General point first - fingers crossed, you only get married once. My wife and I spent over a year planning and dreaming and talking about our big day. The morning afterwards, I t...hink we both felt a little let down because the finished product, what we received, did not line up with what we had hoped for.
- There were a handful of details that we discussed at length with the coordinator / director that did not make it to the final version of our wedding day. They weren't huge items per se (beach games, table runners, etc), but these were core details that, when we planned to our wedding, we could specifically imagine and look forward to. So when our big day happened and those details that we had spoken with coordinators about were not present... it just didn't feel like OUR wedding, the one we spent all that time looking forward to.
- Initially we had been told that one or both of the coordinators / directors would be on hand throughout the night. So when our point of contact ran out the door moments after the ceremony ended, citing a different wedding to go to, it left us feeling not great. We were told "don't worry, someone else will come." That other person never showed up. As the night continued and lots of little things started to pile up (champagne for toasts getting passed out 75 minutes early, meaning we had to urgently send someone out to restock, or food / treat stations not being restocked with core components), there was no one on hand to help out. My wife noted that she felt unimportant, or at least, less important than whoever our point of contact was rushing off to support for the rest of the night. I've got to say, I really didn't want my bride feeling unimportant on her wedding day.
- And lastly, there were some issues that could have been resolved or handled if there were a bit more attention to detail on the front end. I would certainly take some responsibility here, for not asking to see each item on the bill specifically spelled out, and accepting on good faith that we were getting what we wanted and asked for. I will say that I did ask for an invoice multiple times for multiple weeks before getting one, and that had we received it timely, I would have been able to confirm everything was in there. But as I said, I got the invoice and paid without making a fuss about seeing each item spelled out. Definitely won't make that mistake again, but it is a pity I had to learn that lesson on a day I can't repeat. Also, as some other reviewers mentioned, we didn't get the support decorating / setting up that we had been told we would have. Again, my bad for not specifically asking to see a line item that said this sort of stuff on the final bill and just taking their word, but it's unfortunate that my now wife was rushing around inside the venue handling all the final touches while the rest of us waited outside to start the ceremony, all because we didn't get the support we were expecting.
Did our guests feel all of these issues in the same way that we did? No, I don't believe so. But I know they felt some. And more importantly, when we woke up the next morning, we felt like enough went wrong, or didn't happen at all, that we ended up with a wedding that wasn't the one we had been dreaming of. So now we have to settle for the wedding we got instead of the wedding we wanted.
Two stars feels fair.