My sister and I had a double wedding on July 23, 2011, and were very excited to work with Catering by Christine due to their fabulous reviews. Due to the experiences we had I thought it necessary to warn others about this company. Not only were contracts violated, Catering by Christine boasts "caring about your special day is what we do best" and that is not what happened on our day. Although the food was good I would not recommend using this company to anyone.
We met with Pete in April for tastings and to discuss the menu, we stressed the importance of providing our guests with Aguardiente (a Colombian drink) since this was of high cultural importance to us. He assured us he would take care of this. This is the last time we heard from them until we had to call a week before the wedding! After two days Pete called and very cooly told us we would meet on Wednesday the 20th. I also repeatedly requested the balance so that I could get a check made and come prepared to pay the balance at the meeting. On Wednesday the 20th, 3 days before the wedding, we arrived at the restaurant at 11am. At 1:30, two and a half hours after the meeting time, Pete finally arrived. He was flustered and ill prepared, throughout the meeting asking questions we had already discussed at our previous meeting. When asked about the Aguardiente, something he promised he would take care of in April, 3 days before the wedding this was still not done and we ended up having to provide it ourselves. Towards the end of the meeting Pete was pushy about the balance, something we would have had ready if the balance was given to us as requested. Friday before the wedding I found myself dropping off the check due to their lack of communication. At this time an employee who was multi tasking while taking my payment charged my credit card twice which left me with no available balance to use the day of the wedding. I hoped that they would redeem themselves the day of the wedding and live up to their reviews.The day of the wedding in the midst of getting my dress on I had to talk to one of the waitstaff. They said they didn't know what to do and had to wait for Pete (who had told me he would be there to take care of all the set up and ensure everything was perfect). At the reception one of our vegetarian friends who had ordered Pasta Primavera let me know they brought her out pasta with meatballs! We sampled the Pasta Primavera, we paid for it and it was our vegetarian choice and then our guests were served pasta and meatballs! I went to find Pete to ask for some answers but when I found his staff they told me he had stepped out and they did not know when he would be back. This was around 8:30 pm, Pete never returned to the venue violating the guarantee that one of the owners would be present at the event throughout its entirety to make sure everything went off without a hitch. Various other contract violations were made such as # of servers, appetizers on menu etc. I sent an e-mail (since they seldom return phone calls) to Catering by Christine the following day letting them know all these issues and more. Christine answered with an e-mail filled with excuse after excuse but let me know she would refund me the amount for the vegetarian dishes. It will be our one year wedding anniversary in less than 2 weeks and I have yet to receive a refund from them. I am a firm believer in service and this company fell short in every way possible.