I helped a friend plan her entire wedding with the venue being my venue and boy am i glad i got to preview the venue in action before our ceremony this is my email to the catering manager this morning.
Jeff I don’t even know where to begin with my experience from last night I have many concerns for our upcoming wedding. Last night was a dear friend of mine wedding at cannon gate I did refer her there as I have many brides I know personally and on theknot.com. Upon my arrival I went inside aprox. 15 minutes before the ceremony started and the room was still being set up by staff and it was like a mad scramble in which I saw a waitress drop an entire cup of ice on the floor. After re entering about a half hour later there still is all of that ice slowly melting away in the middle of tables. The speaker podium was left out to the left of the head table until I said something to Scott about it being out during cocktail hour and he had it removed. Not one but 2 buffet servers that were not being used for this wedding were being stored on the sides of the dance floor. Apparently 1-2 staff members were a no show to work and they were very short staffed is their not a back up list of staff to call if this happens? There was only one bar open I was told during wedding there would be two bars open I want to re clarify that there will be two bars open at our reception. Ok onto bars, I would like to request that the bartender Coleen not be a part of our day, I have never seen such disgusting behavior from a bartender at a wedding and I have been to my share of weddings. She openly complained about being short staffed, the one time I was in a line of about five people and she sighed like a large huff and puff from a 2 year old and said ugh either no one’s up here or everyone comes at once, I got out of line and sent my fiancé back up to get me a soda as to not start problems with her. On every trip I tipped $1 for every soda I got and one of my trips up I was in the process of talking to someone as she put my drink down and she physically moved the tip jar toward me. She physically put a drink down and slid it across her bar to the guest instead of taking an extra step to put it down in front of him. Moving on a young man was banging on the door behind the bar to get the garbage physically hand to door making noise to get the garbage and she ignored it until I pointed him out. Coleen (I asked her name so I could be specific in this email) then proceeded to change out the garage on the patio in perfect view of guests and then go back to making drinks without washing her hands! Touching peoples straws to put them in drinks with dirty garbage hands I have never been so disgusted and I’m pretty sure she’s racist on top of all her many other traits. The “white glove service” at this reception consisted of only latex medical gloves?????? Waitresses where serving and clearing food wearing the same gloves my doctor does I am at a complete loss there….. There was no corona and it was requested by the bride and groom to be in sync with Cinco de Mayo the decorations where cute but many guests were shocked at the no corona especially on Cinco de Mayo. During dinner one waitress came out holding a tower of bread baskets which she secured by wedging the top one in with her chin and face. The bride and groom where not served their salads until someone was told that they forgot them and the groom had to send back his dinner as it was a horrible well done piece of meat while the rest of the guests had a nice juicy serving. When dinner was served everyone had a steak more or less tossed in front of them, a guest at our table does not eat red meat and thought that was the only choice as no one was asked if they wanted chicken so she was going to go without dinner. Now here comes the only saving grace of the night who I also had to ask Scott her name so I could be specific here Nehya, lets rewind to the start of the night she was the only staff member smiling and actually interacting with guests, she started the night at the taco bar where she just lit up the cocktail hour room and I think every guest had a conversation with her I felt as if she was an old friend that’s how comfortable she was and all she was doing was serving tacos. She switched over to serving after the cocktail hour where again she was amazing even after one waitress threw all the steaks down she came around to check if anyone had wanted chicken instead which indeed one of our table mates did! She honestly seemed like the only waitress that truly cared about the guests and I would be honored to have her work at our wedding if she is still an employee in 5 months. I also think the bathrooms should be checked at least one time throughout the night if not more by staff the main bathroom off of the floor had one stall un useable because it was soiled by a child and the bathroom in the hallway also had a stall that was gross. I am extremely worried about our wedding now and about all of the recommendations I have put out there for Cannon Gate.
To recap here are all of my questions and concerns I would like addressed from last night.
Coleen will not be part of our event
Please verify there will be two bars open at our reception
Reception will be set to go before guest’s arrival
No plastic medical gloves
Podium put away
No buffet servers stored on dance floor
Fully staffed
Bathroom checked at least once during evening
Staff not complaining in front of guests
High top tables in cocktail hour
Can we scroll slideshow the entire 5 hours on two tvs in cocktail hour area instead of making everyone sit down during reception to watch.
Can we borrow a golf cart to take a picture?
Love the buffet appetizer set up can we do that instead of butler passed?
Love the taco bar can we add that without the fiesta decorations and is it posb. to add soft shells?
Please get back to me as soon as possible to address these concerns.
I also sent a cc to my day of coordinator so she can be aware of what has happened and maybe help in the prevention of some of this stuff the day of our reception. Thankfully the bride and groom where oblivious to most of the things that happened but im not sure I would be and I am very fearful of my reception turning into me correcting things all night if I do not make Cindy aware of my wedding experience at your venue last night, I can honestly say if my wedding was not booked and paid for and I had experienced last night prior to booking I would have kept looking which is sad because you have an amazing venue with staff that are not doing it justice.