Uptown Social

At first, Uptown social was a dream to work with. Judy and Jeremy were so responsive and truly went above and beyond, but things went south. At contract signing, we negotiated out of paying the 3% CC fee in exchange for making a very large deposit, and had the contract amended. When paying the final bill, Jeremy said they would be charging us the fee. We reminded him of our agreement but he lashed out on us and told us that if it were true, it would be in the contract. All of this was over a fee of ~$130. When we got home, we found the amended contract and sent it to him. Instead of apologizing, he refused to admit the mistake offered to personally pay the fee. It was so unprofessional and bewildering. Wedding day - During contract signing, we negotiated the bridal suite rate to a lesser amount because we only needed it during the reception hours, not the entire day. We were never told that we would be locked out after dropping off our bags & we never would have agreed to that. Only the managers could let us in, and since i didn’t want to waste time tracking them down, I couldn’t use the private bathroom, change into my reception dress, or just have a few moments of peace with my husband to soak in the day.. - The dance floor was live-streamed to play in the cocktail bar area, & we were supposed to get a copy of it. When we asked about it later, Jeremy told us that it was not recorded because we had a videographer. (the videographer was my photographer’s 11 year old son) - We were told that the decor items we brought in would be boxed up for us to take the next morning. When we arrived, nothing was boxed up. Admittedly, we had A LOT of candles so it would have been a big undertaking for them, but I wish he would have told us that they couldn’t, so that we could have brought more family and friends to help us. Other situations - we were not told that there would be a charge for kids until the final bill. Jeremy told us kids aged 7+ would be charged $19, (half the adult price) which made no sense when there is a $8 soda package for adults. Judy later corrected this to being for kids 13+ - We had it in writing that the sound engineer fee for a live band was $400. Later, that was changed to $750 because our band was 7 pieces. Jeremy tried getting us to pay the $750 but we refused - Jeremy told us that if we wanted our vendors to set up earlier than one hour prior to start time, we would have to pay a large hourly manager fee. It felt like a cash-grab, but fortunately Judy said she would be there in the morning and they could come whenever. - We didn’t find out that they planned to serve drinks in disposable plastic until 2 months before our wedding. We had to scramble to rent glassware Despite this, we had the best night of our lives and our wedding was everything I could ever dream of and more. Uptown Social is SUCH a beautiful venue and it has such great potential. It makes me so sad that our experience with them had to end like this. But I want to end this on a high note. The positives - Judy is one of the sweetest and most caring people I have ever met. She felt like a second mom, and I will never forget her compassion and kindness - The venue is stunning, and the improvements kept coming. It is truly a hidden gem - The beverage packages are very reasonably priced, and the signature drink they made for us was delicious (despite a complicated recipe!) - The lighting/uplighting was spectacular and fully customizable