Ann B.
Yelp
We hired Pearl Catering for our wedding at the Baker Building. My husband sampled a lot of food from many different caterers and determined that pearl was the best food. And it really was. My guests loved the food!!
However, working with Tricia at Pearl Catering was a nightmare mostly due to many small mess-ups, annoyances, and unprofessional conduct encountered along the way.
1. My first impression of Tricia was on a video call to go over the details of the day. During this call, I noticed that I would ask for certain small things and she would try to convince me not to have them. For example, the Baker Building has beautiful mid century modern bars where most brides have their bar and buffet. She insisted on having table clothes put over the bars even though I didn't want an ugly table cloth over such a beautiful piece of furniture. I had seen pictures from other weddings where they hadn't had any table clothes on the bars. Eventually I conceded for the sake of the rest of the people on the call. This is just one of many things I wanted but she insisted on doing something else. This theme of not listening to me and not trying to do what I want for my own wedding was consistently stressing me and everyone else out.
2. A month or so before the wedding I realized we didn't have cake plates and forks. I tried several times to reach Nicole at Arden (who works with Pearl and provides the rentals) and finally got the cake plates and forks added to the contract. On the day-of they did not send the cake plates and forks and then Tricia again tried to convince me to use salad plates instead. This time, I stood my ground and insisted upon the cake plates since they were already in the contract.
3. As part of making our wedding look unique, I sourced mismatched vintage dinner plates for each person. Because of this, I only asked for salad plates from Arden. Tricia saw that I only asked for salad plates and again tried to convince me to get additional dinner plates even though I said no. She even inserted them into the contract after I explicitly said no dinner plates.
4. I wanted to have a self serve water station instead of carafes because it is easier to maintain for guests. The day before the wedding, we set up the rentals - carafes were sent - and only ten of them (one was broken so only nine) for a 60 person wedding. I still haven't checked to see if I paid extra for the carafes I did not request.
5. When she sent over the finally contract it was riddled with mistakes including 62 vegan plates when we only needed three. After I finished redlining it to have only what I asked for, I had reduced it down by around $2k.
6. Just a few days before the wedding and without explanation, she added an extra server to total four servers and then a "lead server". Our final head count was only 59 guests. She said that there needed to be one server per 25 guests. Even though I asked her several times to remove the server she never did and even brought that person to the wedding.
7. She was at our wedding herself and instead of wearing a uniform like the other servers she wore a bright coral dress. Our dress code was neutrals only so that we didn't have people in bright colors standing out in the background of our photos. Well now I will have the worst part about my wedding standing out in the background of photos. SMH.
8. I knew this caterer was going to be a problem so my mother in law made some additional charcuterie boards as centerpieces. Thank goodness we anticipated their incompetence because they stopped passing appetizers during cocktail hour claiming that "no one wanted any". Yet, my husband had to go seek them out and ask for some. Twice.
9. When I came into the kitchen to get a drink after the ceremony there was no bar tender so I ended up having to pour my own drink.
10. Lastly, right before my husband was going to walk down the aisle for our ceremony, she interrupted him to insist that he pay the contract amount with the unnecessary server (she never corrected it). This is possibly the most unprofessional act I have seen in my life.