Deck 655 c/o Creative Affairs

eposit to us. We have clearly not been in control of the situation we were placed in and it's been really tough to speak with other brides who have spoken about how flexible their venue has been, or to hear about every corona-bride I know getting their deposits back and to know that we weren't granted that same graciousness from the company was pretty disheartening. That being said - I want to give a good overall view on my thoughts about the venue, regardless of the above situation. The Pros: -Amanda McPhail (Creative Affairs) is an absolute angel, sent from the heavens above. She went above and beyond for us. She answered any and all questions we had at lightning speed and treated us with care, love, and respect. She really genuinely wants you to have the most wonderful day. -The space is bright, welcoming, and exciting to walk into. The bar area is giant and classy. The outdoor spaces are beautiful and look great at night or day time. Overall the space is quite captivating. Cons: -Amanda is the contact we had with Creative Affairs (and again, she is amazing) but she doesn't own or manage the venue to our understanding. The space is managed by Avison Young and I believe there's a connection beyond that to a company called 655 WB Operating and to MetLife. There were definitely times this created confusion and that we wished we were just working with a venue owner directly so there didn't have to be miscommunications. -The technology in the venue has some oddities. The inside sound system was separate from the outside so we were told we couldn't play the same playlist at the same time in both spaces. That was definitely going to be tricky. Many of the TVs didn't have the ability to show a slideshow. We wanted to show our bar menu behind the bar on the TV but it didn't have that ability, similar to a couple of other TVs where we would have liked to display slideshows. -The venue is an office space area where the management company is located and tenants relax during the week, so we felt like an intrusion when we would visit to look at things on weekdays. Weekends are definitely the best time to set up a visit with Creative Affairs staff. Avison Young management staff actually got quite upset with us for visiting on a weekday once, we thought it wouldn't be a problem to visit but now we know it's best to coordinate your visits. -Our catering staff needed an outdoor area to cook in which for us meant we needed to set up and block off a kitchen in the middle of the venue. Not necessarily a dealbreaker but something to note, logistically, if you want to have use of the indoor couch, etc. -You will probably need to put some additional cost into downplaying the "office" environment of the space because it definitely has a corporate feel so if that's not what you're going for, set aside some budget to make it more romantic! Overall I'd give it a 3.75.