Church Ranch Event Center

egarding the issues you stated here. I know you did get a lot of phone calls from our staff the week before your wedding. As you know our staff does a complete review of all the details of the event the week before the event. Including everything that we are responsible for as well as everything that our client is responsible for. Our review discovered a significant issue that you ordered your catering online with one of our preferred vendors, but you did not speak to anyone at the restaurant to plan out the catering. The restaurant was not even aware that the food was for an event. When someone chooses to do direct catering with one of our vendors, instead of having our staff handle all the vendor details, we provide contact information to communicate with the catering departments of the restaurant so the restaurant understands what will be needed to take care of the event. As I understand the situation, you made your order online and never spoke with their catering staff, so they were not aware of the event, but they only had plans to make the food. Thank goodness that we caught this for you. Because of this you did not include any plan for delivery of the food, set up, the buffet, stocking and managing the buffet as items need replenishing, clean up after the event, etc. There were a few other minor issues that also needed to be addressed and completed to ensure that the event went well. This was the reason for us jumping into high gear trying to help you out and make sure your guest had access to the food you ordered. So yes, we did have a lot of communication in that last week, but I would have assumed that you would be happy about the staff saving the event and making sure your guests had the food to eat that you purchased. We have very specific systems that the planning team manages through the planning process to help the event go smoothly. When we do not get answers to some of our questions, and we are not able to complete our system, issues will arise. One of those important questions is who you would like to provide alcohol to during your hosted time and who needs to purchase their own alcohol. Our bartenders need to know who to charge and who will be put on your tab. Without having clear communication on this topic, the bartenders served alcohol on your tab to the wedding party, but they were not aware of some specific guests that you told would have access to your tab. We apologize for our bartenders being rude to any guests as that should never be the case. Once the bartenders were informed that it was okay for them to serve these guests on your tab as I understand everything went smoothly after that. Over the past year of planning, we made many exceptions, which is not normally the case. We also gifted $525.00 to you for your event to help, as well as provided a payment plan, helped with the possibility of moving the date, and much more. Two days after your wedding you told our team; how nice and pretty everything was. It was beautiful, our event manager was great, super sweet, and very attentive, and the ceremony was beautiful. You also stated that you really liked your alone time in the Gazebo after the ceremony. We know that the DJ had a hard time mixing multiple musical genres and We are sorry that we could not come to an agreement on some compensation for the DJ, but to give back the amount you are asking is just not reasonable or possible for any company to do. Once again, we apologize for the disappointment you feel you experienced.

Church Ranch Event Center so wonderful!!

hat special day that you have envisioned for years was very disappointing. We spend over 75 hours helping our brides plan out their perfect day. Part of making sure the wedding goes smoothly is we must plan for bad weather. We do a dual set up indoors and outdoors before anyone gets there to make sure the wedding goes off without a hitch. Of course, plan A is to have the event outdoors, so we make sure we have it perfect with all the requested enhancements. We set up the indoors with plan B making sure it will work but it might not have all the enhancements requested because we used them outdoors. These benches are very heavy and require special equipment and additional staff to set up. Without our dual setup strategy, we could end up delaying the entire event by over an hour figuring out what to do with the guests while the team moved all the tables out of the way and put chairs for the ceremony inside. This delay would cause the catering company not to finish their table set up and the meal to get cold, not to mention the entire event would run an hour late, demolishing the timeline. Keeping on schedule is very important when you are coordinating moving pieces and people. I am also sorry that it was offensive to you about the comment “you could have done the event outdoors”. The comment was not intended to offend but to point out that everything you requested was set up as required according to the contract. We spent hours setting up the outdoors to look beautiful knowing that our outdoors is a large reason why people love getting married at CREC. We have learned after years of doing this that we cannot try to move outdoors back to indoors without having several problems, it’s just impossible. We must set up as two separate events because our goal is to help our bride and groom as well as all their guests feel like everything flowed exactly as planned. Once we determine that we don’t need the indoor set up we take it down and finish the table set up for dinner while the guests are on the back patio for a happy hour. If we end up needing to use the indoor set up, we can direct the guests immediately to the indoors without the guests realizing the major adjustment that just took place. We know from experience that if we tried to move the seating during the event the flow and the timeline of the event would have been a mess and I am sure you would have been frustrated about the chaos and confusion that this would have caused, your event and all your guests. Regarding the refund for not being able to use the outdoor set up, including benches etc. We do not simply charge for the use of the upgrades we provide but we also charge for staffing for setting up and tearing down. Our cost of setting up and tearing down does not change whether the upgrades are used or not used. I know that does not seem like it is fair, but we still had to pay for the staff just as we would have if the benches were used. Most Brides and Grooms choose to have their special day with us because they can trust that we have almost everything planed out and strategies for most all contingencies that might come up during an event. Our job is to pre think all possible problems that might come up and do our best to plan for them so that the bride and groom can just simply enjoy their special day. I am sorry that the rain issue causes your 5-star experience drop to a 1-star experience, but I hope that this explanation can relieve some of the frustration and help you see the level of preparation and strategies go into each event to ensure you and your guests have an event that you will always love and cherish rain or shine.

our significant day is a horrible way to remember your day, I would completely agree. I am sorry for our part in that. I would love to possibly help with a little explanation. I know having a rainy day on that one day that you have envisioned to go one way is not fun when it goes different than expected. We spend hours and hours helping our brides plan out that perfect day. Believe it or not, in a recent audit of our time we are spending over 75 hours prep time for a wedding. This is not easy for what we charge but we feel it is very important to get it right. Part of making sure the wedding goes smoothly is we must plan for bad weather. We do what we call a dual set up to make sure if the outdoor wedding is not able to happen, we must have everything set up properly indoors for an immediate change. If we were not set up to make a change at the last minute due to the weather, we could end up putting off the entire event by over an hour to make that change. If that happened, we would need to figure out what to do with the guest for over an hour while our team moved all the tables out of the way and put in chairs for the ceremony. This would require us to stop the catering company from their table set-up, that is required to make it beautiful and work on trying to keep their food warm for a delayed eating time. Once we have the ceremony set up, we could resume event activities, but the entire event would be delayed over an hour and the entire timeline would be demolished. You see keeping on schedule is extremely important when you are coordinating many moving pieces. The way we do it to make sure everything works properly is to set up a ceremony indoors as well as outdoors before anyone shows up. We have a large set up crew to make sure everything gets set up the way the bride requests it to be. Of course, plan A is to have the event outdoors, so we make sure we have the outdoors perfect with all the requested enhancements. We set up the indoors with plan B making sure it will work but it might not have all the enhancements requested because we used them outdoors. We only have enough of the benches you requested to set up one ceremony location. They are very heavy, and we need to use special equipment and additional staffing to move them. Because of this we do not use the benches inside. Doing this at the last minute would require keeping our additional staff around not only for setup but also during the event in case we might have to make a move. This would make the expense cost prohibitive for the bride and groom as well as delaying the event and throw off the timeline. I am also sorry that the comment was offensive to you “you could have done the event outdoors”. The comment was not intended to offend on any level. The intent of the comment was to point out that everything you requested was set up as required according to the contract. We spent hours setting up the outdoors to look beautiful and to look as you requested. Any time that the weather prevents an event from happening outdoors is very sad to us as well. We know that our outdoors is a large reason why people love getting married at CREC. We have learned after years of doing this that we cannot try to move outdoors back to indoors and make the event try to go off without a hitch, it’s just impossible. We must set up indoors as its own event because our goal is to help our bride and groom as well as all their guests to feel like everything flowed exactly as planned. So, as we stated earlier we set up indoors as well as outdoors expecting to use the outdoors. While the ceremony is going on outdoors and we find we do not need to use the indoor set up we take that setup down and finish the table setup for dinner. We finish that setup while the guests are on the back patio for happy hour and while the bride and groom are taking pictures. If we end up needing to use the indoor set up, we can direct the guests immediately to the indoor set-up without the guests realizing the major adjustment that had to take place. We know from experience If we would have tried to adjust everything bringing in additional staff and some of our equipment to move the benches the flow and the timeline of the event would have been a mess and I am sure you would have been disappointed about all the chaos and confusion that this would have caused you, your event and all your guests. Regarding the refund for not being able to use the outdoor set up, including benches etc. Believe me when I say I wish it was that easy. We do not simply charge our brides for the use of the upgrades we also charge for staffing for setting up and tearing down repairing and fixing equipment as they get knocked around moving them around as well. Our cost of setting up and tearing down does not change whether the equipment is used or not used. I know that does not seem like it is fair because you did not have a chance to use the benches etc. but we still had to pay for the staff exactly as we would have if the benches were used. Most Brides and Grooms choose to have their special day with us because they can trust that we have almost everything planned out and strategies for most all contingencies that might come up in the middle of an event. Our job is to pre think all possible problems that might come up and do our best to plan for them so that the bride and groom can just simply enjoy their special day. I am so sorry that the rain issue causes your 5 star experience drop to a 1 star experience but I hope that this explanation can help you see the level of preparation and strategies go into each event to ensure you and your guests have an event that you will always love and cherish rain or shine.

wants. And clients as gracious as you, make it so easy to do. It was truly our honor to be a part of your life celebration. Thank you again, and many blessings to you and your family!

g us to do so. Many blessings on a long and happy life together, you both deserve it!!

her!!

blessings on your new future together!!

r new life together!!

special clients like you, who make our jobs here at Church Ranch Event Center so wonderful!! Thank you Eric Gardner General Manager