Chuck Faulkner claims he's been in this business for over 30 years, and yet I've never dealt with such an unprofessional business owner in my entire life. His company catered my outdoor wedding in August of 2012. I used his company because it was tied to Crown Party Rental, the tent company I chose which was actually very pleasant and professional.
Chuck does not have an office of his own, so we set up a meeting at Crown Party Rental at 11am. Chuck did not arrive until 11:58am and offered no apologies for arriving one hour late. As I had already put down a deposit on my menu, I thought it better to just ignore this occurrence. During our meeting, I also decided to rent my linens (all ivory) through him. The linens were delivered at the site the day before the wedding to allow for easy set up and decoration on our end. However, when I arrived at the venue the day of the wedding, I saw that he had brought 130 stark white chair covers instead of ivory. The rest of the linens were ivory as I had ordered. I immediately called him. He did not pick up, so I left him a polite message to call me back. He did not call me back. However, one of my family members, seeing how terrible the mismatched colors looked and how upset I was, called him and Chuck immediately picked up. When he brought up the issue of the chair covers, Chuck said, "Oh, well, I may have messed that up." My family member demanded that he fix it (3 hours until the wedding at this point). Chuck sent ivory covers with his catering team and the wedding was delayed by 20 minutes as my guests stood around watching his team change over the chair covers. Then, as we stood in line to eat, I noticed that Chuck's team had only provided 3 entrees instead of the 4 ordered, the 4th being vegetarian lasagna. As my husband and many of our guests are vegetarians, it was sorely missed. The team also packed up all of the leftovers and took them with them. Perhaps I was mistaken to assume that all of the food we paid for was actually ours, but they packed up everything. I will say that the food was good. It was slightly cold (undoubtedly because his team had delayed everything), but good. As the final straw, when his team went around picking up their dinnerware, they picked up the stamped, antique silver forks that my husband and I had had made for the occasion. They use inexpensive, flimsy stainless steel forks, so if it was unintentional, they were extremely careless.
When all was said and done, I was willing to let everything go, with the exception of the forks. I want them returned to me. I called him twice asking that he please return my forks. During the second call he said that he had found one but would keep looking for the other. After the third call to Chuck asking that they be returned, he told me that he had given the one he had found to another bride that he thought might have been the one asking about it. When I addressed his carelessness, he had nothing but excuses that he was extremely busy and not responsible for my belongings. When I brought up the other issues including the delay of my wedding and the missing fourth entree, he said that his staff claims the wedding started on time and that the entree was there. To him it was as simple as that.
In the end, I still simply want my keepsake back. As he tried to end our last phone call, he said he would keep looking. When I brought up that he had JUST told me that he had given one of the forks to someone else, he said, "Well, I'm not sure...I'll keep looking."
Needless to say, this man is not worth the cost or the hassle he will bring you. He is a dishonest businessman and is not willing to admit the faults or failings of himself or his staff. This is not how small town businesses are typically run, and for good reason. I encourage anyone looking for a caterer in the Port Huron area to look elsewhere and to take your money and your business to someone who deserves it.
Marlena Purchiaroni
