Panetta’s Elite Events

We had our wedding back in 2013! I know long over due! Erin and Lori were great! The food is so good we still talk about it! We are now hoping they can cater our daughters baptism since our family can’t stop talking about the FOOD!
The wedding was smooth as can be. I was at the time 5 months pregnant so yeah very hormonal, not a single complain. Servers are great, food was great and the coordinator was a lifesaver! Now that I found them again will definitely use them again!
Thank you so much you guys!

We were the first couple to have a wedding and reception at the Saratoga Foothill Club after last winter’s remodeling. Initially, we were concerned that the outdoor ceremony may not be private since the fencing was removed as required by the city. Fortunately, everything turned out wonderfully due to the efforts of Lori Beesley of Panetta Catering. Lori personally designed portable partitions then gained city approval to install them to make the setting more attractive and private than it had ever been. My wife and I are so pleased that we chose to have our wedding at this venue and to trust Panetta Catering with such an important event.
Wedding planning can be overwhelming, but Lori is very experienced in this field and generous in sharing her knowledge. She accommodated our requests and met our need to have a dream wedding. Panetta Catering offers many options to choose from and Lori guided us in selecting the food, table settings, linen, chairs and décor. My wife chose flowers and other décor from outside vendors, but Lori and team used what we provided to make the setting for both our wedding and our reception more beautiful than we could have imagined!
We had no worries on our special day and just enjoyed having a perfect wedding!
On a final note, our officiating minister who has presided over numerous weddings mentioned on a couple of times that Lori was very skilled in how she coordinated our wedding.
Thanks for everything, Lori and Panetta Catering. WE HAD OUR DREAM WEDDING BECAUSE OF YOU AND YOUR TEAM!
From the happily married Bride and Groom

I guess if you could ever get in contact with the company (or anyone within the company) then perhaps your wedding would turn out nice. The venues might be nice (in pictures) but my suggestion to you Unilocalers is. not to waste your time like the last reviewer said.
I have been trying relentlessly to contact Lori Beasley (email, voice mail on her work line, voice mail on cell phone and follow-​ups) to no avail. Too bad because I really wanted to take a look at Creekside Terrace of Los Gatos for our nuptials. Also too bad on their part because we had mucho dinero to throw their way.
Right now, as a educated event planner I am embarrassed for my industry if this is the way Panetta’s does business. The word «Elite» would never cross my mind. They need to either reform Lori or hire a new event planner all together. I would never recommend Panetta’s to the numerous friends that will be getting married in the future.

We were seriously considering Saratoga Foothill Club as our wedding venue because it was very affordable and came with a very nice almost-​inclusive package through Panetta’s. It was great when we were dealing with Erin, and was happy to see that Panetta’s was also a preferred vendor when we decided on Hakone Gardens instead for our venue… but was sad again when we found out that Erin wouldn’t be our go-​to person. Instead, we would be dealing with Lori… which was very concerning because of all the Unilocal reviews I’ve read here about her!
Still, I decided to give them a try and scheduled a tasting with Lori because their package was very tempting… but SO many things went wrong in such a short of amount of time that our decision was immediately made for us!
1. I had told Erin that my fiancé and I may possibly bring one of my bridesmaid along, but somehow that message never was communicated to Lori so she only prepared enough food for 2…
2. When we arrived at the catering location, we thought we had the wrong place because no one was in the office even though we tried knocking on the door (no doorbell) and waited for 10 minutes (!!!) before I tried calling Lori on her cell phone… she apparently was in the inside office even though she knew we were coming & decided to not wait by the outside office to welcome us.
3. We were expecting to be fed with food that’s going to impress us right away when I scheduled our tasting at 1:30pm…instead, Lori starts talking NON-​STOP for over an hour about details of the wedding day and how SHE wants everything to be done. When we questioned her about how things should be done, she says, «Well, I’ve done at least 50 weddings there. How many have you done?»…REALLY!!! I didn’t appreciate that one bit!
4. When we finally decided to interrupt her because I was WAY too hungry (hello?! I didn’t eat breakfast thinking I would be fed with lunch at 1:30pm and it’s now almost 3pm?! UN-​freaking-​acceptable!), Lori didn’t seem happy about how we interrupted her and went inside the kitchen. I could hear her slamming everything inside (including the microwave door)…VERY unprofessional!
5. Lori also was not honest about their food — everything is «home-​made» by the company. No… some of the hor d’oeuvres are clearly store-​bought so please don’t lie to our faces! When we tried to comment on what we felt about the food (salad was clearly over-​dressed, chicken was WAY too dry, and I didn’t enjoy their multi-​grain rice at all), she appeared very offended…
Clearly, we ran as fast as we could! Lori never even had the professionalism to follow-​up with me so… whatever!

We had our wedding at Saratoga Foothill Club in August, and worked with Glenn Nelson and Panetta’s for the catering and event coordination.
The thing that we loved most about the venue –and what really cinched the decision for us as a budged conscious couple — was the fact that practically EVERYTHING is included in Panetta’s catering price. For the price, you get: tables, linens, dinner ware, professional DJ, cake, food, and soda. For some people, this may be a drawback if you really want to pick out every vendor separately, but for us it was so great to just pay one price and have all the vendors already picked out for us. And the vendors they work with aren’t shoddy vendors, either. The cake was AMAZING, the DJ was fabulous, and the staff at the venue was very professional and easy to work with.
If you book the venue, you basically get access to a coordinator who works there, too. We worked with Glenn Nelson, who is one of the co-​owners of the catering/​event company that partners with the venue. He was very helpful, knowledgeable, and easy to get a hold of. And the week of the wedding he was able to problem solve all the last minute details. The day of the wedding, he and his staff were on top of every detail and I didn’t have to worry about anything.
My husband and I are both vegetarian and served a vegetarian meal at the wedding, and Glenn was great in helping us plan our menu. We had a tasting with him a few months before the big day, and the food was delicious! I got several comments from guests at the wedding saying how much they enjoyed the food, as well.
Tips:
I had hired a friend as the ‘day-​of coordinator,’ and it became evident that I didn’t need her. Glenn basically filled that role, taking care of all the small details and fixing any problems that came up. It is up to each bride to decide how much day-​of help she will need, but I found that having a few friends to help me get dressed was enough, and I didn’t need a day-​of coordinator, as well.

We had the joy of having Panetta’s help us with our wedding and create a wonderful dinner for our reception. The beef was outstanding, the chicken is to die for, and the stuffed mushrooms were loved by my family and friends.
Even though those that helped me out at first could not be there the day of it was of little consequence because those they sent in their stead were wonderful and took care of everything.
If we were to chose again we would definitely choose Panetta’s for our wedding and reception for it was the most lovely wedding and a wonderful reception.
A very warm thank you to Panetta’s and their wonderful staff.

Our perfect venue (Creekside Terrace in Los Gatos) is only bookable through Panetta’s, so we worked with Lori and her assistant Erin for most of our wedding’s details (all we did separately was buy alcohol, and hire the band, florist, and photographer).
Pros:
— Food was great (lots of compliments from our guests!)
— Very experienced and knowledgeable (she’s done more weddings than we have…)
— Very organized (laid out details of costs, timeline, etc)
— Responsive and flexible (we visited the venue multiple times when family members were in town, she suggested decorations that would work with our theme and the venue, etc)
— Lori got us approval to have mini-​kegs (which are usually not allowed at Creekside) and separately met with our band to talk about optimal set up and «house rules» (i.e., the noise ordinance)
— MOST IMPORTANTLY: Our wedding was fabulous! We didn’t worry about a thing, everything ran smoothly, and we had fun!
— And the icing on the cake: when we had a disagreement about our deposit with the venue, Lori stepped in and reimbursed us the difference.
Cons:
— The wait staff were not in uniform when the bridal party and families arrived, which didn’t seem too professional, and there were a few that were not polite. (However, service was good and the bartender was especially great.)
— Lori’s strong personality rubbed some guests the wrong way. She’s got a lot of opinions because she’s done so many weddings, but if you want something in particular, make sure you stand up for it. On the other hand, it was her personality that resulted in our wedding running so smoothly.
— Minor service snafus: The wait staff served the appetizers reserved for my husband and me to our bridal party, and cake service was a bit dodgy (I didn’t end up getting any of the layer I wanted!)

THIS PLACE = BAD RESPONSIVE SERVICE !!
DONT WASTE YOUR TIME, PLEASE.
This is based on customer service. Not on food, as never had a chance to book a tasting.
Left message to contact me, but no response. Then i followed up, in case my first attempt was lost in «their» disorganized shuffle. They eventually contacted me and said my occasion was to early, and they would speak with chef and then contact me before the event with responses to my request… Well guess what? my occasion has since passed and yet no call or email.

Taste: Panetta’s offers food that tastes great and will surely please most audiences. I’ve tried their food at Freedom Hall and Gardens. I love their Cajun Pasta and their Chicken Madeira — the best, ever.
Service: My mom and I have talked to a lot of people on their staff, especially Glen and Erin. Basically, this is how it went down: I wanted Panetta’s to cater for my wedding because I loved their food and I know they offer great prices, but I wanted something a little different (family style). He (I believe Glen) tried to come off like he was trying to save me money, but it just came off like I was being cheap. He made it clear that he disliked me wanting to have an inside reception, and he completely discouraged me telling me there was no way I could fit family style for 150 people in my venue (which was preposterous because I held a picture of my venue filled with 18 tables holding 10 people each). Anyway, they said they would do some work, talk to my venue, try to get a layout, create a short proposal, and get back to me within the week. They have never, ever gotten back to me. EVER. I repeat, they NEVER, EVER called me back. Quite disappointing.
Price: Prices are great, really. They have all their prices listed on their website menus.
Misc./Interseting Factors: From my experience they’re not big on delivery or presentation, just food. It’s not a 5 star dining experience, but like I said earlier, their food is good. Everything else, you get what you paid for.
NOT 5 because: Well because they never got back to me, and quite frankly they were rather douche-​baggy on the phone. They’re probably great if you have a venue that they usually work with and don’t want anything really fancy. Their food is good, and they do good work, but NOT great. If you want someone you can trust and will work over and beyond for you, look elsewhere.
Panetta’s, you just lost a client who was willing to spend 15k. Don’t even bother calling me back anymore.

Thank you Panetta’s Family (Glen, lorie, erin and everyone=)! you guys did an amazing job on our wedding day. The food, the set up… everything was just amazing.. They really know what they are doing. I did not have to worry about anything on my wedding day because of Ms. Lorie. Thank you thank you thank you!!!
You guys made my wedding day so beautiful =)

We had our wedding ceremony (not reception) at the Saratoga Foothill Club on 5÷7÷11, which is rented through Panetta’s. Overall, I would say that they did an okay job. The set-​up on the day of was well done (the chairs in particular were very beautiful) and the appetizer arrangement was attractive. The company seemed a little disorganized, like when they claimed we hadn’t paid them the rental fee even after our check had been deposited and the deposit statement was in our bank statement. I wasn’t very pleased with the fact that catering was required in our rental contract for the Saratoga Foothill Club, so we were forced to order the appetizers (our reception was elsewhere). But that was okay, I guess. The main thing I didn’t like about Panetta’s was our point-​of-​contact, Lori, who was really pushy and unpleasant to work with. She wasn’t respectful during our interactions and generally left me feeling belittled after our conversations. She just didn’t seem like a nice person. She did give us good advice during our rehearsal the day before the ceremony, but then told us right then that she wasn’t going to be present on the day of the ceremony even though she had originally said she would be there for the ceremony, which seemed like really late notice. Fortunately, everything went just fine (the rest of the Panetta staff are probably perfectly competent, and Erin in particular was really nice to work with). As another example, one of our groomsmen forgot his car keys inside the Club house during the rehearsal so he couldn’t drive home. Lori had left by the time we realized this and when I called Lori, she was totally unhelpful and refused to do anything about it until I practically begged her in tears. In the end, Erin drove back and let us in and was totally nice about it. I really don’t know why Lori was so awful — maybe she just isn’t good at working with people with our personalities (we’re both really reserved, quiet, and sensitive) and it’s likely that she’s more used to working with outgoing, demanding people who require push-​back. I’m certainly never going near her again, not that this will come up. Anyway, be warned! It was still better to have a catering company than to have had to deal with the details of set-​up and clean-​up ourselves. There were no major disasters and they got the job done. :-D

My husband and I went with Panettas for our wedding. Honestly it was a huge mistake! They made many errors (and I am very easy to please) and they missed things that we paid extra for. The event «coordinator» never said a word to me the entire day of our wedding and she was really rude to my mom. They didn’t bring enough plates so dinner took forever because they had to wash and reuse them for other guests. The best part… after the wedding when I wanted to talk to them about what happened… they never returned my calls. They never gave us our deposit back and never told us why. They didn’t even have the decency to call me back. Beware!

I got married Nov. 6 @ The Saratoga Foothill Club. Panetta’s did a WONDERFUL job with my wedding reception. The food was amazing. Panetta’s has been in business for over 30 years. Glen and Erin are the owners. They know what they are doing. I did not have to worry about anything on my wedding day. They were so great working with my husband and I. They met with us 2 weeks before the wedding to lock everything in and discuss the fine details of the reception. I had 100 favors, 2 different color rose paddles, kissing bells, 50 candles!!! I mean alot of stuff. I was so impressed when i walked in the reception. Every little detail was perfect. Erin was there to make sure everything went just right. Im so glad we choose them as our wedding caterer, DJ, wedding cake. They made my wedding reception a dream come true.
THANK YOU PANETTA’S
(GLEN, ERIN AND LOURIE)

We used Panetta’s for our wedding on 10÷22÷10 at the Saratoga Foothill Club and, overall, were pleased with the results.
Pros:
–Excellent price on their package deal that includes catering, cake, and DJ
–No corkage fee saves tons of money
–Yummy chicken madeira is a crowd pleaser
–They have extensive experience working with their preferred locations and vendors giving them insight into how things will work best
Cons:
–No hard alcohol allowed (at least not at Saratoga Foothill Club)
–Upcharges for appetizers, meat, china for the cake/​coffee, and upgraded chairs really add up
–Sometimes got the impression that they were disorganized
Erin was our main point of contact for details, and Glenn was our coordinator on the day of. Erin was very nice and was quick to respond to any and all of my questions between January, when we signed the contract, and October. Glenn was very knowledgeable and experienced, but sometimes his advice went too far and he didn’t seem to sense that we weren’t interested. He did his best to keep everything flowing during the day of and let me enjoy my guests’ company, but we got off to a bad start when we arrived at the location with our makeup artist and no one was there to let us in. We had arranged to have someone let us in at 10:30 and 2 phone calls and 20 minutes later we finally got in.
In hindsight, Panetta’s did everything that they promised to do and the location looked great, and we and our guests had a great time. It’s true what they say, «you get what you pay for», but we’re happy with what we got for the price.

We hired Panetta’s to do our wedding at the Los Gatos History Club. Glen is very organized and easy to work with. And the two most important things — the food was excellent and it was on time! I received so many compliments on the food. You will not be dissapointed with Panetta’s

For purposes of full disclosure, the food at our wedding was great. Glenn had a lot of good suggestions and was open to what we wanted while at the same time very knowledgeable about doing buffets for large crowds. We had a morning brunch and the food they provided was delicious.
The low rating is from the difference between the service we were provided, and the service we were promised. Throughout all our meetings with Lori we were told that she would coordinate the event on the day of (this is part of what we were paying for) however:
1) They were completely understaffed. I had guests tell me that they poured their own drinks because the bartender was gone for a while and that they had to ask for the buffet food to be refilled.
2) They poured the champagne for toasts before we ate even after we had told Lori that we wanted to do toasts after the brunch (not quite sure what the point of completing the day of time line on 3 different occasions was if they didn’t even use it). Lori herself was one of the people pouring the champagne — showing just how understaffed they were.
3) The wait staff didn’t serve the cake — they made people come up and get it when we had been told they would serve it, probably due to being understaffed. Again, Lori was the one cutting up the cake — distracting her from the job we paid her to do — coordinate the wedding.
4) My husband and I weren’t served cake at all. By the time I realized they weren’t bringing us any I had to ask someone to go get me some and one of the flavors was all gone.
5) We walked through a wedding time line Lori practically every time we met with her (not sure why she didn’t just keep the one from the last meeting) and ended up running around ourselves on the day of making sure that we did everything — telling the DJ when it was time for toasts and first dances, and we ended up not doing the garter/​bouquet toss because we forgot and Lori was too busy trying to make up for her lack of staff that she didn’t have time to coordinate the event.
6) We weren’t offered the leftovers from our buffet (even though we paid for all the food and were told there was a lot left over).
7) Cherry on top — the day before the wedding my brother-​in-​law got poison oak on his foot after walking through the ceremony seating. When I brought it up to Lori she nonchalantly mentioned that it was spread throughout the ceremony seating so CLEARLY she knew about it and didn’t do or say anything to us (luckily I have an amazing brother-​in-​law who spent the entire morning of the wedding on his hands and knees taking it out).
Overall, it was a beautiful wedding and everyone enjoyed themselves but with the lack of the day of coordinator we were promised my husband and I had a much more hectic time on our wedding day than it should have been. If you are looking for a place to do the food for your event and rentals for a reasonable price, I would recommend Panetta’s. However don’t expect for your event to have a day of coordinator, or enough staff.

Ok. So we didn’t end up picking Panetta’s as our wedding reception caterer but we were very very very glad we met with them. First, the one advantage they have over other caterers is that it’s a one stop shop: catering, wedding cake and DJ are all included in their package. Furthermore, I would have no worries on my wedding day, based on Lori’s (the wedding coordinator) experience. Just talking with her, my fiancé and I could already tell that she would take care of everything that day. You should choose Panetta’s if you want to save yourself some time and go with a high level of service which includes catering, wedding cake, DJ and wedding day coordinator.

My wedding was on Oct. 24 at J/​L Ranch and it was amazing. Panetta’s did a FANTASTIC job. I received so many compliments on how great the food was. Lori is the best, she really helped me get everything together and was there on the day of the wedding to make sure everything ran smooth. The staff at Panetta’s was so friendly and very professional. Thank you so much Panetta’s for make my wedding so wonderful :)

For my parents’s 60^th wedding anniversary, we used Pannetta’s, with Glenn as our contact. He had great suggestions, worked well with my parents. On the day of the event, all went smoothly, despite record breaking heat! The staff was very professional, and we had plenty of comments on the fabulous food, as well the responsive staff. They did a great job with the clean up too.

We got married at the Los Gatos History Club in June and Panetta’s catered the event. WOW! They took care of everything — the wedding cake, the DJ, the food… It was fabulous. The staff was outstanding — professional, well-​dressed, courteous. Our guests had a great time, the event was beautiful, the music lively, and the food was delicious. You’ve got to try their chicken medeira — it’s really, really good. Many thanks to Panetta’s for a lovely reception we’ll always remember.