Las Hadas Ballroom

Great for budget, but had to cancel... I booked with Las Hadas back in 11/2017 for my wedding in 10/2019. Although the parking lot and food were not great, their amenities and customer service was excellent. I had worked with Ivette from the beginning and she was amazing. For the past year and a half, I had made arrangements for vendors and other important decisions based on this venue. In 01/2019, my Fiance, mom, and I arranged a visit to discuss and play with decorations. We checked out the ballroom and chapel one last time to make sure our vision was falling into place. Now, keep in mind that the chapel was in progress when I booked it but they had shown me their blueprints and layout. When we saw the chapel at this visit in January, it was incredibly beautiful and perfect. It made us very happy and secure with the decision we made to book with Las Hadas even though it was not exactly what we wanted (more to do with family than the venue, but things like food and some of the permanent ballroom decor could be better). Anyways, I asked the staff if there were any more pending changes or decor missing in the chapel. The staff responded, "No. This is it. " After some long hours spent with the decor, the staff encouraged us to return for their open house in February to check out all of their options. So we returned, and the first thing we did was visit the chapel so I could show my Wedding Coordinator, and walked into one of the most ghetto and horrific murals on the walls of the chapel. I was in shock and asked the staff if the paintings were permanent, to which they confirmed that they were in fact a part of the setting. I was heartbroken because the one thing that I loved about the whole venue was now the thing I hated the most. We went back into our car and we cried from disappointment. I immediately called Ivette to ask about this change and inquire on why I was not informed about it. She did not really explain any reason other than offer two solutions: cover it up with drapes or she can provide a full refund. I told her we would think about and discuss our options, but I did express my disappointment. After a whole week of deliberation, we decided it was best to obtain our refund and find another venue. With less than 8 months to our scheduled wedding date, we were stressed with finding another venue. Luckily, things fell into place and we found the venue of our dreams and accepted this inconvenience as a blessing in disguise. My main purpose for this review is to share my story, and hopefully prevent this from happening to others by encouraging brides to stay on top of their vendors. We took a leap of faith and trusted Ivette and her business to do their parts. We would have never known about this mural because it was not communicated at all. It was because we are very involved in the wedding planning process that we made this discovery. I am glad things turned out very well for us in the end. We had to change our wedding date, and were lucky that all of our vendors were available for the new date considering that we had placed over $5000 in deposits; also, we are happy we did not print our wedding invitations or save-the-date cards early on like we had initially planned to do so. Again, we were lucky.  One last thing, the staff did give me a hard time in refunding my money. I made it very clear that I had spoken to Ivette and she ensured I would get a FULL refund, not the partial refund that I was being offered. Got it back though