Crystal Gardens

ue to the event coordinator being on top of everything and handling all problems for us. We chose a package deal which was a great deal for us - the Celebrity Ballroom was beautiful, and I highly recommend that room. The package included buffet, open bar, linens, DJ, and cake - all great! The DJ we chose was through TJ Monte (Mark) and I separately booked with Shutterbooth for a photobooth (better price for what you receive when you book them not through a package). The cake designs were limited, however, this was not a deal breaker for us. The food tasting was great and everyone at the reception loved the buffet! They were very accommodating for extra tables for memory table, gift table, entrance table, and sign in/message table for shutterbooth. The open bar was a hit and was handled very well. Having an outdoor area connected to the celebrity ballroom was ideal and kept everyone in good spirits! Very affordable for everything you can get!!!

een, our bartender, did an amazing job all night. The food was phenomenal! Thank you to all the staff who helped make our night magical. It was perfect in every way!

iage license. Valerie was so helpful all throughout the process leading up to the day of. for our food tasting the chicken was a little dry which I kindly mentioned, but day of the chicken was amazing! literally everything was so perfect and I couldn't picture my day with any other venue. thank you so much to crystal gardens.

ss as painless as possible. The package that they offer for their receptions made it easy to plan our wedding as we didn't have to book a DJ, caterer, etc. On the day of the reception the entire staff was fantastic to work with. The chef on site was especially excellent he was constantly checking in with us and our guests to make sure all our needs were met. I would highly recommend Crystal Gardens to anyone!

ery attentive and knowledgable throughout the process but nearing the big day, some things were a bit off putting. They won't guarantee when you are allowed in to decorate until the week of the wedding which was extremely stressful since I live out of state and had a set itinerary for the wedding week once I was in town. Our final invoice included a $500 room fee for using "2 rooms" but it wasn't disclosed in the contract as two rooms and we weren't told it gets charged as two rooms when we looked at the venue either. I was also a little disappointed with Val's demeanor nearing our wedding. Some of her emails to myself and my wedding planner were a bit rude and included comments about how much they (Crystal Gardens) had done for us during covid and how moving our date and size of the wedding was an inconvenience for the venue and that they "allowed" us to still have our wedding at their venue even though with the reduced guest count, we o longer met the supposed financial minimum of $13,000+. (Our final bill or 128 guests was $11,072 so we were still up there in cost). Also, Val was not at all flexible when it came to doing a food tasting. I live in Wisconsin and there was absolutely no way to come back to Michigan during the week (Mon-Wed) for a tasting so I never even got to try the food that was going to be served at my wedding. That was very disappointing. When the wedding day came, though very beautiful, Crystal Gardens really fell through on some key elements. The DJ we had was soooo rude (DJ provided by Crystal Gardens, it's one of the package items) and shut down our cocktail hour 30 min early and tried rushing people to their seats to begin dinner. Neither the bridal party or the parents or even the bride and groom had even arrived at the reception yet! The DJ also thought he was running the show and completely disregarded my wedding planner's direction and then mocked her by saying in a baby voice "Do I need to wait for your permission?" When she confronted me about this, I spoke to DJ Joe and requested he follow her direction and timeline, he rolled his eyes and walked away from me, the bride!! I was floored by how rude he was and that he was the preferred DJ for the venue! Another big disappointment was that they were incredibly short staffed for dinner service. We had 16 guest tables of 8 and our sweetheart table and only 2-3 waitstaff helping to serve dinner. Again, food was incredible but dinner was 30 min late. Everyone finished their salads and kind of just sat there waiting for the main course. We chose family style and normally the servers make a comment when serving the food, " If you need refills of anything, please just let us know." Well that was never said, and multiple tables ran out of food and refills of shared dishes were not provided, which kind of defeats the purpose of family style. The servers were very polite but the service was stretched thin due to there being so few staff. The reception was truly beautiful and the venue was clean and staff was lovely but I expected more from Crystal Gardens, especially since it was one of the higher priced venues we looked at. Not a horrible experience by any means, but definitely not everything I had hoped it to be.

y. I would recommend to anyone!

with our situation! We worked with Valerie for getting all of the details set for the day of and she was always very quick, responsive, and so helpful with all of our questions. On the day of the wedding, the entire staff (head captain, wait staff, bartenders, chef, etc.) was so kind and made sure that everything ran so smoothly without us or any of our guests having to worry about anything. I would definitely recommend Crystal Gardens to anyone who is looking to have an event!

ounce of stress that day and the staff was so helpful and nice. They really took care of us and our families and made sure we had everything we needed. I cannot recommend them enough!

ors), it appears they don’t care about complying with that. When we expressed our concerns over our guest count a while back, Valerie mentioned that we needed to have a minimum of 50 guests since Saturday was a prime wedding day. It sounds like Crystal Gardens cares more about making money than the safety of the guests. When we inquired about an outdoor wedding, we were told the venue didn’t have a tent at the moment, and if they got one, it would literally be a tent in their parking lot. I didn’t put thousands of dollars down in deposits and want to pay thousands more for a parking lot wedding. As for the wedding in the Southgate location with 9 positive COVID cases, all news articles mention the wedding had well over the 10 guests allowed indoors. I understand that this is a different location, but I assume the Howell location is affiliated. Worst decision ever deciding to book with this venue... go elsewhere, it isn’t worth the headache!

originally planned wedding of over 100 guests in this location. When we reached out to Valerie, one of the wedding coordinators, about reducing our guest count, she mentioned that since we were having a wedding on a "Saturday during our prime wedding season" (exact words from Valerie) that they would not be able to accommodate our request. Their "compromise" was to allow us to hold a reception of 50 guests indoors (during a global pandemic), so they could meet a minimum dollar amount that they deemed appropriate for a "Saturday during prime wedding season". Not wanting to put our family and close friends, some of which are in the "high risk" group for COVID-related complications, at risk by holding an indoor event with 5x the allowed guest count, we inquired about holding our reception outdoors. Not only did Crystal gardens not have possession of a tent at the moment, the tent would be set up in their parking lot. When we originally booked our reception in the "Celebrity Ballroom" (a $1,000 upcharge), we were expecting a certain quality for our wedding reception that a parking lot wedding reception would not meet. That being said, we feel that Crystal Gardens did not hold up their end of the contract, and thus, we should have been refunded our money. Additionally, the affiliated Crystal Gardens in Southgate allowed a Wedding Reception of well over 10 guests, and at least 5 guests ended up contracting COVID-19 (source: https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2020/07/29/wedding-reception-southgate-coronavirus-outbreak/5536095002/). Not wanting to be another event at a Crystal Gardens location with multiple COVID cases, we decided to follow the executive order, and not hold an indoor reception of over 10 guests. In MY OPINION, if you plan on having a wedding on a "Saturday during prime wedding season", and don't mind putting your family, friends and everyone they come into contact with at risk of contracting a highly contagious and deadly virus, then feel free to book at Crystal Gardens and meet their minimum dollar/guest amount that they deem appropriate amid these unprecedented times. However, if you are like me, and value the safety of my loved ones more than having a large wedding during a "Saturday during prime wedding season", then I would recommend booking with a venue that follows the current executive orders, and prioritizes the safety of the guests instead of meeting a minimum guest count/dollar amount.

ne started and we couldn't visit any places in person. We're so thankful we chose CG! Valerie gracefully handled SEVERAL phone calls from me, my parents, and my in-laws as we wanted to make sure that everything would be safe for our guests. Sometimes we didn't get the straight answers we were hoping for on how much they enforced safety measures with guests, which could be a bit frustrating, but at the end of the day it was their license on the line and they seemed pretty relaxed about everything. They do have plenty of hand sanitizer and social-distancing floor stickers at the bar. They prefer if mask-wearing expectations come straight from the bride and groom rather than their staff, which we shared via email and ceremony signage, and everybody was totally fine with it. If they weren't, they stayed home. The chapel coordinator, Barbara, is fantastic! She's been in the business for a decade, also happens to be a seamstress and master boutonnière-pinner (she saved my husband from having his on the wrong side of his jacket AND me when a button on my dress fell off), and she RAN THE SHOW expertly and efficiently at our rehearsal time and on game day. Our wedding was August 1. At that point our 250-person dream wedding had a guest count of just under 100. We were holding our breath the month before, hoping nothing the Governor decided would effect our plans. Everything looked great until the DAY BEFORE, Valerie called me at 3pm because Gov. Whitmer had specifically mentioned wedding venues and banquet halls on her most recent executive order (some were able to get away with operating at the 50% capacity rule under a restaurant license if they had one, before these types of businesses got specifically called out in an order that took effect the day before our wedding, even though it had just been released one day prior). I definitely felt stressed after she told me, but a few phone calls later and Valerie had come up with a solution. They let our wedding go almost exactly as planned, but we did everything in the open-air chapel--guests sat at the reception tables the whole night long. I'm not sure we would've been nearly as lucky if another wedding had been scheduled that day, or if we had picked a different venue without the outdoor component. We had to fit more guests per table than we would've liked, but maybe it ended up being safer since it was all outside--hard to say what safety measures go farther than others. We also just did open seating since people know who they're comfortable sitting with. It rained a little that day but everyone was comfortable inside the chapel with options to visit in the adjoining patio area or the spacious bar indoors. We loved the Traverse City Chicken, their bruschetta and antipasto appetizers, and their cake (REAL tiered cakes made by their pastry chef--my husband loved it and he usually can't stand cake). DJ Joe of Mobile Rhythms was fabulous and professional. The manager for our reception was very kind and made sure we were well taken care of. Overall it was a MIRACLE that our wedding went as well as it did and we are SO GRATEFUL to CG staff for making our wedding dreams come true! Highly recommended even during these crazy times!

noisy by passing cars. Sound system for wedding ceremony and reception center are really poor (Guests' compliant) Please prepare own sound system if you choose this place. The locking system of women's restrooms did not work (Guests's complaint). Prime rib was not cooked well (almost raw - Guest's complaint) Guests's umbrellas were moved and left without information. All guests returned home without it on rainy night.

I highly recommend Crystal Gardens for your reception venue.

day of.” Barbra, the day of coordinator was on top of every last detail of the ceremony and made sure it went off without a hitch. We did a family style dinner and the food was great and served in a timely manner.

ion was perfect. If something was spilled they where on top of it. The even went as far as to fill my plate(we had buffet style) and bring it back to my spot so I wouldn't spill anything on my dress. I am still in awe at how great they where and the reasonable price.

s. She made the process simple and is very prompt on emails. The day of the wedding I worked with Barbra. SHE IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST. She helped sew a groomsmen button back on, fix a bridesmaid dress, and kept everyone informed on what to expect. The food and service was something every guest commented on. It was delicious and prompt. I would recommend this venue to everyone looking for beautiful and stress free wedding day.

time at the reception as well! The food was excellent and many of our guests were raving about it. We had special bar and food requests, and they were very accommodating and made sure everything was perfect for us! Overall, we would highly recommend Crystal Gardens for anyone who is looking for a beautiful wedding!

wedding. Another big thing for us was that we could have the ceremony and reception at the same location, and that everything was included in the price; bar, food and wait staff. We didn't want to have to go through the trouble of hiring a lot of different vendors, and Crystal Gardens made that easy for us. The day of the wedding, everything went off without a hitch, and I truly felt that my day was in good hands thanks to the meticulous planning of the staff members. The food was incredible. We had many guests tell us it was the best they ever had at a wedding. The ballroom was beautiful, and we had our own personal patio which everybody loved. It was an overall amazing day and experience. I would recommend this venue to anyone looking for a beautiful, elegant, hassle-free wedding for a great price.

re polite, friendly, and knowledgeable. Our coordinator had left CG halfway through the planning process, but the transition to our new point of contact, Valerie, was completely seamless. She was so helpful and had great recommendations and advice for the planning process. She answered emails and phone calls so promptly and always followed through with what we asked of her. CG has an entire pamphlet of optional vendors that they work with regularly, and every single one that we used was fabulous. The day of the event, things went so smoothly. The ceremony coordinator, Barbara, was fantastic. She made everything run seamlessly from keeping me hidden from the groom to adjusting a necklace to hide the clasp before I walked down. The reception was perfect and ran smoothly and efficiently. The food was served quickly and it was delicious. At the end of the day, we could not name a single thing that went wrong because the staff at CG was so on top of things. I would absolutely recommend having your wedding/event here. The team at Crystal Gardens truly knows what they’re doing. Thank you so much for making our big day everything we could have hoped for.

ful to work with, you can tell she really knows what she is doing and that she really enjoys what she does. We would recommend Crystal Gardens to everyone for a wedding venue, we could not have asked for a better group of people to work with from start to finish! Also, we had our reception in the celebrity room and I would highly recommend that room for a wedding!

rb went above and beyond the day of, she really knows how to make sure things get done! Super helpful and so sweet! We went with a package, and it included our chair covers, appetizers, and cake. EVERYBODY loved the cake!!!!!! Overall, I cannot say enough about Crystal Gardens, so happy! They truly made our night perfect!

enue (and the cake)!