Pine West/ Catering by Tarnow

I don't know where to begin with these guys! They were so helpful from day 1! Brenda practically holds your hand through the whole process, and takes care of SO much. The cost might be a little intimidating, but don't be fooled! We were on a very tight budget, and when you break down all that's included with the package, you save so much money...and time...and stress...We had our ceremony on October 22nd, in front of the fireplace. It was a nice enough day outside, and Brenda gave us the option of having it outdoors at the gazebo several times. She even asked us again just days before when the weather forecast said it would be a gorgeous day out. That - shocked me. We didn't want an outdoor wedding, but for Heaven's sake, if you DID want one - in Michigan - this is the way to do it! She gave us the option so close to the wedding date! Anywho, back to the wedding stuff. The fireplace room was gorgeous. Brenda had all sorts of options for decoration, but you don't even need it. Not to mention that our guests only had to walk into the next room for the reception. They opened the bar and had snacks waiting for them while we went and got our pictures taken (which beforehand, Brenda made sure to let us know of our likely timeline, so we took men's and women's pictures separately before the ceremony). And by the way- OUR PICTURES WERE GORGEOUS!!!! holy crap! We had originally planned to go to one of the nearby parks for pics, but the back area was more than we needed. It may be hard to tell, but the scenery is plentiful, and the garden is beautifully kept..That tall grass and the bridge supplied the BEST background for our pictures. ok food! fan.tas.tic! We had the stuffed chicken (do it), and the pasta bake...we had people telling us all night, and the days following how great it tasted. The cake could NOT have been better. This is where Brenda really shines! She was so excited, and in turn got us all revved up, when we started talking cake. I'm not going to lie...I'm a pie person. She sold me on the cake. We had a layer that was chocolate with raspberry filling, and another that was bananas foster-inspired: banana cake with caramel frosting. WOW. so good! I can't wait to dig into our top on our 1 year! Not to mention, she came up with a custom design just for us, it was beautiful!Joe, the DJ was wonderful. There was a technical difficulty when one of our guests kicked out one of the wires by accident, and he covered beautifully. He played all the music on our list, took requests, and played the music for our ceremony as well. The reception was wonderful as well. We did get the chair covers, and with that the reception took care of itself. The lighting is romantic and Brenda has centerpieces available. Instead we just used her votive candles, and I couldn't have been happier with how it looked. All in all, this was unbeatable. All we had to worry about was a pastor and a photographer. Brenda made all the rest happen. No bar tender, no caterer, no silverware rental, no dj, no baker, etc.I couldn't thank them all enough for all they did for us, it was a stress-free and silky-smooth day!!! Mwah!

Pine West is a great choice for a low stress wedding. Chris and I had both the ceremony and reception at Pine West. Part of the reason that we chose Pine West was that just about everything is on-site. It made coordinating and planning SUPER easy. Brenda was absolutely fantastic and reassuring throughout the whole thing. (The week/ day of the wedding was kinda miserable weather and we wanted an outside wedding.) The outside ceremony site was absolutely beautiful w/o any extra decorations. The only problems I had were when I had to deal with Carl. I heard from a few guests that he was a little rude to them. The main entrees for our dinner were fantastic (stuffed chicken and tenderloin tips). Our cake was very pretty as well. Brenda and the baker did an excellent job of incorporating the several pictures of cakes I liked into one. THANKS SO MUCH BRENDA!

Brenda was amazing! She was very in tune with making our wedding 'ours.' We were wedding planning from out of state, so my step mom toured venues for us. We chose Pine West because of Brenda's professionalism, responsiveness, amazing attitude, and experience. She really knew how to make a wedding flow so that it could be stress free for us and enjoyable for our guests.The outdoor ceremony area was BEAUTIFUL. We have amazing pictures out there (We had a great photographer - Chris Mcguire - check him out!). It's close to the highway, which is really convenient for guests, but in an alcove so that you can't hear the highway and it feels very private (it also lessened the wind on our somewhat cold windy day). The reception area is somewhat dated but clean and very functional. We chose to decorate it very simply and I thought it looked lovely. Brenda added lots of nice additions (but not too much, as I really wanted it to look simple and clean).The food. I have to say, I was a little hesitant about the food. We like good food and generally don't hesitate to drop some money on a nice meal. The food was very reasonably priced, and I thought that might mean the quality would be less. We had the Tarnow's Stuffed Chicken and a Veggie Ragu on top of Polenta with redskin potatoes and a winter carrot cassarole. It was AMAZING. I had the vegetable ragu with polenta - if you're looking for a great veg entree - CHOOSE THIS. No joke. It was so good. We got ready at Pine West and could smell them cooking everything before the wedding - yum. It's all made fresh that day. The staff was also great and professional. We had an open bar (at such a reasonable price!) too. Great fun!The cake. I LOVE cake. We tried cake from several places, just to make sure. And Pine West's cake was the best, by far. We had this amazing chocolate raspberry and a carrot cake with walnuts and coconut. They boxed up the leftovers for us too. My family was in heaven all week eating the leftovers. They even convinced us that we shouldn't save the top layer for our first anniv because they wanted to finish it while we were on our honeymoon :) The Power Outage :) Yes, we lost power on our wedding day from about noon until 4:30 (The ceremony was at 5pm). Pine West, the hotels next door, traffic lights... The staff at Pine West was on top of everything! They had kerosene lanterns in the kitchen and were chopping up all the veggies. They were just about to get generators when the power came back on. I was not stressed at all and they were all very professional and kept me up to date on what was going on.We had an amazing wedding and are so happy we had it at Pine West. It was super convenient for our guests and they did so much (at a very reasonable price) that it greatly reduced the wedding planning stress. If you have any questions, want to see pics, etc message me!

We used Pine West for our wedding in June (2010) and LOVED it! Brenda was great to work with and she went out of her way to see that things were done as we wanted. The outdoor facility made for some AMAZING pictures and I recieved numerous comments on how good the food was. To quote the best man, "this is the first wedding I've been to where ALL the food was good". On the day of the wedding, I was extreemly pleased with how curtious and helpfull the staff was. All of my guests requests were met without hesitation.

When I began planning my wedding I thought I would be in for a real challenge. My now husband and I both live in Virginia but wanted to get married in Michigan, where most of his family resides. I started my planning by searching for a reception hall and came across Pine West. I loved the website and the history that went along with this place and after talking a bit with Brenda I decided to go with this place. Brenda proved over and over again that I made the best selection. She was extremely helpful and through email helped me plan my perfect wedding. Being from out of town she was able to provide me with tons of useful information and even recommended the photographer and florist I used for my wedding. The place looked great, the food was delicious and the staff was amazing. It rained most of the morning we were there setting up and 2 of them ran around with umbrellas to shield us from the rain. Everyone was very polite and professional as well. I couldn't have asked for a better place to have my wedding and highly recommend Brenda and Pine West to anyone getting married in the Kalamazoo area. Thanks again for being such a huge help!!- Ashley & Don

Pine West took my instructions for simple, but elegant and completely surpassed my expectations. The reception hall took my breath away with it's elegant beauty. They are very easy to work with, allowing my personal effects to be added at the last minute. There were a few communication issues with the final cost as the final invoice is provided the day it is due, but Carl was kind enough to adjust the bill to accomodate my budget. Our cake was even intricately beautiful and was the best wedding cake I have ever tasted. Overall, I am VERY impressed with Pine West. Their price is unbeatable for the quailty of their product. Having the ceremony and reception at the same location was very convienent for our out of town guests and there are several hotels within walking distance. We had the served buffet style dinner at the reception. It may have been worth the extra $1.oo per person to have it served at the table as the buffet line took quite a while to get everyone through (this took time away from dancing and celebrating as the bar is closed during dinner).

Overall our reception was great. There were a few issues with communication, but they were all fixed by the reception. I was from out of town, and Brenda was great with meeting with me when I was in town or e-mailing me pictures and ideas. A few problems - Our seating chart got messed up so our guests were not sitting where they were supposed to, and I had a few comments that the cake wasn't that great. We also had problems with the music. A lot of the songs kept skipping or repeating and it got really annoying. My one suggestion is to make sure you give everything to Brenda. My mother dropped off some things to Carl and they got lost, causing most of our problems. When I talked or worked directly with her, I never had a problem. Overall it was a great reception and was a great place to join with our family and friends.

They were great. Everyone was really nice for the most part. If you book Pine West be sure you check the sign out front before the wedding. They spelled my name wrong. It was fixed before the wedding luckily. Don't get on the bakers bad side. She was kind of mean to me but that was resolved. Carl can be a little grumpy at times. My husband and I were out side taking pictures with the photographer when Carl came out and yelled at us to hurry up because the food was ready. He was also rude to the best man. I'm sorry but if we're paying you, you can just sit and wait until we are ready to serve the food. We didn't even take that long. Other than those few hiccups the wedding was great.

Breanna and I wanted to comment on this family business and to let everyone know that they deserve a HUGE high five! Brenda, Carl and their staff went ABOVE and BEYOND the call of duty when it came to our event. She was there to answer any and all questions every step of the way. When they say they treat you like family, they mean it! They really do treat you like one of the family! So many options available from the decor to the appetizer and at a great and reasonable price. They helped us in every aspect; from the picking of the menu all the way to helping with our little fishies! What really, really impressed us, aside from the exceptional service and creativity, was our hotel situation. During one of our many email conversations (I prefer email for my communication, so please don't think they are unapproachable by phone), I was sharing with her my frustrations that I was experiencing with our hotel we had for our guests. Out of no where, I received a call from my then Fiance and an email from Brenda informing me that she had called to the surrounding area hotels, personally spoke with their General Managers and was able to get us some last-minute awesome prices on hotel rooms. I did make a few calls to our guests and while it was a great offer, we did end up staying with the same hotel we originally booked, which we shouldn't have done business with in the first place. The food was amazing, the wedding cake was AWESOME (they are very artistic, spent a day and a half doing ours!), and the DJ helped us all dance the night away. On a personal note, I cannot believe how accomodating Pine West was to not only Breanna and I, but to our guests and the overall experience. If we needed anything, or needed to "tweak" something here and there, Breanda was always on top of it. She even went out of her way and prepared a special plate for one of my guests. If you are looking for creativity, personal and exceptional service as well as someone who is not in it JUST for the proft, Breanda and her Team are definitely the way to go. We will definitely be reccomending them to anyone who is looking for not only a reception venue but a ceremony venue as well!Shawn and Breanna WhitfordJuly 26th, 2008

Pine West was very professional and was there to take care of all the details for us.

Brenda is one of the nicest, most caring people I have ever met. She was so passionate about creating the perfect day for me and I will never forget how she was there for every last thing I needed. The food was great and the cake was beautiful. They transformed the room into a beautiful, elegent atmosphere...it couldn't have been more perfect. The whole staff was so accommodating - right down to running out to the store in the middle of the reception to buy more Red Bull (apparently, that was the drink of choice amongst my friends). They took care of all the details and left nothing for me to worry about. I am forever grateful to them (especially Brenda!), they provided me with the reception of my dreams. The only downside to the whole experience was that the DJ didn't play many of the song requests I had chosen beforehand as well as those I asked for during the night. That was disappointing, but the service provided by everyone else makes that a distant memory. I would whole-heartedly recommend Pine West to anyone. If you are looking for a place to truly treat you like family...this is your place.