A friend of mine used The Ultimate Caterer against my advice (I was their wedding planner), and they turned out to be even more of a disaster than I thought they would be. During the tasting, I was not impressed by the food. There were few items that were passable, but I thought the rest were subpar. However, as they were the preferred caterer by the venue the couple wanted, they decided to go ahead with them.

While the sales rep, Jennifer Channing, was professional and lovely, I found the owner, Alan Perl, to be completely unprofessional. He was rude and up to the last minute, was constantly trying to deliver less than what the contract stated. Fortunately, I refused to used their standard contract and drafted my own, which set forth in detail everything the wedding couple had a right to expect. That didn't stop him, though, from trying to not provide certain products and overcharging them. He quoted a lower price for linens, which he was supposedly renting, but shortly before the wedding, they became exorbitantly more. Supposedly, the price he quoted was for a smaller size. Okay, if he was providing the tables, he should know what size he needed. He claimed it was too late to go back on the order, but they could change it to bigger sizes (although the price difference was significant). When I asked for the website of the rental company, he claimed they didn't have a website. He also failed to provide me their contact info. Also, when we asked if they had cupcake stands, they quoted a price of approximately $60 each to rent them. We opted against it as we can buy them for $20 each.

Alan also kept trying to go around me, the party planner, and would directly contact the bride, though he was explicitly directed by her to deal with me. I think this is because he was relying on the fact that she was too busy to deal with details to catch on to incorrect information. What he didn't realize is that the bride and I are close friends and she called me after every conversation with him.

Alan was increasingly difficult to deal with and tried to pretend that certain items were not on the contract until I insisted on going through the contract line by line with him. He was also insulting and arrogant.

The day of the wedding, he kept bothering the bride during her photo session. At one point, he interrupted to tell her that they were low on an item. Seriously?!! The photographer complained that he was inappropriate with her. The way they set the room was horrible and he kept hounding the bride and groom to hurry up the photo session because they needed to set up (they were late). They also failed to provide the lunch for the bridal party, as set forth by the contract. They then tried to put a partition that the bride had expressly forbidden. She had to yell at them to remove them, and they had the gall to charge her for the item!

I had set up the flowers in he ceremony room before getting ready (I was a bridesmaid), but when I walked into the room, I found that they had moved the branches from where they were supposed to be and hid them behind a curtain. I was furious!

During the reception, the chef served an item with nuts, when it was set forth in the contract that nuts cannot be served and we expressed several times that one bridesmaid was severely allergic to nuts. Also, I didn't see most of the items they were suppose to serve (I was parked by the kitchen most of the night). To top it off, they served cold milk (they were supposed to be milkshakes) on cheap, plastic shot glasses.

The only good part about this company is their serving staff, who were very eager to please and very professional. They were lovely and deserve to work for a better employer.

Fortunately, the wedding was saved by a superb dj and fun crowd. I will never use The Ultimate Caterer again. Of all the caterers I've ever worked with, they were by far the worst.