Catering by Design

I highly recommend hiring Catering by Design for your wedding. My now husband and I were amazed at how easy they were throughout the entire planning process. Jen was absolutely fabulous and brought a lot of creativity to our menu. The night of the wedding they exceeded our expectations. We are still hearing from our guests how amazed they were by the food. I can't say enough about how wonderful our experience was with Catering by Design. All I can do is encourage other couples to hire them without any hesitation to make their big day amazing!

Catering By Design was by far the easiest, most accommodating vendor we had the pleasure of working with. We couldn't have been happier with the level of service and professionalism we experienced throughout the whole process. Our main contact, Jennifer Quam, was a delight to work with and walked us through every step, from deciding appetizers and main courses, to finalizing rental orders. She made everything seem effortless, leaving us at ease on the big day knowing that all the details would be taken care of. Our food was simply divine! The guests could not stop commenting on how delicious each dish was. We even had a plate of appetizers waiting for us at our table, since we missed the cocktail hour. A full plate of food was served to us at our seats, even though the dinner was buffet style. It really made us feel fantastic to have such great service.At the end of the night, I was worried about tear down, but when I returned to the reception room, everything was cleaned, wrapped up, and stored in it's appropriate place. The day-of contact was unbelievably friendly and made sure to ask us about any outstanding items we might want to take home. Overall, the attention to detail, food and flexibility were all spot on. We would GLADLY recommend CBD to any bride looking for the perfect caterer.

For the most part, I really enjoyed working with Catering by Design. Our day of contact was very helpful and responsive to requests and the food was quite good. They were flexible and helpful in designing our menu to fit our tastes. The day of there were a few snafus, I left directions for how I wanted our reception venue set up, and then I arrived to find centerpieces in the wrong place, table cards not put out, and general disorganization. They were all minor things that probably only a bride would notice, and once my sister mentioned it to CBD they changed everything back quickly. However, it added a layer of stress to my reception that I didn't want to deal with. I would still highly recommend CBD based on price, responsiveness, and quality of food, but would urge brides to be very explicit about how you'd like your venue to look so that there are no confusions on the day of.

I absolutely loved working with Catering By Design. From the first contact with them i knew they were the perfect caterer for our event. Brandi worked with us to create the perfect menu for our event. They don't have pre-set wedding menus, but instead will design your event down to the details. Their presentation is awesome, we couldn't have asked for a prettier layout. Their staff was attentive and very much on top of everything! We couldn't have hoped for a better situation. All our guests loved the food so much, there weren't many leftovers at the end of the night. Try the sliders, yum, yum!

CBD was above and beyond what I could have ever expected for my wedding!! Nicole, my event coordinator, was friendly, creative, helpful, patient and responded to emails within 30 minutes every time!! She coordinated a 225 person wedding with flawless ease--everything from our linens, alcohol and set up of the reception was directed by her staff to have our wedding flow perfectly. CBD has endless small details to make your wedding "yours" and unlike any other wedding you've ever been to! They also have an amazing green policy to check out on their website. CBD is recommended highly by this bride!!

The food was delicious and blew all my guests away. My officiant even said it was the best food he'd ever eaten at any wedding!! We had a plated dinner, and the staff served everyone at the table the same time, and acted very professional. All my guests complimented us and were so impressed with the taste and presentation.

I chose Catering By Design to cater my vow renewal this past Saturday, and we were very happy with the food. We got lots of compliments from our guests, who noticed (like us) that CBD elevates flavors beyond the traditional so their customers don't end up with the dreaded "wedding food." We chose them for this very reason. Everyone at our table let us know that the food at our event exceeded their expectations; my husband and I were also very happy with everything we were able to taste. I have just a few small complaints, which I feel I should mention to serve customers in the future. These are small details, thus I still give CBD a high rating, and I want to stress the fact that in the end I was content with our experience. We did have some issues with communication; we were always responded to very quickly, but sometimes our questions were not answered. It could be that our representative just didn't understand what we were asking, but it was a bit stressful at times. However, because they always responded so quickly, the stress never lasted long, which was a plus. Our pricing also doubled after our first meeting, in the end causing us to go over-budget since we had based it on the original total. However, because their pricing was initially so reasonable, I still don't believe we were over-charged, and we are very happy with the service we received on the day of the event. We did have a small issue at the wedding with the staff (we ordered a cake with two flavors so our guests would have a choice) handing out slices of cake to our guests without giving them a choice. However, they were very apologetic, and we felt that they truly cared about our experience. The final thing I wanted to mention is that we received some complaints from other vendors about how difficult it was for them to set up the reception space when CBD was a half hour late (out of a 1.5 hour total allotted time). They were stuck in traffic, which I know can be unpredictable, but I would have thought they might prepare for the unexpected. For this reason our reception space was not completely set up, but again this is nothing our guests were aware of. Overall, I am satisfied with our experience and I think that our situation (with such a short set up time) would be difficult for any vendor. I would use CBD again for future occasions. UPDATE (9/29/11)::: Unfortunately, I have had to lower my rating of Catering By Design by one star since writing this review. I had to contact our representative after the vow renewal about a potential issue with the linen company, and she came off as rude and very short. It seems that, now that she has our money, she has no interest in practicing politeness. I now feel as though she was merely "putting on a show" throughout our prior communications. In my opinion, common courtesy is something that should be used regardless of whether or not you are being paid to do so. Half of a business is based on the quality of the products and services they provide; the other half is based on customer service. For that reason, I have decided to decrease my rating, and I would insist on working with somebody else if I were to use CBD in the future.

Tara was our contact. She worked to ensure we were able to find solutions for varrious dietary restrictions and it came off beautifully. She was able to offer suggestions to us outside of catering (floor plan, seating options, etc) and was great at finding us the right answers to all of our requests.Everyone commented on the quality of the meal, and for being so competively priced, we were exstatic. The food was amazing.

Jen Quam Howell was our caterer for our wedding day and she and the entire Catering by Design crew were absolutely fabulous. We did a "stations" wedding with heavy appetizers and a cocktail stlye reception. My guests had never been to a wedding like that and couldnt get over what a fun, party atmosphere that made the reception. Guests raved about the food. Many are still coming up to me saying "that was the best wedding food I have ever had-not your typical wedding sit down dinner and menu". We had lobster mac n' cheese, a fajitas station, a sliders stations, a martini glass salad station, and many pass arounds. Jen was beyond helpful throughout the entire wedding planning process. You truely do not need a wedding planner when you have Jen! She helped pick out the linens, matched color schemes, ordered the alcohol, arrranged the tent and seating situations (amongst many many other things!). We all know how chaotic wedding planning can be, but with Jen I always knew I had nothing to worry about. She went above and beyond to get the best deals and make the event work with my wants and budget. I highly reccoemend Catering by Design for any event as I know from experience what a creative, fun team of people this company is.

Our contact for our wedding was Jennifer, and she rocked! She was even 7 months pregnant during our event and was so full of energy, and made sure everything was perfect. My husband and I planning our wedding from Virginia so we didn't even taste their food before deciding but my mom and made of honor were our trusted stand-in's and did an amazing job in choosing them. Jennifer drove all around the metro area for us several different times to meet with us at the venue, choose linens, and do our walk through. We were allowed to do a separate, private tasting when we got into town 2 months before the wedding and make necessary changes. They even did a custom cake for us! I bought all the mixes and frosting and sprinkles and they made a cake and 100 cupcakes for us! I couldn't believe how amazing they looked and how extremely reasonable their price was for our cake and cupcakes. I didn't have a wedding planner and Jennifer and the CBD team really filled in some gaps, picked up slack in terms of the decorating and everything was pulled off without a hitch! My only complaint was that I felt like the head of their team (not jennifer) could have been a bit more responsive to my husband and my personal needs the day of the wedding. But that is probably a small detail. To this day our family and friends talk about how amazing our food was and how much fun they had and much of that was due to Jennifer and her team! We would recommend them to anyone!

Catering by Design was fabulous. Our wedding was in a state park, a good 30 minutes outside of the city, with no kitchen facilities or even running water. Given the site, we wanted someone who could grill us up a delicious picnic, instead of warming up already-cooked food in chafing dishes. Catering by Design had a WONDERFUL selection of picnic options, from simple burgers and hot dogs to teriyaki chicken breasts with pineapple and lime-cilantro marinated ahi-ahi (those last 2 are what we had). They have since spun off their picnic catering into a sister company called Denver's Picnic Company. (you can go to their regular website and link through). Their service was fabulous and thoughtful---the captain made sure to make up a plate for me before letting the guests at the food. They brought their own grills on site, and were super flexible about mixing and matching a menu we wanted, sliced our cakes at no extra charge, and happily helped us put their beverages in our own apothecary jars (instead of igloo coolers). I can't say enough good things about this company....and oh yeah, the food was delicious!

Catering by Design was perfect!!!!!!!!! Tara and her staff were so helpful and accommodating!! They made no mistakes!! The food was amazing (everyone told us we had the best food they've ever had at any wedding), and they made the hall look so beautiful! They were a little pricey, but it was so worth it, definitely a great value for the price!! We would recommend them not only to brides but to anyone who needs a caterer!!!!!!!

Thank goodness we hired Catering by Design for my daughters wedding. We choose them because they took the time to talk to my daughter and find that perfect food for her reception. The final selling point was.. they cook the food at the venue and do not "hot box". Twenty-four hours before the wedding, our venue was closed by the fire department. The first person on the phone to me was Brandi of Catering by Design. She looked over her list of venues that she had used before and called to check availability. Within a couple of hours we had a new venue and a new plan. We felt like Catering by Design took the extra steps to make this day wonderful. We received so many compliments on the fabulous food and the excellent service. I am so thankful for Brani Lipe and Catering by Design.

Catering By Design was awesome. The service team was professional and made our evening run smoothly. The team of servers delivered dinner in a timely mannor and did so with great elegance. The portions were large for a plated dinner, and we have had many guest compliments on the delicious taste of our food. The plates were creatively arranged and made a statement. Overall, we would highly recommend Catering By Design!

We met with several different caterers and finally decided to use Catering by Design. The tasting was amazing and we couldn't have been happier with the food. We were very happy with their responsiveness at the beginning but when we were ready to sign the contract, we couldn't reach our contact after numerous emails and phone calls. It turned out fine, so in the end we were very pleased. The food and service at the reception were great!

Catering by Design provided an EXCELLENT brunch for my wedding in September. From the first meeting to the wedding day everything went smoothly and the staff was such a joy to work with. Their menu selection is fabulous and they were able to customize various items for us. From the very beginning I was very confident that Catering by Design would do a fantastic job and they certainly delivered. The day of the wedding everything tasted exactly like it did for our tastings. Several of our wedding guests commented that our food was the best they ever had at a wedding. I would HIGHLY recommend Catering by Design for any event.

We had worked out every thing to that last detail of how many oz of protein were going to be on each plate to the # of appetizers they were going to make. One month before my wedding, I called my coordinator to finalize the rentals only to find out that she does not work there any more! A couple of days later I received a phone call from the replacement. We decided we wanted to have a second tasting (which we had to pay for) to make sure that we were all on the same page. She claimed she had read all the previous notes for our wedding, but was so clueless during that meeting. The recipes were different, the portion sizes were half of what we had agreed on, and they were not even going to provide one appetizer per person! After a lot of back and forth, they had told us that our old coordinator quoted us at a price too low and we were going to have to pay more or cut the portion size. They had wrote us a long email defending themselves for trying to work around the price. I am so grateful we had that second tasting because the wedding day would have come and we would have received a totally different menu than what was initially agreed upon. We ended up firing them and going with someone else at the last minute. That was a stressful last month after planning this wedding for a year! If you end up going with them, make sure every little detail is written clearly in the contract. The only good thing I have to say about the company is their food is really good. There service is impossible to work with.

Excellent food! And they let you personalize whatever you want!

Catering By Design was wonderful! They had great food for a great value. We were worried without a wedding planner the day wouldnt go as planned. But the Catering By Design staff made sure everything went off without a hitch. They were courteous to all our guests and made it a great experience. I would recommend them to anyone!

We were all full by the end of the wedding! The catering was great, but I wish they were just a little more flexible.