Event: My Godchild's 7th Bday
Venue: La Mediterrenean Clubhouse in Dasmariñas, Cavite
As early as April 2014 we started talkin to my bestfriend's choice of caterer, which happens to be Zip and Zest, my bestfriend is working in Dubai and she wont be back in the Philippines until a day before the 7th Bday Party(sept 2014).Since she's away, I personally talked to the supplier in her behalf, I had a meeting with Ms. Eden and Ms.Lenny for the details, we explained how we wanted the party to be, from the settings of table, menu, designs of the clubhouse to the nitty gritty part of the event.They said yes, we can deliver that, they showed me their recent events and most of their reviews online were all ok, during the first and last meeting Ms Len even said that she was the one who did the decors/design /interiors for one of the offices of BDO ( forgot the exact bldg), So I didn't ask for another meeting because I told they got all the instructions clear. What's my verdict, Verdict?
Communication: 5/5
They will call when they said they will, they will meet up with you on the agreed time and even sent someone to pick us up and send us to their place as were not familiar with their address.
Design: 3/5
They did a good job with the decorations, but still too plain for us, we explained to them how we want things done, they just keep saying " yes we can do it, yes we can deliver that, yes we can provide that.... YES, YES,YES" but on the day of the event itself, its a NO,NO,NO. We added 100 extra balloons for them to pump and use as decor, as we don't want the venue to be bare, well its not bare, but the decors are very minimal.We gave them a balloon before the event because we want the venue to be really colorful, they didnt use the extra balloons because they're too big (its a size12, theyre using size 10 and 5, the very small ones), we didn't mind that, they explained that they will be giving away the balloons to the guest along with the tokens before they leave ( which they did), it seems that the number of balloons they were able to give away is less than 100, were just wondering where the remaining went since they didn't return it to us.
FOOD: 1/5
It was edible. That's the best way to describe it.The dessert that they're supposed to serve was Buco Pandan, but it already tasted funny when they tried serving it, so they had to take back all the Buco Pandan and stop serving it. In short, they didn't serve dessert, when I asked Ms Eden " So we dont have a dessert?" she answered" we still have ice cream" , which doesnt make sense as we paid Php200 per head for the catering alone which includes the viands,rice,drinks and DESSERT,not to mention that the Ice Cream they were referring to was just 2 tubes, which I think was only good for 100 pax when we have 200-250 guest. Thank God, there was a visitor who brought 50-60pcs of cupcakes.I think it was a major ripped off, we paid for a meal package with dessert and they werent able to serve one and they didn't refund us anything.I'm just not sure if it's just me being an OC or theyre just not really into Food Safety, I had to watch the staff chopping the Lechon and remind him every now and then to fan the Lechon ( we are in an open area venue , therefore there are flies present), They're explaining to me its normal to have flies as the venue is an open area - i just rolled my eyes, i'm like duh?I know that, my point is you know its an open are, there are flies then why don't you keep fanning the food to keep the flies away?
Program: 3/5
The host was great, very lively and they both had high energy which made the party an acceptable one. It would've been perfect if not for the fact that they keep using adlibs that are not really true, like major prize for games are : PSP , Gift Certificates to PureGold Grocery and some more other fabulous prizes that really didn't exist, which sounds awesome but really? ( It sounded funny at first but they kept repeating it during the entire game time which becomes annoyin) ,its very misleading. just like they way they do business.
Photobooth:3/5
Yes there was a photobooth, but the backdrop was an epic fail.It looks very cheap, they couldve just used a white or pink cloth or something plain and more elegant looking than this glossy tarp:
Photo and Video: -1/5
Another major fail, there were only like 100-150 shots and 60% of the shots were either blurred,the eyes were closed, blocking was bad, bad lighting (too dark). They gave the excuse that the pics sent were just RAW pics,it was a mess. Either the celebrants eyes were closed or there some people that cant be seen from the group pic( blocking problems that couldve been avoided if their photographer was using his common sense) and most of the pics are blurred.We called them the very moment we got the raw images, theyre answer:" raw pa lang po yan ieedit pa po", I answered them sarcastically, "ah ok cge baka sobrang galing nyo magedit, meron kayong apps, pang open ng mata or pampalinaw ng major blurry shots". The shots during the event and especially the prep part was so disappointing, I should've just borrowed the cam and took the shots myself, I'm not a pro in photog but I know the basics (take a LOT OF PICTURES!! coz its digital, blocking-its Digital, u can check it on the LCD if someone was not seen or if the shots was blurry!!). I havent seen the video yet and im not even sure if they already submitted it. The event happened last sept 2014, my bestfriend just got the album last january if im not mistaken, and of course the result was an epic fail.
** update: as of today 05.25.2015, the photo "ALBUM" , is not yet delivered and theyre still working on it, they saw this entry and messaged my bestfriend asking why there's a post like this,they said that this post is very unfair because theyre not scammer, My bff talked to me about this post, and i'm like "im sorry but NO I will not take this post down, I wont let them fool another client". My bff told me that Ms Eden said that they can refund Php15,000 but they will not edit the pictures and video, im not sure exactly what they meant by that.
Over All: -1/5
We paid roughly around Php80,0000 for the whole package, which includes:
* food
* decor
* venue
* photo/video
* photobooth
* clown/host/program
VERDICT: we felt like we were scammed. Major disaster, they ruined the special event. Don't be fooled with the way they talk, they're not a professional caterer, professional scammer?maybe. Will we recommend them? NO!
My 2 cents:
* never promise something you can't deliver
*misleading and scamming doesn't go too far from each other, there's just a thin line and ZIP and ZEST is somewhere in the middle
* They weren't able to serve dessert, but its included in the package we paid for. If we didn't get it then they should've refunded us the money for the dessert
* The 40 pages album is not yet produced til now. It's been almost a year
* I don't think they're even legit, they didn't provide us any receipt.
* The photos are just really bad :( , shoot me an email I'll send you the raw shots so u can see it for yourself.
