As I mentioned in my previous post, my fiance and I had our food tasting last January 2. From Fernwood's list of accredited caterers we picked our top 2 caterers: Center Table Catering, Inc. and Josiah's Catering, Inc. We got good feedbacks from friends for these 2 caterers that's why we picked them.
The food tasting went well for both caterers. We both liked the food we sampled, although I preferred Josiah's a little more (maybe I'm just biased, because it was my friends who had Josiah's, and Anthony's friends who tried Center Table)..;)
So with food taste out of the list, the decision for us boiled down to the reception set-up, package price and (for me this is really important) the AE...
Regarding the 1st concern, so far, based on our visits in both Fernwood and Fernbrook, we honestly usually notice/like the set up of Center Table more.
For the price, their minimum package rate is the same. Of course, it just differs with the freebies they are willing to give, and what other items are included in the package, like guest book, dove, cake, sounds, etc. On this issue, if ever there is a difference bet. the packages, I was confident I could haggle it from the caterer we choose... so this wasn't really an issue for me...
And for the last, but definitely not the least, issue: the Account Executive.. This for me is really important.. Because we were both overseas, I want to pick suppliers that would require lesser time (and cost) for us to manage... Hands down, I was impressed and got excited with Josiah's AE!.. The person we talked to then was Xarin. She was confident and showed she really knows her job, and yet friendly enough to let us know she welcomes whatever it is we had to say/ask/suggest.. And she gave us freebies, like the chocolate fondue!;)
Of course, those who've already visited our WEDsite would know we already chose Josiah's Catering. When we confirmed with them, we learned that we were assigned a different person to handle our wedding. At first we were worried.. Because she might not be as easy to talk to as the previous AE.. But thank God, we got the BEST AE ever!! Maui is simply godsent! She is very friendly, hard working and most importantly (esp. to overseas couple like us) very accessible! She's almost always online in YM. And we'll be forever grateful to her that she was able to book Missy (our emcee) for our wedding!;)
Missy is a very popular emcee for weddings.. And we were really afraid that she'll be book on our wedding day if we don't book her ASAP. We read in w@w that it's hard to book her thru caterers, so we had already decided to look for her ourselves. Then, just when we were about to book her directly, Maui came back from her maternity leave, and helped us book Missy thru Josiah's (since providing us an emcee is part of our package)! Didn't I say she's Godsent?!;)
We haven't met Maui in person yet.. but we are sooo looking forward to our second food tasting with Josiah's this May, and for us to finally meet our AE in person..:)
I'll post again how the food tasting goes.. and this time, I won't forget to take pictures first before we eat the food!;) ehehe!!
xoxo,
