*UPDATED REVIEW*
In our response to our negative review, the owner Koko/Ekhlas responded by writing a review on my side business as a wedding planner and tried to tarnish the image of my wedding. I would like to say that I gave the review as a bride/client, not as a vendor. But as a side coordinator it shows how unprofessional she is, and how she does not know her role as a caterer. You can see the review she wrote on my Yelp page (Yelp currently has it under reviews not recommended) Just an FYI to brides, wedding caterers are supposed to set the tables, pour water into the goblets, bus the tables, and light the candles. My husband and I had paid the rental company to set the tables because she had told us a week before she wasn't planning on doing that which surprised us and our DJ who was there (and who has done many weddings with us). Montana Cielo had even informed us that at the end of the night, the tables weren't cleaned and my coordinator and rental company had to clean up after them. Montana Cielo will tell you that their other caterers clean up after the wedding ends leaving just the decorations to the coordinator and the rental pieces to the rental company and that's how it always is (unless you get a taco truck or just order food). If I just wanted food and no service, I would have just gotten Phil's BBQ to bring in food, but we hired a caterer for the service.
A coordinator should rely on the caterer the make a wedding spectacular, but because she was understaffed the caterer relied on my coordinator to do her job.
Also, we found out from Montana Cielo that she did not have workers comp (which she said she did at our consult), so she was technically not allowed to work our wedding. However, Montana Cielo was very nice and allowed it, but after my wedding not anymore.
This has turned into a bride's nightmare: being bullied by a vendor. I would not wish a bride to go through this and to have a peace of mind that your caterer will take care of you and your guests. My husband and I are so sad to see it end this way as Koko/Ekhlas was nice and her food was good, but because of the fact that she tried to tarnish my wedding I have to change my review from a 2-star to a 1-star. No bride should ever have a caterer ruin the image of their wedding. That is just a no no in the wedding industry. We will still not let anything ruin our wedding day as it was beautiful and so exciting, and we will just forget the fiasco with the caterer.
*PREVIOUS REVIEW*
I am so sad I am writing this review as Koko is a very personal and lovely person, but this review was pushed by my guests' reviews of her food and service that we heard after my wedding day. My wedding was January of this year at Montana Cielo. We had hired her for a buffet service. A majority of our guests told my husband and I the same thing over and over again: the food was delicious, but there wasn't a lot. A lot of our guests didn't get to try her stuffed mushrooms which they were excited about as we put it on menus we had made, but they had told us that they waited and waited but nothing had come out. They said they only saw a few trays (we had 100 guests). Other appetizers were also scarce. We had asked for a plate of appetizers a week before our wedding to be put on the sweetheart table, but she had come up to us during the wedding saying she had run out.
For actual dinner service, we had chicken and beef. The beef was a hit, but some tables didn't have the opportunity to taste the beef when their table was called. This made me and my husband very sad as those tables were the ones that traveled the furthest to our wedding and we'd hate to think that they went home hungry. When guests had try to go back for more food, the trays were cleared even before dinner service ended. Some guests even received just rice bowls.
Another thing the guests said as well as something that we noticed, was that she was severely understaffed that food was moving slowly. She only had three people working our wedding of 100 guests: herself, the bartender, and another person. While the bartender left to fill the champagne flutes for the toasts, people were self serving alcohol which was against the rules of the venue. Other vendors had to help out which affected some of them in doing their own jobs.
There is more that I could write, but these are the big ones. Like I said, the food was delicious no doubt, but we hate that our guests were not given the food as anticipated and some left hungry. If she had let us known that what we had paid for wasn't going to be enough for food or manpower, we would have gladly paid more, but she didn't tell us anything so we assumed that what we paid for which is what she quoted was more than enough.
We hope that Koko can use our review in a constructive way to help build her business. As a caterer you cannot skimp on food or service. Our guests enjoyed our wedding still, but it is on their mind the food quantity. read more