Review for June Wedding and Reception:
1. Bar Setup - we had contracted for two bars (one outside and one inside) and two bartenders. Yet on the day of the event both bars were setup outside with one bar empty and not usable, only one bartend...er was provided to serve guests. This led to long queues and long waiting time for all guests to be properly served. Lastly, Whites Ferry requires entire payment to be made prior to the event, so we ended up paying for 2 bartenders and 2 bars to be setup even though only one of each was provided.
2. Water – We held several discussions with both venue and caterer to make sure everyone understood what they were responsible for since we had to hire wait staff from both the caterer and Whites Ferry. Water, juices etc. were to be provided by the caterer and caterer's wait staff was responsible for the buffet setup. However, wait staff provided by Whites Ferry Manor were tasked with serving water to guests. Instead, guests had to go outside the main tent and get water/juices themselves. This was not what we discussed or expected considering we hired 5 wait staff from the venue.
3. Flies - during one of the walkthroughs we were told that a new insect lining had been put in place after the venue realized during a previous event that flies at night was a problem. I am not sure if anything was installed, but if it was it had zero effect. We had initially decided on setting up food inside the tent, but upon the venue telling us about insect lining install and recommending that we setup food outside, we went with their recommendation. In the evening, numerous guests complained about an abundance of flies and had to get new plates of food and drinks due to flies falling in their food/drinks. The cake which was left outside the main tent was covered with flies, which led to the Cake being inedible after a while. Additionally, all the desserts provided by the caterer had flies all over them, most people did not eat desserts as a result.
4. Professionalism - I understand that the decision to have the wedding ceremony outside was ours, however when we expressed concern about potential heat we were told there will be fans which can be setup for guests if necessary. The day of the event, the weather turned out to be much hotter than expected and we requested venue to setup fans as discussed. Initially they said they don’t have any fans, and then eventually a couple of hours later they brought 1 fan which didn’t. This led to all guests moving ceremony chairs to the shaded part on the grass while we had to open the tent for others to cool off, majority of the chairs we paid for went unused as a result. Prior to the event, we had discussed keeping the main tent open for the duration of the ceremony for the elderly and children, yet after the event I was told that along with other guests, both elderly and children were also told to vacate the main tent. This, in fact, led to Bride's Grandmother to passing out from heat exhaustion. Finally, several guests reported Whites Ferry staff asking in a very rudely for all of them to vacate the tent. This is not what we expected from Whites' Ferry staff nor is this how we expected our guests to be treated.
5. Table Centerpieces - table centerpieces which were decided and paid for were to be a mixture of tall flower vases and tall candleholders, however, there were few tables in the back which had completely different centerpieces than the ones we selected.