Feedback on our wedding ceremony
We had our ceremony at this venue. I am providing my honest feedback about our experience.
1. In the initial meetings, Alex (the owner) seemed respectful and gave us the impression he genuinely cared about our night and would do his best.
2. On the day of event, everything changed - most promises turned into empty promises. Lesson learned: put everything in the contract, or you’ll be told later that it “wasn’t a contractual obligation.” The bartender (Rachard) was also serving as server and personal assistant - not what we were promised to.
3. The other server, Patrick, was respectful and very helpful.
4. Chair count error: As soon as the ceremony started, we noticed the number of chairs was incorrect and some guests were standing. We told the assistant, and the response was disrespectful - no ownership of their mistake. After 15–20 minutes of nothing, the bride and groom had to leave the party, call Alex, and explain. His first reaction: you (bride and groom) are wrong and the servers had used the correct count. He was very firm about his position! After a long discussion he still didn’t accept it, so we sent email proof. Finally they accepted their mistake - 30 to 40 minutes wasted. Not to mention that after Alex accepted their mistake, he started talking about extra payments (during our night while we had already lost 30-40 minutes), not knowing that we had made the full payment for the chairs. It was an unacceptable mistake. The part that disappoints me is that neither the bartender, nor Alex, were not accepting to what we were claiming. They were so firm about their own position, and it took us a lot of energy to prove them wrong. This is something you DO NOT want to happen at your ceremony.
5. Tea/coffee was supposed to be served at tables after dinner according to our agreements. It wasn’t served to tables because they were short-staffed. In prior conversations, Alex assured us of one server per two tables. We had 8 tables, so we expected 4 servers. Only 3 staff were there and one was the bartender/personal assistant. Service fell short. When we raised this, Alex claimed he said “3–4 servers” in total, and never promised 4. Again: get it in the contract; don’t rely on polite and respectful talk.
6. We prepaid $1,000 worth of drinks for the bar, and agreed we’d be notified before reaching the limit so we could top up (we didn’t want guests paying). Throughout the night, the bride, the groom and assistants approached bartender at different times to ask about drink situation, the bartender (Rachard) told them “don’t worry about it; it’s under control.” Two days later, we received a bill for ~$1,700 extra. We paid it in full, even though we were never notified or asked for permission to exceed the limit and the contract indicated they were to serve the $1,000 and not more without approval. The management’s approach afterward was disappointing - sending many emails about legal action, no acceptance of their mistakes, and Alex using firm voice in one of the meetings: “This was consumed and YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT.” They never took responsibility of their mistake, and chose to ask for payment many times. The owner, Alex, seemed respectful in the beginning, however, it turned out that they do not care about the customer satisfaction. Two major incidents in one event from the management side is not usual, and what makes it even worse is their attitude towards this. No one apologized for this mistake, and they only cared about the payment in this incident.
7. We received incident reports after the event, however, these reports were containing many incorrect information about the night (such as serving pizza which never happened). The factual fallacies made the whole reports invalid. Receiving incident reports after a very important ceremony while already experienced two major mistakes was VERY disappointing.
Think twice before moving forward. Everything in this review is factual. We have proof for every claim (emails, invoices, and messages).