Carmen's Banquet Centre by Carmen's Group

My fiancé and I are getting married at Carmen's Banquet Centre in August 26, 2023, and let me tell you, the experience has been amazing so far. Working with Hector has been so amazing. We've encountered some personal issues but Hector was relentless to give us a good experience and be flexible to out situation. Highly recommend.

I organized my sister’s wedding at Carmen’s and was incredibly impressed by the staff and the leadership there. Even though there was a turn in management happening at the time, Chantal, Andi and Karen were exceedingly helpful to make my sisters wedding day come true. Our Maître D for the evening, Derek, was instrumental to the evening going as well as it did. He didn’t hesitate to help and would jump into action the second I had any kind of request. He was also asking if he could be of further help in anyway and gave suggestions if it looked like I was stumped. In addition, I greatly appreciated his checking on me periodically to ask if I needed anything at all. The food was wonderful and the waitstaff was polite and kind, and the Hall itself (Milano) was gorgeous. If you would like a wedding that is minimally stressful and one where you have the support of the vendor itself, this is the place to go!

We were very disappointed with Carmen's. The week of our wedding was chaos. They fired our wedding coordinator just weeks before our wedding and didn't let us know. They were inconsistent with what they allowed (for example - we were told we could have takeout containers for food as our favour, then 3 days before the wedding they said we weren't allowed to do that.) Every meeting we had with them was with a different person due to turnover, so there were many communication misses. Would not recommend.

We just got married on April 9, 2022 at Carmen’s, with both our ceremony and reception at the venue. I understand we were incredibly lucky with all restrictions being dropped before our wedding, but all throughout the planning process and uncertainty, Carmen’s has been there for us. Karen was our coordinator and went on mat leave just before our big day, but she left us on such a high note with her wonderful colleague Marian who stepped in to finish off our planning. Karen and Marian are so warm and friendly, and so easy to work with - trust me, they know their stuff! We are one of those weird couples with horse shoes up our butts because our day was pretty damn near perfect! But I chalk that up to having experienced and organized vendors, and having our day hosted at such a respected venue like Carmen’s was a smart choice. We came prepared to every meeting with the Carmen’s staff, and we asked a ton of questions - some may have been stupid but the staff never made us feel that way, they were always very clear and responsive in what they needed from us. They also worked so well with our vendors in making sure the day went off without a hitch. We unfortunately missed our tasting prior to our wedding but you really can’t go wrong with the food choices there. We had an antipasto buffet with sautée station to kick off cocktail hour, followed by an incredible 3 course dinner, and an amazing late night buffet. Also a tip, don’t bother using an outside cake vendor, use Carmen’s bake team because our cake was PHENOMENAL!! Our florist added some extra roses for decor but the cake was so beautiful anyway and tasted even better. The compliments from our guests about how beautiful the venue was and how good the food was just keeps rolling in. Trust me when I say you should book Carmen’s for your wedding, you will not regret it! The only thing I will say is there unfortunately isn’t a ton of outdoor space for photos, but my husband and I did a first look with photos (and bridal party photos) prior to our ceremony at Dundurn Castle. We did family photos inside of the venue which turned out just fine because the building is so beautiful and romantic inside. From the staircases to the chandeliers and balconies, it’s major fairy tale vibes. I end my review with saying if you had a negative experience with Carmen’s, I’m sorry but you were probably the problem and probably weren’t organized yourself, because I can’t see how anyone could have something negative to say about this venue and their team!

My husband and I were so lucky to have the pleasure of getting married at the lakeview this weekend. We had to postpone our initial wedding date due to the pandemic, and the entire carmen's team were so easy to work with. They allowed us to swap our date without issue, kept open and clear communication with us during the entire process, and answered any of our (many) questions quickly and without hesitation. Charlie and Natasha were so helpful throughout the entire process, and the wedding information package and to-do list kept us on track during the entire planning process (we had NO idea how to plan a wedding beforehand). The venue itself was so beautiful, the décor was wonderful and the view of the sunset over the water during dinner was beautiful. All of our family and friends raved about how delicious the food was, how friendly the staff were, and how absolutely gorgeous the venue was. The DJ was so great, and was so easy going! Our Maître'd Gonia (I am so sorry if I misspelled your name!) Was a dream and made our entire day run smoothly. She kept the groomsmen in line, which was no small task! I have to say that even during the pandemic, we had such a beautiful wedding. For any future brides who may be hesitant about getting married during the pandemic, Carmen's will truly make sure that you have an amazing day. We danced (with masks), had drinks, amazing food, and I could not imagine a better evening. Thank you so much Carmens for giving us such a beautiful night to remember. ♡

Working to adapt a wedding during Covid was extremely stressful and emotional. Carmens and their staff were there every step of the way to ensure that our day was as close to our vision as possible in a SAFE way. They truly made our wedding the special day we had dreamed of.

Overall, our wedding with Carmen’s was a great experience. I just don’t think I can give the full 5 points due to some issues which I will outline below.

1. Decor. The decor supplied by Carmen’s was modern, had lots of variety and really saved you a lot of money over hiring a decor company. We brought some of our own and used some of theirs. One issue we had was we were going to use their table numbers. The day of our wedding the maître D showed us the room and they had black table numbers lazily put on the tables, which didn’t match our decor at all. When I asked where the agreed upon (in the contract) white table numbers were, she told me they were (direct quote) “shoved in a box and would take a while to get”. Again, this was the DAY OF my wedding at 4:45pm, 15mins before cocktail hour was to start. Not sure why these were not taken out weeks ahead of time considering that’s when the decor and contract was final.

2. Food & bar. The food was excellent, everyone had good things to say. I liked that they offered us signature drinks during the tasting and many of our guests drinks those all night long. They ran out of amaretto on the bar around 9pm. Again, minor but also annoying. As Italians this is a wedding staple... seems like a banquet hall should have more inventory considering our package specifically included amaretto.

2. Communication/planning prior. The sales meeting about 14 months ahead of time went great. We were impressed and all of our wedding hopes and dreams seemed to be something Carmen’s was happy to provide. Then that rep left and a few things that were promised as “no problem” at the meeting turned out to be “not happening”. I also found it very difficult to get quick responses from Carmen’s, often waiting over 2 weeks for a returned email. This was manageable when we were 14-6 months out, but when you’re down to the last 5-0 months planning, it’s highly stressful not to hear a response for weeks at a time. I found I was always the one asking about tasting dates, finalized contracts, final decor drop off etc and Carmen’s never initiated these conversations which was frustrating. Quite honestly this lack of timely communication was my biggest wedding stressor.

4. Decor/clean-up. Nobody told us that we would need to take our decor at the end of the night. We assumed we could pick it up the next morning when we checked out of the Carmen’s hotel. We were exhausted and headed out around 12:45am. At 1am, our guests left were told they had to take home all of these items THAT night for us. Luckily there were family members there that could put it in their car. However, how embarrassing at 1am that our last guests had to load up their cars with our items! This comes back to the communication point, this should have been discussed and we should have been told.

In conclusion, a majority of my guests noticed none of these things so it was still a fabulous wedding in their eyes, and it truly was. However, I just can’t give a 5 star review because it didn’t live up to that level.

Carmen's was amazing!! They did everything I asked for and set the hall up amazing!! Love everything

Let me start by saying my wedding was beautiful and the food was yummy. All my guests loved the late night buffet and wedding guests from the other weddings were jealous. Unfortunately, there were issues leading up to and including the day of the wedding that I thought should have been avoidable. When the wedding was less then 3 months away, it would take weeks of me following up with emails and calling in person to get answers to questions I had regarding details for the day. I would leave messages and I would not get anyone to call me back. This became very frustrating as we got closer to the day. In the weeks and days leading up to the wedding I would follow up to confirm the final details and frequently find a missing detail. It created a sense that we were not as important as other couples. This feeling was cemented for us on the day of the wedding. There were may decoration details that were blatantly missed. When we went to ensure things were fixed we were met with push back from staff. Ultimately we were able to correct most things, but it was disheartening to have to initially argue with staff to have things corrected. Additionally, we felt like we were being rushed to start everything at exact times but when it came time for something, staff were no where to be found.
I do want to emphasise that the wait and bar staff were wonderful and very responsive. The challenges of our wedding ultimately boiled down to the managing staff and a lack of responsiveness on their end.
The venue was beautiful and food was lovely. But the headache of the challenges we had to deal with, has resulted in me not recommending this venue.

The organization and food was amazing, it let us relax without having to worry about things going wrong. Only minor downside, is the DJ should check in to make sure the first dance song is the correct version, which ours was not.