Green Gables Events
Wow - this review will be LONG, but it is VERY IMPORTANT FOR FUTURE BRIDES!
In short: STAY AWAY!
The longer version?
We knew there would be issues when we met with our venue, and they told us that the sole caterer we were allowed to use would be Green Gables Events. Unfortunately, they were difficult to contact to arrange a meeting to discuss our wedding and reception at our venue.
When we finally contacted them, we met with the owner at their restaurant. We discussed our budget, what we were looking for, and things seemed promising. We asked about a tasting prior to signing our contract.....nope. We were informed it would "be too expensive to do a tasting for us since they would have to bring their chef in to cook a variety of dishes just for us" and that we were "better off coming in for dinner." Hmm - okay. Seemed a little odd to us, and the worst part was we were in love with our venue. Since they were the sole caterer (at that time) we had to agree to the caterer (before tasting the food) as the venue booked quickly. Alas, we booked our venue and had to book our caterer based solely on his proposed menu.
They had a great assistant at first: Sandy. She was quick with e-mail responses and phone calls. She answered our questions. She sent us our contract. I sent her an e-mail back stating that my parents, as a wedding gift, wanted to pay our deposit so the contract would be sent separately from the deposit.
A week went by, and I received a short and curt voicemail from the owner's wife stating she had received the contract, but she never received the deposit, therefore our contract was null and void at that time. Oh...by the way....we'll be out of town the next week due to the holiday. I immediately called her back, and my call was sent straight to voicemail. I indicated that I had sent an e-mail to "Sandy," etc.
Another week went by, and my parents received a signed return receipt that the check had been received. I received a phone call three days later from the owner's wife informing me that Sandy had "been let go."
We were told we needed to set up a meeting to come choose linens and rental items for our wedding. A month went by (with several e-mails and phone calls asking when we could come by) to no avail. During this time, we arranged to have dinner at the restaurant.
One would think if a tasting was "too expensive" that a dinner at the restaurant would be comped or at least discounted. Nope. Full price. The food was really excellent as was the service. Now we were getting excited as we had chosen the same meals as our reception meals that we had at the restaurant.
We finally received an e-mail from the caterer's new assistant, Kathy, who had been the coordinator at our venue. We chose a time and date to come choose linens.
When we arrived, the owner came out and reintroduced himself saying, "I don't believe we've met." (Yes, we had, but we shrugged it off.)
He takes us downstairs to various rental items - vases, candleabras, etc. and we were confused. "We came here to choose the linens?" They "forgot" or "didn't know that" even though we clearly stated so. Gee, the linen book is twenty miles away at the restaurant not here at the prop rental location. We're positive this is something they do - look at what you CAN rent while you're here - might as well?
We drove over to the restaurant, chose our linens, and a price was to be worked up for us "the next day." The assistant told us, "and there is no pick up charge or anything since the linen rental place is right down the road."
A week or two later (after sending e-mails asking about the linen quote) we finally receive it. While we had been told overlays would be $8, the new price was $12 per overlay...oh....and $35 for "shipping." (The "shipping" that wasn't supposed to exist?) When I worked up the calculations, I determined I would make my own overlays and use them again for $3/each versus what boiled down to $14/each (divided shipping) for rentals.
Again, contact was almost nil. We provided our final count (per our contract) before the due date. According to our contract, the "price per person was an estimate only and could change in 2011." I asked for the final balance in case the amount had changed (per what THEY wrote in their contract.)
I received a very brief response from the wife (because THIS assistant had also "left") stating she received the final count and their internet had been down for two weeks due to the storms. Okay - final balance?
I sent NUMEROUS e-mails and left THREE voicemails the next two weeks trying to contact the caterer as we were to hand-deliver our final payment a week before our event....which at that point...was THREE days away!
No response. In the meantime, I had spoken to another Blackstock bride who informed me she had used another caterer. When I asked about the "sole approved caterer," she said, "we could never get a hold of them so the venue said we could use someone else." Wish we had known with the notoriously difficult to contact caterer!
I sent a formal e-mail on Wednesday (Saturday was our payment due date) attempting to contact the caterer, and again, I left two voicemails on both telephone numbers I had for them. No response.
Because we live two hours away from where the caterer's business is, we didn't know if he was even still in business or if something was wrong, etc. NO RESPONSE. The next morning when neither myself nor the manager of our venue had heard ANYTHING from them, I contacted an alternate caterer as back up at 7:43 a.m. on Thursday. They immediately replied that they had heard this caterer was difficult to contact and to let them know if they needed to step in.
I sent a final e-mail to the caterer and copied in the manager of the venue, the events coordinator, and our family attorney stating that I needed a response ASAP since their calls and e-mails had gone unanswered.
Five minutes later, I had a call from the venue manager telling me whatever happened, they would be on our side, how unprofessional this caterer was being, and to keep them posted.
Five minutes after that, I had a call from the caterer (finally!) He half-chuckled that he had thirty-seven voicemails waiting for him on their phone because their "phone calls were forwarded to their cell phones" and "their cell phones were being worked on" and that "they didn't have internet because of the storms" (two weeks ago?) Meanwhile, none of their clients could contact them.
The manager of the venue called me back after I spoke to the caterer, and I told her all was well and we would be going over our contract in-depth in an hour or so.
When the caterer did call, he didn't have any of our revised information and then tried to blame it on the former assistant. Meanwhile, I was staring at our printed out revised contract, revised rental fee, and menu that the assistant had already sent me several months prior. We said we wanted a rustic, country, outdoors decor for a main table at our venue, etc. Little did we know how unreceptive to our design ideas they were. He told us where we could hand-deliver the check, and that was that.
I called the venue back and told them everything was settled, we were using the caterer, and we were delivering the deposit to them on Saturday.
The next day, Friday, I received an irrate phone call from the caterer who threatened to cancel our catering, refund our deposit, and "be done with us" since he was not used to "dealing with such a difficult bride!" He then informed me that he received a phone call from the venue manager stating we had contacted another caterer the prior afternoon instead of them (nope - and this was solely hearsay so I don't know who to believe.) All I know is I was upset and angered at the caterer and had to stroke his ego to get him to continue to work with us.
"A difficult bride" because they couldn't be bothered to contact their clients. When we went to pay our final balance at another business location of the caterer's, the caterer's own employee had some choice words and opinions of her boss. Nice, right?
Needless to say, our wedding day and reception arrived, and it was so absolutely haphazard it wasn't even funny. Luckily, our guests were oblivious to how things were SUPPOSED to be, but we were annoyed.
Our rustic, country decor had been replaced by fingerprint and dirty stainless steel chafing dishes thrown on a black tablecloth in the middle of the table. We had asked for copper and outdoorsy stuff - NOPE.
Our servers? What a joke. Teenagers wearing t-shirts, basketball shorts, socks, and Adidas sandals.
Our food? Presentation was awful. It looked like giant ice cream scoops plopped food on the plates. Our beef was overcooked (we had requested medium all around,) the sauce was missing, and the cheddar mashed potatoes tasted like they were straight out of the box (a comment from several guests.) Our other meal? The pasta side had zero flavor, and the ingredients in it were non-existent. Green beans had randomly found themselves on the dish as well. The cheese fondue looked and tasted like melted Velveeta. I had a few guests tell me, "oh I don't know - I didn't try it when I saw the dried film on it." The cheese torte was wonderful and all of our guests loved it. While I have had awful reception food, this wasn't necessarily "awful," but it was below par on what we expected after our wonderful dinner at the restaurant.
When 9 p.m. rolled around (our reception ended at 10 p.m.) the caterer started pulling off linens and collapsing the tables we had rented from them and started loading them in his truck. Vendors had to be out by 11 p.m. and we only had 8 tables rented from them and 13 black linens. Our guests were a little shocked as they'd come back to their seats....and their table would be gone.
If you want a peace of mind for your event, look elsewhere. Since our wedding, I have heard from no less than three other brides that decided not to use them when they couldn't even contact them to begin with. The caterer's excuse is "because we're so busy!" but you'd think they would hire AND KEEP an assistant.
ETA: We had eight guests not show up to our wedding whose meals/wine was already paid for. What happened to that extra food? I don't know, but I had another vendor (who received a full meal) and guests inform me that the two members of the grounds crew and another employee at the winery were chowing down on food in styrofoam containers (and they hadn't left the property) shortly after all of our dinners were served to our guests. Not professional at all.