Capers Catering

We used Capers Catering for our wedding of 150 guests at Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center and they truly made the event a complete success. Choosing a caterer was probably one of the harder decisions throughout the wedding planning process for us, but Capers’ professionalism, experience, and excellent food made the choice a no-​brainer. Kate worked with us throughout the entire planning process and was incredibly responsive and knowledgeable. She had excellent suggestions, accommodated all of our requests, and brought our vision of our perfect wedding to life. Teresa was the event coordinator on the day of our event and she was amazing as well. Everything was executed perfectly, the space looked incredibly beautiful all set up, the service was spot-​on, and the food was phenomenal. My family won’t stop talking about how perfectly cooked their salmon was. During what is inevitably a very stressful planning process, working with Capers was a breeze and thanks to them our wedding day was pretty perfect. I would highly recommend them.

I need to start this review by putting it in context-​I had NO idea what I was doing when it came to wedding planning. None. Completely lost. Kristin from Capers COMPLETELY made everything so easy. She was so responsive and answered any and all random questions. She helped us with a timeline and diagrammed how the room would be set up and she was on top of EVERYTHING.
On the day of, Kristin started the set up and, even though I kept asking if I could help, she was completely on top of everything. It was great to have someone I could completely trust so I could worry about other things. Then, Catherine took over for the dinner itself and she was amazing too! They remembered that my husband and I don’t really drink, so we got sparkling grape juice for the toast without even asking! At the end of the night, Catherine even gave up a bag of leftovers, which was amazingly sweet. The day could not have gone better and it was really thanks to Capers that everything went so well. They aren’t just caterers; they seriously are magic-​makers.
And the food. The food was AMAZING! My husband loved the steak and I had the fish and it was amazing. My absolute favorite was the lobster roll appetizer (I may have eaten 15 of them while hungover the day after in the hotel lobby… oops!). Everything was just perfect. THANK YOU!!!

We used Capers for our June 2014 wedding at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation (CRMI), upon the recommendation of our wedding planner (Emilie Chang of Pink Orchid Weddings). From the tasting we did in June 2013 to the delicious cupcakes that ended our wedding reception, we had a wonderful experience with Capers staff. We worked with Kate Monteiro and the chef to design a menu of passed hors d’oeuvres (mini lobster rolls, spring rolls, watermelon feta cups, and crab cakes), salad, stations (sliders, mac and cheese, and tacos) with three types of cupcakes for dessert. They helped us accommodate allergies (nut and soy) as well as vegan and gluten-​free diets. Kate was so helpful and knowledgeable about catering and about the CRMI space and logistics that we never worried one bit about how the catering would go. The food also turned out amazing. Our guests could not stop raving about it!

Capers catered my wedding at the Lyman Estate, and I cannot say enough good things. Kate was wonderful throughout the planning, and Dana was amazing the night of the event. My guests are still raving about the food.
I contacted Capers originally with a different date in mind, and they were incredibly accommodating when we needed to wait over a year for our date and when we decided to go with a smaller guest list. They listened to everything we wanted, and the meal options were perfect. The food itself was beautiful, very balanced between high end and simple comfort food, and perfect down to every bite.
Kate always responded to me quickly, even when I knew my wedding wasn’t yet a priority because it was so far away, and she was always willing to listen. Her suggestions were always helpful, and she never dismissed any of our questions. I’m incredibly glad we went with Capters – after the tasting, it was no question. They helped make our day perfect.

Caper’s was AMAZING! I contacted a few caterers and Caper’s was the first to respond and also provided the best price and menu. Our contact at Caper’s was Kristin and she was so wonderful about getting back to my emails quickly and helping me with anything extra for the wedding (for example, they took care of making «reserved» signs for the ceremony). The food was phenomenal and beautifully presented! Caper’s not only provided the food, they really made the event happen. Diane was our coordinator for the day and she was perfect! She made sure everything was set-​up (including all of my DIY projects) and checked in regularly to see if there was anything my husband or I needed. In fact, one of the staff members tracked my husband and I down with a plate of appetizers during the cocktail hour (we were having some trouble bustling my dress and it was taking a lot longer than we expected), which we really appreciated because otherwise we would have missed them completely! All of the staff was very professional, friendly, and just wonderful! We can’t say enough good things about Caper’s and if we ever need a caterer again, we will be calling them!

Capers catered the wedding of Zachary Braiker and Purmina Thakre. The event was fabulous. The appetizers were yummy, and wonderful. The food was beautifully presented, and incredibly yummy. I had the Sea Bass, my husband had chicken, but I did not get to taste it. He would not share.
The desert included bananas foster made in front of the crowd. I had the blackberry crisp that was served in a cute little jar. There were other choices that looked wonderful too.
Everyone we talked to loved the food, and the event.
I could not recommend Capers more. It was wonderful.

We used Capers last August for our wedding at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, and they were a pleasure to work with! The wedding went off without a hitch — as least as far as I knew, and that’s what matters, right?!
Here are a bunch of details you may or may not want!
I must give them special props for the fact that the wedding was the weekend of Hurricane/​Tropical Storm Irene… we had some last-​minute changes, of course, since the original plan was to have the ceremony outside. On the Thursday before, we made the decision to switch chairs (no longer getting the ones that were to be used for the outside ceremony, and instead ordering more of the black dinner chairs to use for the inside ceremony). They quickly took care of the details and revised our invoice with no problem.
Though from other reviews and photos I can see that they are great at traditional style seating and dinners, in case you are thinking of doing something slightly non-​traditional, Capers can help with that too! To make sure there was plenty of room for dancing, we decided to go with a cocktail reception, with food stations and 75% seating rather than a formal dinner with seating chart. This could have easily gotten very confusing for guests, and with the exception of a few people who discovered this plan early and were eagerly waiting by the doors to rush in and grab a seat, it went very smoothly. There were some round hi-​top tables and some standard dinner-​sized round tables, and for the most part groups of people stuck together and used the tables as a «home base» rather than as a place to sit as wallflowers for the night. We were very happy overall with how the seating (and lack of seating) worked out for us.
(for logistics: we had the ceremony in the Theater of CMAC, and then everyone moved out into the Gallery and Hallway for cocktail hour while Capers set up the room and we took some photos downstairs — since we couldn’t do them outside as planned. Then after 45 – 60 minutes, everyone moved back into the Theater for dinner/​dancing/​etc, but the bar remained in the Gallery and so people could go back and forth between the two spaces.)
We worked first with Kristin and then mainly with Kate. They were both awesome. I of course was a nervous bride and would email them quite frequently with little detail questions and they never seemed frustrated or annoyed, just happy to help.
I also made lots of the decorations myself, from the big paper flower centerpieces to the pennant flags hanging on the buffet table, DJ table, bar, guest book table, etc, and made some little signs for the buffet, and things like that, in some cases asking Capers not to do their usual thing but to use my stuff to add to the «look» of the wedding (such as using my paper flowers for their passed hors d’oeuvres trays). Capers followed all of my overly-​detailed instructions about where everything had to go, and during the reception many of the servers even took the time to tell me how much they loved the decorations and were happy to have had such detailed directions to work with — I really appreciated those kind words coming from people who work weddings all the time!
I’m sure I’m missing some key details about the night and all the great things about Capers…
OH! The FOOD WAS DELICIOUS and presented in a really fun and modern way. Many people commented on how «cute» everything looked and how yummy everything was. We had seven different passed hors d’oeuvres and two different food stations and everyone was satisfied. One of my absolute favorite things about my wedding was the MINI MILKSHAKES that were passed during dessert! They were adorable and so so yummy! Such a great touch!
I think I will stop my gushing here, and let you decide for yourself… but hopefully I helped nudge you a little!

Having been a professional event planner, I know how important it is to find reliable, friendly, and consistent vendors. I am no longer an event planner professionally, but they call upon me at work to plan parties and such. For our recent end of the school year faculty party, I contacted a catering company that I had established a relationship with in my previous line of work. They have done 4 events for my school now and have always received glowing reviews for the service and food. To my surprise and disappointment, they never called or emailed me back. I was shocked that a company did not feel the need to maintain business relationships in this economy. Anyway, with less than a month to go until our party, I reached out to the Flip Flops, the more casual but still gourmet division of Capers Catering, as they have also previously catered events at my school. I was hoping that they could squeeze us in and help us out.
My initial contact with Chuck Ray over email was easy and he was able to fit our event in on short notice. He answered all of my questions and most importantly to a non-​profit, Flip Flops’ prices were competitive and there was a wide selection of menu items. They also accommodated our random needs, such as serving our own homemade sangria. Chuck handled all of our related needs, such as glassware rentals and liquor order from Gordon’s, and made suggestions for linen rentals, etc. When I advised Chuck of a variety of dietary needs, he told me it was no problem and indeed those folks were taken care of on the day of the party. Having supervised over a dozen events at our school, this was honestly the most seamless event I have handled so far!
Fast forward to the actual party, Diana the manager, Chef Ricardo, and Al the bartender (I believe DIana’s husband) were just so easy to work with. They were smiling the whole time and had helpful suggestions for our set-​up. They were flexible with timing as well. Our staff tends to have a pre-​dinner celebration and they understood that the dinner would not start at a precise time, but they were ready when we finally were. They stayed out of the picture when we had speeches for our retiring Head of School, but later Diana admitted that she even cried during the video that was made to commemorate our Head of School’s leadership! The food was delicious and they even packed up the extra food for us. (Our previous caterer would only do so if we had containers of our own and if we asked.) They helped us with breakdown and did not feel like service providers, but our friends who had stopped by for the party. The entire crew, including servers, were indicative of the wonderful service that Capers continues to provide.
I thought the excellent service ended when the party was over, but a few days later, Chuck emailed me to check in on how the event was and to thank us for our patronage. I was impressed by this extra step as it is rare that any vendor takes the time to do so after an event has ended and you have paid the bill! It is good to know that things happen for a reason. If our other caterer had called me back, we would not have had the chance to work with Capers/​Flip Flops again. However, we will be sure to use Capers/​Flip Flops again in the near future, with pleasure.