The Cruz Building, Coconut Grove ~ Miami

The Cruz Building is stunning. The moment my wife and I walked in we knew we wanted our wedding here. We had our wedding on 1/14/23 and it was absolutely amazing, our guests had a great time. I do want to give an honest review of the Cruz Building for future couples thinking of using the Cruz Building so they are aware of what they are getting into. The Cruz building knows that the building is beautiful, given this I can say their customer relations isn’t the greatest since they know people are going to pay regardless. Communication on part of the Cruz Building is poor and I will give you specific examples. When we originally signed our contract 2 years ago we were given a quote for the furniture rentals since you have to rent all furniture through them. 10 days before our wedding when we were finalizing table/chair rentals we received an invoice which was about $400-500 more for the tables and chairs (final count of furniture was less than what we were originally quoted). When we asked about this she said their prices had increased and refused to honor our original quote. We never received an email or any information informing us of the price increase. They just told us “sorry we increased our prices”. I would recommend in your contract the “quoted” price of furniture they give you is the price you lock in. (You don’t want any surprises 10 days before your wedding for an expense you weren’t expecting, since they know you have no choice but to pay it). Another part of poor communication on the Cruz Building was the night of our wedding. Our contract of the event was for 5 hours. We had our ceremony off site and our party was from 7p-12a. I wish the Cruz Building would have told us at 12 on the dot all guest had to be out of the building. The night of our wedding, we wanted a last private dance, operation staff kicked our guest out as if it was a fire drill. Everyone was forced out onto the street in front of the building. They didn’t even let my 84 year old grandmother use the bathroom before leaving. Because if this was clearly communicated to us we would have either ended the party by 11:30/11:45 or paid for an extra 30 mins to give our guest enough time to gather all their belongings/take centerpieces/favors and give time for valet. All 155 guest were forced out onto the street, some even had to wait cross the street. You can only imagine the nightmare this caused the valet. The night of our wedding Gladys who we had been dealing with from the beginning was not there (which we knew ahead of time), the Cruz Building operation staff that was present that night at times was hard to find. Our coordinator had a hard time looking for them when we wanted the lights dimmed for dancing. Aside from kicking everyone out like a fire drill the only thing that I found unprofessional was, while kicking everyone out, 2 females apart of the operation staff went around to our centerpieces and

The Cruz building is incredible, unique, lavish, elegant, beautiful, opulent and so much more. I had my dream wedding on December 4th,2021. Thanks to my wedding planner and all the vendors I worked with, the wedding was a success and a huge hit with the guests. I used all three floors of the venue. Ceremony on the first floor, cocktail on the second floor, dinner on the third floor and dancing on the terrace. It was absolute perfection. Totally recommend this venue for brides that are looking to have a unique venue experience with that wow factor!

DO NOT HAVE YOUR WEDDING HERE. THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT TAKING YOUR MONEY. I had my dream wedding taken away due to the pandemic, and was financially taken advantage of by the Cruz building. Our wedding was set for June 2020. At this time, local ordinances would not allow more than 10 people. We were set to have a 100 person wedding. Due to having immediate family with compromised immune systems, including my grandpa who was walking me down the aisle there was no way for this wedding to take place. There is still no certainty when a wedding could be safely held there even now. My now husband and I saved for this wedding, his mom worked a second job so we could have this wedding. When I spoke with them about having to cancel the immediate answer was zero refund. We had paid in full $14,000. After weeks of begging for a refund and continuously not getting called back and ignored by Gladys the manager they reluctantly agreed to give 50% back. They are taking advantage of the pandemic, we received no services from them and only got back half of what we worked so hard for.

I have very mixed views about The Cruz. We fell in love with the look and feel of the building the first time we saw it, and knew it was just perfect for us. It was expensive but we figured it would be worth it. While my wedding day was beautiful, I would credit that to my personal planner and team of vendors. In my personal opinion - The Cruz Building staff, specifically Gladys was extremely difficult to work with. Every conversation I had with her felt like she was attacking me. She would be very dismissive and often snap or cut me off. I chalked this up to pre-wedding jitters and being sensitive, especially since my husband (at first) didn't notice anything. She rescheduled our rehearsal (we ended up having off site) a day and a half before and with a very nasty attitude exclaimed "well we are not going to lose money so you can be in here for an hour". I understand as a business they are not going to lose money, however her delivery and over all attitude throughout the process made an already stressful time just awful, which as a CLIENT is unsettling and as a BRIDE... devastating, to know you are not the priority. We had flown people in specifically for the rehearsal, so a little compassion would have been nice. While other small upgrades were offered (higher quality chairs...and not requiring valet parking) it surely didn't make up for the bad taste. I wish I would have felt there was someone at the venue I could report my experience to. To future brides... I advise getting everything written down in the contract you are required to sign. As well as confirming anything in a email that is verbalized since there seemed to be quite a few things along the process that were later amended or retracted and we just had to go with it since we didn't have "proof" or a way to dispute. On a positive note... the venue is stunning and very well taken care of. Our pictures turned out stunning and the backdrops make a beautiful memory to look at. Our guest were in awe of the overall ambiance and beauty. They commented on the uniqueness of moving to each floor as the night transitioned and many left with beautiful pictures of their own. The a/c was perfect, even a little chilly which is a big deal in humid Florida (I saw other reviews mention that it was too hot). As soon as the wedding ended everything was cleaned up rather quickly, (by my team or theirs I do not know) just that we had no worries. I am split down the middle as to if I would have chose the venue again based on my experience. I guess I would advise yes to the venue but move with caution.