Based on the property as a venue for ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception, I would give The Garland five stars. It's breathtaking and we got many compliments from our guests about the property. I would book The Garland again in an instant, however I would be cautious about the service (which is why I'm giving three stars).
When we originally booked The Garland, our point of contact was Jessica. We LOVED her from the minute we met her. She was always willing to go above and beyond for us, and we felt so safe with our wedding in her hands. Her role was technically that of a Sales/Catering Manager, but her demeanor had us under the impression that she was more of a wedding coordinator at The Garland. And in the end, that caused a lot of trouble for us.
About three months before the wedding, we got a call from Jessica that she would be leaving her job at The Garland. We were really disappointed to be losing her, but even more so because she informed us of this ONE DAY before her last day of work. She connected us with Kayli, who would be taking over for her. To say that Kayli didn't live up to Jessica's standards would be an understatement. We had difficultly communicating with her about our needs and she would go weeks without responding to my emails, whereas Jessica would respond the same day.
And then one week before our wedding day, I received a call from Kayli that she was quitting her job at The Garland too. ONE WEEK before the wedding. I was extremely panicked, but Kayli could not be less bothered by this. Christopher, the Event Manager at The Garland, took over for us. He was very responsive to my emails voicing my concerns, however he was NOT responsive to my husband and I asking how The Garland would compensate us for all of the stress they put us through. We were told that situations like this happen all the time and there's nothing they can do. We were incredibly unhappy and had it not been a week before the wedding, we would have reconsidered having our wedding at The Garland.
When it came to the day of the wedding, Christopher was there, however he was not "present." Nor was he proactive; we always had to seek him out if we needed something, but he was never able to anticipate any issues. All of our vendors had trouble trying to find out where to go and what to do once they got to The Garland. And our DJ informed us that Christopher was not great at communicating with anyone. Both our florist and our photographer needed to get to our room at a certain time before the ceremony, and they were not allowed into the building. This caused us to run into unnecessary problems. One of my biggest issues is that at the reception, my husband and I looked over to see our vendors sitting the floor. No table was provided for them to sit at while they were eating their vendor meals. I could not have felt more shame or embarrassment in that moment. I do appreciate that the staff was able to resolve the situation when we mentioned it, however it never should have happened in the first place.
We were also disappointed with the food and how long dinner service took. The food did not taste nearly as good as it did at the tasting and there were too many lulls during dinner. Many of our guests looked bored waiting for their meals to arrive.
Overall, I would recommend The Garland based on the venue. However, I suggest hiring your own wedding planner to ensure that things run smoothly. And be prepared for last minute problems.