Terrace Gardens at Ken Caryl

Re: Terrace Gardens at Ken Caryl

• rclswise member

  

  August 2009 edited December 2011

  I thought Terrace Gardens Ken Caryle was a nice facility and reasonably priced, but the hardest part for me was getting past the owner/partner Ernie who runs the show.  If you want emails and customer service like the ones listed below, or if you want to miss the cutting of the cake because Ernie wants it done "right now" with our without you, this might be your place.  I personally liked the venue but did not care for the customer service given.  If you plan to think outside the box, this venue could be a problem.  It was for me.  If you put your bar, headtable, cake table and dance floor where Ernie wants them, things may go smoother.  Ernie appears to dislike vendors, staff, customers and his job.  I doubt you could get our DJ to go back to this venue.  She has had 2 bad experiences both times she was there.  During the signing of the contract it appears they can do anything for you.  One month out when your invitations have already been mailed, the attitude definitely changes. At this point you become a problem.   Be prepared to have every item out of the venue after your reception.  You will be charged for every minute as long as you have a "car in the parking lot."  Good luck to you if you use this venue.  You will need it.  Ernie is also your caterer! Email to me from Ernie,   To say the least I was quite upset when I received your note.   The tone of the note suggests to me that you feel that we have not been honest and forthright with you.   To the contrary, I have gone out of my way and spent what may only be considered an inordinate amount of time working with you and XXXXXX, to the extent that it is roughly triple the number of administrative hours than we normally spend with an event such as yours.   You have suggested that we told you that the room seats 300 guests.    Never, either in our brochure from which you selected our space with my business partner Steve, or in conversation with him or me have we ever suggested that the room comfortably fits more than 275 guests.      To suggest anything to the contrary is simply a fabrication.   That being said, you asked "Can you please take a moment and explain to me what has made this difference?"  relative to why the room that I noted the other night fit 250 comfortably and it is not working the same way for you.   I will attempt to do so below:   1.   Steve first met with XXXXXXX and your family and showed you the room.    His early notes included both that he had told you that the room seats 270-275, but that your expressed desire to put the head table along the airwall may be a problem, and that he had suggested against that for a number of reasons.   Further, when Steve was unable to meet you for the contract signing we spent a significant amount of time reviewing the contract, and I actually measured the space along the south wall with you and suggested that this would not be my recommended placement for the head table.   At that time the extent of your design plans were to have pipe and drape along the wall with some hanging twinkle lights and a few can lights behind the curtain.    That is far cry from what you ended up with.   2.   Simply put, you have specifically tied our hands relative to the space in four areas.           a.    Poor use of space in the head table design.    A typical head table of 14 guests takes up 65 square feet of space.    Your head table, since it is "U" shaped and as large as it is takes up somewhere over 800 square feet.              b.    Larger dance floor than typical for your size group, to the extent that it is taking up just under 250 square feet.         c.    More space needed from the walls due to your lighting plan.    The can lights around the room, due to the hazard that they create both due to heat and wiring, take up somewhere between 500 and 600 square feet that we would normally use for tables, but cannot in order to leave room for them to maneuvered around.    Even taking additional space to keep guests from tripping over them we remain concerned about the potential of  guests burning themselves, tripping, or burns to the carpet or walls.     That is why we require that XXXX provide us with a certificate of insurance adding us as an additional insured.           d.    Likewise, the placement of the gobos takes up additional space, perhaps to the level of two more tables.           e.    Your requirement of an aisle from the foyer to the head table.      Without it we could put in one to two more tables.   Additionally you have added a light show to the DJ.   I have attached for your review two drawings of the room.   One shows what we call our default setting, which in this case seats 272 guests comfortably without putting the dinner buffets on the dance floor.      The second shows the room drawn out per your specific requests.    There is a big difference.      You have continued to "gild the lilly" to the point that you simply have outgrown the room.     Again, when we first met you were considering pipe and drape with limited number of can lights to illuminate it.     Your set up is, as the drawings suggest, totally different from what we normally suggest week in and week out.       Lastly, the other night you asked me many times if I thought this would all fit comfortably.    I replied each time "I think we can do it, but I really need to draw it out".     I simply did not have a good enough sense of how your use of the room would impact the number of tables that we could fit.     That is why I said each time "I really need to draw it out".    Clearly you preferred to hear only the first half of my statement.   The last thing I want is to see anyone in tears, and my primary goal is for you to have a wonderful event.     I will do everything that is reasonably in my power to ensure the success of your event.     Not unlike XXXXXXX, I am very, very frustrated with all that has transpired.    I would be happy to meet with you to review anything that you may wish involving the event plans.    Please be assured that you will receive nothing but the highest professional standard of service and food from us on XXXXXXX's wedding day, and that we will continue to do everything we can to make this event a great success.    Regretfully, one equally upset caterer,   Ernie      

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