On the agenda we had meetings/tastings at Fete, Simply Gourmet and Mattison's. In addition we had a brief meeting set with a potential DJ. On top of all of that, we also had one of my old college friends' wedding to attend in Venice (this is just south of Sarasota).
We got to the area early Saturday morning and headed straight to Fete for the first tasting -- or so we thought. They are an upscale-ish restaurant located in the Lakewood Ranch area. We were impressed by their restaurant and our contact Erin. She was helpful and really sweet, one major problem -- these guys have a stance of getting a commitment out of us before letting us taste the various options. They were nice enough to comp a lunch, but I would have preferred small samples of various things from their menu. That made it really hard for us to go with them, so we looked to the next 2 options as higher possibilities knowing that they would go further out of their way to earn our business.
Our next stop was more of a "Mom and Pop" operation called Simply Gourmet. Simply Gourmet was really good. They had a table set up for us and a whole tasting prepared. Kristen and I were both super impressed with their salad. I mean, look at this salad!
The appetizers were also fresh and well prepared. Lastly, the shrimp and grits were really tasty. Kristen was hesitant about a few things like presentation on some dishes; I'm a bit more simple and was extremely caught up in the taste. They honestly could have served it to me in a coffee mug and I would have been equally impressed -- it was good!
We liked Simply Gourmet, but there were a few other issues beyond food presentation that were potential set backs. Doing 99% of this wedding on our own, we needed our vendors to be as full service as possible. There were a few things they could not roll into their services that would have been a big help (i.e. additional lighting). Our contact Jamie was super helpful and seemed extremely knowledgable, but we still had one more caterer to visit...
In between the tastings we had a chance to go look at the venue again. We had not seen it in months and going back out there and taking pictures was refreshing. Much to our surprise, the next caterer we were meeting with and potential florist were setting up a wedding for that evening! It was great to get a sneak peak of the setup and what our event could look like. We also had the chance to head over to the Ritz Carlton and check out the grounds as we had been considering renting a suite for the wedding night. Once the day concluded and our stomachs were on the verge of literally exploding, we headed back to our hotel for some much needed rest.
The following morning before our tasting with Mattison's, we squeezed in a quick meeting with Craig at Black Tie DJs. In all honesty, the thing I was most concerned about was personality and pricing. We thought about a band, but with being limited on hearing specific songs and of course being higher cost, we thought the DJ would be the best route.
I am also so into music and have such a strong opinion about what will (and more importantly will not) be played at the wedding, that hiring a DJ was more for the MC function and to bring life to the party. Any fans of the Village People and Nickelback will not enjoy our playlist. There is certain music I hear at weddings and bars that makes my skin crawl. I made it clear that if any of these songs were played during our wedding, I would be throwing him in the moat....well I didn't say that, but I've thought it several times.
We met with Craig for about half an hour and that's pretty much all we needed. He was a cool guy, seemed to have a good personality and his pricing is really in line with competition. In addition to that, they have a great local reputation and were on the preferred vendors list with the venue.
After that it was on to Mattison's. We went to one of their 4 local restaurants to meet with the owner and executive Chef, Paul Mattison. To say the least we were blown away. The presentation and the food this place makes is nothing short of phenomenal. I'm not even a big Salmon eater, and the Salmon they prepared was one of the best pieces of fish I've ever tasted (hint hint -- I recommend it!).
In addition to the food being awesome, Paul was a super nice guy and completely made us feel at ease. I usually have a "good people" detector and it's usually accurate for the most part. He just seemed like a laid back, intelligent, down to earth person and we both felt comfortable from the very beginning. He was also able to leverage things that really helped us such as additional lighting, better pricing on rentals and a potential rehearsal dinner spot.
Looking back on it, we didn't make the decision that weekend, but I think we did subconsciously. It took a few weeks but we eventually caved. After we had a couple of conversations with Paul where he really moved the needle and threw in a couple more fun surprises for us (you will see these at the reception!), we could no longer resist booking. It was difficult because we did really like Simply Gourmet; but in the end, we made the right decision for us by going with Mattison's. Here's a sneak peak at their awesome bruschetta which you'll see during cocktail hour.
To wrap up the weekend, we headed to the mall to buy me a new shirt (because I forgot the clothes I packed) and head to Julie's wedding. My friend Julie was getting married to her long-time boyfriend Josh that very same weekend and it was a fun get away from all of our own wedding related tasks.
The ceremony/reception was at a very nice country club in Venice . We stayed for most of the reception, but unfortunately had to head back early to Orlando to be at work the next day. It was nice seeing another wedding because it gave us a little glimpse into what we had in-store. Their wedding was wonderful, and again congrats to Julie and Josh!
Right about here, the fun was really starting to begin. I thought we were ahead of the game at that point. I had no idea :-)
- Smitty
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