The Porch Cafe

l. At the end of the day though, the venue is only as good as it's coordinator on one of the most important and stressful days of your life. I started off my experience working with Ryan, he was quick on responses and assured me our buffet would be replenished until our guests were full. He moved on to another venue in the middle of my planning, and I inherited Kathy. Right off the bat, I was waiting weeks for a response on room dimensions. My mom and I decided to drive out to Galveston, from Dallas, so we could do a one-on-one with her to get all our answers out. We made an appointment with her and headed on our way. The day of our meeting we arrive early, meet Kathy, and she is completely unorganized and unprepared for our meeting. She was leaving that day to visit her sister so she quickly jotted down our requests and completed our meeting in 30 minutes. I left feeling uneasy, but it gets worse. My mother emailed Kathy a couple of weeks after our meeting and requested an invoice. She had a feeling we needed this based on the organization we saw. Sure enough, our first invoice is way off. Our guest count wrong, table count wrong, math in the invoice wrong, etc. we send it back, highlighted and corrected, still being very cordial with her, and it comes back the second time still wrong in many areas. It was unbelievable how lazily everything was put together. Day of wedding, we had asked for 7 separate tables. My mom and I went over to check everything an hour before the ceremony and low and behold, our tables are in the buffet room, shaped in a U, not even on the porch!! We had them quickly rearrange the tables, on the porch, separated. Kathy looked flustered. I, along with my mother, maid of Honor and the FLORISTS, ended up decorating all the tables as quickly as we could to make up for lost time Finally, we get married and the feast begins...except they only gave us one round of buffet. By that I mean, my guests went through the line and when the last 10 people started going through the line they had scraps to pick from. My dad and I, furious and embarrassed asked for them to please replenish, they said it would be an extra charge, and would take an hour to produce. The remedy they gave us was batches of passed food to those who didn't receive dinner, still at our cost. We said do it, because how embarrassing for our guests to not get food!! The staff walked around asking everyone if they wanted more, and of course nobody replied yes, dinner was pretty much over already. We asked the manager to get a hold of Kathy, since of course she wasnt present. What kind of events manager isn't present for events? He called 3 times and she never answered. The dining room manager was apologetic, and gave us 6 bottles of wine at the end of the night, but not even that could make up for this experience. We reached out to her after for a remedy to the situation. Kathy said she'd ask the owner, and of course never responded again. Save yourself the trouble. Unless they've gotten a new events manager, this place is not meant for your wedding reception.