Watsons Caterers

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I know this review is lengthy, but please read it in full if you are considering Watson's Caterers for your wedding. I know that there are some things that are bound to go wrong with a wedding, but to the level they went wrong with Watson's is absolutely inexcusable and unacceptable.



The set-up for our wedding was not done on time. All of our guests had arrived, and my bridal party and I were standing there waiting to walk down the aisle and there were employees STILL setting up, and running around in their street clothes trying to get everything set up (we were married at Evergreen, which was the venue for both our ceremony and reception). It looked absolutely terrible!



Our main contact throughout the wedding planning process was Tracey Watson. I worked with her for over a year throughout the process of planning and tasting the menu, yet on the day of our wedding, she was no where to be found. She didn't bother show up to our wedding until 9:30 at night and our reception ended at 10:30 p.m. She told me that she was there at the beginning to help with set up, then left to go to another event. Another event? She was supposed to act as our wedding day-off coordinator and with her absence, there was no one there to "run the show". Our entire reception, which was supposed to start at 7:00 p.m., was thrown off schedule and didn't start until 7:30 p.m. While it seems like a half hour isn't a huge deal, when planning your reception, everything is planned down to the exact minute. My husband and I actually had to stop taking pictures with our photographer to go find a Watson's staff member and ask that they start bringing guests down from the patio/cocktail hour so that we could start the reception. Watson's was running around, setting up the reception area STILL at 7:30 p.m. Our whole night was off schedule, which meant we had less time to spend with our family and friends. Again, absolutely unacceptable.



Our BIGGEST issue with Watson's Caterers was with our dinner service. They were again, still running around trying to get things set up, and our guests had to sit there forever waiting to get their food. After our wedding, we were made aware of the fact that the last two tables (20 people) did not get to eat at our wedding because Watson's ran out of food. Per the terms of our contract, we had given Watson's our final head count weeks in advance, yet they still did not have enough food for 20 people. We paid for 145 people to eat, yet there was only enough food for 125. We were completely devastated, distraught, and even more embarrassed.



Aside from all of the things that went wrong with Watson's, the thing that infuriated us even more was how Watson's Caterers treated us AFTER our wedding. The issues above were things we were not willing to just sweep under the rug, so we contacted Watson's to discuss everything with them. Instead of owning up to their mistakes, admitting that they were wrong, and attempting to "make it right", they made excuses, pushed the blame on us and our guests, and tried to make it sound as if they didn't do anything wrong. The fact of the matter is that THEY messed up and should have been doing everything possible to make up for it. Their actions (or lack thereof) showed me a lot about the character of their company.



Our wedding venue had a set list of "approved wedding caterers", once of which we had to decide on, so when my husband and I chose to go with Watson's as our wedding caterer, we were back and forth between their company and another caterer. I had a bad gut feeling about Watson's from the get-go, but because they came in under our catering budget, we decided to go with them...a decision which we now sincerely regret. We have since learned that Watson's has been removed from our venue's "approved caterer list" for several reasons. The fact that they were removed from an approved list that they were once apart of, says a lot.