I have been a wedding planner for over 20 years and I booked this place for my daughter's wedding. It was a Nigerian wedding and we had around 400 guests which came to about $10k just for the venue. We had a great time. The venue doesn't do much for you, but that is fine by me as I know how to plan and run a wedding.
After the wedding we were cleaning up and I did notice what I assumed correctly was the GM glaring our way. I honestly didn't think much of it as it was late (about 11:30pm) and I'm sure she wanted to go home. I had paid a $500 refundable deposit via check which was supposed to go toward the corkage fees as well as any damages done to the venue. Luckily, even though we had 400 guests, our corkage fee was only $175. As the evening progressed the Event Planner came to me and told me that a chair had been damaged (I never saw said chair) but agreed to pay the $50 for the chair as I know that things just happen.
The following Monday I received a bill for the corkage fee and the chairs, minutes later I received a $32 bill for glass rental. Apparently, the caterer had used 32 of the venues glasses (something that I was not aware of until after the event) That was fine as well. I texted to Event Planner and asked "do I pay it and then you send the check back? Or do you cash the check and send me the difference?" To which the planner replied via text "The manager said that if she deposits the check she is keeping the entire amount and not giving your money back."
What???? I immediately paid the bill and the planner then informed me that the General Manager had no intention of giving my deposit back which would have been $243. She said that because the caterer used the glasses that I was in "breech of contract" which is crazy as it does NOT say that in the contract and I paid for said glasses.
I have worked for some of the best venues in the area and have never heard of such a thing. There are several other things that happened, that I won't go into simply because it's exhausting. My event planner was lovely and did her best throughout the whole experience. The General Manager however, needs a lesson in hospitality and contracts.
I literally plan weddings from head to toe in the area and will never EVER recommend this venue. Not only will I not recommend the venue, but I will certainly spread the word of my experience. I will talk to every Wedding Planner in the area as well as share my experience in all of the available wedding websites.
If this GM had such a problem with us that evening, she should have said something in the moment. I feel that the best night quickly went sour in her attempt at a money grab. I wonder how many people have given in to this extortion in the past?