Elks lodge 343

and after 2 weeks of non-answered emails or phone calls, I get an email back saying she no longer worked there and there was a new coordinator. That should've been the first red flag. I gave them some grace as I'm sure it wasn't an easy transition and we scheduled an in-person meeting to meet with her. Got to the venue 10 minutes early and was locked out of the building. We left after waiting 30 minutes. Got a very upset phone call from them about how we blew off our meeting. Advised the door was locked and we called/left a voicemail AND rang the doorbell multiple times to no avail. We ended up going back to the venue to have the meeting only to get there and suddenly be told we have to pay a mandatory gratuity before our event which was not in the contract. I absolutely planned on tipping, but I refused to pay right then- tips are after service is rendered, not before plus there is nothing in our contract about mandatory tips. Now we are a few months out and it's hard to get in contact with them. A food tasting was scheduled and cancelled multiple times due to having no food. Seriously? I was also told the tasting was included in the price of the venue with an additional cost for a guest or 2 if you choose to bring along. Nope. They wanted to charge us for a tasting which I once again referred to the contract and previous communication with them. Now I just keep being told they are "working on scheduling one" and have sent them our availability multiple times. Beware. This coordinator doesn't know what she's doing and the communication is terrible. I work in the wedding industry myself, so I know how busy it can get and I've given lots of grace to them. At this point if I could find another venue I would but we're only a few months out. It is a beautiful venue and the golf course is great but they need a new coordinator.