Nelson's Catering & Fundraising — Local services in Wakarusa

Brides and grooms, do yourself a favor and do not allow Nelson’s the chance to ruin your wedding. Krista Griffey and her entire staff are absolutely horrible. From rude and downright disrespectful bartenders, to staffing an entire catering team with minors, to refusing the bride a drink at her own wedding because she didn’t keep her ID on her person, to refusing to move the bar inside due to pop up thunderstorms even after all of the bride and groom’s parents offered to pay for it, the entire experience with Nelson’s was unprofessional and simply embarrassing.

When rain delayed the wedding by 20-30 minutes, catering staff rushed 200 guests through a buffet line in less than 20 minutes because they were minors and had to leave by 7:30 “due to minor labor laws” they said. Research labor laws in the State of Indiana and read for yourself how absolutely full of it this staff and this company is. What wedding ever starts on time, and what type of professional catering company staffs an entire wedding with ONLY minors? What bride keeps her ID on her throughout her wedding, that she signed the contracts for? They won’t ask for an ID to make sure you’re of legal age to sign an almost $10k contract, but god forbid you don’t show your ID every single time you want a drink at your own wedding.

The bartenders were the most awful bartenders we have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Constantly rolled their eyes at guests and the bridal party, even refused water to several guests. The bar was completely cleaned up and shut down 30 minutes prior to the contracted time, without a last call, even after the timeline change was cleared with someone named Delilah from Nelson’s. They dropped multiple bottles that shattered glass all over the venue, and they even left several open liquor bottles behind, not fully cleaning up after themselves. Refuse service to a 25 year old bride, but leave OPEN liquor bottles ON THE GROUND where children can easily get ahold of them? Absolutely absurd.

To make matters worse, multiple Nelson’s staff members on-site stated that the plethora of miscommunication between management and coordinators and the catering/bar staffs are not new issues, and that this was not the first time a situation like this has happened at a wedding. How embarrassing.

Attempts to reconcile the situation with Nelson’s management have largely gone ignored. When not ignored, all complaints and concerns have been quickly dismissed. Nelson’s truly believes they did absolutely nothing wrong. For that, I feel ashamed for them. Please, please, please, if you’re getting married or know someone who is, do yourself or your loved one the biggest favor in the world and DO NOT allow Nelson’s anywhere near...

This was the worst experience we have ever had from a vendor. So much went wrong; I was working with Kelsey the vice president of sales and marketing and she helped set up an online ordering platform for my event. the platform had a lot of mistyping, stated it was for hair care products, and told people that they would have to pick up from their store on a completely different time and day than the event, which caused a lot of confusion and concern. on top of Kelsey was not upfront that there was a minimum order of 25 for our fundraiser, that we recently held, she told me that I had 20 orders pre-paid for and asked me to change the day of my event to gain more orders. I could not change the day but we had agreed to leave the ordering platform open until end of day the day before the event. we had 30 orders of the leg 1/4 and 17 orders of pulled pork. Kelsey made a decision without consulting with us that she was only going to make the pulled pork, and failed to tell her servers that she made this decision until they were pulling out with the truck full of food, also knowing that they were running late. Kelsey sent me an email at 10:45am on the day of the event stating the food is on the way and that they would be arriving on time (they were 45 minutes late) as well as telling me that they only sent the pulled pork, and stated they would make it right the next time. The event started at 11:30am. They did not arrive until 12:15pm. I had to call Kelsey and demand a refund for the 30 orders of chicken since they changed the meal plan without consulting us. the meals were also supposed to be individually packed and ready to serve but instead was set up buffet style. The on-site servers were very apologetic, and very kind. They were made aware of the changes at the same time I was, but even with fielding the angry people who did not get the meal they had paid for, the servers were very professional and greeted everyone with a smile and did their best to make it right, they cleaned up after the event and set- up, tear down went very fast. The food that was delivered was very tasty and good, but Kelsey was in way over her head and over promised and under delivered, very unprofessional, and DCS will not be...

5 starts for the food. Great as always. However, Nelson’s catered my best friends wedding and they also provided the bar service. It rained 15 minutes before the service, pushing everything about 30 minutes behind. Dinner was supposed to start at 6:30, but it didn’t start until around 7 due to the delays. The caterers were being so pushy to get dinner served because their workers couldn’t work past 7:30. Why would a catering order for a WEDDING bring children (yes literal children)?! Second, the bar. Awful. Horrible. Embarrassing. The bar was supposed to be outside, given the rain and more rain to come in the evening, we asked that the bar be moved inside. Drinks were not even being served at this point. We got nothing but attitude from the bartenders. They refused to move unless they had help. So, we gathered 5 of the WEDDING GUESTS to help move all the liquor, beer, and wine inside. They never ID’d or asked to see how old these guests were…. But when it came time for the bride to get a drink, they refused because she didn’t have her ID. Ridiculous. They were okay with guests helping move/handle OPEN containers of liquor, but god forbid the 26 year old bride wants a drink on her own wedding night. Also, drinks were poured so light, you could drink 7 cocktails and not feel a thing. Not only were these ladies incredibly rude, they shut the bar down 30 minutes early without even a last call, leaving over a hundred guests without a drink for the end of the night. From what I was told, this service from Nelson’s was NOT cheap. Do better Nelson’s. Hire bartenders that want to do their job and not be rude to your...