I was sold on a Waldorf-Astoria experience (i.e. luxurious, convenient, worry-free, etc.) when I selected The Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, LA as my wedding venue. They were aware of the fact that this would be Hindu ceremony, and we were assured on multiple occasions that the hotel has a lot of experience handling this type of ceremony. We were also assured that all precautions would be taken to ensure the safety of our 200+ guests- most of which stayed at the hotel. On the day of the wedding, there was no mitigation for smoke indoors. This resulted in the fire alarms going off throughout the ceremony. None of the guests could hear our vows. Our ceremony was incomplete. The event coordinator was on her walkie-talkie loudly and slamming doors while she attempted to coordinate with the security staff. The event coordinator later explained the hotel took the position that it was the fault of my priest; she also stated that "most brides do not care about their weddings; it's the party they care about." She also stated that the ballroom looked like that of a smoky bar when we were done with it, as though it was our fault the hotel did not respect our traditions and did not have a mitigation plan in place.
Prior to the wedding, I sent the event coordinator multiple scripts and timelines for the wedding over a period of 6 months and even held a coordination meeting with her, our floral decorator, our wedding decorator, our priest, and our musicians. Approximately, half an hour before the wedding, she approached me asking me to walk her through the first sighting. I responded that I was done spoon-feeding her and it was time for her to go earn her money. This is not the frame of mind a bride needs to be in right before she is about to see her groom for the first time. I was later told that she was going up to members of my bridal party asking "now what?" She also had the audacity to tell me she felt "there were too many cooks in the kitchen" because I had a separate day-of coordinator to help with my family. Thank GOD I had a separate coordinator.
My wedding ceremony was ruined and my cultural and religious traditions were belittled, and while I am still quite upset with the The Roosevelt and their lack of professionalism and disrespect, I am most concerned with a potential compromise of the safety of my guests and the safety of their guest, as I suspect they did not file for the appropriate permits required for this type of event.
The morning after the wedding, we were basically kicked out of the Suite by the hotel as we requested one extra hour after check-out time. The bell staff did not have a clue as to how they could store our items while my new husband and I just wanted to grab lunch. Finally, after an hour and a half of discussion and a screaming phone call to their manager on duty, they moved our items into a storage area so he & I could go eat.
The hotel absolutely acts as though your hard earned money means nothing. One week prior to the wedding, the hotel attempted a breach of contract trying to up charge the corking fee (which was already $20/bottle), they worked on pushing every cent out of us and had a clear arrogance about it, and upon my having a meeting with event coordinator to follow up on the pitfalls of the ceremony, she stated "it wasn't like it was that much money" as though it would diminish the magnitude of what they had done. Whether it was a $1,000, $10,000, $100,000, or $1,000,000, it is rude and unnecessary to degrade anyone. She additionally stated that it would be good if I would write a nice survey even though nothing would be done to her even if something mean was written. I later received a two night complimentary stay at this specific hotel and a standard note that read they were sorry I was unhappy.
I've contacted Hilton corporate multiple times to report this awful experience. I received a note this week that The Roosevelt reported back my concerns had been addressed. They are liars.
If you care about your wedding ceremony being treated as sacred, if you are looking for an actual coordinator of events, if you are of any culture other than the traditional American protestant, DO NOT spend your money with these people. They are completely disjointed in their communication and they are insulting about it. They are an entitled organization with an arrogant dismissal and an inability to apologies for clear screw ups. Service is something they sell you to land an account. Plan to do your planning and do not expect execution. I do not wish this on any other bride, as I spent weeks crying after the event.
By the way, this is almost six months after my wedding. I just want to express this situation still makes me sick.