Wild Thyme Events

We wanted to hire a smaller, local, family-​owned and operated caterer for our outdoor Sonoma wedding in October 2012. Wild Thyme Events came recommended to us by some friends who had hired them to do their rehearsal dinner in May 2011. We had our initial meeting with Joanne (one of the owners) about 10 months before our wedding. Joanne and her husband Keith (another owner and also the chef) prepared a beautiful sample menu for us. We expressed a desire for local, sustainable foods that were in season for our reception menu. Wild Thyme gave us exactly that — figs stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped in bacon, along with smoked duck and artichoke heart pizzettas for appetizers; tri-​tip and wild-​caught fresh rock fish, potatoes au gratin, green beans, Acme French bread, and an heirloom tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad on a bed of greens for dinner. The food couldn’t have been better — it was incredibly fresh, perfectly seasoned, and timed exactly as we requested. We had 100 guests at our wedding. Wild Thyme did not have to set up tables or chairs for our reception, but they did set up the linens and place settings for dinner. They arrived early for set up and were ready to go in plenty of time. Wild Thyme plated the salads and put them at people’s seats so they could eat those during my dad’s speech and before the buffet opened. We had family members bake and provide desserts, with just a small, one tier cake. We asked Wild Thyme to please provide fresh strawberries and whipped cream — which they did, and they were absolutely fresh and delicious. They also took it upon themselves to beautifully set up the desserts provided by our families onto tiered trays — the dessert buffet table could not have looked prettier. They did not charge a «cake cutting fee» for our small cake. We also hired our bartender through Wild Thyme — he generously poured beer, wine and champagne all night (we purchased and provided all of our own alcohol, the bartender just served it). We received so many compliments on the food and the professionalism of the catering staff — we are very happy with our decision to hire Wild Thyme to cater our wedding reception. My only complaint — we specifically asked that a tip cup not be placed on the bar during the reception. We tipped the bartender and servers generously before the event so that a tip cup would not be placed on the bar. To our surprise, the bartender put out a tip cup anyway — which unfortunately, we didn’t notice until there was only an hour to go at our reception. At that point, the cup was full of money, and it wasn’t worth saying anything to him (I was trying to be a Zen bride!). So overall, we were very satisfied with the food and service provided by Wild Thyme Events — Joanne and her staff were very accommodating and pleasant to work with. We would hire them again if we ever needed a local caterer in Sonoma.

We used this caterer for my daughter’s wedding in Sept. 2009. Their food was excellent and their price was very competitive. The problem was that they arrived at the venue in Healdsburg (a vineyard) at about 1:10. Guests were to start arriving at 2:30. They were supposed to set up the 150 chairs out on the lawn. They were so late that we had to set up the chairs. They didn’t start setting up the tables until about 1:30. This was a huge problem as we had to decorate 18 tables with some complex center pieces in short order. I was the mother of the bride and it was 90 degrees out and I was sweating like crazy, my hair was coming undone and my makeup was running. Half of the wedding party was trying to get my daughter ready and the other half was trying to get the centerpieces on the tables put together. We were frantic.
The next thing you know, I had 5 of our guests standing there looking at me in my street clothes asking me what was going on? I looked at my watch and it was 2:40. Yikes, the wedding was supposed to start at 3:00 and half of us weren’t even dressed yet because of the table and chair fiasco. So, how embarrassing, those 5 guests took over and finished the tables so the other half of the wedding party could get ready. Ugh
When my daughter found out that some of the guests were decorating the tables, she started having a meltdown. We had to calm her down poor thing. We should have never been put into that position. They should have arrived much earlier and taken care of the chairs and tables. Then we could have calmly gotten the tables decorated in plenty of time. Instead of enjoying getting ready for the big day with my daughter, I was running around like a maniac in the heat trying to fix the tables.
This caused the wedding ceremony to start 40 minutes late which triggered the minister to get her britches all in a knot with us about it. It also cut into the reception time which made things rather rushed and ultimately cut into the amount of dancing time we all got to do.
Our other complaints were that when it came time to eat, the place settings were all completely out of wack with the chairs and the decorations. In other words when you sat down, nothing in front of you was organized correctly and it was confusing. This was because the tables got thrown together so quickly. Then, we had three different food choices. She served I believe the chicken then there was like a 15 min wait for the beef and then another 15 min wait for the veg dish. This caused people with the chicken and beef to wait until all were served before starting and as a consequence their food was cold. Also, there was a special expensive bottle of champagne that she was supposed to serve to the bride and groom. That didn’t happen. When we questioned why it wasn’t served, she said she couldn’t find it. After the the reception, when we were cleaning up, we found it in the refrigerator in the kitchen in plain sight.
The owner of the catering business then presented my daughter with a bill and she had over charged us. We didn’t notice it initially. My daughter gave her the check and then we noticed it. We stopped payment on the check and complained. She adjusted the bill but then refused to take responsibility for the table and chair fiasco, the slow food serving and the champagne mess up. We only tipped her $ 50.
If you hire this caterer, lie to her and tell her the reception is starting two hours before it really does so she will get her fanny in gear and get there on time. Pick simple table decorations just in case she is late so you don’t spend too much time trying to construct something complicated on the tables. Lastly, pick only one dish not three otherwise the first served will have cold food waiting for the others to be served.
I give her 5 stars for her food and the overall price. I have to deduct 3 stars for the table and chair fiasco, the slow service, the champagne messup, the overbilling incident and her refusal to take responsibility for any of it.