Our wedding in March was one of the first to get postponed until next year due to COVID. Full disclosure, I am writing this review as an infectious disease physician so my bias is ...that I prioritize the safety of our guests during a pandemic over our need to have a big wedding. Park Tavern is good at what they do: hosting weddings. Lauren and Ashley are always professional and their business is streamlined. However, working with PT has reminded me that at the end of the day, they are a business, and their motivations are not aligned with public health safety. If you are looking for a venue that will fulfill your dreams of having a large wedding regardless of COVID, book PT. As long as they are getting your money, they are easy and lovely to work with, and I will say that pre-pandemic this was the case.
If you have any concerns that 2021 could look different than you expected, or if you think your plans could change (e.g. having a smaller wedding), I would not recommend Park Tavern. We are unfortunately committed to having our wedding with PT because they are unwilling to negotiate with us, and we would lose everything paid for to date if we cancelled. When we had to postpone our wedding in March because of the laws restricting gatherings, I was told "We are a business in selling dates, and we are now selling you two dates for the price of one." When we e-mailed with questions regarding COVID in March (when there was a lot of uncertainty) and deciding whether to postpone while I was working in the hospital's COVID unit, we received brief replies of "I'm sorry. Your final payment is due tomorrow."
When we met in person more recently, they reported that they have been hosting weddings every weekend since July (during Georgia's surge) with an average headcount of 150, and that we were the only couple raising an issue meeting the minimum F&B $ and headcount. (Yes, they are enforcing minimum headcounts, not maximum.) After they reported their safety measures, I asked about photos I had seen of their unmasked guests on the dance floor: “well we can’t force anyone to do anything.” Then, when I asked about being pressured to host a larger wedding and the risk posed to our loved ones, the owner replied, "your older or more vulnerable family members who get sick should have known better than to come." And finally, the owner told me, "Listen, you go into the hospital everyday and wear a mask and nobody gets sick. We are just doing the same thing. So, think about it and do the right thing." I find it offensive to care for patients I have seen die in the hospital from COVID and for the owner to compare hosting a potential super-spreader event as "the same thing" as my job. I am not here to convince anyone not to have the wedding of their dreams, but I do not appreciate being treated as a difficult client because we prioritize public safety during a pandemic over ourselves.
In summary, this is a venue that believes the "right thing" is to pretend the pandemic is over and continue hosting large weddings. I assure you as an ID physician that COVID is here to stay and behaving as if it's gone will only prolong its stay. Unless you are certain COVID won't affect your wedding or the loss of thousands of dollars is affordable for you (in the event that you need to cancel or have a smaller wedding), I would not recommend PT. Happy to share more of our interactions. Email me at awfujita@gmail.com