Sepp Sonntag, Married on 10/08/2018

Look at the fine prints

We loved this venue in first sight. It looked exactly what we were looking for. We booked a date right away
Little did we know about the hidden fees associated with their exclusive caterer: scholar catering.
We asked for a meeting for about four months to go over the day and good options. They add a lot of labor services on top of food charges and other dependencies that we’re very unclear until the very end. Their food is below average and due to the lack of communication, terrible service and hidden fees we decided to cancel this venue last minute.

Cecil Green Park House's reply:

Hi Sepp,

We are sorry that you felt this way and we did work with you to get the resolution that you wanted. I want to take a moment to address the fees from Scholars', this can be for you or for anyone reading this post. Scholars catering, like almost all caterers charge fees for labour, rentals, food and beverage and gratuities. Labour can include the service staff, chefs, bartenders and supervisors. Scholars charges a flat fee of $10 per person for all rentals, this is just a cost recovery model once you factor in all the glasswear, tablewear, linens, and equipment needed to service large scale events. Food and Beverage is based off consumption and menu choices. Gratuities are at 17%.

All of these fees are industry standard for special event venues and catering companies. We include them in sample quotes in our sales package.

Restaurants and hotels are different, you are not charged for staffing or equipment as the business model has them running 5 - 7 days a week, with multiple users. What does happen in the cases of weddings or special events, is that a restaurant or hotel will impose a minimum spend or buyout fee. Almost always this fee is to cover the labour and equipment needed to successfully execute a wedding or event.

Scholars Catering is the caterer for UBC, we have union staff, that are paid a living wage with benefits we are proud of this.

We do wish you both the best, and hope have an amazing wedding

Sincerely
Nicole Caron
Operations Manager Cecil Green Park House

Alex Field, Married on 02/06/2018

Beautiful location and great service

Obviously the venue looks great -- it's a very beautiful setting. We found that the staff were really friendly and did a great job on the day of. It really helped to have a co-ordinator to deal with our other vendors, we didn't have any stress at all on the day of.

Mae Boudreau, Married on 20/01/2018

Winter Wonderland Venue

Thank you so much for making our wedding a delightful day to remember! We enjoyed the venue so much and our guests loved the scenery. We loved getting to know you as the coordinators and we thank you so much for helping us plan our wedding for catering and visiting the venue as much as we can. The couple's tasting is a wonderful idea and I would definitely recommend this as much as possible to couples. A great way to taste our future catering needs for the reception. Thanks again for the communication back and forth and making our day sweet! Cheers!

Cindy Chen, Married on 28/05/2017

This venue is gorgeous, perfect for a spring floral wedding. There are separate rooms that you can dedicate to dinner, dancing, greeting guests, bridal dressing area etc. The staff is also very knowledgeable and friendly, though my coordinator was on vacation on my wedding day and only the student coordinator and proctor were there. I would recommend this venue for small weddings, because the dining room was quite cramped and there wasn't much room for people to walk around.

Praveen Imaan, Getting married on 23/08/2019

My fiance and i book this location for the summer of 2018.

We were told when that we had to put a down payment in order to keep our date... the Manager Mariella explained to us that even tho the contract said there were penalties for cancellations they would not be in effect if we were to give a fair amount of time and notice. So we put our trust in her word and put down our payment.. We booked a day to come and see the venue with my mom and Mariella never showed up she claimed she had a meeting....we then tried multiple times to get in contact with her to get dimensions and facts on the building and she continued to give us strictly info that was in the booklets that were given to us already..(she was no help at all) We then had to cancel due to personal reasons. and Mariella with ZERO consideration to our prior conversion of over looking the penalties put our cancelation thru to the accounting department and we were penalized $1000 out of the 2500....

We have since tried to make contact with her by phone and she has ignore our voicemail's and has made no effort to simply answer our questions...

The location is beautiful but the Woman running the show has poor people skills and a lack of respect and integrity... it would be a so nice if she could simply respond to our messages.

Cecil Green Park House's reply:

We are sorry that you feel this way about your experience with us.

We started working with you in May 2017 and had our first site tour at the end of June. At this time we put Aug 3, 2018 on hold and Aug 25, 2018 on waitlist. Later that summer Aug 25th became available and we placed it on hold for you. You requested to book this date with us on Aug 16, 2017. We sent you a contract which you reviewed, signed and returned to us on Sept 2nd. A clear cancellation policy is noted in the contract.

Praveen, you are right, I had missed the meeting with you and your mother on Oct 11th. I’m very sorry about this. When we arranged this meeting I let you know that I may not be able to make it so I left the house open for you to plan in. In reviewing all of our correspondence, I have found that I either replied to or sent you over 30 emails. It is my belief that I responded to your questions promptly and clearly. As you note, some of the information I provided is included in our planning documents; this is because we frequently get the same questions from other clients.

We do offer flexibility when changing the date of the event to another date. We also allow all our clients to hold a date without a deposit, prior to signing a contract. However, once you sign a contract, our cancellation policy comes into effect. The cancellation policy is in the contract and viewable online.

We book weddings 1-2 years in advance and Saturdays are in high demand. We had to turn away several clients who were ready to book this date, and not all of them were able to find another date that worked and had to look elsewhere. You cancelled within a year.

I’d be happy to speak with you over the phone about any concerns you may have.