My wife and I are total foodies, so the food and drinks we served at our wedding were incredibly…read moreimportant to us. We were looking for a straightforward, plated-dinner service with good food, which Jasmine Catering assured us they could do, but ultimately left us feeling incredibly disappointed.
Jasmine did a few things well that we should mention. We ordered a table of mini desserts and late-night skyline coneys which were both perfect. In our meal, we had a salad with goat cheese, scalloped potato side, and salmon entree that were all delicious.
Our problems with Jasmine began with the tasting. We informed them that we wanted prime rib and salmon as our entree options, but the only food we ate during our tasting was the salmon, chicken, a vegetable medley, and bruschetta on crackers. This was bizarre to us because we never asked for chicken, but Brenda made a meal for us with it because she had some leftover. We didn't get to taste any other appetizers or sides, nor did Brenda even have a list of options for what we could ask for. She said this was because their website was being redone so she couldn't see the list of what she makes?
The appetizers we ordered were hot potato puffs and the bruschetta we tried, except we asked for it to be served on pieces of toasted baguette instead of crackers. At our wedding, the hot potato puffs were served cold and the bruschetta was on cold, untoasted bread. The prime rib entree was chewy, dry, and overcooked (well done) instead of medium rare like we were promised. Disappointed with our vegetable medley from our tasting, Brenda offered maple-glazed carrots, but they came out bland and waterlogged at our wedding with no recognizable maple flavor.
The service was disorganized and they appeared understaffed. Salads were brought out before our champagne toast and had to be taken back to the kitchen. The head table was preset, but was missing one salad (for the bride) that we never got and no one had champagne. Before we could do our toast, ONE PERSON took our champagne flutes two at a time to the kitchen to pour champagne for our 13-person table while everyone waited. This pushed back our entire timeline by 10 minutes and left my wife and me feeling rushed for the next two hours.
The bartending service was fine during our reception, but really missed a few key things. We ordered our alcohol through Arrow Wine & Spirits (great service) that accepts returns of unopened bottles and cases. We informed Jasmine of this. After our wedding, we had 27 open cases of beer/seltzer/soda from only 4 brands, where many cases had only one can missing. This cost us hundreds of dollars in what we could not return. We also paid Jasmine's extra to rent their frozen drink machine, but were never told how much mix to order. We ran out of frozen drinks within the first hour so the machine felt like a waste. Finally, multiple people including my wife mentioned a blonde woman making passive aggressive comments to them.
Of course things will go wrong at any event the size of a wedding, but 90% of what went wrong at ours was because of Jasmine Catering. We trusted them to deliver on what they promised and spent ~$12k for 140 people for them to do so. They might be better suited to serve buffet-style meals, but from our experience, they can't execute a plated-dinner service. If you're looking for that type of service and quality food, you should not consider Jasmine Catering.
