Kristy Lim, Married on 08/09/2018

I don⠹t recommend this venue!

I don’t recommend this place. Overall, their service doesn’t deserve my money. I had my wedding here recently, and there were sooo many issues.

Issue with Vendor Access - My ceremony was supposed to start at 4:30 pm and my vendors couldnt access the venue until 3:00 pm because there were lunch customers sitting in the dining area. DJ, florist, and all my friends had to rush setting everything up wihtin 1 hour and that caused sooo much stress. The timeline doesn’t make sense to me. One hour is insane. What kind of wedding venue does this?

Water leakage in our ceremony area - My wedding day was raining. Water was leaking from the roof and two of guests were affected by the rain during the ceremony. I CAN’T BELIEVE this. We complained and the owner actually said that we need to contact the City Hall because it’s their responsibility. They gave me $250 refund but that’s like nothing compared to how much I spent that evening. I spent so much on this wedding and felt like nobody from the restaurant was even trying to help or facilitate the wedding.

There was a small issue with my headtable. Based on their floor chart they sent me, I was told that 8 people can fit in to the table, but learned that it’s not the case TWO DAYS BEFORE MY WEDDING. I couldn’t change my seating chart that last minute , so two people from my wedding party had to sit on the side of the headtable. I learned that TWO DAYS BEFORE. Not acceptable.

Now, another issue- there were only two children in our wedding and they charged for three meals. The owner i spoke to was insisting that they are correct, but there’s no way that one of the kids would have eatened second meal on that evening. Again, they are givining me a trouble for such a small issue. They actually said “it’s only twenty one dollars” and what’s-the-big-deal attitude.

You get enough stress for your wedding. You don’t need your wedding venue to give you any extra stress on top. They should work with you and help you. I strongly don’t recommend here.

Shaughnessy Restaurant at Vandusen Botanical Gardens's reply:

Hi Kristy,

Thank you very much for your feedback.
We sincerely apologize that the service was not up to your standards. We have been hosting weddings for over 20 years and so this definitely comes as a surprise to hear about your experience after spending time with you on email, phone, and in person to make sure everything was in order. The contract that was signed on February 1st of this year is very clear stating that vendor access is at 3pm. We were happy to accommodate an earlier start time which is wonderful and to which we always try to do within reason. Apologies you did not have enough time. As we are a restaurant, we do serve lunch/brunch service and close early to accommodate weddings always. We have been doing weddings for a long time and this has never been an issue.

In regards to the leak, thank you for your feedback and we are looking into rectifying this with the city (our landlords). I am happy to hear that the staff refunded you some of the cost. It’s hard to ever predict rain for summer weddings and our patio is covered yet open air. As such, some rain is out of our hands. We always try to accommodate seating charts as best as we can however as the structure of the restaurant is fixed, there are maximum numbers of guests that can be placed at every table. Thank you for your understanding. Our Chef and management team sent out 3 children’s meals that evening without a return. This is where the miscommunication was and we were happy to refund you the cost.

Again, we are deeply sorry that you felt stressed after your wedding. Our wedding coordinator had such lovely things to say about the planning stages with you and so we hope that overall, you are happy and enjoying being a newlywed.

Warmly,
Shaughnessy Restaurant

Nicole Siu, Married on 03/09/2016

Shaughnessy restaurant & Toni did a fabulous job with our wedding from start to finish. The food, service and quality were what we were hoping and more. I don't think you could ask for more from a venue!

Shimon, Married on 19/01/2019

Perfection

We had the BEST experience with Shaughnessy Restaurant for our wedding. We met with Carlle several times to work out the details of the day. We could tell that she was very experienced when she gave us gentle guidance when making decisions. She was also very easy to get ahold of by email and phone.
The evening went off without a hitch. The food was delicious and beautifully presented, all our guests raved about it. The drinks were top notch and everyone had a blast. We received so many compliments on how beautiful the venue looked and what great service they received, the staff went above and beyond to make everyone feel welcome. We are so happy we decided to have our wedding at Shaughnessy. It was hands down one of the best moments in our lives. Thank you so much!

Jessica Collins-Lam, Married on 15/08/2015

We held our rehearsal dinner here and were so impressed with the quality of the service and food and we felt very well taken care of. The servers were very pleasant to work with and accommodated our requests to adjust the timing of each course to ensure we had time for speeches. We were able to have the back room of the restaurant to ourselves and it was such a beautiful space. Would highly recommend this as a great rehearsal dinner venue!

Shaughnessy Restaurant at Vandusen Botanical Gardens's reply:

Jessica,

Thank you so much for such a wonderful review! It was our great pleasure to host an amazing group of people for your celebration. All the best, Shaughnessy Restaurant.

Lauren Monique, Married on 11/07/2015

I loved this venue the minute I saw it and knew it was exactly the location I wanted for our wedding.

My review would not have been nearly so strong in the planning stages, but the day of the wedding everything went absolutely perfectly. I was concerned as their event manager is hardly what you would call a lover of weddings. I always felt like I was a bother when I contacted the venue, and they often didn't have precise answers for me. (Ex: I was making my own table runners, and I asked them how long their tables are... but they told me to just come in and measure them myself. Each table is the same size and they just push them together! You don't know how long your tables are?)

That being said, they were very flexible. We were able to bring in our own desserts and snacks made by friends and family, we had lots of space to store our decor, and were even able to drop it off on Friday and pick it up Sunday, which was incredibly helpful. Plus, the day of, the service was impeccable. The servers were always extremely knowledgable and I didn't worry at all about how my guests were being taken care of.

Plus... the place is stunning. You might be a bit stressed along the way, but in the end, the sheer beauty of the place is worth it!

Shaughnessy Restaurant at Vandusen Botanical Gardens's reply:

Lauren, thank you so much for your review. It was a pleasure having your wedding at the restaurant, and we are so happy that although the beginning stages were worrisome, that the day went off without a hitch! We wish you all the best, Shaughnessy Restaurant