I've been having venue troubles basically since the day I booked...I haven't regretted any vendor more than I do our venue. I have posted in the past about the main issue we are having which I'll recap for those of you who might have missed it months ago.
The short of it, is that we are having both our ceremony and reception at the same place. Although they accomodate a reception upwards of 300 people, they told me (after we put down our deposit and confirming that they have ceremonies this large all the time) that the only package they have for ceremony set up was for 50 people and were not willing to add more chairs bc "typically people don't come to the ceremony". Of course, I think it's bs, and I expect more than 50 people from about 300 invited to show up to the ceremony and believe there should be a butt for every chair.
Why didn't I go with a different ceremony venue? Because I was told originally that they would accomodate our guests with no problem, and we really wanted to keep our guest in the same place and not have to drive all around Houston to find the reception. I've been getting the run around since and have switched within their internal coordinators about 4 times and each person has told me a different story. All of them have been useless thus far.
With that in mind, we hired a private coordinator who has helped us and now, after almost 5 months of worrying and they finally said that they would add the extra 200 ceremony chairs and with setup, breakdown, assistance during the cocktail hour and mics for the officiant lapel for $390. Its an unexpected expense, that's for sure, but they originally trying to charge us 3.25 per chair ($650, on top of the $300 we already paid for the ceremony setup).
Well our sweet coordinator talked them down to $390 ($1.95 per chair). I could not be happier! Although it pisses me off that it has taken this long to come up with a solution, I am SO glad this ordeal is over. I now feel like I can relax...sorta!
