Harvest Real Food Catering & Events

I agree with the last reviewer. We hired the company for our wedding and they sold themselves as committed to quality and exceptional customer service, and we were highly disappointed. Sad to say, we had to contact the Better Business Bureau regarding this company, due to the poor service we received. Once we realized we did not get the proper attention and quality customer service we deserved, we asked for a refund. Harvest Real Food Catering & Events have blatantly ignored our requests, and when they did, they tried to bully us into leaving the issue alone. After weeks of never responding to our complaints and refund request, we wrote one last email giving them the courtesy warning that we were taking this issue to the BBB, and Kimberly suddenly wrote back citing «sorry, this is the first opportunity I had to write back»…obviously they were never going to write back until we let them know we were turning to get further help from the BBB, which is poor form .I was so disappointed to realize they do not respect their customers. It is rather unfortunate because we thought Mark’s food was great (minus some un-​edible brussels sprouts at the wedding!).
The Positives: We were happy with the menu we chose, as it sounded delicious and appropriate for a wedding. We thought the catering staff at our wedding were all very nice in personality. We appreciated that the company uses local food supplies which was something that was important to us.
The Bad: The administrative aspects of this company is its downfall. Kimberly Weeks seemed disorganized for a lot of our planning time, and as a bride, I felt I had to follow up with her several times to make sure things were done, or that we get a meeting scheduled. Mistakes were made on our bill, we got quoted two different prices for the same services, and communication was slow. She often times takes 4 – 5 days to get back to her customers. In fact, I had sent an email with time sensitive requests 2 – 3 weeks before my wedding. She responded that night saying something to the extent of «Got your email, will respond tomorrow» only to never hear from her again. I wrote a quick follow up email to that one with no response. Only when I wrote another email saying «are you okay, are you in the hospital?» did she respond. As a result of us not being a priority, my time sensitive projects weren’t able to be done before the wedding.
Bartending service at our event was fairly horrific. This was the #1 complaint we had from our guests. We paid good money for an open bar and were really disappointed with what people had to say regarding the drinks. Originally we wanted to purchase our own liquor and pay a fee for the caterer to serve it. The company said that only they could purchase drinks to serve the guests, so we paid an arm and a leg for open bar for every guest. We had complaints that the bartenders were unprofessional, people questioning if they were real bartenders, etc. etc. The company didn’t bring enough ice and the bartenders were scooping melted water into people’s glasses, instantly watering guests’ drinks down. I wanted a signature drink for our cocktail hour and we got two different price quotes for the same signature cocktails. They tried to charge me an extra $ 2 per person to offer the drinks than originally quoted. When we asked them about this, we have heard no response.
Kimberly was supposed to be the one and only contact person for the rental services. She billed herself as the person who organizes and maintains the contracts with the rentals and the toilet trailer services. We were supposed to pay her for the services and she would then pay these companies. She was not updating our invoices in time, so we had to take care of the bill ourselves, and on Thursday evening before the wedding when the rental company brought the equipment, we realized she had never updated the numbers from the original guest count 8 months prior to the event! We had to call and handle the rental services ourselves to ensure all of our guests had seats at the wedding. If we weren’t an involved couple, we would have been in big trouble come the event. Kimberly Weeks never once apologized for such a mistake.
The weekend of the event, we asked Kimberly to stop by the barn (she lives 15 minutes away) so we could go over the final details. She rejected our request citing she had «a meeting». This should have never happened. As a result, I never got to see her before the wedding and things did not go as planned. Equipment we had custom purchased for the servers to use were not.
Brides, wedding planning is stressful enough… go with a company you know will respond right away and make your life easier, not more difficult. In hindsight, we really wish we had used Main Course Catering in New Paltz who were super professional, and on top of every detail. We didn’t use them due to them being slightly more expensive, but I realize, it would have been worth the extra money.

We’re giving this a 3-​star review because we had both the best AND worst of experiences with Harvest Real Food Catering. Chef Mark’s food deserves a full 5 stars, being delicious, fresh, creative, and well executed throughout our wedding weekend at the Elm Rock Inn.
However, the administrative aspects were a 1-​star at best. Throughout a 6 month planning phase we experienced a number of different changes in leadership of their catering administration, and were constantly experiencing communication lapses between the powers that be regarding the details of our wedding. We were consistently given information and pricing that someone else later deemed to be incorrect, thus causing serious chaos in our budgeting and planning. There seemed to be a serious disconnect between the GM, Catering Coordinator, and Service Coordinator in communicating any requests or inquiries we had up until the very end. Thus, everyone had more headaches than necessary because things needed to be double, triple, and sometimes quadruple-​confirmed. The final invoice was still incorrect the week of the wedding and needed to be adjusted.
Service the day of our wedding was warm and the staff did a solid job, although it lacked a certain proactivity that made it harder for us to just relax and enjoy the party. Again, I think this was a leadership issue. Candles weren’t lit until AFTER all guests were seated. We physically had to move the cake ourselves into the center of the room for the Cake Cutting Ceremony. Then no staff took it away to be sliced and served until much later, causing it to be served awkwardly while people were already dancing. The slideshow video wasn’t properly set up and there was a moment of difficulty when the groom had to fix it and make it work himself. Things like this the bride and groom shouldn’t have to worry about on their big day were always needing attention.
On a more positive note, our actual stay at the Elm Rock Inn was amazing. The rooms and décor were beautiful and well maintained throughout our stay. Halle the Innkeeper and his brother Joe made us feel so comfortable and well taken care of. Breakfast everyday was a full gourmet experience, and it’s no secret that Chef Mark was behind the scenes for every meal! Having the Elm Rock be our wedding headquarters for the weekend was convenient, fun and cozy!
In summary, Chef Mark’s food is the highlight of this company and should definitely be considered as some of the best in the area. His farm-​to-​table approach and high level of execution equates to deliciousness on the plate! However, should you decide to work with Harvest Real Food Catering for an event, I would highly recommend a patient and overly communicative style in your preparations, and definitely hiring a wedding coordinator for the final month. They are a company that is still growing and ironing out their executional kinks, and hopefully with each event they do, they improve. We had our share of difficulties with them, but also some wonderful moments and amazing food!