical day of our lives, our wedding. The handcrafted cocktails, passed pupu's, dinner and dessert were beyond fabulous. Guests to this day still tell us about the taco/tequila shots and poke bar! The whole celebrations team is beyond professional and personable. Celebrations knows how to add flare to a wedding. We couldn't imagine our wedding without celebrations and Nicole! read more

We have lived in Maui for nearly 25 years. As such, we have had the good fortune to work with Celebrations Catering for many years. They have catered everything from milestone birthdays and holiday parties to most recently, my wedding and post-wedding party on Maui. When it came time to plan our wedding, the one thing we all knew from the beginning was who we wanted to cater our celebration, and we couldn't be happier with our choice. If you have ever eaten at Haliimaile General Store on Maui, you know you are in for a treat as far as the food. But sometimes when you cater large events, even the best of restaurants struggle to get it right. At our wedding, we had a sit down dinner for 80 and at Bev's recommendation we did family style. I loved the idea and it suited our vision for the wedding perfectly. Each platter that came out was as good if not better than the last, and it gave our guests a lot of different tastes and options to choose from. The food was divine and there was something for everyone! At the post-wedding party a couple of days later, we went more casual with a barbeque and margarita bar. Casual? With these folks, a barbeque looks and tastes like a million bucks. Each station was amazing. Our guests are still raving about the food (and drinks) at both events. So the food was amazing but the service, professionalism and attention to detail that went into making it that way was equally as good! As the bride, I honestly can't imagine having pulled that week off without the guidance of Bev and especially Nicole. Nicole is simply amazing. She made the whole thing stress free and fun. Although she is clearly juggling a lot in her job, she was always available and made you feel like you were her only client! Her creativity, ideas, energy, and enthusiasm are endless. She was committed to working with us to create the vision and to help that fit into our budget. During the week of the wedding, I never had to worry because I knew Nicole and Bev had it all under control, and they did. Everything was seamless and beautiful, from start to finish. I can't imagine recommending anyone other than Celebrations Catering. read more

I live on Maui and move around quite a bit producing aerial films. Many of these are at outdoor events, weddings, etc. I have to admit that I very often run into the Celebrations Catering folks. Their outdoor bars always attract my attention! I haven't sampled their food, but from what I see being prepared as I film is impressive! The colors! The textures! The presentation! Amazing work. read more

I used celebrations for my wedding back in Aug. Their willingness to work with me price and menu wise was fab. The food was to die for . I still to this day have people talking about the wasabi potatos au gratin! They were a true help with the planning of my big day , not just with the catering alone but with suggestions of other venders to use . They went so over and beyond my hopes. They went as far as to research were to get the wine and champane at the best price ( do business really do that anymore ??? ) All my planning was done from the mainland , over the phone and internet, which really had me in the feeling of potential disaster but the day was perfect ! Oh... and the did my wedding cake for me as well... the pasionfruit cake ...it was their suggestion as their best ... and IT WAS ! A perfect way to carry on the Hawaiian feeling all the way to dessert! It looked great and tasted even better. So if you dont have your heart set on a specific flavor already give it a go. sweet with a little tang , mouth watering!!! read more

UPDATE: I just heard they fired their old event coordinator Nicole. Best thing this company could have done. She was just awful. The food was awesome, and with a decent event planner this place is highly recommendable! I heard the event planner say "These little challenges are what give a wedding character!" more times during my wedding than I'd care to admit. Most of those "challenges" could have been avoided by a little more attention to detail. If you're planning a destination wedding to Maui, I do not recommend Celebrations. There are many events companies located in Maui that have more experience and cost about the same. The food was fine, but the events coordinator (Nicole) doesn't seem to know what she's doing. I got the impression that she's new at this. Her design ideas were tacky, and she got exasperated with me more than once when I tried to steer the aesthetic of my wedding in a more classic direction. Several times she took what sounded like personal calls during our meetings (how did I know they were personal calls? She sat right across the table from for the duration of them). The final bill came out to be way different than the quote. A word of warning if you do end up using them: every little change she casually mentions during the planning stage will add thousands of unexpected dollars to the final bill. All in all just a bad experience. read more

I read some bad reviews about this place, so I thought I'd jump in with a review of my own. I hired Celebrations to cater and plan my wedding a while back, and here's a sum up of my experience with them: Yes, I'll agree with some of the other reviewers who said that the planner I had (Nicole) was sometimes difficult to reach. But I'm 100% sure it would be like that no matter who was planning your wedding. It's not like these people only have one client at a time! And she always did get back to me before I really started to stress. She suggested decorations that celebrated the fact that we were in Hawaii, which some people might find corny. But really, what's the point of a destination wedding if you're going to have everything look exactly the same as if you were in a church back home? Spray painted pineapples? Hula girls? Heck yes, that's what I was there for! If you're looking for classy and elegant (aka, exactly like every other wedding your guests have ever been to), you can go to one of the bigger companies and pay a lot more. If you want to celebrate the fact that you're getting married in paradise, and have the decorations, food, and atmosphere reflect that, hire Celebrations! The only negative note to my experience was (which others have pointed out) that you really do have to be super careful with your budget. I wish someone had warned me about this. Plan on the "estimate" they give you roughly doubling. It won't seem like it while you're planning, but every little thing (moving a table, having someone else make the cake, etc) has a charge attached to it, so be careful! Just be sure to ask what things are costing extra so you're not caught off guard. read more

We recently had the pleasure of being married in Maui this past September and used Celebrations for our big day. From our very first interaction with them we experienced nothing but the highest level of service, care and professionalism. They were in control of every single detail and left us completely at ease for the most important day of our lives. Words can't describe how happy we were with Nicole and her team at Celebrations. Not only do these guys do amazing food, they are experts in event planning. We originally picked Celebration because of their reputation for having the best food on the island, and the definitely delivered. But we were blow away with everything else they took care of. If you are looking for a company to help you take care of every detail for your event or wedding please stop looking right now, you will not find anyone better in Maui or Hawaii for that matter. read more

I never do this. I've never left a negative review for anything. Actually, this is my first review at all. But after 2 years, I'm still upset about my wedding fiasco. My sister was just married in Maui recently, and she used My Aloha Wedding. The contrast between her experience and mine was so striking, I finally decided that I was going to write this. Planning my wedding in Maui from California was incredibly stressful. I was warned in advance that these coordinators tend to overbook themselves to the extreme, but I really felt like my wedding was the lowest of the low priority. I didn't hear back from the planner about things for weeks at a time. When problems came up, I had to take care of them completely on my own, from California, with no advice or input. I also felt a lot of pressure to do things her way. I'm not the most outspoken person in the world, but I really had to fight for things to stay classy. A wedding in Hawaii has a little bit of built in corny-ness to it (which is why we do it, right??), but the coordinator seemed to really want to push for cheesy in the extreme. Some of the design ideas she was pushing felt like a Hawaiian themed prom in the 90's. If you're hoping for elegant and classic, this company is not a good fit for you. When my sister was talking to vendors and mentioned the name of the wedding planner she'd hired (I think her name was Kara?), each and every one of them was so excited to get to work with her, and had nothing but glowing things to say about her. I did not have that experience when I was talking to vendors. I even got some warnings about people in the past who had problems with the final bill. I really don't recommend this company. I feel bad saying that, but I don't want other people to go through what I went through. There are amazing, award winning event planning companies out there that cost the same. Read the reviews, make an informed decision. read more

Over 2 years ago I attended a wedding of a friend's on Maui and while at the wedding, the father of the bride, knowing I was engaged and getting married on Maui as well, pulled me aside and said if there is anything I can definitely recommend you use for your wedding, it would be Celebration's Catering and Nicole Scharer as your wedding planner. Because I know this family very well, and I know how high their standards are, I jumped at the opportunity, met with Nicole a few days later, and began the wedding process with her from there. I was blown away from the start. Nicole has a quality that not a lot of people in the service profession have and that is intuition. Nicole seemed to know my vision and goal from the start better than I did. She was able to come up with ideas, creative suggestions, little details, and so much more that only enhanced and complimented the direction I wanted to take the wedding in. I consider myself a creative person but Nicole's creativity floored me! Throughout the entire wedding planning process Nicole was available to me, generous with her time and energy, attentive, thoughtful and very dedicated to me and my wedding goals. Nicole and celebration's catering helped me come up with a look and feel, as well as a menu and customized bar menu, that literally blew me, my groom, our families and friends away! The attention to detail that was present in the food stations, as well as the bar, was incredible. We served over 40 food items at our wedding and every single one of them was flawless. Our guests went back for seconds, thirds, and sometimes even fourths because the food was just that good! The service was exactly as service should be; quick, efficient, and virtually unseen. Every staff member that came with Celebrations was professional and willing to help. The food and dessert were truly out of this world and my only regret is that I didn't take more time to try every single thing! My groom even went so far as to request cronuts (a very difficult pastry that uses croissant dough but fried like a donut) and for most of our guests, this was the first time they had such a special treat. I heard the next day that some people had 4 or 5 of them because they literally were that good. Honestly, I could go on and on about how happy and thrilled I am for having hired Nicole and Celebrations' Catering to plan and create my wedding. It was the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen, everything was flawless, and the service was phenomenal and this was entirely thanks to them. read more