Get to know Leah:

Owner & CEO of Celebrations Catering, Leah Sherer, officially began her career in the food business in 1995. Before her start in the creative culinary & event management industry, the Alabama native was schooled in home-style Southern cooking, gardening, and sewing by her late grandmother. As her passion to learn, lead, create, and break the rules consistently didn't fit her chosen career in anthropology, Leah resigned from a teaching career to try her hand at entrepreneurship.

Her first business venture, The Light Brown Bag Lunch Company was centered around healthy lunch menus that could be quickly delivered to local businesses during the daily lunch rush. At a time when pizza and Chinese food were the only available cuisines that offered delivery, the climate was right for a creative corporate meal delivery service. She remembers thinking to herself that there must be thousands of people working in office positions who could not leave their desks to drive away for lunch. This resulted in her creating a pre-planned ordering system, then dropping brown bags right to the customer’s desks. This system was a no-brainer to Leah.

Very Quickly, the small lunch delivery business was popular and booming. Large corporate accounts soon clamored to get on the delivery list. In less than two years, Leah relocated to a larger space that was more centrally located on Main Street, allowing the newly hired drivers to be closer to her larger clients like UF and Shands Hospital. The new kitchen location was renamed Celebrations Catering and Leah created her first real catering kitchen where she could do more than just brown bag lunches. A rapid evolution occurred naturally, from a lunch -only business to a full service catering facility. .

The newly formed company was quick to answer Gainesville's demand for all types of food delivery and even party rentals. Customers also began to ask for custom event design, help with lighting, music, china, advice about local vendors, party invitations, floral centerpieces and more. Right away, Leah realized the necessity for creating a one-stop shop for catered events. Celebrations became a company that provided it all, everything needed for any type of event. Leah spent many long hours sewing custom linens, designing event floor plans, creating custom menus and working many many hours to satisfy the increased demand. Opportunities to harness her creative talents consistently arose. Leah felt lucky and very blessed to be able to make a living from all the activities that she loved.

Before long, a space shortage once again became an issue. Another rapid expansion was inevitable, as Leah and her Team filled several off-site warehouses with catering & event supplies. An immense amount of furniture, dishes, décor & necessities are needed for full-service events. It soon also became obvious that cooking was often the easy part of this growing business. By the year 2000, most clients no longer had time to piece together their events on their own and relied heavily on Leah and her team to handle things from start to finish. This is still the standard today. Celebrations does everything so the client can just "show up" and attend their own event. However, there are still lunches (which are now in a box not a bag) being delivered daily!

Leah's Team of caterers, cooks, chefs, managers and event planners have relocated once again. In early 2015, Celebrations began renovations at the newest facility where they are now located. Along with a new, comfortable warehouse-style kitchen, ample space for table linens, and a fully functioning laundry department, plus many wide aisles for the endless party decor and catering props. The new facility also features a large loading bay for Celebrations’ now 12-vehicle fleet, business is still booming, the hours are still long, and yes it's still fun too!

Success in the catering business has far exceeded Leah's expectations and her focussed attention on enriching her team and on exceptional customer service has soared as a result. It has become obvious to Leah that the so-called catering business has very little to do with food. Celebrations' takes care of people, both in respect to the hired management and staff, to the ever-growing and evolving customers, and to the unique vendors and the relationships with them as well. Leah still loves showing up daily with vigor and endless drive. No sign of the demand for catering services slowing down in sight!