Be careful of this company!
I really don’t even know where to begin with this review. Elevated is quite possibly the worst-managed business I have ever dealt with. My husband and I booked Elevated back in 2019 for our June 2020 wedding. They put on an excellent tasting and we were completely wowed by the food. Shortly after, we booked them and paid our 25% deposit. Then things started to go downhill. I would never wish the amount of anxiety and stress they caused us on any couple. Many of our other vendors went out of their way to be helpful, communicative, and kind during the entire planning process. Elevated did the complete opposite. I feel like, working in the wedding industry, you have to understand that most couples are spending more money on this day then they have on anything else in their lives. They also spend so much time/effort planning the day, coordinating details, and dreaming about what the day will look like. It is supposed to be one of the happiest days of their lives, so as a worker in this industry, you should be doing your absolute best to deliver the day of their dreams and ensure a smooth planning process. Elevated Catering was undoubtedly the most stressful aspect of our 3 year (thanks Covid) engagement.
Our biggest complaints are the following:
• LACK OF RESPONSIVENESS- Planning a wedding is tough! There are so many moving parts and you have to coordinate so many details with so many different vendors. For this reason, it is important to have a reliable point of contact. Elevated consistently took weeks and oftentimes MONTHS to respond to calls and emails. We constantly felt like we needed to hound them to get any sort of answers.
• HORRIBLE SERVICE DAY OF WEDDING- They showed up with only one bartender, when we specifically asked for and were contracted for two bartenders. Many of the staff members were completely deficient in alcohol- related knowledge. For instance, one did not know the difference between Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio. When I asked another server what kind of wine they had on a platter, they said “white”. They did not make sure my now husband and I were served any appetizers. We also were not served drinks at our dinner table. We had to walk up to the bar each time, even though we specifically requested a server dedicated to the head table as well as one for the parents’ table. Every wedding I’ve been to, wine glasses have been on the table, so that servers can easily fill guests’ glasses. This did not happen. Well after we were seated, I looked at our head table only to see that not one person had a drink. Servers were using our cocktail tables (that we had set up for guests to use and mingle at) to hold dozens of glasses of wine. There were multiple crashes of dishes and wine glasses that were never properly picked up and guests got chards of glass in their feet. Stephen had a staff member’s 14-year-old child working our wedding because they were so short-handed. Aside from the fact that 14 years old seems extremely young to be working a wedding event, the child was NOT TRAINED whatsoever. When we asked Stephen about this, he said “Is this ageism showing?”
• NO CLEAR LEADERSHIP- Stephen Tanner, the owner, has an excuse for literally everything. Nothing is ever the business’ fault. There is no clear point of contact. Occasionally he would give you the name and email of a new person of contact, but shortly after, they would leave the company and you would never be notified of the change. The website was never updated with current personnel and contact information, so you would continually reach out with no response.
After our wedding day, we contacted Stephen to discuss our awful wedding day service. He told us he KNEW the head-table’s server was doing a terrible job, because she was dealing with altitude sickness. We then asked why he didn’t appoint someone else or come up to us and ask if we needed anything. He said there was never a “right time”. He also continually blamed every one of Elevated’s mishaps on everyone else. While we did have other vendors who messed up throughout the day, as a business owner, I don’t think it’s appropriate to follow up every complaint with an excuse such as “Oh well the DJ messed up the timeline”, “The baker messed up the Crème Brule”, “She had altitude sickness”, “You’re being ageist”, “ I had to pick up a 2nd job because of COVID”, “The appointment must have fallen off my calendar”, “I forgot to tell you they’re no longer with the company”, “I did receive your email, I’ve just been so busy”. At some point, you must be a leader and take responsibility for your actions and your horrible customer service.
• LACK OF FOLLOW THROUGH- There were many appointments and meetings set up that no one ever showed up for. There were many times Stephen would say he would get something to us next day, only for days and weeks to pass by with nothing. He also promised services the day of our wedding that were never received.
Here is a timeline of continual mishaps that occurred between the time we paid our deposit and the time of the wedding. This doesn’t even begin to outline all of the miscommunications that took place, as I don’t have all of the phone records.
June 2019- Stephen Tanner suggested a 2nd tasting to try a different type of beef that would save us some money. We drove over 30 minutes to Littleton just for nobody to show up or answer their phones. According to Stephen the appointment “fell off their calendar”. He was apologetic and we rescheduled for a different time.
10/20/19- I reached out via email with questions about desserts.
12/10/19- Still hadn’t heard back and reached out again via email.
Dec/early Jan 2020- Called multiple phone numbers that I could find on their website.
1/6/20 -I email again expressing concern for the lack of communication.
1/7/20- Stephen finally writes back. Apologizes for lack of communication. Also explains that they never updated their website, so the people I was calling no longer worked there.
4/1/20- We postpone our wedding until 6/18/21 due to COVID.
6/9/20- Reach out to get an updated contract with our new date.
July 2020- My planner and I call Stephen multiple times.
7/20/21- Stephen finally emails back and states that it would be tough to draft a contract as he doesn’t know what pricing will be in 2021. I don’t totally understand this, as we hired them in 2019 for a 2020 wedding (1 year in advance), so why can’t you draft up a new contract also one year in advance? We agree to just leave It for now.
12/15/20- Reach out asking for contract with new wedding date.
2/28/21- Reach out again asking for a contract with new wedding date.
Early March 2021- My wedding planner sets up a phone call with Stephen Tanner. Stephen does not show up for phone meeting, nor does he call, email or text that he wasn’t going to make it. He missed the meeting and there was absolutely no follow up.
3/15/21- I send another email asking for updated contract. We are now 3 months out from our wedding and have nothing in writing stating that they are contracted to be there on our wedding date. We have not heard from anyone since JULY 2021. We also were waiting to send out invites until we made sure we had the correct menu info.
3/16/21- Panic sets in. We have been reaching out for MONTHS. No responses, no contract. We email and call every point of contact we can find online. Finally, a woman named Marisa calls back, apologizes for lack of responsiveness and answers some of our menu questions.
3/29/21- Marisa emails us back and forth a few times and tells us she will get us a revised invoice with our next payment due. Marisa was lovely, but 1) I don’t think this was her job, 2) She couldn’t answer some of our questions without talking to Stephen, 3) We still haven’t heard from Stephen in over half a year, 4) WE STILL DON’T HAVE A CONTRACT.
4/2/21 Reach out to Marisa and Stephen AGAIN asking for our contract.
4/5/21 Again call/ email every point of contact we can find online. The Chef writes us back apologizing (this shouldn’t be her job). My husband calls Stephen Tanner at least 10 times in a row. Like literally calls 10 times in 3 minutes. Eventually Stephen answers. He is apologetic, gives a sob story about working a 2nd job due to COVID (which we did sympathize with to a certain extent), and tells us Jeffrey Merritt will be our point of contact moving forward I don’t think a 2nd job excuses 9+ months without communication. Maybe you take a day or two longer to respond, but not months! Later that day, Stephen emails us saying that he’s still having trouble putting together a contract because he didn’t have our final numbers. Like what?! You never have final numbers when you sign a wedding contract because you haven’t even sent out your invites at this point. This just makes no sense to me.
4/26/21- Email Stephen and Jeffrey asking for contract again
4/28/21 Stephen writes back saying he will have it to us the following morning. That didn’t happen.
5/4/21 Reach out again asking for contract. WE ARE 6 WEEKS FROM OUR WEDDING.
5/6/21 Still nothing. Email Stephen and Jeffrey asking for contract. This time Stephen says he is at a roadblock with the contract because Kevin and I hadn’t yet decided if we wanted late night snacks. Again WTF?! You’re telling me that you can’t give us a contract with our wedding date on it because we hadn’t decided on late night snacks. We are committing to spending 12,000 dollars with you and you are ats a roadblock because we didn’t decide on our couple hundred dollar late night snacks?! Not to mention we hadn’t decided because it was so damn hard to get them to send us the late night snack options. FINALLY, later that afternoon we received the contract. Hallelujah, hallelujah!
5/12/21- sent a detailed email about changes that needed to happen to our rental. No response Back.
5/18/21 Email again. Jeffrey writes back…says he’s been sick and sets up a meeting for 5/19.
5/19/21 Jeffrey doesn’t call nor does he answer when I call him. I didn’t get an email or anything. I call Stephen a couple of times. Finally, I get a call back stating that Jeff was on another job that day. OKAY SO WHY DID NOBODY FIND IT PERTINENT TO LET ME KNOW HE WASN’T GOING TO BE AVAILABLE?
6/1/21 Reach out to see if they have updated our rentals. Says not yet but that they will handle it.
6/8/21 Final walk through set up at Donovan Pavilion in Vail. 15 minutes before we were leaving Denver, he lets us know he will not be able to make it to the walk through (that he originally told us he would be at). Like you really didn’t know until 15 minutes before you needed to leave that you wouldn’t be able to make it. I also call our rental company to make sure Jeffrey did indeed update the rentals. The rental company has NO SUCH CHANGES. It is 10 days before our wedding at this point.
6/18/21- Wedding Day shit show as outlined earlier in this review.
This doesn’t even begin to outline every single instance where Stephen Tanner dropped the ball with this wedding. My husband and planner also reached out many times, and this letter mostly just outlines my own communications. I do feel like this does a good job explaining how much stress and disappointment they caused my husband and me. We hope that we can save other couples from going through this same type of experience and that Elevated can improve from this. One silver lining is that Stephen did wipe our final payment, which probably would have amounted to about 20% of our total bill.
