Hi Lynette,
We saw your catering office last time we were in Santa Barbara and I wanted to congratulate you on your wonderful and well deserved success.
I am sure you don’t remember, but you catered our wedding nearly 17 years ago (Sunday, May 30, 2004 at the Cabrillo Art Pavilion). Not only do we remember the amazing food but our guests still talk about how incredible the food was. We still have the beautiful book you gave to us as a wedding gift.
My sister was killed a few months before the wedding and our wedding was so much more than a pretty party. It was so deeply meaningful to gather for a happy occasion. It truly was about the love of all of the people who gathered to celebrate after one of the most devastating losses your can imagine.
At the time, I was a pediatric cardiology fellow training to be a pediatric cardiologist and we lived in Indianapolis. I worked during the day in my training and almost every night I rode the ambulance picking up very sick kids in the state of Indiana and surrounding states and bringing them back to the main children’s hospital in Indianapolis. I took one day off a month and was perpetually sleep-deprived but saved every penny towards our wedding, While we spent what was a very large amount of money (more than my paycheck for a year) on the wedding, I am sure we were not your biggest clients. But you made us feel like we were your most important clients. You were so kind and made so much effort to make the food special and perfect. I can tell you we were definitely some of your most appreciative clients.
I remember how important it was to have really good food. Memorable, beautiful food at our wedding. I remember visiting you to sample food in a kitchen you borrowed or shared. The food was incredible. We are so, so lucky that we met you and you agreed to make our day special. It was better than I could have ever imagined. Everything I hoped and more. You even helped us by allowing us to buy alcohol at Costco so that we could return the unused bottles (can’t do that now) and gave us a list of what to buy. I remember how kind you were to us.
In a few weeks, we will celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary. We have 3 beautiful girls and just a little boy in July. I am a pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and also very active with humanitarian medical missions. I have helped provide free open heart surgery and cardiac care to children around the world. My husband, Steve is a marketing director for international produce distributors. We never got to live in Santa Barbara as I had hoped, but we do live in Manhattan Beach and visit often. My cousins still live in Santa Barbara. We were just there in February and will be back again in June.
I know this was a tough year for caterers (and for physicians). I wanted you to know that you really contributed so much to those special days. Good food makes such better memories! We have recommended you to many along the years.
We don’t have any upcoming catering needs in Santa Barbara but perhaps we can piggyback a small order onto a big order in the future. We would love to relive some of those amazing food memories and share them with our children.
Just wanted to reach our and let you know that even after all these years, we are so grateful for everything. Hope we can find a way in the future to connect. I attached a photo though I am not sure you will remember or recognize us after such a long time.
All the best,
Brandy (Kashyap) and Steve Hattendorf
PS Our youngest daughter is named Joy!
