My husband and I are not Jewish, don't keep kosher, and have been really lucky to experience some amazing food in amazing places. When we were looking for a caterer for our wedding in the Prospect Park Picnic House, they told us we had to use one from their list of approved caterers. We spoke to ALL of them. We ended up going with Judy Marlow and her crew at Simply Divine and they were all amazing!

She recognizes great people and keeps them on her crew. Andi our event manager was on point, responsive, and wonderful!! Our chefs, bartenders, and servers knew their business and even their sanitation staff were super friendly and happy for us. (We had to run by their station a few times in the evening, to make it to the basement and they were all smiles with us!)

Our top 3 reasons we went with Simply Divine (because, reality):
-Price. Who are we kidding. Weddings are crazy expensive but while Simply Divine was on the higher end of the spectrum, after the initial round of queries, Judith was willing to work with us on editing the menu and to help us make the choices which helped us get to a common ground.
-Plating. At the price points wedding food costs, the food is usually decent but her kitchen has delicious food and her plating is really gorgeous and different and I WANTED them so much for our wedding.
-She hires nice and competent people. All the kitchen crew we interacted with during our tasting were friendly and genuinely seemed happy to see us (every other tasting we did, we maybe got to meet 1 or 2 people who barely made eye contact with us and scurried away asap to leave us with the pitch person). There is just no substitute for nice people who get the job done on the big day. Your wedding day is ridiculously stressful in ways you'd never imagine. Having everyone there on your team, trying to help you have the best day ever, and who you feel are also totally happy for stranger you and your new spouse, that is priceless.

First off, I'll just say that many of our guests commented to us on how good the food was. As I'm sure you can guess, our friends and family have been to lots of weddings, and more than half of our guests are not kosher. Everyone seems to have loved everything! One of our parents' friends who is kosher wasted no time in asking for your name for future parties. The cocktail hour food was both delicious and beautifully presented. We got rave reviews from all our guests, especially about the smoked salmon, but also about the veggie sliders, the antipasto veggie bar, the borscht, and everything else. And the seated dinner was just beautiful. The appetizer onion tart was so delicious that the bride (ahem, me) refused to let the waiter take it away and continued to work on it even as the entree was served. The quinoa dish that you made especially for us was delicious and exactly what we were looking for - light, sophisticated, flavorful and unique. The fish was perfectly cooked and everyone said it was great. The desserts were decadent and tasty and they were appreciated! Everyone that was there was really, really delighted (especially us). As far as food is concerned, our only disappointment is that we were so busy that we couldn't spend more time savoring it.

We especially want to thank you for being so patient with our various "creative" requests for special additions to the menu. We care a lot about food and it was very important to us to work with someone who would listen to our requests and take us seriously as clients, not just process us through an assembly line of some sort. You absolutely did that, and really went above and beyond what was necessary. By being a kosher caterer we know you have somewhat of a "captive audience" and you could compromise your quality or customer service if you wanted to and still get business, but it is a testament to your integrity and the talent of your staff that you absolutely do not do that! Thanks so much! Please feel free to forward our email addresses to anyone that asks for a reference, particularly any annoying "foodie" types like ourselves.
All the best,
Rachel and Adam