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Christiani's VIP Catering and Events Reviews

Christiani's VIP Catering and Events

Christiani's VIP Catering and Events

Des Moines, IA
4.0 out of 5 rating, 18 Reviews
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Reviews

4.0 out of 5 rating
4.0 out of 5 rating
18 Reviews
81% recommend it
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  • Quality of service
    4.2 out of 5 rating
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  • Professionalism
    3.9 out of 5 rating
  • Value
    3.8 out of 5 rating
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    4.2 out of 5 rating
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Awards

18
  • J
    Jean Sent on 05/09/2017
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    Had Christiani's cater my wedding at Racoon River Nature lodge. I have nothing negative to say. High quality food. Reasonably priced. Beautiful decor. Easy to work with. Chicken Piccata delicious. Thank you Christiani's!
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    Karla Sent on 07/04/2017
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    Christiani's Catering catered our wedding! We chose the Prime Rib with chicken everything was fabulous! They showed up on time and was set up in no time. All decorations and staff were very friendly and helpful! Highly Recommended!
  • User2059937 Sent on 03/06/2015
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    Best catering in Des Moines. Best food and professional staff. They know how to do weddings! When over 100 people are still talking about the food at your wedding over a month later, you know it had to be good.
    • illustration stars

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  • User1500116 Sent on 01/08/2014
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    Initially, it my seem more expensive than other caterers, but they include everything - food, coffee, water, table linens, plates, silverware, cake knife, charger plates, votives, mirrors, vases and the rocks for vases. The only thing I added for the centerpieces were some flowers at about half the tables.

    They also do everything - set up and tear down the chairs, dress all the tables, clear all the plates, cut the cake, refill water glasses, and light the candles.

    I worked for a wedding caterer, and these things are all extras that you would have to find on your own, set up, make family and friends do - I was so glad to just show up to the reception knowing that my friends and family could enjoy the night too and weren't busy running around trying to get everything done.

    The food was delicious and they even had gluten-free meals available.

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    Tammy Sent on 12/02/2012
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    The absolute BEST caterer in Des Moines! They take care of everything for you and your guests will rave about the food long after the reception is over. It's amazing how they do it - but Christiani's is the BEST! And this is coming from a couple that does Wedding Photography almost every weekend.
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    Nicole B. Sent on 04/08/2024
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    Great food and service

    Had the buffet with creamy pesto tortellini, chicken, roast beef with horseradish sauce, mashed potatoes, rolls, salad. Also since we had over 100 people they included the bruschetta station at mh cocktail hour. They cut the cake for us and also has a great coffee bar for dessert time. Only regret is that i didnt grab seconds before they were done for the night. Communication went great with peter and i had all questions answered in a timely matter. All of my guests also loved the food. Now when people talk about my wedding they always say the food was great. Definitely want to use them again in the future.
  • Anna
    Anna C. Sent on 10/04/2020
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    Delicious Food & Great Service!

    Peter with Christiani's was great to work with for our 9/19/20 wedding! When I think of wedding food, I think of fairly average food, but several of our guests made sure to comment to us on how amazing the food tasted and we couldn't agree more! We had several appetizers for cocktail hour along with the pasta buffet for dinner and it was all delicious. They were very accommodating to the changes we had to make due to COVID, and the service the night-of was perfect. I would recommend!
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    Hannah Sent on 06/20/2016
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    We booked Christiani Catering for our wedding reception and couldn't be more happy. They have a variety of food, drink, and décor options. We were upfront about our budget in the beginning and they honored that. They were flexible and accommodating within our budget and gave us ideas of where to cut corners to save money and had great suggestions of things that were worth the money. For instance, we opted out of a champagne toast per their suggestion. They average around $500 and up and most of the glasses of champagne go to waist. Many persons toast with the drink they are already drinking. They made sure we knew everything that was available to us, but were not pushy on selling us upgrades or décor rentals. We chose the basic buffet option which was far better than "basic". They accommodated for a vegetarian dish and gluten free dishes for our guests. Our guests raged about how amazing the food was. The food presentation was beautiful and the servers including the bartender were very professional. They had a "day of wedding" coordinator that helped with transitions during dinner and the reception. Sally and Larry are personable and great to work with. Sally always returned by emails and phone calls within a timely manner. I would highly recommend them if you want a beautiful budget friendly party or an all out extravagant party. Either way you will get a bang for your buck.
  • User950725 Sent on 09/28/2012
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    Very professional, great service. Sometimes it was a little hard to get a hold of them before the wedding to finalize details. Would definitely recommend though.
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    Wendy Sent on 11/22/2009
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    If you are getting married in the Des Moines Area, Christiani's is definitely worth looking into. Great food, and great people to work with. Very reasonable pricing for quality, plus they set up and tear down tables for you.
  • Sarah
    Sarah M. Sent on 08/09/2021
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    Delicious Food, Decent Service

    Christiani's food is delicious, and Peter was wonderful to work with leading up to the event. He answered all my questions and was very helpful. On the day of our wedding reception, I felt that some of the staff who were actually at the venue were frenzied and unorganized. They were running a bit behind schedule for most of the night, but I believe some of this was due to difficulties with the venue itself. In addition, the tablecloths that were provided by Christiani's were stained, but Peter had clean overlays delivered in plenty of time for the event. We enjoyed the food, and the Prima Donna cheese table looked beautiful for cocktail hour. I felt comfortable that any issues were handled as they arose. Overall, I would recommend Christiani's!
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    Marie Sent on 06/08/2014
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    We have had so many guests tell us how delicious the food was, and we agree! It isn't cheap, but along with the food, Christiani's will provide linens, table settings, centerpieces, and they have people stay on site to keep everything nice. They were willing to switch out some menu options for us, and provide special meals for relatives with food allergies and dietary restrictions. It was hard to get in contact with them sometimes, so be aware.
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    Erin Sent on 01/02/2017
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    Christiani's had the exclusive bartending contract for our venue. Sally and her staff were very professional to work with. They had several options however for bar selection. Four stars due to the price - found them to be on the pricier side.
  • Danielle
    Danielle Sent on 07/27/2011
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    Christianis had great food and great services, however leading up to the big day is a nightmare! They are very expensive for one. With our venue for our reception we only had 2 options for food and unfortunately they were the cheaper of the two. We had been to numerous weddings where they were the catering company. I was lucky enough to have my linens, etc provided by my venue so I didn't have to deal with their mess. If I had it to do all over again, I am not sure I would have chosen them.
  • cortney47
    Cortney Sent on 10/26/2010
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    The food was excellent. The workers set up everything (tables, clothes, centerpieces, chairs, etc). They were receptive to ideas and were willing to change plans if necessary.


    That being said, some of the workers were rude when asked a question. Although we paid a LARGE sum of money to have the venue until midnight, the workers began to tear down the decorations at 10 pm. Instead of clearing plates, they left the dirty plates and glasses on the table and began to tear down the centerpieces, candelabras, and other decorations. I felt like they were trying to rush us out of there even though we paid IN FULL BEFORE the wedding, so there was no reason to rush us. They did not return phone calls in a timely manner, sometimes it took days. They do not return emails at all, so don't bother.
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    Kaylyn Sent on 04/08/2011
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    Christiani's food was wonderful and we had tons of compliments on how great it was. But the actual planning was not easy. Its great if you don't have a wedding planner ect because they provide linens, centerpieces ect. But I did have a wedding planner and it was difficult to be sure to know who was doing what and when ect. The thing they don't tell you is if you ARE using their stuff (like me i used their table length linens) when they are done serving the food they take thier stuff with them! SO my family had to take them back the next day the day after our wedding because if they had it their way they would have taken them right after they were done serving food! We also ran into an issue of we bought x amount of bottles of wine... well not all the wine was served so they were going to take them back! even though WE paid for them! In the end my wedding planner was able to get them back. Also we did not agree on the BEO until the DAY BEFORE MY WEDDING! Because that BEO better say exactly what it needs to say because that gets passed on to the staff and its not on the BEO it doesn't get done. For example we had a nut allergy in our family that was left off the beo several times before being corrected along with our full length linens being left off and the list goes on.
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    Hannah B. Sent on 04/02/2019
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    Unorganized Nightmare

    I used Christiani's for my wedding on 11/10/2018.

    Christiani's arrived at 1pm as planned. Peter and I previously emailed that once the supplies were unloaded from the truck, the linens would be placed on the table. That didn't happen. The linens were thrown into a ball on a random table in the facility. My fiance was told "the lady" that was supposed to place the linens was 10 minutes away. Our cake decorator then arrived. The cake decorator was nice enough to wait for the "the lady" to arrive, but 45 minutes later she was not there. There were no linens on the cake table so the cake had to be decorated and placed onto a clear plate and left on a random table. "The lady" that was supposed to place the linens arrived at 2:15pm. Our ceremony started at 3pm. This delayed all of the planning and decorating. We were left scrambling. My matron of honor and officiant also had to place the cake bare handed on the stand and then on the cake table, which of course I paid extra money to have done by the cake decorator. "The lady" also told my fiance that the linens that were supplied by Christiani's were the wrong linens and were meant for another event.

    The dinner was absolutely unorganized. Peter and I had spoken directly about my future brother-in-law and his nut allergy and where he would be seated numerous times. No one could figure out who or where the person with the nut allergy was seated so the nut allergy meal was sent to the best man. We explained this to the wait staff and we ended up passing the meal down the table to my brother-in-law. When then had to ask for another meal for the best man, because he was no longer being served. My brother-in-law has now told us that his stuffed chicken marsala had no stuffing or gravy and 4 green beans. When my fiance and I met with Peter, we were under the impression that my brother-in-law's salad and green beans would be the only items altered to accommodate the allergy. Also, the wait staff informed us that steak knives were forgotten so our guests were cutting their steaks with butter knives, which didn't work well. Some of our guests used their own personal pocket knives to cut the steak.

    My fiance and I were both collectively asked over 10 times by the wait staff if our cake was being cut and served to the guests and if there were fake sections inside of it. We were also both questioned multiple times on if we were keeping the top tier of the cake for ourselves. I thought Peter and I had discussed this at length. Also, my fiance and I thought the issue had been resolved and communicated about day of, but the cake serving was chaotic and no one knew what was going on. There was no communication between the staff members. My father-in-law mentioned to the staff that coffee was supposed to served with the cake. The coffee was served after everyone was done eating cake. It was almost forgotten. There were also no mint or nut trays.

    Lastly, we turned out the lights in the reception hall for dancing. We found out the bartender had a medical condition and was blind in one eye so he needed 100% light to see and serve. His service was great, but no one could understand why he would be placed in an area that was going to be dark and why he did not bring his own light source. We ended up placing one our up-lights behind the bar so he could see. The bartender also asked my fiance if we brought limes and other garnishments for the bar to use. In our contract, it states that Christiani's was supposed to bring ice, limes, ect. None of that happened. We luckily had someone volunteer to leave and go get extra ice for drinks.

    These are just the issues we have been made aware of and dealt with day of.

    We appreciate the fore planning with Christiani's, we just wish it would have followed through to our wedding day. There was no one present at the reception venue who was knowledgeable about our plans and day-of coordination.
  • User1042154 Sent on 12/11/2012
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    I would not recommend this company to anyone who is planning a wedding. When you originally meet with them and provide them your deposit they were very misleading about what they were going to provide. We were lead to believe it would be much less expensive. They came in 3 times over the budget that we agreed upon. The owner was unwilling to work with us at all, and we were going to cancel 2 days prior to the wedding because of their uncooperativeness and they were very unprofessional.

    Be prepared to be expensive, they do not have a minimum on their contract (Even though they probably should) but plan on spending $3500.00 minimum, as they would not allow us to spend any less.

    Once the ceremony started the bartenders, servers, and staff were very nice and accommodating but I would not recommend anyone to deal with the management staff of the company. They were very poor.

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