Straton Hall Events

We contracted with Straton Hall in April 2022 for our daughter's October 2022 wedding.. The venue highly recommended Straton Hall and had photos of previous events they had done at the venue to share with us. We also reached out to friends in the area who had used them for their large events and they highly recommended them. We came down in April, May and July to meet with Jay and our venue coordination team. I thought we were all on the same page and the event would be amazing. We had a spectacular tasting in July to run through our menu. For passed appetizers we had mini crab cakes, cocktail corn cakes with mango sauce and signature mocktails. For the main course we had an pear salad with dried cranberries and goat cheese fritters, Prime Rib, Shrimp and Grits, a mac and cheese bar, grilled roasted vegetables, and rolls as well as the bride and groom's cakes. The tasting was fabulous and we felt great about having them as a our caterer. We had planned for 150 guests and added 50 more guests 4 weeks prior to the wedding to be prepared and not run out of food for a total of 200 guest. Stacy and I spoke in September after the final floral wasn't correct and got on the same the page with bridal bouquet, arch decor, waterfall arrangement, and confirmed that he had seen the photos we has emailed to Jay in the Spring. The bridal bouquet wasn't included in the quote and we caught that mistake as well. We did not the get the quality of florals we paid for and arrangements that were paid for were missing from the event including the flower girl halo, candles missing from center pieces, a missing arrangement on one of the beverage tables, and the waterfall arrangement that we had planned for wasn't what we had anticipated. It was pretty but not what we had expressed in design meetings. The day of the wedding... We did not get 200 chargers for the tables. The reserved tables had chargers on them, the other tables did not. We paid for 9 staff members, we received 4-5 for the event. I can't speak to the appetizers because the wedding party didn't get any. The mocktails were white grape juice and apple juice with sliced apple as garnish. The salad was plated as promised and guests enjoyed it. The main food was cold and the order of guests being served was nothing like we talked about or planned for which cut time off of the dancing segment of the evening. We were told a sous chef would be there to saute the shrimp and that didn't happen. The shrimp and gits were all mixed together and served. The bride's wedding cake did not have the amount or quality of florals we discussed nor paid for. We were told the cakes would be cut by the bride and groom and taken to the back to be plated and served. The venue staff cut the brides cake leaving the groom's cake uncut until the groom's sister began cutting it with her dinner knife and serving it. embarrassing We ran out of sweet tea before dinner began. A floral arrangement was missing from the container on that table. We have reached out to Straton Hall several times since the event and have nothing back. It is my understanding that Straton Hall has been sold but Stacy Bass, the owner at the time of the event, has made no attempt to make this right with us. Sadly, our daughter's wedding was not the caliber of florals, food, or service that we expected, were promised, and paid for a month before the event. Straton Hall dropped the ball and we certainly didn't get $21,000 of service, florals, or food.