This is a beautiful venue managed by an unprofessional company- Avenue Catering. *Untimely communication, even a week before the wedding. When we did get a response, our questions were never fully answered or they would defer us to another vendor. This becaming increasingly frustrating as our wedding date approached.
* Conflicts on what was in the contracts - An additional $1800 ($800 cermony fee and $1000 tent rental) was almost tacked on to our final bill. Ceremony fee was mentioned 2 months preceding the wedding date and additional tent rental was brought up exactly one week before the wedding. After my conversation of trying to explain that the ceremony fee had been included in our contract, I decided to hire a wedding planner one month before the wedding because I could not deal with their dishonesty and unprofessionalism. This, in addition to other instances, caused us to distrust Avenue Catering more and more as the wedding date approached. Trust was something we valued deeply when first signing on with the Gardens at Great Oaks since our wedding was an important expense as well as experience to us.
On our wedding day, one of our signature drinks ran out prior to the end of cocktail hour and both were out before dinner even started. After asking Avenue Catering about this when the wedding was over, he told us that we had discussed the timing of the signature drinks at our final meeting. Both my husband and I know this did not happen since we signed the contract with the understanding that all drinks were to be available for the entire night.
This is a frustrating post because I was so happy to sign on with the Gardens of Great Oaks in 2009. However, in 2010 they changed management companies and Avenue Catering was the new company managing the events on this beautiful property. Every time I communicated with Avenue Catering, I would be angry for days, so I recommend looking for another venue with a different management company because a bride does not need to stress out over this.