Magnolia Events

This review is WELL overdue on my part. My wife and I began planning our wedding at Marcy Casino in Delaware park, while we lived in North Carolina. We knew that we would be moved to Buffalo by the time of our wedding, but prior to that happening, we were long distance planners. (yikes!) This is not such an easy task, however working with Jason Davidson, and Magnolia made our planning so much easier!
We spent a few months working with Jason on fine tuning our reception menu. We wanted a Buffalo and North Carolina theme, and he created a menu that looked absolutely amazing on paper, keeping our budget in mind each step of the way. Obviously, with a custom menu, you don’t get a chance to try everything, so we were nervous about how the meal would turn out. Well, the food was even better that it sounded on paper. Our guests are still talking about how amazing the food was. My wife and I missed out on the Hors d’œuvre’s (picture time), but our guests made sure to tell us how perfect these were as well. Absolutely fantastic job that Magnolia did with our food. Guest favorites were the Buffalo Chicken Roulade with spicy blue cheese stuffing, the Barbecue shrimp with smoked cheddar grit cakes, and our Carolina favorite, pulled pork with mac n’ cheese. Hey, don’t judge… at was a Buffalo/​Carolina wedding… what’d you expect? ;)
Catering is about more than just food though. Since we were planning our wedding from afar, we were happy to learn that Magnolia would provide linens and table settings for us at Marcy Casino, and allow us access to the venue ahead of time, so we could get set up. We also received quite a few compliments from our other vendors (DJ, video, flowers etc…), about how easy Magnolia was to work with.
The staff of Magnolia was on point and professional all evening. They had more than enough people to service our guests, and were pleasant and funny at each step of the way, making each of our guests feel at home. Our space at Marcy, as well as the tables were kept clean for the entire evening. Bar service was great, and no one ever had to wait for a drink.
At the end of the evening, the last thing we wanted to worry about is taking down and transporting all of our decorations. Magnolia allowed us to store our decorations on site, and pick them up the next morning. Jason, the owner of Magnolia, was on site for most of our reception, which says a lot about the pride he has for the work that we does.
I would highly recommend using Magnolia to cater your event. Jason, and his staff were so easy to work with, and our event went off without a hitch!

I recently co-​chaired an event at the Buffalo Museum of Science for 300 advertising professionals. It’s a rowdy crowd who like to eat, drink, and have a great time, but by nature, they are a group of perfectionists who expect only the best quality, service, and product.
Our annual event had been missing the «wow» factor the past few years, so when we decided to hold our event at the Museum, I knew the venue would deliver the wow, and next up was getting the bar/​food to deliver. We hired Magnolia after our Museum contact recommended them, and from the start, Jason and his team at Magnolia Events were so easy to work with and flexible to meet our needs.
I gave Magnolia a set price per guest and told Jason how our goal was to wow our guests and throw one hell of a party. We gave him the freedom to do what he and his team do best. We didn’t micromanage the situation, we didn’t obsess over every little detail — instead we collaborated on a fabulous menu which we knew would impress every single guest in attendance.
Jason and his team took care of everything so I as the co-​chair didn’t have to worry. And this wasn’t easy given the Museum is open to the public until 4pm every day. The food stations we had were sensational. The passed hors d’oeuvres were plentiful and delicious, and the bar was fully stocked and flowing all night. The staff were attentive, kind, courteous, and I don’t think I ever saw an empty glass or plate on a table all night.
Jason also had the idea to butler drinks as guests arrived, which was a classy addition to the evening and really set the right tone. No one likes to stand in line at a crowded bar, so the idea of being greeted with a glass of wine with a friendly smile really went a long way.
I obviously could go on, and for those thinking of using Magnolia, I would be happy to provide a personal referral. When it comes to catering options for big crowds, I urge you to consider Jason and his team. I would put them up against any fine dining catering company in Buffalo. You will not be disappointed.
Magnolia won over 300 people last Friday night, and I know they will win you over as well.

Extremely unprofessional.
We had our wedding at Marcy Casino back in August 2012. We were given a short list of caterers to choose from and narrowed it down to Rich’s and Magnolia. I reached out to both businesses and gave them our budget and some likes and dislikes. I had multiple emails and phone conversations back and forth with both companies as I was trying to plan my wedding from across the country and was on a budget. While Rich’s (Steve G.) handled everything quickly, clearly, and professionally, Magnolia’s Jason was quite the opposite.
Jason and I were working on a potential menu together and when I asked that another tweak be made, I never received an updated quote. In fact, I never heard from Jason again. I called, texted (he had communicated with me via text previously), emails, left multiple voicemails… nothing. nada. zippo. I was annoyed and perplexed… how can one run a business like that… in the SERVICE industry?
About a month before the wedding, I learned that Marcy Casino had awarded Magnolia exclusive catering rights and Jason had taken over «managing» the building. Since we had already booked our wedding we were still free to use Rich’s.
About two weeks before the wedding, my parents went out to the venue to take some last minute photos for me. They ran into Jason who was clearly confused as he thought that HE WAS STILL DOING THE WEDDING! It was TWO WEEKS before the event, we hadn’t spoken in months (as he decided to end communication), we hadn’t given Magnolia a downpayment of any sort… how could this «professional» caterer really think that he was still doing our wedding?
I am so happy that we chose Rich’s and I couldn’t have been happier with the food, the service, and Steve’s organizational skills — he CLEARLY knows what he’s doing when it comes to weddings & catering and will go above and beyond to make your special day truly wonderful.
Conclusion: Skip Magnolia if you want hassle free catering. Call Rich’s and ask for Steve G.

It’s not often that I would take the time to comment on a business but our experience having Magnolia –owner Jason Davidson — cater our wedding at Marcy Casino was very disappointing and unsatisfactory. The process of planning the dinner was frustrating and disjointed because Jason was pre-​occupied with opening up a new restaurant on the waterfront, and midway through the process he hired someone else to take over the wedding planning because he couldn’t handle both. Jason’s hired planner was rude, non-​responsive to emails, he tried to change the terms of our contract, and he did not get along with Magnolia’s own staff. Jason eventually fired him during the planning process (without telling us for 2 weeks while our emails went unanswered!) So– we had to start over again with Jason, details were lost in the process, and it caused more stress and aggravation then we signed up for. This was before the wedding…
The night of the wedding we had a great time overall. I say this because I choose to remember the positive aspects of that night before anything else. However, I would be remiss to ignore the things that made us feel like we didn’t quite get what we bargained for. One of our most important goals that night was to have a quick and efficient cocktail hour/​dinner so we could spend most of the night dancing outside. We said this from the beginning. We had a surprise dance planned for everyone and wanted the reception to feel most like a party. Instead, dinner ran an hour late, and the parents were served last, just before 9pm! One side of the room was completely finished with dinner while the other side was still being served; and those people were turned away from the bar which was supposed to be open. When I brought this to his attention, Jason tried to blame this on the table numbering and long speeches; however, we had no wedding party, under 100 guests, and speeches lasted only 10 – 12 minutes! Needless to say we only had about an hour and a half to dance that night because dinner took so long. I tried to find the owner to talk about extending later but his staff said he went home. I found out that the bar, which we paid for to open at 8pm, did not open until almost 930! His staff appeared confused and disorganized. The owner claimed after-​the-​fact that he offered to extend the bar, however he wasn’t even there; and nobody said a word to us. He later admitted the miscommunication.
Then, the next day, i couldn’t believe when I found out he approached my family at the reception and asked for more money, to the tune of $ 760!!! This was extremely unprofessional given that my family was never involved in paying for the wedding or dealing with Magnolia. When Jason and I spoke the next morning he never bothered to mention he took money from my family. We felt pretty deceived when we heard this and my family felt tricked. They paid to cancel the check. Jason later claimed it was a «billing error». He also would not agree to refund the bar being closed for a third of the night until we pressed the issue several times, despite the fact he admitted they made a mistake with the bar! We paid for a 4 hour package and got about 2.5 hours. At $ 19.50 a head, this was alot of $$. However he only agreed to refund about $ 200 a month later and after countless requests (we still haven’t received it to this day).
No wedding will ever go perfectly and issues are bound to come up. However, you expect that when you hire a caterer for your one special day, they will be attentive to details, and you expect that if issues arise, they will be dealt with quickly, honestly and professionally. That is not how Magnolia handles things unfortunately. The Delaware Park Marcy Casino is a beautiful location and we couldn’t have picked a better venue. However, I would have picked a different catering company. We couldn’t find any reviews online to check out before we booked them, so we hired them blindly; part of why I am now posting something. And apparently Magnolia will be the exclusive caterer for the Marcy starting in 2013. If you plan to get married at the Marcy, you have a few more months to consider hiring the other caterer, Rich’s, which did a great job at my cousin’s wedding.
A few positive notes, which is why I am giving Magnolia 1 star: the chef/​food was very good; the waitress assigned to our head table was excellent; during our rehearsal Jason gave us a bottle of prosecco; and upgraded the bar vodka a bit. Overall Jason has a friendly personality and is someone you want to like. We really hoped for the best, however he unfortunately came up way short.