When I first started planning my wedding, I had major sticker shock at the prices of food that, in all honesty, I wasn't all that interested in eating. After all, when I go out to dinner, I don't order steak and potatoes or chicken I could make at home. I'm looking for something new, something fun!

So one night, my then fiance and I were trying to decide where to go for dinner. I was browsing Yelp for ideas when I saw Lai Lai. We enjoy Asian cuisine, so we agreed to go there for the evening. While he was getting ready, I idly browsed the reviews, and saw that several people had mentioned being there for a wedding. Curious. It had never even occurred to me that I could have a full reception at a restaurant.

I clicked on over to their website and checked out their wedding packages. Open bar? Eight course meal? For less than the typical wedding fare? Wedding cake included?! Yes, please!

I'll admit, a few of my guests thought it was a little strange that I was having my reception at a Chinese/Japanese restaurant. Guests are never without opinion, are they? But here I sit, almost a month after my wedding, and I'm STILL constantly having friends and family tell me how much they loved the food. The shrimp especially was a huge hit.

In addition to the food being phenomenal, everyone at Lai Lai was a pleasure to work with. Aaron answered every one of my many (MANY) questions via email for months leading up to the wedding. Whenever I went there in person, there was always someone knowledgeable to help me. They were accommodating of my desire to use custom centerpieces, and set them up beautifully for me. They coordinated with the company we used to rent a photobooth, and made sure there was an area where it could be used.

I am SO GLAD I went with Lai Lai for my reception. Everyone was very, very nice and very professional, and the night went off without a hitch!

We held our wedding reception at Lai Lai Garden because we were looking for a Chinese-style wedding banquet for about 100 people. I had to be very proactive in the planning process because there was no designated wedding planner at this location, and oftentimes, I was unsure if the communication (English/Chinese) was going to be a problem. The banquet room had red curtains on the wall and large chandeliers and was much less gaudy-looking than the other Chinese restaurants we visited. The restaurant had a package that included the cocktail hour appetizers, 7 courses of food, open bar, champagne toast, centerpieces, wedding cake, and dance floor, all for a reasonable price. To hold our date, we paid a $500 deposit, and we put down another 20% of the anticipated bill after we had the food tasting, and then we paid the remaining bill at the end of the wedding banquet. We dealt directly with the owner, and he gave us a small discount for paying in cash. He was very amenable to our request to modify the appetizer/dinner menu within the package. The tasting was a full meal for 10 people. During the wedding reception, the cocktail hour appetizers were very popular, and my dad said that the restaurant couldn't bring them out as quickly as was needed for the hungry guests. All of the appetizers were gone by the time my new husband and I came in, and I wish that we had requested for the restaurant (or our bridal party) to put aside some appetizers for us.We got many compliments from our guests about both the appetizers and the dinner food. I asked the waiter to wrap up the food at our sweetheart table when we were taking pictures with friends so that we could eat it later, and I'm glad that I did because it probably would have been taken away if I hadn't asked. Our vegetarians were given a separate vegetarian dish, and my vegetarian friend said that the dish was acceptable. During the planning, the owner was not interested in doing a "signature cocktail," and he assured us that his bar was "very good, never any complaints," but we found it rather lacking and disappointing. They didn't have mint for mohitos, nor did they have ingredients for several other common cocktails. While we had champagne flutes at our sweetheart table, I noticed that the champagne toast was served in plastic dollar-store-like wide-rimmed glasses at the guests' tables. During the planning, we'd met with the owner's wife, the florist, to choose the centerpieces. She showed us pictures of 3-4 centerpiece options, and we chose one. The actual centerpieces on the table on the wedding day were definitely not identical to the picture that we'd chosen (missing a few key decorative pieces that we really liked), so that was very disappointing, and I'm glad that we didn't order any other flowers from her. The waiter either didn't bring us any of the wedding cake or took it away and didn't wrap it up while we were up dancing because we sadly never got to have any cake. A family friend did the music, and he used the restaurant's microphone and sound equipment, which we definitely do not recommend because the sound quality was pretty poor. The restaurant charged $80 for setting up a projector and screen to do our slideshow. During the planning, my mom had requested that waiters bring out containers for guests to take home leftovers, but that didn't happen.

We booked our wedding venue at Lai Lai Garden because my husband's siblings booked their weddings there in the past and had a great experience. Their experience was different because they were fortunate enough to work with the Manager Wayne that was there at the time. Unfortunately that was not the case for us. After we booked our date with a deposit the owner of the restaurant informed us he booked a luncheon wedding on the same date in the same room as ours. He told us and promised us that he would have the luncheon wedding cleared out and cleaned up by 4:30PM. My bridal party and I arrived at 5:30PM (our wedding started at 6:00PM!!!) and the luncheon wedding was STILL THERE!!!!!! To say the least I was livid, but it was completely out of my control. Fortunately a few of my friends arrived early and had to HELP the wait staff set up. Very disappointing on Lai Lai's behalf. The night went well, however towards the end of the wedding when my husband went to pay the bill, the owner assumed he was drunk and tried to play a fast one and told him we didn't put a deposit of $2,500 down! Husband quickly sobered up and told him to go check his records because we sure as heck know we did! We even had the receipt on hand. To end this story, we know when someone is trying to take advantage of us. It's ashame that he tried to do that on our wedding day.

I would not recommend this place to anyone.