My husband and I are Endicott alumni and thought it would be special to have our wedding at the place where we met. We were happy to have gotten a few perks for being alum, like a ...free late night snack and reduced ceremony fee, and the venue is beautiful inside and out. Our food the night of the wedding was delicious, chef was very accommodating and allowed us to add a fresh pasta course that was not on the menu, and Espresso Dave, Tupper's espresso vendor, was a hit with both us and our guests. We were also very pleased with service from bartenders and servers, who were all helpful and kind. In general, we had a beautiful and very special night.
All that being said, there were a few things we would not have expected to happen from such a highly rated venue. Because of covid, our coordinator was switched a few times over the course of two years (which is totally understandable), however notes in our files or promises/comments that had been made to us went missing and forgotten. Our names were misspelled multiple times on official documents despite being corrected repeatedly, and our final bill had mistakes resulting in a higher balance that wouldn't have been caught if I didn't notice them. The lack of communication from the final coordinator we were assigned was unimpressive and forced me to have to over-communicate and check in frequently on my end to make sure no details were missed. In general, things were unorganized; we had very long response times for emailed questions, some questions in emails were outright ignored, and information was not always delivered in a timely manner. On the wedding day, no one was giving guests direction of where to go for the ceremony and we had to request that someone go out to help guide them before they did so, the DJ and photographer were checking in with us to keep us on our timeline instead of the coordinator, and there was no designated person making sure the wedding party was getting hors d'oeuvres or drinks while we were taking photos during cocktail hour. The day after the wedding, our cake topper, leftover cake, and Italian almond confetti (that were expensive and had been brought over from Italy) were not ready for us to take home because the coordinator told us they had all been eaten. We had been in the room with the cake and desserts shortly before the party ended and there were still plenty leftover, so I don't see how everything could have been eaten in the last 20 minutes. Our top tier of the wedding cake had been packed in with our decorations and we had no idea so by the time we found it, it had melted in the hot July sun. Finally, I had worked closely with the coordinator for weeks to make sure we had High Noon drinks the night of our wedding (she had told me it would be no problem to order and add to the bar order), even checking in when I noticed they weren't listed on our final breakdown but being assured they would be there. After an evening of running around taking photos and barely having a drink I ordered a High Noon and the bartender looked confused because he didn't have them stocked. Not a big deal, but definitely disappointing.
Individually, none of these things are a big deal and we overlooked lots of little issues leading up to the wedding night. However, when accumulated these little things added up to one big frustrating situation we shouldn't have had to deal with when spending tens of thousands of dollars to throw a party.