Merlins Catering - Christchurch

Hayley Amber

How do we even put into words how thankful we are to David, Leanne, Julie and the Merlins Catering team. Our guests have not stopped raving about our MC David and all the catering at our wedding!

After booking our wedding with Parley Manor, we were directed to Merlins Catering for our wedding day and they did not disappoint! Everything was perfection on the day and our guests could not stop going on about how amazing all of the food was, especially the wood-fire pizzas.

Leading up to the day, we had Leanne and Julie helping to plan our day perfectly and they were both amazing at keep us on-track and answering the many different questions we had! Nothing was ever too much and they were so lovely and kind throughout the entire process.

Thank you so much to David, Leanne, Julie and the whole Merlins team were amazing and made our day one we will never forget!!

Mark_Sarah Young

We had our wedding at Parley Manor 15/7. Merlins were excellent at communicating through email on the lead up to the wedding, making sure everything was correct and every need was catered for. Even last minute changes.

The food was incredible, our guests are still complimenting the meal now and saying how delicious each course was!

We opted for the 3 course sit down meal, which wasn’t until 4pm… we were all so full by the end of the second course, but there wasn’t a chance anyone was bypassing the dessert! All so yummy!! Clean plates and a happy wedding party! Thank you Merlins!

Jessie davies

We had our wedding at Parley Manor on the 22.06.24 and had truly the most amazing experience. Merlin’s absolutely jump into action on the day and delivered over and over again to the highest standard to make our day perfect. We’ve received nothing but fantastic feedback about the food and how great our wedding breakfast was. A special mention to David who is absolutely worth his weight in gold, David ran our day so smoothly and effortlessly. I’ll never forget the effort he made to make sure we had nothing but perfection. A huge thank you David!! A huge thank you to the team. X

Lissa Kieran

A huge thank you to the whole Merlins catering team!

We were lucky to have Merlins cater our wedding at Parley Manor in June.

They were utterly phenomenal with their attention to detail and willingness to customise our menu to suit our guests needs. We presented them with a huge list of individual dietary needs and complicated allergies and they were able to adapt our menu to every single guest.

My father and sister in law both have very severe food allergies, and were completely thrilled to be able to eat every single item across the day. Even down to having specialised canapes brought directly to them by the attentive wait staff - we could not have been more impressed and thankful for all the efforts Merlins went to.

Merlins went completely above and beyond. A few weeks before the wedding my brother received a medical diagnosis that severely limited what he could eat. The chef directly called him to work out a three course meal he could eat - and he did this on a bank holiday weekend on a Sunday. The care given to my family was nothing short of incredible.

The staff on the day were very friendly and attentive. Glasses were never left empty, and we were particularly grateful for staff bringing canapes directly to us after photos were done.

As for the food itself - utterly, completely delicious. The volume of canapes given to us and our guests was fantastic, as well as the options we were able to pick from. It's been four months and our friends and family still rave about the pizza oven and the garlic bread that was served!

A particular highlight for us was our trio of miniature desserts that Merlins adapted for us after we loved all of the desserts we tried at their couples' open day! They were so flexible with us and willing to adapt our menu to meet our wishes.

Definitely book the pizza option in the evening - the pizza oven is such a fantastic touch and everyone loved it!!

We'd also recommend opting for cocktail tokens as wedding favours. The outdoor cocktail bar was well-loved by our guests, with a varied menu & we loved being able to have special cocktails named for the Bride and Groom!

We could not recommend Merlins highly enough. Thank you for making our day so perfect!

Lissa and Kieran Bryant Persaud

Harriet White

We had our wedding at Parley Manor in May. In the lead up to the wedding, Merlins were always available to answer any questions we had and to make sure that they had all the details from us that they needed to make sure that everyone was catered for. On the day, the canapés that we had during our drinks reception were delicious. The BBQ was fantastic too, with such a great selection of meat and veggie options and various salads. In the evening, we opted for pizzas which were yummy too. Thank you so much, Merlins.

Zoe Vince

Merlins did a great job for our September wedding at Highcliffe Castle. The team were very organised well in advance, all information and pricing was clear and they were very willing to accommodate some of our guests’ more unusual dietary requirements - we had a range!
We loved the variety of options Merlins offered and we were able to come up with a menu that everyone loved.
In particular our vegan guests were blown away by the quality of the food they were served, which they said is not their typical experience.
The service on the wedding day was professional, prompt and attentive. We had lots of compliments and everything went to plan. Thank you Merlins!

Ellen Brien

We hired Merlin Catering for our wedding at Highcliffe Castle and they all did a fantastic job!
The staff were very organised, friendly and efficient. The food was delicious and plentiful and it went very smoothly through out the whole day!
We had canapés, our wedding breakfast and evening buffet catering for dietary needs. We used their cake stand and knife which is complimentary and looked lovely. We would totally recommend them, as they played a big part in our perfect day!

Jade Baker

Merlin’s catered for our Highcliffe castle wedding and the quality and volume of food was incredible! Guests all commented on how amazing the food was and how plentiful. The canapés were really premium and free flowing and the attention to detail for food intolerances was above and beyond giving specific celiac guests their own Individual canapés which was hugely appreciated by them.
We had the mezze starter which was delicious and had so much food!! Lots of guests thought it was the main! The cod in Parma ham was delicious, even non-fish lovers enjoyed it as the sauce was delicious! And you can’t beat a lemon tart dessert. Again all dietary requirements were catered for seamlessly and service was exceptional with wine bottles topped up and requests done without a question (like plating up some of the starter for the best man who was too nervous to eat before his speech!)
The evening snacks were also delicious and plentiful. We were also catered for well with staff making sure we’d eaten plenty as the bride and groom! Would highly recommend the Merlin’s team