Early Katering Company Reviews
Reviews
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![Trish]()
Trish Sent on 05/10/2022Early Katering is the way to go!
For our wedding, we happened upon Early Katering Company through this website and were very pleased with how well they delivered on our big day. Shout out to Melissa for being so prompt with communication, she was so supportive throughout all our questions and needs. She made sure we got whatever we wanted. I was very impressed with their coordination and timliness at our wedding as well! And their food was amazing too, we got very lucky with choosing them, please consider them! -
![Paige]()
Paige Sent on 11/05/2019Amazing food & professional staff
This team was an absolute delight to get to know and work with while we were planning our wedding.
I will never be able to thank them enough for all that they did! The food was so good, we have gotten numerous complements.
Laura was so helpful and responsive. I know I asked an insane amount of questions but she handled each and every question perfectly. For anyone reaching out to EKC, I would remind them to be patient with the emails as they are responding to a lot of people and coordinating a lot of details for other events.
I would pick this vendor again and again. Joe, the bartender, was amazing! Everyone loved him. The team coordinated all the rentals, which were handled perfectly. We would not change a single thing from them!
Thank you EKC! We will be singing your praises for years to come! -
![User1008250]()
User1008250 Sent on 11/08/2012Early Katering was wonderful to work with. The venue was beautiful, the people were helpful, and the food blew me away. I hear that most brides don't get to eat, I ate so much, it was so good! I suggest that people check this place out, it was perfect. -
![Dan]()
Dan L. Sent on 11/28/2022Debbie = Fairy God Mother!
I do not even know where to begin. Debbie and the entire Early Katering team were truly God sent and went far above and beyond the role of a caterer. Debbie is a FORCE to be reckoned with. So knowledgable with a "whatever you need, we'll get it done" attitude was truly a blessing. The food was absolutely delicious and we felt 100% taken care of from day one. We loved our experience! -
![Christine]()
Christine Sent on 11/11/2020Great experience
We booked EKC to cater our wedding on 10/31/20. We really can't express how wonderful they were to work with. Marie and her staff went above and beyond to ensure the dining experience for our wedding was great and went off without a hitch. The food was delicious; many of our guests kept commenting how good it was.
Marie made sure to set aside any appetizers we wanted that we would have missed during cocktail hour. She continually checked in on us and made sure we were well taken care of. Additionally, we were so happy with their policy that they pack up any leftover food and donate it to a local shelter. We would definitely use them again for any event in the area! -
![Fiona]()
Fiona Sent on 07/19/2020The Barn at Kline's Mill
Marie and her team did an amazing job overcoming the many obstacles that throwing a wedding during COVID presented. Venue was beautiful. Food was excellent. There was only one very small hiccup when it started to rain, but Marie did her best to smooth that over as well. Would totally recommend this venue to friends and family!
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Brooke Sent on 04/12/2018Early's (I worked with Genea) was very responsive, timely, and professional. We ordered hor d'orves for our cocktail hour as well as a buffet style wedding package with bread, salad, drinks (we did not get our bar package through them), two sides, and two main courses. There was more than enough food for everyone despite being ordered "per person." They also provided a dessert (cobbler) in the package. Overall we were very happy with the food and quality. They also did their own set up and clean up (we had to provide all dishes and glasses), but they were familiar with the venue and were completely self-sufficient to get everything set up on time.
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![Laura]()
Laura Sent on 09/04/2019Great food!
I hired Early Katering to do the food for my reception and the staff day of was wonderful! I very much appreciated the woman who was the banquet captain. She had everything running so smoothly and even made sure that I was getting enough water to drink (it was a 93+ degree day on my wedding and I had a ballgown on). The food was delicious and I had a couple of guests tell me it was the best food they had ever eaten at a wedding. -
![Ann]()
Ann Sent on 08/31/2011If you want the BEST caterer, this is the vendor. Early Katering handled all the food: Rehearsal dinner and reception. I also used their venues as well: Their banquet room in the farm house for the rehearsal dinner, and the barn was the ceremony site and reception site.
Kay and Earl are absolutely wonderful to deal with. They take each of their events very seriously. When it looked like rain for my outdoor wedding ceremony, they were planning an alternative and were more worried about it than I was. I just told them "do what you need to", and the indoor ceremony was even more beautiful than what I thought the outdoor one would be...and all last minute preparations!
We are still getting comments about the food. It looked and tasted amazing! The caprese salad on a stick was a favorite for everyone, and was inexpensive, but impressive looking.
They are great people to work with, and kept my stress level down a LOT.
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![Felicia]()
Felicia Sent on 06/03/2019Delicious Food!
Best food in town! Delicious and lots of options to choose from. Kay is so sweet and great to work with. She needs help with her management staff but the food was fabulous and our wedding day was great.
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Lindsay Sent on 01/07/2018Everything turned out great & I couldn’t find better prices anywhere but the planning was made much more difficult by EK's poor company structure. Genea (G.) & Jamie (J.) were lifesavers, but the head woman, Melissa (M.), was awful. They're understaffed & duties are poorly distributed. G. was insanely responsive & I had no negative interactions with her. At first, M. was great, but communicating w/her was a nightmare after we signed the food & venue contracts. She’s the only one in charge of “month-of” coordination which is best done from the office, but M. is also the only one who does flowers, which requires significant time outside the office. M. never returned emails, calls, or messages left w/co-workers about various things and I was usually told ONLY M. could help me w/this or that. Thankfully, G. was hired on about 6mos. out and was amazing. We literally never heard from M. again after Apr. 2016, aside from someone else saying, “M. said…”. We weren’t given an invoice to put a deposit down on flowers & I wasn’t sure if M. was really going to come thru, so we had baby’s breath as Plan B. But the flowers were beautiful, exactly what I wanted, & we paid in full a few days before. The staff must've had a file on us, but it wasn't shared w/others well. We met w/someone for the cake tasting & gave her our notes, but never got an invoice for that deposit. Turned out J. was unaware we wanted her to do our cake until 2 wks out, but she never lost her cool. Now I can’t remember the small details, but I haven’t forgotten the turmoil caused by M.’s lack of communication, even w/Genea's heroism in the end. EK needs more staff & M. needs to better share the workload & communicate more effectively w/them & w/clients. Overall, I'd recommend using them for food, cake, & probably venue (see Barn at Kline's Mill; you must use EK for catering there) unless it's for a VERY off-season wedding; find your flowers & coordinator elsewhere to save your sanity.
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![Sara]()
Sara Sent on 01/02/2020Ghosted by a caterer
After a few emails back and forth with Sabrina, we set up a phone call. In a detailed meeting that lasted over an hour, I was feeling confident in her attention to detail and general concern for our needs. She promised a quote by the end of that week, but we didn't get one. A follow up a week later was met with her apologizing for being ill the previous week and a guarantee that we'd see a quote within 48 hours, but surprise - that never came. I followed up one more time to give her a chance and still haven't heard back. We are very disappointed and now have to start back at square one (and circle back to other potential vendors that we left hanging while waiting for Early Katering to do their job). If we weren't the right fit, at least let us know that you don't want our money so we can find someone who does. Heed the reviews (the YELP ones seem to ring the most true) and spend your precious energy elsewhere :(Early Katering Company's reply:
Sara
Want to apologize again for your experience with our previous sales representative. Thank you for allowing Michelle to work with you. We are looking forward to a very positive experience for your wedding. -
![Sarah]()
Sarah Sent on 07/18/2020No Show to Appointment
I recently scheduled a meeting with EKC and Marie Trissel to discuss catering for my wedding. Marie and I had emailed and she had said I was written down on her schedule. The appointment was 3 weeks later. I never heard from her in that time frame, nor was I informed of where to meet her. I assumed since we were discussing catering, that we were meeting at the Terrace. This was my mistake. I should have asked in the original emails. However, Marie didn't show up and I probably would not have heard from her had I not emailed her to remind her we were supposed to be meeting. We spoke on the phone and unfortunately she did not seem to be remorseful and was fairly condescending. I assume because I'm young. I did receive a short and choppy apology email blaming the experience on COVID. Personally, everyone is having to deal with challenges during this pandemic, but many companies are still able to maintain their customer service and from reading previous reviews, this doesn't appear to be a one off.Early Katering Company's reply:
As the owner of Early Katering, I feel the need to reply to this review. First of all, Marie was aware of the meeting and had driven out to and was at our other venue (The Barn at Klines Mill), thinking the meeting was to be there. In an email from Sarah on June 27, in response to Marie getting back to her, she stated " We would love to schedule a call or venue visit. She also gave dates for potential phone calls. Marie responded back with "I find it best to come look at the venue first". So the appointment was scheduled for July 12 at 2:00 pm, when on June 29, Sarah responded "A tour sounds great. Does 2 pm work?" Marie replied back "Yes, that works for me. I have you marked on my calendar. Look forward to meeting you." So on July 12, Marie was at our "country" venue, The Barn at Klines Mill, waiting for Sarah to arrive. At 1:56 pm Marie received an email from Sarah saying "Just wanted to confirm that we are meeting at the Terrace at Rocktown at 2pm today. Please give me a call ." At that time, Marie called her and apologized for the mix up - she was at the wrong venue. She told Sarah she would be there in 10 minutes, and left the Barn to head to the Terrace. The Barn is the main venue that we book, so Marie assumed that is where they wanted to meet. Halfway to the Terrace, Marie received a phone call from Sarah saying " we have decided to just cancel the meeting". At that point Marie sent a written apology via email that said " Want to apologize for the mix up. With Covid, I am doing all sales by myself (meaning we are short staffed). If you would like, I can schedule a time for a conference call. Again, this was my fault for the mix up". So as the owner, I wanted to clarify that this was not a "no show" - it was simply a mix up on the venue location. Marie is extremely conscientious and a very hard worker and would not ever "no show" for an appointment. When Marie and I searched back to the original contact that had been sent in, we realized that Sarah had already chosen another venue, and no venue tour would have even been necessary. That was our mistake for not seeing she had already chosen another venue, but was still saying she wanted a venue tour.
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