Garces Events

th Garces restaurants and catering at prior events that we attended. We expected to have a professional relationship with Garces Events, and it started that way primarily due to the first catering manager who sold us on going with Garces and this particular venue. Then the pandemic hit, and we had to move our event a year forward to this past April. The catering manager was replaced by someone who was not up to the task. This person rarely returned messages, or only after being harassed constantly by our wedding planner or us. As our wedding day approached, we began to experience significant issues. First, we had negotiated an upgraded entree when we first signed our contract. We tasted the upgraded entree, which included a short rib, at a tasting event, and it was terrible. The meat was dry and did not have a good flavor. We became concerned because we had included an upgraded entree, and at first taste it was pretty terrible. Garces did allow us to taste the entree again, and it confirmed our initial impression. We therefore switched to a lower-level entree, which included chicken, because we had a more positive experience of it at the tasting event. Unfortunately, at our wedding reception the chicken was so dry that we almost choked on it. It was horrible. Also, at the reception, Garces destroyed our wedding cake when they sliced it down and put it out on the dessert table. We didn't see it until dessert service was well underway, and unfortunately most of our guests did not have the wedding cake because it appeared as shredded crumbs on the serving platter. We had to complain and request that they slice more cake and pass it around the ballroom, but what a disappointment. Finally, Garces lacks transparency in their pricing. Beware of getting nickled and dimed for everything once you approach your wedding date. And there's pretty much nothing you can do about it because you're locked in to your event just weeks away, and Garces starts sending you upcharges for everything, including additional costs to RENT and BUILD the dance floor (despite that cost being included in the promotional materials). Garces also told us to pick out the wines that we wanted, and then when we selected moderately priced wines, they sent us an upcharge for thousands more. Their house wine is not good. We had a great wedding despite the poor performance of Garces. If we had to do it all over again, we would seriously consider a different vendor.

erfect our cocktail hour/food/drinks were. We had a taco bar and passed apps which were incredible. Our signature drink was a spicy margarita which was phenomenal. Claire was absolutely perfect to work with. She is positive, energetic, and eager to make everything run smoothly. Claire worked with us tirelessly as we managed a complete venue change from downtown Philadelphia to the Main Line. She was patient and understanding and advocated to help us make it all happen. She checked in on us as we sat down to eat to make sure everything was perfect. The staff were amazing - lines at the bars were short, food was hot, and our bridal attendant such a plus - we never had an empty hand without her asking what we needed - we felt like royalty. We can not recommend Garces enough for your next event. Thank you!!

021 and hoped for the best, I would say they handled this part well. During this long period of waiting for our wedding we were excited to get back into planning so when trying to pay our deposit in winter 2021 their system had an error and no longer accepted payments (which in retrospect is pretty janky) when contacting our liaison she didn’t respond for months to our inquiries about the issue. We had a quick connect with the liaison in March/April 2021 to check in to make sure our event was happening and she assured us it was and that she was going to look into the payment issue. Payment issue was never resolved. Fast forward to May 2021 after sending the liaison several follow-up emails for months with no response, I finally received a short misspelled note asking how we want to discuss options... about our cancelled wedding... WHAT?! Cancelled wedding?! Literally have been emailing you for months and you come back with this news over email? Apparently I had an email in spam (also janky) for over a week from Garces’ COO relaying that Cira Center is no longer hosting weddings therefore ours is cancelled. Where was the phone call, where was the follow-up with some sort of care?! Brides are spending too much money for this treatment. I was floored to learn that our wedding had been cancelled by a company that pretty much ghosted me for months. After learning that news we thankfully found another venue that actually responds to us and cares about their couples. I won’t be working with Garces or attending any restaurants after this, I am so disappointed. I realize COVID has been difficult for the industry but that doesn’t mean basic customer service goes out the door.

in to help. We were let down that we weren't able to have our wedding in their beautiful space. Still, they were more than accommodating to cater our wedding, no matter where we ended up. She was fantastic, from mapping out space to orchestrating the timeline perfectly, and kept everything running right on schedule. Claire worked with our other vendors and communicated with them directly, giving me time to focus on the wedding's further details. The food was fantastic! I have to say there was some doubt from the guests that without having a proper kitchen, the food wouldn't be as good as served in the restaurant, and that just was not true at all! Everything was executed perfectly! I'm still blown away at all the hard work they put in to bring everything to the venue. The wait staff was the most attentive group I have ever encountered (and I've been to A LOT of weddings). All guests were raving about the food. One guest said the passed hor d'oeuvres were the best she has ever had. Other guests commented on the level of service. Overall we could not be happier with Garces Catering. They made our wedding so incredibly unique and just absolutely perfect. 10/10 would recommend. Thank you to all of you.