It's a Southern Thing Catering

Jesse | review left on 11/10/2018

DO NOT USE IT’S A SOUTHERN THING CATERING FOR YOUR WEDDING OR EVENT. I have never been the type to write a review good or bad, but in this situation I have to. We got married October 27, 2018 and used It’s a southern thing catering for our catering and cake. They were great setting up a date and time for the tasting and the tasting was awesome. That’s pretty much all that we have to say that’s positive about their services. Leading up to the wedding their communication with us and our day of coordinator was so poor, it was like pulling teeth to get them to respond and even harder to get the final quote from them. They would say they would have it one day and a week later still nothing. Just added stress to what everyone knows is a stressful time of wedding planning already. Now is where the real trouble begins. First I will list the problems and then go over the email exchange with Deanna who is over the catering portion.
1. Deanna and Susan did not even show up to the wedding they sent their sous chef and staff and they were 45 minutes late. If we wanted the sous chef to be in charge we would of met with him instead of the owners who we expected to be there and had no warning that they would not be.
2. They promised to set aside to go plates for us for after the wedding since bride and groom typically don’t get much of a chance to eat. They didn’t.
3. They were made aware of food allergies at the tasting and the maid of honor has a severe nut allergy and the broccoli had almonds in it and she had to inject her Epipen.
4. The staff were not dressed appropriately
5. The food was cold and not nearly as seasoned and tasted nothing like what we had at the tasting.
6. The chicken was undercooked to the point they had to throw away most of it and people had to go up to get another piece.
7. Two layers of the cake were wrong including the anniversary layer. The other two layers again tasted nothing like they did at the tasting.
8. The staff was unaware of what the flavors were even supposed to be.

Now during email exchanges with Deanna she was very rude and defensive and basically blamed us for all their mistakes. Her response to each issue was...
1. Her sous chef was more than capable of handling it and they were late because of a train blocking the building.
Now I understand saying he is capable but we did not sign up for him to be there we hired Deanna and Susan to be there to make sure everything was handled and they did not show up or mention that they were not going to be there. I also understand there is circumstances beyond control but as a professionals they should have planned accordingly. They have worked at the venue before and knew there was a train stop literally right in front of the building. Do not make excuses just own up to the fact you’re staff was late.
2. She again blamed our guests for going up and getting seconds as the reason we did not get to go plates but those plates were agreed upon to be set aside before food was handed out to guests.
3. AGAIN she blamed us for the broccoli incident stating that we did not review the final menu on the final quote well enough to see it said it had nuts on it.
First of all due to their lack of communication we only got the quote a couple of days before the wedding so with everything else going on ( family arriving and last minute fixes) we did not expect to have to review the final menu since we already had made them aware of the allergy and the final menu was set the day of the tasting. So how the final menu changed and they just forgot about the allergy is beyond me. She was supposed to refund the amount for the broccoli but had yet to do so to my father in laws credit card.
4. She said she would address their appearances but doubtful she did.
5. &6. So the days following the wedding we were able to talk to family members, friends and coworkers who attended the wedding and they all told us that the food was cold, the chicken was undercooked and inedible ( hence why people had to go up for seconds) and barely any shrimp and seasonings in the low country boil. My food was cold personally. The sous chef greeted us as soon as we sat down and asked how it was and we said good because we had yet to really eat any of it. That was the only time he spoke to us all night besides when he asked me if they could leave. Deana basically told us that we had “ no legitimate complaints” because we did not or our guests did not say anything about the problems during the event. She kept calling it an EVENT and forgetting that it was a WEDDING. We are worried about enjoying our wedding and not about arguing with the catering staff so why would we waste the time bringing it up to them then when we should be enjoying ourselves? Also guests aren’t going to complain either for food they did not pay for themselves or at someone’s wedding because it is just rude. So she refused to hear our complaints because nothing was said at the wedding.
6. When addressing the cake she said we would have to speak to Susan about it since she is the overseer of the cake part of the business. She also stated that there were no complaints at the wedding again so our complaint now is not legitimate.
My rebuttal to this was you are in business together as one company It’s a southern thing catering. You should know what’s going on with the cakes and vice versa. Not only did she not know anything about the cakes but neither did the staff. I will say this however, Susan, unlike Deanna, texted us separately and was very nice and understand and explained the fact they have two different cookies and cream flavors so there was a mix up and that she would re make our anniversary layer to the correct flavor. BUT we have not heard anything further on that yet. Susan also apologized for Deanna’s behavior and said she does not understand why Deanna is getting so defensive. So Deanna’s own business partner is attesting to the fact that she is being defensive and rude... hmmm.

After going back in forth in emails explaining our complaints with Deanna being rude and defensive and not customer oriented. We stated that our only regret was that our parents were nice enough to pay this for us so we didn’t have to because if we had paid for it we would be demanding a refund. Deanna took this an opportunity to say “ yes I understood this was an attempt to get money back from the beginning.

Believe me people this was in no way an attempt to get money back because we did not even pay for it! I feel bad for our parents that did but it’s not our money to get back. With that being said after this horrible experience and absolutely horrific display of customer service, all we can do is warn all the others considering using it’s a southern thing catering to STAY AWAY. Find a caterer that will defend you and what you want for your event and not argue with you and tell you that you’re complaints are illegitimate.

Thank you for your time and for reading this. We hope it helps!