**2.5 Stars**
Let me start by saying I've been a part of seven weddings and have attended probably well over twice that amount. I always keep a watchful eye on things especially considering my own was coming up. After reading raving reviews, we had SMC on our radar for our wedding.
TASTING: Was wonderful and we were literally treated like royalty by Amit (the owner) & crew. Although, the other people's tasting before us ran late so our appointment was pushed about 45 minutes later - Amit emailed us 10 minutes prior to our appointment to reschedule, but we were already on our way from Fairfax, VA (about an hour out). So we gladly waited. Amit also promised us he would send us a cutting cake to try since we were far out and it would be free, which we thought was nice. He made it seem like we would be well taken care of.
IN-BETWEEN PROCESS: We decided to go with SMC because of their great food concepts was on par with ours for a decent price. After, that's where things went south. Communication was sporadic (2-3 days average response, sometimes a week). I even asked Amit if he needed to have someone else speak with us that's fine, but he assured us he had everything under control. This didn't discourage me too much because I was planning this whole wedding myself while still working and gave myself plenty of time. Also considered that it was wedding season. Cool. But when I reached out multiple times about the free wedding cake sample, he told us to come back to the showroom to try it - when I brought up that during the tasting that he said he would deliver it to us since we were so far, he said his baker was busy that month (May/June), but that we could get it the next month. This never happened and as our day was approaching, I told him to forget it. Of course, when it came to the final payment, he was very responsive, within hours even ;)
WEDDING DAY: After our wedding, I took the time to gather intel from all our guests, given that catering is the most expensive part of a wedding and wanted to ensure everyone was happy & our money was well spent. I gulped when I heard my greatest fear - not enough food was passed around.
- COCKTAIL HOUR: We chose six hors d'oeuvres and were assured that each guest would be able to have 2 of each - very fair. EXCEPT none of our guests got to try more than one serving of maybe one or two apps out of the six total we had. Amit responded by saying he personally made sure of it, and that they had more than enough. I don't know what wedding he was watching, but def wasn't ours. Then said he had saved the rest for us (separate from the bridal plate set aside for us) in case we wanted more, but we never saw any of the leftovers. We had advised that all food should be served to guests, but if there were any leftovers after the fact, they were to be packed since we don't want anything to go to waste - to which he agreed. Yet we got nothing. And the bridal plate - my husband and I only received 5 out of the 6 hors d'oeuvres we chose. If more food was "saved" for us, why wouldn't you give us each type of appetizer? That logic makes no sense.
- DINNER: We had buffet style. Our guests loved the short rib and mashed potatoes. But since the hors d'oeuvres were scarce, guests were starving at that point. The feedback from guests was that they tried going back for more, but it was quickly cleaned up. Amit responded by saying they saw no one going back up so they decided to clean up to make the area look nice. But yet again, no leftovers saved. Never have I encountered this at a buffet-style wedding - we paid for food so should serve til it runs out or it gets packed.
I don't know bro, something doesn't sit right with me. I'm convinced they ran out of food and tried to make up an excuse. We felt jipped - it was upsetting to feel this way on our special day and after spending so much money. When I tried to tell my feedback to Amit, he denied everything & assured they did a great job. If that was the case I would definitely give credit where its due. I'm always honest and really try to take everything into account because you obviously can't please everyone, but the feedback we received from our different groups of guests was consistent across the board. We really had hoped for the best. read more