The Royal Crest Room

Firstly, this bridesmaid does not recall correctly that this rehearsal took place two days prior to her friend’s wedding. We are not certain why she would make such a harsh comment about what they perceived about the smell of the ballroom. It could have been possible that they walked by a couple of bags of dirty linens that were being picked up later that afternoon (from the wedding the night prior). If so, that was quite a temporary infraction on our part, we would say. It is challenging to discuss details about another bride’s wedding with a bridesmaid because truly no one but the main contact person – usually the bride – is involved in all of the detailed level of planning or communication with our team, or understands the contractual obligations. This bridesmaid would not have known that the contract that her friend signed with her venue outlined the duties of our team and the start and end times of the event, along with the explanation of the two-hour window allotted for setup prior to the start time. She would not have been aware of the courtesy arrangement of having the use of the on-property get-ready rooms that do not also include staff assistance during that window of time. The room use is just that – room use. As this young lady will get to decide when she plans her own wedding, there is a helpful vendor called a full day-of coordinator that a bride usually hires to tend to centerpiece assembly and out-of-scope ballroom set up. However, if she chooses the DIY approach like her friend, her own bridesmaids and family members will have to pick up the slack on her behalf…and therefore, may experience “an awful time” as it appears she did at her friend’s wedding. It is worth noting that this bridesmaid does have all of the times inaccurate in her review. And again, she is claiming to know about a promise that our Event Manager allegedly made to her friend about being there from the moment they arrived on property. Our Event Manager arrived well before the start of the setup window, as contracted. And our other Event Manager was on property to help in case of emergencies, in fact, had to get there ahead of her shift to help unlock a door that this bridal party locked and could not get back into. Their perception of someone perhaps not looking all ‘put together’ may have been due to this situation, however, it is ludicrous to hear that ‘our staff member was looking like she rolled in in her pajamas.’ That would be this reviewer’s subjective opinion on what qualifies as ‘pajamas’ we suppose. There was a situation with the draping and the severe weather in the area. Well before the setup window officially began, there was something mentioned to the mother of this bride about the draping person worrying about being able to get there, however, all of that, unbeknownst to this bridesmaid and unfortunately to that bride’s mother herself, that never got to be worked out together. Sadly, this bride’s mother had a very angry, emotional outburst that prevented any productive communication from taking place. Our event managers were working with our valued partner (who was also this bride’s vendor for another service) to come up with a “Plan B” in case the bad weather were not to pass. He needed to know at that time whether this mother would appreciate his offer of renting (not purchasing) lovely draping and canopy for the ballroom in case the weather forced the ceremony to be held indoors. That offer was his to make and given the tension, after the mother yelled at our Event Manager in front of many in the ballroom, it was the most logical move at that time on our part. It is unfortunate that this mother was not able to calm herself down enough to hear this offer. As this bridesmaid knows (or perhaps doesn’t recall correctly), our team was able to successfully set up the draping and chandelier outdoors for them and even though the rain had passed, they chose to hold their ceremony indoors. Afterwards, they were all able to have their photos taken with the draping outside. Once again, because The Royal Crest Room does not provide full day of coordinating, as contracted, we would not have been aware of any of the details related to a photographer. The ultimate choice of outside vendors is that of the client and any stress or disappointment related to that choice is not our responsibility. We read this review and had a hard time figuring out just what made her think the experience was so awful. We see one star, we see complaints about things that she really had no idea of herself. This bridesmaid did not know that The Royal Crest Room delivered exactly the scope of event that was contracted. The timing, the execution, the food service, the courtesy and kindness were all to the high standards that made The Royal Crest Room one of the finest venues in Central Florida. If undue stress and disappointment was felt by this bridesmaid, as it appears to have been, we do not accept her claims that it was the fault of our venue.

little more clearly so she can better cherish her memories of her wedding day. We would like to suggest that in the anxiety of her big day, with the combination of all of her DIY duties and the added element of bad weather, it would have been challenging for any bride or mother of the bride to have sailed through this particular wedding day without a little bit of stress. We always do our best – in good weather and bad – to have things go as smoothly as possible. The reason why this bride did not see her event manager, Kassie, is that she was working very diligently in the kitchen with the culinary and service teams to ensure that these guests received the meals they chose and to also make sure special dietary meals were served correctly, as we take this very seriously. Freddy was in charge of the servers and has no memory of his servers bothering this bride. If the DJ spoke with this bride, that is not our responsibility. To think that Kassie, the Event Manager (not full day-of coordinator) should have been in the bride’s sight at all times and to think that no one should have asked the bride a question is simply unreasonable. Kassie would not have promised to be there so early in the morning. This bride chose to take advantage of our complimentary get-ready room on property. They came in early to get ready. Nowhere in the contract is it stated that we have staff assistance during that window of time. That unfortunately was a misunderstanding that we certainly wish had not happened. The contract that this client signed goes into great detail on what the role and duties are of the venue and of the client. There was a severe weather issue and we received a call from the vendor about that as he was on his way over to our venue before the start of the setup time. He wished to simply address the possibility of if the weather would continue like it was. With severe lightning, it was not safe for any person to be outside setting that up at that time. Unfortunately, the mother overheard our conversation on the telephone with him and misunderstood what was being discussed and demanded that the draping be put up no matter what (unfortunately yelling at Kassie in front of others). It was an awkward moment. The mother was not aware of the fact unfortunately that we had already been not only working on a solution but also a possible Plan B for them in case the rain didn’t stop. He wanted to offer to her the opportunity to have beautiful draping and a canopy set up for them in the ballroom in case their ceremony needed to be moved indoors. The bride stated that it was not her mother’s job. However, it was the mother who was making demands of the vendor. We felt it was appropriate for the vendor to respond directly to her. When weather does become a factor, the venue does need to work with a close family member to determine the best course of action. The weather did let up, thankfully, allowing our team to set up the rented draping and chandelier in plenty of time. They could have had their outdoor ceremony however, the father let us know that they wished for it to be moved indoors. Our team successfully accommodated this for them. And afterwards, we were happy that they were able to have their photos taken outdoors with the beautiful pergola draping. Earlier in the day, our other event manager, Jackie, had to collect payment for their restaurant tab (we aren’t sure why that wasn’t taken care of earlier). Jackie definitely did not barge in that room, we politely knocked, and heard ‘come in’ and then apologized for the interruption, explained that we needed to take care of that matter before the rest of the wedding got busier. The mother took care of that matter quickly and then on our way out, the bride made sure we heard her tell us that she was super happy with Kassie, that “she was amazing, that she loved her, Kassie was so patient with her emails, etc.” No one appeared indecent or upset with upset with us for anything … and if the door didn’t get shut, perhaps the photographer or someone else opened it again. The cake table was set up right where it was shown on the room layout that this bride received in her final details meeting and in her ‘in’ box. We are just not responsible for a client’s vendor selection or their performance. We do our best to oversee this and did not see anything that was concerning, except we did witness the bride getting upset with the photographer at one point. We do not understand the two apparent points of view that are expressed in this review. It seems to have bothered this bride that our staff came up to her “non-stop” and then, on the other hand, she says she felt ignored and that they were left to fend for themselves the entire time. We were surprised by this review because on this day, we sensed that a happy, festive wedding ceremony and reception took place in spite of the small patch of bad weather which we cannot control. Our servers and event managers dutifully fulfilled our obligations. We are confident that their wedding photos will reflect genuine happy smiles on everyone’s faces. At the conclusion of this event, the groom wanted Kassie to know that he was happy with the day and he thanked her. The father who identified himself as a General Manager of a local high-profile entertainment facility actually went out of his way to let both Kassie and Jackie know “how great they had been” and thanked them “for being so accommodating and providing such great service.”