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.

First I’d like to talk about the good…the food, cake, waitstaff were all were great! The venue is beautiful and the wedding packages are excellent. Miko, our Maitre’D was amazing. He was accommodating and attentive. He made us feel welcomed and comfortable. Really, a special thanks to those listed above they made the event what it was along with our external vendors. If it was based on these elements alone I would give a higher rating. They deserve 5 stars.

We do thank the set up team , the following is just a reflection of management and who ever is actually in charge. (We actually have no idea who is we weren’t able to get their information.)

The bad…up until the last week before the wedding (which would be the most important week) everything was fine.

But then things got sour. The coordinator Taylor gave us an unnecessarily hard time with a fairly simple change that in the end we got done ourselves on the day of the wedding. The worst part is she did not even TRY to solve the issue we had.

We just needed 4 tables to be switched around. We had forgot to make this change earlier due to all that we had going on (wedding and closing on our home at the exact same time) We were more than willing to pay the fee for last minute changes because we understood we were past the deadline and it wasn’t like we were adding a whole new table or something crazy.

Apparently, it was too much work for her to execute. Taylor made it seem like it was a huge task that could not be done and complained that it needed to be re-set and kept saying she could not assist. My husband asked to get in contact with upper management multiple times to get the issue resolved because we really needed it done but she never gave us that info. Note: he had to go back and forth with her through email to even allow us to get it done ourselves. He told her he would willing do it himself if it had to be done since her and her team could not assist.

It’s ridiculous that this could not have been resolved 3 days prior. We weren’t asking for the change to be done the day of the wedding. We couldn’t understand why it couldn’t be done because to our knowledge there was going to be a room flip anyway as the ceremony and reception was suppose to be in the same room. But lo and behold, it was not communicated to us that the ceremony would be in a completely different room until we mentioned the had the issue of needing tables moved.

On the day of the wedding my husband, best man and a couple my cousins ended up switching the four tables around in 5 minutes. By lifting the tables and switching them without disturbing the place setting. Easily.

The day of the wedding Taylor did not greet us, see how we were doing or even congratulate us (after working with her for 4 months I just think that was was strange? Maybe that’s just me)

Also, there seemed to be zero communication between staff from the decor drop off day and wedding day staff. We still had a couple of things to bring back on the day of the wedding (Friday) because we did not receive everything on time for decor drop off (Monday). I’m not sure how a lot of things were missed as the staff member on decor drop off day wrote down 2 pages of instruction notes.

Day of wedding a staff member was under stress and venting to my brother and cousin when they came by to drop of the rest of our items and told them that they were dropping things into her lap last minute. It was unprofessional because it’s not our issue that staff is not communicating properly as it was always planned that decor items were going to be dropped off the day of the wedding. It was a little chaotic, decor items were not put in the correct spot, led candles were not turned on, among other things. When coming down for the ceremony I turned on a neon light we had set up myself because it was not done.

We wanted to enjoy the cocktail hour but found it hard to do so as these errors were annoying to correct and deal with when we arrived. It’s bad when the venue creates the stress on your day instead of relieving you of it.

During cocktail hour lines were very long for drinks.
I don’t believe 1 bartender was sufficient for 140 guests and not enough passed hor d’oeuvres.

There were a lot of other issues and I can’t pin point everything but just wanted to get the main points out. And I’m aware that not everything is going to go perfect but some of it was a mess. And some of the team need to find better ways to communicate and execute.

I never leave negative reviews and don’t let a lot of things bother me but when you’re spending THOUSANDS of dollars it’s unacceptable.

These things did not completely ruin our wedding, but there are definitely improvements to be made. I just wish we had a better experience.

My husband and I got married at Carmen's on October 14th and we could not have been more pleased with them! I was blown away when I found out almost everything was included - decor (although I upgraded to some premium options cause I'm extra lol), cake, DJ, food, our night of suite, bar (8 hours and open during dinner too!) and so much more! Carmen's helped to ease a lot of our stress as everything was kind of all in one place, not to mention the venue is stunning! I had a few coordinators over the time I was dealing with Carmen's (we had to push due to Covid so the wedding was a 2+ year process to plan) but each and every person I dealt with was kind, patient and so helpful. For the day of I ended up dealing with Pam and she was incredible! Even as the night was ending and she approached me with some things to be done while I was completely inebriated, she was still so patient and helpful. If you are considering Carmen's for your big day, this is your sign to DO IT! Thank you so much to everyone on the Carmen's team for making our day so special ❤️

Our wedding was amazing with the help of Brian he's an amazing person he made sure we were happy and delivered everything we asked for, and made sure our day went well. It was magical. Service was very good, food was amazing.

Carmen's was the first of many wedding venues that we visited the summer of 2020. Its stunning interior, high ceilings, staircases, and gold accents stood out to me and set an extremely high bar for our classic glam wedding. Despite touring several venues from Hamilton to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Carmen's was the one that never left my mind.

Carmen’s is THE one-stop shop for your wedding. They will include almost everything, depending on your package: catering, continuous bar service, transportation, a hotel, DJ services, lighting, decorations, and even your wedding cake. We booked the venue in November 2020 after excellent communication with the Director of Sales at the time, Andi Pojani. Andi was an all-star and was extremely responsive, answered all of our questions in detail, and followed up with us at regular intervals to check in and ask how he could help us. We were devastated when he went on parental leave and even more so when he left Carmen's.

Our menu tasting was hosted in April 2022 by Karen Da Costa and Ashley Walker, which was such a fun experience, and the food was great. However, right after our menu tasting Karen went on maternal leave and replaced by Marian Clark. I reached out to Marian in April (and again in May) and unfortunately a full month went by with no response. I then contacted Miranda Dias, the new Director of Sales, who was very helpful and apologetic. She transferred the care of our wedding to Heather Fontez who helped us to arrange a meeting with our new event coordinator, Dakota Raycraft. For whatever reason, that meeting was cancelled last minute, and we were again transferred to a different event coordinator, Ashley, in June 2022. Around this time, we also received a message from Carmen’s regarding their staffing shortages and personnel changes, along with an apology and hospital credit to use at our wedding. From here, communication improved vastly, and we are beyond thankful to have had Ashley step in to fill the shoes of Andi.

Ashley was kind, accommodating, and extremely hardworking. She was so committed to making sure our wedding day was perfect that it felt like we were working with a friend or family member who wanted all of the same things that we did. Ashley helped us to customize our wedding exactly how we wanted – from the gold-accented décor, pink uplighting, and piano in the lobby, to the custom bar options like Rolling Rock, limoncello, and Irish coffee, to the extraordinary menu items like strawberry cheesecake for dessert and cannoli for our late-night table.

Of course, we also owe much of these accommodations to the incredibly dedicated and hardworking bar and kitchen staff, including Phillip, the bar manager, and John, the head chef. The food was excellent, and guests were raving about the cheesecake in particular. The 3-tiered wedding cake was also incredible. I know that people say not to worry about a wedding cake because nobody eats it, which in many cases might be true, but I was so happy to taste the cake and know that my guests had yet another incredible dessert option. We took the leftovers home and froze them to enjoy with our families later.

On the day of the wedding, Carmen’s set up all of our décor and signage for us so that all we had to do was walk in. It was such a great feeling to know that everything was taken care of, down to the smallest detail. It really was beautiful and such a load off of us as the couple. The reception was fantastic. There was a bit of confusion surrounding the start of the reception where the receiving line wasn’t ready and the guests were held back from the antipasto buffet, as the maître d’ (who we hadn’t met with or spoken to before) wasn’t aware of the receiving line, so she had to hurry and find the liqueurs once we arrived and told her. Otherwise, things went extremely well – our guests continuously commented on the food being excellent and the venue being beautiful.

Our DJ, Matt, also did an excellent job. He cued up our songs perfectly, his transitions were great, and he kept the party going. We’re especially thankful that he played “Celebration” as the first song after our speeches ended (it wasn’t on our song list) as we didn’t have any dance floor invitations in our speech, but it brought everybody to the dance floor! The only thing we were a bit disappointed by was that he didn’t play any slow songs until much later in the night after we asked him to, when a lot of the older guests had gone home. But other than that, we could tell that Matt had a blast doing what he does best, which made it easy for the guests on the dance floor to enjoy themselves too.

Overall, aside from some hiccups with communication, there is not one thing that I would change about my wedding at Carmen’s. The entire process, including the day of, was so smooth and I trusted them completely to bring our vision for a classic glam wedding to life. They delivered – and then some. We have been told by all of our friends that we have set the bar so high for their future weddings. We’re just glad to have been able to host such an incredible evening for our family and friends. Thank you, Carmen’s!!

Last week Carmen's hosted our wedding with 125 guests, to this day I am still hearing from people on how much they enjoyed the food! The food was the main thing that interested me in this venue as I am not from Hamilton but have had 2 prior cancelled covid weddings at other venues.
The food was amazing and there was TONS of it, the bartenders were also wonderful as they were serving drinks that weren't necessarily on the "menu" like blue Hawaiians and different flavored shooters for guests upon request or as a surprise.
I booked the last Saturday available of summer just four months before the actual date. This was quite concerning but looking back it was a very stress less process, they truly do it all for you. Right down to re arranging some of the minimal décor I had in the ceremony into the reception, I didn't ask them to do this but it looked amazing and was such a relief to me as I was stressed I may not have put enough thought/effort into the décor I brought on my own.

If you are looking for a one stop shop, this is the venue for you!

We booked three years ago and they have happily moved our wedding twice due to covid. Great location and staff. Everything is super, they even offered to switch us to the hotel next door with a similar set up when the wedding on the other side of the dividing wall was getting big and our numbers looked small enough to fit and it worked out great.

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!