I am sooooo upset right now......... We booked a wedding hall (Chateau Briand) and I loved everything about the place when I booked it. But a few of my friends have been there for weddings recently and I've been getting bad reviews!! There are things I would never know unless I attended a party there myself....for instance......the chair covers (the place provided) were dirty and another big thing: at the reception the waiters took away dirty plates and never placed new plates on the tables. Even when the guests asked for new plates they never got them. Obviously the maitre'd isn't doing a good job. I am finding out the service *****!!
The banquet manager is an ******* and any complaints we tell him...he gives us some stupid generic answers...ex. the chair covers are dirty : his answer 'You have to take a leap of faith' He is sleazy and we cannnot trust that anything he says will actually be done on our wedding day.
W are spending so much money and this will be such a special day for us.......I just can't live with the fact that we may really get screwed. When we talk to the banquet manager he makes promises but by the look of things I highly doubt he will deliver on them. We've alredy caught him in a few small lies (for example: he tells us there are bathroom attendants during all the weddings..and the 2 weddings I've got reviews about didn't have any) HAS ANYONE HAD SUCH AN EXPERIENCE?
Girls, what do you recommend I do?
Kara and Todd
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
Take a deep breath. Relax.
And get everything - and I mean EVERYTHING in writing. If he promises something, have it added IN WRITING to the contract!
bride2beofmike
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
did you give a deposit yet etc? and if you CANCEL what it the procedure? clearly if you look elsewhere you might lose a hefty amount of moneyy so perhaps it may be in your best interest to stick with it, i went to a wedding at Chateu Briand about a year ago, and everything went fine... it was nice. yes the chair covers [ which i didnt even notice] maybe dirty, but is EVERY cover disgustingly dirty? no probably not....and your guests they'll be busy eating, chatting, dancing wont notice...
anyways you seem stressed, take it easy, and can u switch BM?? perhaps that will help
good luck w. everythingg
hmv12
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
I have been to two weddings there within the past several months, and I thought the place was beautiful as well as the service being great. I can understand that it bothers you to hear the bad reviews, but no matter what, SOMEONE will ALWAYS having something to say that is not what you want. Go with your heart and I am sure everything will be fine.
LaurenluvsTJ
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
OK first of all - I absolutely HATE it when I hear about people telling brides bad stuff about their halls. Don't they know that will just stress you out, it is plain RUDE in my opinion! Chateau Briand has been around for a long time, and although I have never personally been there, I know it is a SCotto Bros. Hall, and Scotto has a great reputation. Are you asking people's opinions, if you are stop! Do a search on here if it makes you feel better, I am sure you will find great things. Relax, and if it makes you feel better ask to change BMs.
Galya
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
The guy we are dealing with is the General banquet manager..so basically we can't get away from him. lol We gave a $1000 deposit and can take it back until next week. How does this contract thing work? Last night we wrote up 2 pages worth of things that we want to be included in the contract. We are going to go to Chateau Briand and ask for it to be added to the contract. But honestly being that we pay all the money upfront,what can I do the day of the wedding? Can I really say 'You didn't give my guests plates to eat their dnner on......I am going to sue you!' or can I possible put a monetary value on each item in the contract and then demand to have that money back if they don't fulfill a part of it?
RadioLau
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
You seem uncomfortable with the hall as of right now. Mly advice would be if you can get out of it without losing money then go for it for your own piece of mind. You have enough to worry about and you shouldn't be stressing until the day of your wedding that the service might not be that good. IF you cannot get your money back then put everything in writing and just know you are marrying the man of your dreams and everything will be perfect no matter what. I went to an affair there a few years ago, it wasn't a wedding but the food and service seemed fine. Good luck.
Dom n Nic
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
i got married there in march and everything you mentioned did not happen to me or least i didn't know of ..
no matter where you book your wedding someone is going to say something bad about it ..
milana
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
Galya i know how you feel!!! LOL
If youre uncomfortable get out now before you lose your money. Do not settle on a place that you are constantly going to have to be stressed and worried about. There so many more halls you prob. have not looked at...
Im sorry this happened to you FM me if you want to talk
thelastresort
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
If you are uncomforatable with the hall now, you will always be uncomfortable with it and it will be stressing you out throughout this whole process. The last thing you need to be second guessing is your hall. Go check out some others to either reassure yourself or to find another venue. Good luck!
Kara and Todd
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
I agree - if it's stressing you out so much and you can still get out without any penalty, get out now.
CASJLL
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
There is always something to be said about service. The dirty plates, I don't know what to tell you.....you can talk to someone there and see what the deal is maybe.
Good Luck!
HelenZ
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
I've been to a wedding at CB, it was 4 years ago, but from what I remember, everything was great. I can understand and relate to concerns about your hall.....my hall- Douglaston Manor, had a so-so reputation before the new owners took over and renovated earlier this year.....but, I chose to totally disregard reviews prior to this year, b/c I knew it would only stress me out!! The people I've spoken with that have had affairs there this year (post-renovation), were very pleased and said everything was excellent.
If you do a search on CB, you'll probably feel very reassured, you can definitely try to include some of the things your concerned with in your contract, but like you said, on the day of it may not help you much!! At least your voicing your concerns to your BM- maybe that will make him put an extra effort in to please you.
Good luck!!
EGreene79
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
I wouldn't take others reviews too much to heart. Of course it's important to hear them, and try to rectify things for your day, but every hall has good and bad days, and people always have different thresholds. I prefer people be honest with me, and share the negatives. I already know what people are going to complain about at my hall, but that's their problem. I just want to go, dance, spend time with my friends and family, eat and drink. As long as I can do that in my hall, I'm happy.
If you're having a bad experience dealing with them, that's a different thing, but try not to let other opinions scare you off - especially if there's a mix of negative and positive. Now, if it was all negative, and people were getting food poisoning, etc ... THAT would scare me off.
Galya
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
Thanks everyone I love this forum. I was sitting crying my eyes out when I wrote the initial post......and then someone from here told me to call and demand to speak to another manager.....so I did. And he made me feel better (not sure if that means the issues will be resolved! lol) So now I feel more comfortable with the new guy and hopefully things will get better from here. You girls are so supportive it's great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
snydl40
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
I agree-get everything in writing. I would also ask for a different BM. If we didn't trust our BM, we would ask for someone new. I would make an appointment and bring up these issues with a new BM.
EastEndBride
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
A good friend had her wedding there last November & it was beautiful and perfect! In fact it was so nice that FH wanted to have our wedding there! In the end it was too far from Suffolk for us, but really it was wonderful. CH was amazing, the food was great, and we had more entre choices than i've ever seen! Don't stress, everyone raved about her wedding
jgl
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
Posted by LaurenluvsTJ
OK first of all - I absolutely HATE it when I hear about people telling brides bad stuff about their halls. Don't they know that will just stress you out, it is plain RUDE in my opinion! Chateau Briand has been around for a long time, and although I have never personally been there, I know it is a SCotto Bros. Hall, and Scotto has a great reputation. Are you asking people's opinions, if you are stop! Do a search on here if it makes you feel better, I am sure you will find great things. Relax, and if it makes you feel better ask to change BMs.
I think that sometimes people do get out of hand with telling you minor things that they noticed that weren't what was suppose to be and that could drive anyone crazy.
BUT I have to disagree with your statement of not having people tell you or asking them. i think it is important. Frankly this is BUISNESS to these halls and they are going to say things to make you want to book there. They arent always honest or always going to do the right thing andI think it is important for us to know these things before hand!!!!!
IE: I think it is important to know if the wait staff is coming in with dirty tuxes. I would want someone to tell me. I know some places clean the staffs tuxes for them to make sure they are clean.
good reputation doesnt always mean much. My Bro used to work at the Charlton and the tuxes were always FILTHY! (not my brothers, my mom would hang him!)
JMO
Maybride519
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall
My brother was married there last June and honestly, it was one of the best weddings I have ever been to! I didn't notice any of the things you've mentioned and I have NEVER heard a bad review
Galya
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Re: Having doubts about my wedding hall (Chateau Briand)
Hi girls! I went to speak to my new BM last night and dealing with him was a pleasure! My fiance and I left the place feeling content and we are positive that everything will be great and we have nothing to worry about. He was very patient with all of our questions and issues and made a big effort to assure us that everything will be done right the day of our wedding. I am happy that so many people from here sent me FM and gave very useful advice. I couldn't be any happier now that I chose Chateau Briand and I hope that come my wedding day, the new BM will pay special attention to all the details we discussed with him.
