Distinctive Catering - Grand Rapids

Rave reviews from our daughters wedding. Prime rib and Tuscan chicken. I heard so many compliments on the mashed potatoes! The caterers we polite and perfessional. It was wonderful!

Starting off we had booked their package with linens for dinner as well as the call package. Moving back to the dinner package, we were told by Distinctive that our venue would not let them use their linens. Weeks of going back and forth it finally come out that Distinctive can’t get the linens they said they were able to because they were experiencing some supply chain issues getting the linens. Now I might now be familier with the other-side of the wedding venue planning but there was more than enough time for the caterer to get us the linens they charged us for. Also on the catering note. We told them we would need an allergy meal for one of our guests due to the gust’s allergies there likely wouldn’t be anything they could eat. Day of they didn’t have the meal that we requested for the person. And by the stars aligning one of our vegan options on the menu was good for them to eat, but the fact was they were asked to do one thing and could not follow through on that.Moving to the bar service, the bar staff day of the wedding tried to not set up a bar for cocktail hour. Luckily the day of coordinator was able to get them to set up. The bar tender then informed a guest who also happened to be the one who paid for the bar that, “you know, people can tip.” This was after they were already given their standard 20% gratuity there was cash in that person’s wallet to give them at the end of the night that was extremely generous.Overall the food was good for a wedding and most of the staff were pleasant with myself and my wife during dinner. However if I had to choose a Vendor again, I likely would not choose to go with Distinctive Catering again, they were difficult to work with and only added to the stresses on the day of the wedding.

So there was good things and not so good things about Distinctive Catering. Some times communication was a little challenging but eventually I would get ahold of them. Calling was better than emailing if you had questions.Okay now the service. They did show up at our reception in our pole barn on time to set up the food. We had ordered the smoked salmon for 100 and the Swedish meatballs for appetizers. The salmon was supposed to be served with crackers. They had a bowl of meatballs and the salmon but no crackers. When I asked about it they acted like they didn’t know it was supposed to have crackers and said there was none sent with them. I found this extremely unprofessional. Luckily I had a few boxes in my pantry so up to the house I ran to get them with a platter to put them on. The servers did not keep a good eye on the food and had to be asked to refill things. They ran out of dinner napkins and had to put out cocktail napkins instead. Really? At a beautiful reception it was a bit embarrassing. They never told me which was disappointing because I had extra napkins on our own dessert table that could have been used. There was a lot of dirty plates left on the tables that guest had to throw away themselves. When asked about packing up the leftovers they told us they couldn’t do that, that it went to a shelter. Now I’m reading the reviews on here and seeing that they do give you the leftovers since you paid for it. If it went to a shelter that is great but now I’m wondering if that was true. My daughter the Bride was supposed to have a vegetarian stir fry meal that was put in the contract because she doesn’t eat meat but they didn’t have it for her. So the Bride didn’t get a meal just salad. Again very unprofessional as it was the bride who didn’t get a meal!For the good about it. People did say the food was very tasty. Some even said one of the best tasting food they have had at a wedding. The fruit was very fresh and the food was hot.I am not sure I would use them again because of the service and forgetting some of the food.

There’s good and bad.Bad: the communication with the ladies in the office is incredibly hard. They say they’ll email you back the next day but it’ll actually be weeks from that. I didn’t get any of my final paperwork until I had initiated the conversation about it. When I did it took them a while to send it. I had to wait weeks for my final invoice as well and it felt like personally there could have been more communication. The other really negative experience was my wedding day! I had asked them a week prior when they planned on being there. 130 was the time I was given so I gave that time to my coordinator. They don’t show up until about 245-3 with no communication. They hung up on my coordinator when she was trying to find them. Then they tried to set up the buffet loudly during my ceremony and got upset when they were asked to stop. I found that totally unprofessional and I was never even given an apology or excuse as to why they were hours late.Now the good: THE FOOD. The food was phenomenal I had multiple guest tell me it was the best wedding food they ever had. It was amazing. And the two girls that helped service the head table kept the waters full, always checked on us and were just hands down amazing.

Distinctive Catering catered our Welcome Dinner and our Wedding Reception June 2023. We opted for two of the different BBQ menus, one Friday one Saturday. The food was INCREDIBLE, everyone couldn't stop talking about how delicious everything was my four year old niece ate four ears of corn bc they were so good! We also used their bartending service. Everyone was so friendly and professional. Working with distinctive catering was a GREAT experience.