When Lisa (the Baker) and Adrian (the Chef) planned their wedding they had three priorities: the food had to be really good, it should be low-stress in a beautiful setting, and Ralph (the Dog) had to be involved. They got all three, and a happy day for everyone.
Lisa tells their story. We had heard only good things about Ruth Pretty Catering for a long time. Adrian had enjoyed working with Ruth on a couple of the large-scale Pinot Noir conference dinners she caters.
Norbert from our venue The Milk Station also highly recommended them, so in the end we didn't even look at any other caterers.
I came across The Milk Station online by accident really; they don't seem to advertise themselves much and I kind of liked that about them. The spaces are beautiful, and we could hold the ceremony in a sheltered garden.
A venue deal breaker was that it had to be pet friendly! Our dog Ralph goes everywhere with us and so it was very important that he could be there on our wedding day.
Fortunately, Norbert was more than happy to have Ralph roaming around, which we really appreciated. With 20 rooms on-site, our friends and family could all stay together. And the rooms were stunning!
Everything was very straightforward planning-wise. We met with Ruth and her assistant Olivia, and basically just talked about food for an hour or so! We felt a strong food industry connection with her; we are part-owners of Café Polo in Miramar.
Ruth offered a huge selection of food ideas for us to choose from and was very happy to include ours too. In fact, I made the cupcake wedding cake, my friends made the little signs and Adrian put it all together while I was getting ready on the day!
We collaborated in coming up with the food station idea. Our wedding was relatively small, and we sat everyone at long banquet style tables. We really wanted people to mix and mingle and it didn't matter if guests didn't make it back to their original seat.
Our guests just raved about the food and enjoyed the fact that they could pick and choose what they wanted. The Gua Bao was definitely my favourite and even getting some down my dress was worth it!
The lacy dress was made for me by Sally Eagle Bridal, and Adrian’s suit was from Mandatory, both Wellington-based.
Ruth not only provided the food and staff but also all of the dining tables and seating, cushions etc. It was all so simple, and low-stress.
On the day, wow, they were just amazing. Jon the Function Manager was just brilliant. He was everywhere we needed him – he and his team hands-down gave us the best hospitality service we have ever received. Knowing that industry well, we were so impressed that nothing was a problem for them and they had smiles on their faces from 10am till 12am - just wonderful!!!
The Milk Station building itself is beautiful so we didn't feel like we had to do too much to it, and we wanted to keep things simple. So my girlfriends and I arranged all of the flowers the day before and Ruth's team set them up beautifully for me on the day.
Norbert and Ruth have obviously worked together a lot before and that showed on the day: to us it was seamless and just the right atmosphere - relaxed and happy! We wouldn't hesitate to recommend both of them, they were just perfect for us.
Our day was everything we wanted it to be. And Ralph loved it.
Photo Credit: Clive Piggott, Artful Dodge