Award Winning Catering Company Serving Up Memorable Events In Colorado

As the director of sales and marketing at Catering by Designs, Allie Piazza has her plate full to the brim—but lucky for us, she made time to answer a few questions about what it takes to pull off remarkable events in Colorado and beyond.

It’s one thing to be in charge of the menu for an event, but to be responsible for everything from the design concept to the décor, flowers, lighting and every other minute detail. How did the company evolve to become experts in all these areas?

Ingrid and Cade Nagy started Catering by Design as a simple casual catering company in 1996 and the company grew rapidly, but the aim was never to be the biggest caterer. It was to offer great food, professional yet approachable service and spectacular presentation. Fast forward to today, we now have a creative department lead director, Jennifer Whit- man, who after 15 years of producing large-scale events on the East Coast (and all over the world), decided to make the move to Colorado and become part of the Catering by Design family. From planning through design and production, she has a wealth of expe-rience working with luxury brands, as well as corporate, non-profit and private clients.

She utilizes events as a tool to foster relationships with donors, friends and clients—as well as to cultivate new prospects. She has helped people raise millions for countless charities, has produced events at the White House during the Obama administration, on the outfield in a glass tent at Fenway Park, to a cow pasture in the middle of nowhere— not to mention numerous museums, warehouses, private homes, tents—you name it, Jennifer has done it! Her passion for creativity and innovation allows our decor division to highlight everything beautiful in an event, from soft seating, floral accents and detail enhancements to custom design, which provide a unique service to our clients by integrating fantastic food in a curated environment.

The events that Catering by Design are involved with are all so highly curated. What is the secret to making each client and each event seem fresh and new?

We really see ourselves as a boutique concierge service for our clients and at the end of the day, the most important thing we focus on is helping our clients by collaborating as much as possible and providing insight and advice on anything they need. To do that, we rely on every member of our team to contribute to the creative process, inviting new ideas and points of view from all employees. It’s this collaborative work environment that makes us stand out and think outside the box. It can be time consuming to brainstorm all the possibilities for our clients but it’s worth it to get to the end result.

Can you take us through the steps Catering by Design takes to execute bespoke events?

Whether it’s a casual picnic, a corporate conference for 1,000 people or a beautiful wedding in Aspen, the process is always the same. Every event starts with a phone call but evolves to so much more, with relationship building being an integral piece of how we connect and come up with new ideas. This begins with our sales team, but often involves every other department in order to round out the concept.

For us, personalization is the highest form of luxury, and without taking the time to listen to the needs of our clients, we cannot deliver on our promise to give them an unforgettable experience. Every menu and look is carefully curated to ensure our events are unique to clients’ priorities, needs, wants and visions for how their events are executed.

What Catering by Design has found success in is taking the client’s dreams and utilizing our combined experience from every department to ensure flawless execution. As mentioned, we put a large value on our ability to collaborate, so without the contributions of sales, culinary, creative and operations, we would not be as successful as we have grown to be today. It takes incredible planning to be able to make all this happen; every department has to be dialed in and the margin of error is thin.

As we embark on a new year, what’s next for Catering by Design? How do you improve upon what you’ve created and accomplished over the last 27 years?

Right now, our greatest focus is expanding our Creative and Design Division. We have spent 2023 uplevelling our offerings and are bringing to market a concept that is currently unmatched in Colorado. We bring a fresh new perspective, and are excited to show what we’re capable of, not only with catering but in design as well.