Brackish River Bistro | Vistas & Vows — Local services in Winterport

We went with Simply Catering by Bethany or Vistas and Vows, as named now for our renewal of vows summer of 2025. they came over two hours late, don’t have their own tented area, don’t have our place settings and have no idea about our event or anything. I have never spoken to these members of the team and they were not well staffed, informed or prepared at all. People were hungry, they had to take up precious tented space because they did not have what we were told. Remember it’s raining! We needed all the space. We could have prepared. Created space in the second tent for them or something. Again, they are disorganized and don’t communicate well. They didn’t bring the microplace settings we paid for. Thank goodness, I brought some. An “event guide” that we went over with Bethany that really wasn’t updated after our last discussion was used. This truly was a mistake on our end. We had thoroughly discussed everything with Bethany and our menu choices and serving and setting plans. I thought what we paid for was going to be there, even if not written out. So that was an error on our end. What is the purpose of having a conversation to discuss the plan for your event, if they aren’t assisting with your event, aren’t going to discuss your wishes or the plan with those catering your event? Just frustrating. Looking back there was much wasted time discussing plans I think that there was not enough food for our number of people. The main meal was served table side and was tasty. The chef nailed it and the server did the best that they could. We had discussed the kids being served 1st and that didn’t happen. So the chicken and fries were made and served last. Nothing like hungry and impatient children that do not want steak or grilled chicken. My husband and I were served last and I have to say, it was so good! The chef nailed it. Our meal was supposed to have burrata cheese and the gnocchi was not quite right. But it tasted good. With what these team members did for our main meal and event - with what information they were told. They nailed it. We paid for both a dessert table and two cakes. The cakes were honestly so disappointing. Dry - I don’t think they had frosting. Dry DRY DRY. I wonder why you would serve an unfrosted wedding cake. We paid quite a bit of money for a service that I really fell super short on many levels. The stress and worry, how late they showed up, not having quite enough apps, serving issues, not prepared for the weather despite being told “we come prepared”, not having enough desserts, incorrect desserts and just the most disappointing dry cakes ever. Since our event, I have been in contact with the company asking to be refunded at least for the microplace settings and some of the desserts (e.g. the wrong whoopie pies) that we didn’t receive. We never received an oops or sorry these things weren’t communicated or anything. And was told I’d be refunded for these etc etc. and it has not happened. Things I would have changed - filling out the event guide and not talking with the caterer about things. Our event definitely felt like their lowest priority and honestly I wish we had gone with another catering company. Cliff nailed the food and did the best with what he could. Man do I appreciate that. But I guess you expect the caterer to also take notes, bring what you paid for and communicate. this business just did...

Hiring Bethany for our Maine meets Philippines wedding was one of the best decisions we’ve made for our big day! We talked about what flavors we wanted to incorporate from both sides and she was so open to thinking through creative ways to do them with what she has and can get, so from then on I knew I was in good hands. Everything from the tasting to the brunches to the main event and even to the desserts and snacks, was incredible and amazing! Although our tasting got off to a rocky start, Bethany immediately turned it all around by being very accommodating and most importantly with her delicious food! From then on, we made sure we were always on the same page whether it’d be through emails or the spreadsheet(s), so that all the food was out and arrived when we needed it to be for the whole celebration! We even got our food just as we both sat down at our sweetheart table thinking we’d need to get it from the tent! It was all just so perfect, that it felt like I had a piece of home with me to share with everyone at our wedding! Thank you to you and your staff for such a wonderful weekend! I hope you know that our guests are still raving about the food and I feel like they will for...

I would not recommend using them as a catering service. They are not organized at all, at first they are very responsive on phone, text and email.

We were initially impressed by how well they keep in touch and follow on things.If you don’t meet their minimum amount which $2500, they would ask you to paid the entire amount up front and once you paid the communication drop off to email only. Then is all downhill from there.

Please take notice of their refund and cancellation policy, which was only verbal for us…

Then their food was not presentable as it shows on their website or how Bethany described it. When it comes time to our big event the food delivered was not professional at all. It was a couple of new summer hire. We had appetizers for our event and they didn’t even notice the crackers were missing. When ask about it the delivery people doesn’t even know what was supposed to be included. They had to call someone to ask about it, and ended up picking up some crackers from Walmart which wasn’t event enough for the amount of people we...