Elysian Events Catering

Jenn & Brandon provided all the food & bev for our wedding in October 2023. When we told our planner that we needed to have great food, she immediately recommended Elysian and thank goodness for that! Our dream for the food was to share all the wonderful variety of NOLA food with our out-of-town guests, and it showed with every delicious and beautifully presented bite. The day-of staff was friendly and fun - particularly the guys behind the oyster bars who showed our midwestern families the ropes! It was even better than we could have hoped, and it’s all thanks to Elysian.

We consulted with several caterers for our Nola wedding, and Elysian checked all the boxes we were looking for. While others took a long time to reply and eventually got booked up before we could gather enough information to make a decision, Amelia at Elysian was extremely responsive and helped guide us through every step and option for creating the perfect menu for our guests. With less than a month before the wedding once we got our final guest count, Elysian was able to help us expand our options and help us get the absolute most out of our budget. They even took our input in customizing an hors d'oeuvre option to capture our unique cultural cuisine! I'm glad we made the time to enjoy a sweet heart meal during our wedding, as the food was phenomenal and came out fresh, and our guests are still raving about the food!

Elysian offered us a wonderful catering experience for our wedding. They were recommended to us by our venue, The Pharmacy Museum. Jen and Amelia were responsive, easy to work with, and really brought our catering dreams to life! Our guests raved about the tasty NOLA cuisine, especially the chargrilled oysters we had during cocktail hour. We especially enjoyed the leftovers that were packed up for us by Elysian and delivered back to our Airbnb during our after party by our wedding coordinator. :)

From the first time we met, Carrie Ann and the team at Elysian Events and Catering has been helpful, professional and accommodating. They have wonderful food and beverage package options. The food and beverage service delighted our bride and groom and all of our guests. We were having a destination wedding and were able to give everyone a real taste of New Orleans. In addition, the team made my daughter's vision for the beignet dessert bar come to life beautifully! Thank you for making dreams come true, for amazing value and wonderful service.

Super experience with Elysian Events. Amazing, delicious, abundant and beautiful food. Jen was kind, supportive and extremely helpful, especially when we had to change venues less than a week before our wedding brunch. Service staff exceptionally friendly and professional. Thanks for making our wedding superb, despite the major plot twist!

We honestly can't say enough great things about Amelia and her team at Elysian. They were timely, professional, and a pleasure to have around for our wedding day. The food and drinks were all incredible, and we had several guests tell us it was some of the best wedding food they've had in the city. Top notch all around.

We thoroughly enjoyed having Elysian as the caterer for our wedding. They handled everything from passed appetizers during cocktail hour, a full buffet dinner, to late-night beignets. All of our guests raved about the food and love have the Southern flare of po boys and shrimp and grits in a wedding setting. Elysian also provided our bartenders and drink mixer package. The hardest part of having Elysian as a vendor was selecting which items to serve from their fantastic menu options, we highly recommend them!

We found ourselves three weeks out from the wedding of our daughter and our caterer fell through. I contacted Elysian Events and they were incredibly accommodating. We were able to do a tasting and select from their full menu. The day of the wedding, the staff was not only professional, but incredibly personable as well. We plan to hire them again for future events.

Amazing food, great service from start of the booking to finishing the event! We booked them for a wedding and the guests continue to talk about both the hors d’oeuvres and main entrees, especially the pork grillades and grits. They even helped cut our cake! Highly recommend

Communicative and accessible throughout the planning process. Incredibly professional staff, attentive and responsive to guest needs. Delicious and authentically New Orleans food, a highlight of our day & a favorite among guests!

This review is long overdue! Elysian Events catered my wedding last November and my husband and I are still dreaming about their corn bread and vegan collard greens! Jen and Brandon were a so responsive and accommodating – a breeze to work with. Their menu and cocktail selections will fit any event. Jenn assisted with providing multiple proposals to accommodate various food allergies and food and beverage preferences of our guests, until the perfect menu was set. As an out of town couple, Jenn worked with our limited schedule on our pre-wedding NOLA visit to prepare a tasting for us, which sealed the deal. Throughout my preparations, Jenn provided key pieces of advice, especially regarding working at Race and Religious! All our guests raved about the food and cocktails including the mini beignet bar. (which we opted for instead of a cake!) The Elysian team were all fabulous and I need to give a special shout out to one wonderful bartender who never let my glass of bubbly be empty. I unfortunately can’t remember his name, but he would see me from across the courtyard and come over with a refill, making sure I got the last glass of the night! I couldn’t be happier that Elysian was a part of our wedding and to have been able to support this local, husband & wife owned catering company! Forever thrilled that they are part of our story!

Elysian and their staff were absolutely amazing! The food, drinks, and service were all top notch. Being from Louisiana, I had high standards for food and they delivered!!! Every time we see a guest they comment on how great the food was. Thank you so much to Elysian for being apart of our day.

The food was unbelievable and attentiveness to us and our guests throughout the night was spectacular. Couldn’t say enough great things about them

We hired Elysian to cater our January wedding and had a fantastic experience! The food and drinks were excellent. The entire team at Elysian Events went above and beyond to ensure we were satisfied. My wife and I will be recommending you guys for all future events! Thanks, The McClellans.

Our guests RAVED about the food, especially the mac & cheese and jambalaya. Jen was great throughout the whole process, quick to respond to emails and super helpful with narrowing down the menu. We were really happy with everything!

Elysian Events was our absolute favorite vendor of our wedding--hands down. Our wedding was November 4, 2023, and we had been in contact with Amelia for about a year in advance. The entire team was incredibly helpful, responsive, kind, and amazing at working within our budget. The food was absolutely amazing—we loved every single thing we tried and had. They had us stop by for a tasting, and it blew us away. They had so many options, and we even picked something from their menu that we hadn’t tasted because we trusted that it would be good. On the day of, they showed up ready to go and didn’t need any direction from us to set up their display. They were incredibly professional and just so good at what they do. At the end of the night, Amelia packed us a to go bag full of a little of everything and gave us a jar of their blackening spice mix to bring back to Austin Texas with us. Hands down the best vendor we worked with, and I cannot recommend them enough. It blows my mind that they are not on the recommended vendor list for our venue (Ogden Museum of Southern Art) since they seemed to know EXACTLY what to do and where to go on the day of. They did not need to ask us a single question. They were able to work with the restrictions set out by the museum (no open flames) and had zero problems with the venue. Overall, I literally could not be happier with them.

We love Elysian! We got married in March 2023 (but are extremely slow at writing reviews) at the venue at New Orleans Athletic Club (NOAC) with a wedding for ~150 people (call it medium fanciness for comparative purposes - cocktail attire-type). Working with Jenn, Brandon, Amelia, and the whole team was perfect. We loved all the menu options and getting a chance to sample a few of them was a great experience. Everything we sampled was great, but we wound up completely pivoting to some options we didn't try at the tasting because we thought it would work better for our guests. Loved it - I think anything we picked would have been great, but the items we picked were just right - I can't remember which package we selected specifically, but the hors d’oeuvres were excellent (crawfish pies and alligator sausage were very memorable) and the poboy station was perfect for our event (especially the cochon de lait). We considered doing plated service, but wound up doing buffet style. I think they can accommodate any setup that you would be looking for (family style, etc.) We also ordered the raw bar package and thought it was amazing. We didn't do a lot of add ons (just oysters and all the fixings for those) and it was a HUGE hit for our guests - many of which were coming from outside of New Orleans and had never had big gulf oysters like that before. That said, I have had the pleasure of trying some of the other options like oysters from elsewhere in the country, crab claws, char broiled oysters, etc. from when Jenn and Brandon used to do a booth at Elysian Seafood at the St. Roch market and those options are also fire. You can't go wrong! Amelia does the desserts and they are AWESOME. We wound up doing a bunch of little pies and mini-cakes (like cheesecake, not traditional cake) and those were also a hit. Every one of the desserts was great. My favorites were the cheesecake, key lime pie, and bourbon pecan pie, but you can't go wrong. The service was absolutely perfect. We were obviously busy on the day, but they were great about doing everything we needed exactly at the right time, with very little need for direction from us or, I believe, the wedding planner. The planning process was easy, seamless, and the only hard part was deciding between great options. They are a great option if you want someone who's been there before at almost any venue around New Orleans, worked with almost every other vendor, dealt with almost every configuration, and is a steady hand for this kind of thing. Also, the staff was friendly and so kind to all of our guests (including the drunk annoying ones that you're allowed to be mean to). As far as pricing, they are absolutely fair (if not a steal). I think we got away with spending a little bit less than some of the catering groups in the comparable reputational tier. I would put them a tier above - they actually did a few of my friends' weddings in recent years and, to a couple, we've all had such a great experience and thought it was more than worth the price. Hope you pick them! We will absolutely hire them for our next event and really look forward to seeing them at future weddings in and around NOLA!

Amazing food, quick responses, friendly staff! Our wedding food was delicious! Our guests couldn't get enough. They were thoughtful enough to bring us a plate after our ceremony which was much appreciated! Highly recommend booking Elysian Catering for your wedding!

Great staff and great food! Working with Amelia and the Elysian team was a wonderful experience and they really contributed to making our day run smoothly!

Jen and her team were a pleasure to work with. The food at the wedding was super important to us and Elysian offered the perfect options for what we wanted (New Orleans staples). All of our guests were super impressed with the food and the oysters were a hit. Jen worked closely with our wedding planner to map out the most optimized plan for service and it went off seamlessly. Thank you, Elysian!

Elysian was fantastic to work with for our wedding! Chad answered all our (many) questions throughout the planning process and was so easy to communicate with. Our food the day of was delicious. If I had to recommend one dish you have to add, it would be the gumbo! So yummy!

The food was delicious and all the folks at Elysian were so wonderful to work with. We're out of state, and they even accommodated a tasting for us outside of their normal schedule when we were in town. Thanks so much especially to Amelia and Jen for making our day go so smoothly!

The Elysian Events team was absolutely fantastic from the first contact, to the tasting, to the wedding reception. We got so many compliments on the food and drinks but even more compliments on how kind and helpful the Elysian staff was. We are so thankful that we had Elysian cater and provide bar services for our wedding!

I truly cannot say enough good things about Elysian Events Catering. The food and drinks were fantastic. Our guests were very happy. Elysian truly stood out because they made the reception easy since they provided the food, drinks, and all of the serving and bartending staff and management. Amelia kept everything running smoothly, and the servers and bartenders took fantastic care of everyone. The entire team is incredibly thoughtful and sweet. At the end of the night, they sent us home with a box of leftovers and included a jar of their house blackening seasoning, which we are now using at home. I am so appreciative of the hard work that Amelia and the team put into our wedding reception. I would hire them again without question.

The Oysters were a delight, and the hit of the wedding. Everyone loved both the charbroiled and raw. Especially appreciated the recycling station.

Highly recommend! Excellent food and very kind people!! They were accommodating and responsive at all times!

The catering and service was stunning! We’d book Elysian Events for our vow renewal in a heartbeat. Our guests felt so taken care of, and the food was delicious.

Chad and his team went above and beyond to deliver the wedding menu we didn't even know we wanted, and they knocked it out of the park. Our guests are still raving about the food weeks later! Communication was always prompt and Chad is so kind and warm that it even comes across through email; it always brightened my day to see a message from Elysian in my inbox or to get on calls with the team. Food was one of the main priorities for our wedding. I wanted to incorporate both my Pennsylvanian and Chinese backgrounds while also heavily showcasing New Orleans cuisine, since this was a destination wedding for all guests, many of whom had never been to the city before. The team worked with us on menu customizations that did just that, including a Philly cheesesteak po boy and Chinese 5-spice pork loin on mantou. When I mentioned that I currently live overseas and really missed regular access to good pickles, Chad/Elysian even threw in pickles and pickled green beans (my favorite!) to the charcuterie board. On the wedding day itself, the team prepared side plates of everything (passed apps, mains, sides, all of it) to ensure that my husband and I would be able to enjoy all the food from this menu we'd taken so much time to plan. We also liked that the mini beignets were served on a 3-tier platter, which allowed us to use it as our wedding "cake". The personal touches and care we felt from this vendor throughout were really such a lovely part of the wedding planning process. Finally, what set Elysian apart from the other vendors we'd sent inquiries to was the communication (very prompt and personal) and value -- besides just the quality, we were amazed at the quantity and variety of food we were able to serve within our budget. I wish we could throw a second wedding party just to be able to work with Chad and Elysian and eat all that food again!

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wedding in my life where I have enjoyed the food. My own wedding, different story! Elysian knocked it out of the park and over delivered on their promise. If you are considering which food vendors to look at for your event, look no further. Overly friendly staff, delicious good, and all around 10/10 experience. We can’t thank Jen and her team enough for how great our wedding turned out. Thank you 1000000 times!

We had a fantastic experience with Elysian Events Catering. Jen was responsive, proactive and patient with us throughout the process. She was very flexible as we dithered over various requests and, most importantly, delivered delicious food served by a kind and hospitable team. Elysian are absolutely professional and I can't emphasize how delicious the food was: creative, beautifully presented, and very well planned and thought-out. I can't recommend the Elysian team more!

It is my pleasure to strongly recommend Jen, Brandon & the whole Elysian team for any New Orleans wedding! Elysian was our caterer for our May 2023 wedding at the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum. We went into our contract with Elysian just hoping to get some good Cajun cuisine on our wedding menu but left our experience blown away by their truly top-notch service, tasty food & incredibly reasonable prices. From the onset, we worked directly with Jen, the co-owner, who was consistently professional and easy to work with. Both my wife & I have server gluten allergies, making us nervous that we wouldn't be able to find a caterer who could do our favorite dishes GF, but Elysian was extremely accommodating and worked with us on a tremendous menu that checked off every box. They took the time early & often to understand us, our vision for our wedding, and how we wanted to pull everything off, and were much-needed partners throughout the entire process. Never once did we feel like we were working with a stuffy business forcing us to follow strict rules while nickel-and-diming us every turn; instead, they felt like true collaborators who were genuinely passionate about delivering us the best night of our lives. Not only was the planning phase with Elysian extremely easy, but their food was downright AMAZING! We knew we wanted to expose our guests--many of whom were from out-of-state--to our favorite NOLA dishes, and Elysian cooked up so much delicious food that rivals any of the top restaurants around town. Jambalaya, red beans & rice, mini crawfish boils, and bananas fosters were just some of the mouth-watering dishes we were so lucky to devour. When your wedding day goes off without a hitch and the food was a top-3 best part of the night, you know those chefs at Elysian did something right!! We are so lucky to have found Elysian and we can not express how amazing they were to work with; if you are searching for a wedding caterer in New Orleans, no need to look any further than Jen, Brandon & the Eylisan krewe.

Elysian is impeccable. The food is to-die-for and the staff will bend over backwards to make sure your day is perfect. Seriously, the food is amazing. The only food we had left at the end of the night was two small containers of sides! They have several price tiers for different budgets. We went with the top packages and actually saved money based on what other caterers had quoted. Also the bar tenders are fantastic as well!

Amelia and Jen were very informative leading up to our wedding. We are so appreciative of their services and everyone said the food was yummy!

Elysian could not have been more professional, helpful, and delicious! We used them for both Friday and Saturday events to rave reviews with our guests. They made the whole process very easy from menu selection, to tasting, to the events themselves. Highly recommend!

Working with Elysian Events was awesome. Jen was extremely helpful and responsive throughout the entire planning process. She was able to create time for us to have a tasting while we were in town during a busy weekend for Elysian. The team worked well with all of the the other vendors and everything ran perfectly. The bar service was great and we had many compliments on home smoothly the bars functioned. The food was amazing!! Everything we tried and eventually selected was delicious. All of our guests raved about the food. I would 100% recommend Elysian and would be sure to book them again if I ever had to cater another large event. They were the best!

Jen and Brandon are so easy to work with! They were extremely kind and accommodating throughout the entire wedding planning process. They offered good advice when I asked and they stayed on top of my wedding. I felt like I was in good hands! The food was absolutely delicious and all my guests loved it! Everything went off without a hitch on the big day! Thanks again Jen and Brandon!

We are so glad that we worked with Elysian Events for our wedding. They were extremely accommodating of a wide range of dietary needs and super easy to work with. We especially recommend their shrimp and grits bar!

Working with Jen and the rest of the team at Elysian events was amazing! They were quick to respond and provide helpful information. Everyone loved the raw and charbroiled oyster station and they made it look beautiful! So happy to have used them as one of our amazing wedding vendors!

Great experience with Elysian Events Catering! They were the all stars of the event! From charbroiled oysters to delicious beignets - they brought delicious items to the guests with a friendly vibe. Huge shout out to Jen - she was so easy to work with and followed the timeline/details to a T. As a wedding planner of 10+ years, I highly recommend working with this team! You will not be sorry!

We thought food/drink were one of the most crucial vendor choices when planning our New Orleans wedding. Food and drinks are one of the main reasons the city is so important to us and why we chose it as our destination wedding location. It would be a first time visit for about half of our guests and a welcome return for the other half. So we had all of that in mind when our search for caterers began. Lucky for me when Elysian was on my short list, Kate our planner had immediately offered her advice that they were a great partnership and she was a big fan. We were lucky enough to meet Jen and Brandon for a tasting a few months before our wedding and we quickly felt super comfortable and supremely excited about the choice we had initially made because of their hospitality and their FOOD. To be transparent I will add, the day of our tasting some crossed wires meant they werent expecting us (thats what many emails back and forth can cause sometimes) but handled it with such grace and because they are professionals got us a bunch of stuff to taste super quickly. You would not know they had basically got it together on the spot. I knew after that tasting we were going to have some amazing food. We planned passed appetizers that all sort of felt true to the area (mini muffaletta, mini crawfish boil etc..) and a meal of things we knew we liked rather than choices since our guest count was small and we wanted people to graze. The Elysian team was really accomodating when we talked through maybe tweaking the package we paid for by substituting some things to fit the vision we had for our night. That meant forgoing a second entree and replacing it with a large cheese/charcuterie spread because my husband and I met as cheesemongers and felt like it needed to be a part of our reception. We also skipped a salad offering and swapped for coffee and mini beignets they fried fresh for our guests. Everyone loved the food and we were so happy they also could do our bar package. Must shout out our bartender that night Tara who was such a pro even when our friends decided to start taking shots. We had a blast and I never questioned anything from them that night which was such a great feeling knowing our friends and family was well fed, well liquored up and taken care of. Southern hospitality at its finest. THANKS for an amazing night.

The venue is unbelievably beautiful and the staff was so kind and helpful. Our wedding at The Pharmacy Museum was an absolute dream come true.

Overall they were awesome. Food was great, servers very friendly and not a complaint about anythjng. Would hire again for sure!!

We used Elysian Events Catering for our wedding in New Orleans in November 2022. They were absolutely phenomenal and we would hire them again in a heartbeat! They were highly responsive, let us do a tasting of things we wanted to sample before we decided on a menu, and were flexible with the ideas we had. The guests LOVED all of the food, especially the mac n cheese :)

Elysian did an amazing job with the oyster bar for our wedding! It was definitely the highlight of the night for our guests haha. We did raw and chargrilled and it was a beautiful presentation. Highly recommend!

Elysian Events Catering made our wedding day feel like family cooked us a big, delicious meal and took care of us all night. First, the food. The oysters were huge, the appetizers were scrumptious and plentiful, and the dinner was so satisfying. I had multiple guests comment “best wedding food” “are they friends because this isn’t normal wedding catering” etc. etc. The vegetarian options were a bit for being plentiful and tasty, which is not always the case! Second, the rain. Like champions, the whole crew pivoted to a different indoor setup. The best part? I, the bride, didn’t know or worry a thing about it because everyone was so calm and professional. Third, the service. Everyone was so kind, attentive, and generous. My brother in law asked about an allergy, and not only did the server not BS when they didn’t know, they went to ask and came back to find him with a fresh plate of that hors d’oeuvre. The server that was assigned to bring us plates felt like the aunt I needed that day, to remind me to eat and ask me if there was anything I needed with genuine care and not just formality. I will and do recommend Elysian Events hands down to anyone entertaining small or large groups who wants excellence in quality of food or service. I joke that food is one of my love languages and the food at my wedding was very important to me. I definitely felt the love.

Absolutely AMAZING food :) Accommodated brides vegan diet! Everyone raved about the food at our wedding and the setup was beautiful!!!

I can't say enough about Elysian Events....My dad was thrilled and he is impossible to please. The food was some of the best I have ever had. As a restaurant owner I know how hard this industry is and they were so professional and the event was flawless. BOOK THEM NOW!!!!

Jen was awesome and communicative. We changed our menu a few times and Jen handled it without a hitch. Our food was amazing. People are still telling us how good the oyster bar was.

Elysian Events were amazing for our wedding! Jen & Brandon did such a great job with the food, and were amazing to work with. The team was really easy to work with and responsive, and helped us shape the menu and all the details just as we wanted it. Food: We had three passed appetizers, the cochon de lait and the rice bar with gumbo and red beans. The food was AMAZING and we got so many compliments on it. Bar: We also got our bar through Elysian, which was really convenient and made things easy. We got beer, wine, and liquor as well as the NOLA cocktails add-on, which added a nice tough and were very popular with our guests! Cannot recommend these folks highly enough!

Y'all seriously this local company was the best! We planned our wedding in 4 months, so we were very stressed at finding vendors that were available for our date. I mainly talked to Jen through email. She was so helpful. We were so clueless and didn't really have specifics. She guided us in the right direction and stayed within our budget. She helped me create our food menu and helped rearrange our alcohol package bc we aren't wine drinkers. The staff was so friendly day of and everyone talked about how the food was so good and the staff was so great. So if there are any brides out there struggling, definitely give this vendor a call. I'm so grateful I found them because they really were perfect for us.

We simply cannot say enough great things about Elysian. They went above and beyond to to make our our foodie wedding dreams come true! From the the thoughtful details to the helpful menu suggestions Jen, Brandon, and the team at Elysian we’re absolutely fabulous! Our friends and family could not stop raving about the food! We will truly be dreaming about the shrimp and grits bar forever. We wish we could give them more than five stars because they so deserve it. They set up an amazing tasting for us and helped us create our dream menu, and we are so grateful we we’re able to book them for our wedding!

We truly loved working with Elysian for our wedding. They handled our oyster bar, passed apps, buffet meal and bar services for our ~150 guests. Working with Jen was so easy…From the initial consultation, ongoing planning emails, tasting, and especially our wedding day, I could tell she and her team had everything under control. The food quality was amazing and the staff was so friendly and professional. Truly would not have changed a thing. Exceptional value.

Elysian catering was an absolute fantastic vendor to work with. It is owned by a husband-wife team and they are so sweet. At the tasting they gave us a great New Orleans experience and we felt very taken care of! The food was spectacular, and we really looked forward to having it at our wedding. At the wedding they were very professional, and many of our guests were from Chicago, so they loved the Nola-style food! Couldn't recommend them enough.