You know how there are people that you meet and it seems as if you are old friends? Like you have known each other for years? That is how it feels with Hannah and Dana Harris from Zest Catering. When you meet them, you know that they are professional and up to the job.
But you also know that if you rented the "Party Bus" and tore the night up in town, Hannah and Dana would probably be there with you!
When we started this wedding journey, one of the many initial tasks that we needed to take care of were to pick out our vendors. Once we had found the venue, we needed a caterer. Luckily for us, our venue had a preferred vendor listing. And to prompt us toward that list, the venue charged an extra $1000 if we did not use a caterer off of their list. (We are no dummies! We called the folks on that list!)
Jessica made the first contact with Hannah from Zest Catering. Hannah and her husband Dana own Zest and they were a delight to work with and such fun people. Before we could meet with Zest, the Old Decatur Courthouse was having a silent auction and their preferred vendors were required to attend and provide the food for the event. We were invited to attend as this would be a good way to sample some of the caterer's foods and we could get a different sampling of each. The one "booth" that we continued to go back to was Zest. They had the most delicious biscuits with chicken fried steak, panchetta, and honey. It was embarrassing how many times we hovered around that booth! But the Zest folks were always polite and smiled at us as we came back for "second breakfast, thirds, eleventies..." (Name that movie...)
Over the next months, as we talked with Hannah and Dana, we knew that we had picked the right vendors for us. They seemed to know exactly what we wanted. When Jessica said "I want an elegant wedding", they knew what elements to use. They also worked with us on our budget. If we felt the price was beyond what we could afford, Hannah or Dana would give us options to lower the cost. And we were never once made to feel that our budget was too low or that they could not accommodate us.
In fact, they were more than accommodating. On the day of the wedding, we had a "table issue" that was completely our fault. It was just an oversight really. At some of our tables, we put 8 people instead of 10. This caused us to need more tables than we thought and we had not communicated that to Zest. As people are in cocktail hour and they are about to come upstairs to eat, we noticed the error and Hannah, very calmly, said "We can take care of this." She promptly had her crew set up two more tables and threw extra tablecloths over them and no one was none the wiser. The food was delicious, her cleanup took 45 minutes and everyone was a delight to work with. I cannot say enough good things about Zest. If you are having an event in the Atlanta area, I would suggest you contact them. Tell them Tracy sent you!
Our tables...
Our centerpieces...
Our place settings....
With the help of my "crew", Hannah and her team created this beautiful event!
I think they have "elegant" down pat....
Jessica and Scott's champagne flutes...
I still get emotional when I see the pictures! BTW, the movie is Fellowship of the Ring, by JRR Tolkien.
Be creative friends, it's good for the soul! How do you like my new Creative Cure header? I'm still working on it!
Tracy
