Kind of a mess
The good news: we scheduled and postponed our wedding multiple times because of the pandemic, and the venue was fairly accommodating of the need to switch dates even though the revised venue contract was very poorly written and was not equally balanced among the parties. The meal was good, and the chef excellently accommodated a guest with severe food allergies, but that is about where the compliments stop relative to day of events.
In the lead up to the event, Catina, the coordinator, was pretty easy to get ahold of and lovely to interact with; unfortunately, she would ask us the same questions repeatedly and didn’t seem to be taking note of certain important details. After emphasizing to us several times that our vendors and party members would have to arrive at a certain time at a particular gate because they needed to be escorted into the property from the gates, there were several occasions where no staff was at the gate to meet our vendors or party members to let them in. I had several people calling and texting asking to be let in. It caused needless delays and stress. On the day of the rehearsal, the mobile PA we were to use was not available to test, and our sound guy—who came specifically to use it—had nothing to do. A small subset of our party was set to arrive at 4:00 to set some things up before the 4:30 rehearsal start time. At 4:00, there was no one to let us in the gate to the zoo, let alone the gate to the event location. 4:25 came around and we were finally allowed onto the property. At 4:30, the rest of our group arrived (as planned) and no one let them in. It was almost 5:00 by the time our group was allowed on the property and our rehearsal could begin. More disappointing was that Catina was on the phone with someone not associated with our event for almost the duration of the rehearsal and was not very available for questions and to go over last-minute details.
The day of the wedding, the venue’s Internet was down, so they did not have any of our requests printed out and viewable. We had to text copies of the timeline to the coordinator so that someone could hopefully let our vendors and wedding party members in the exterior and interior gates. (There was A LOT of waiting around because there was no one at the exterior gate to let them in or at the interior gate to let them onto the property once they were able to party.) It was not until HOURS later that the coordinator told my day of planner that she did not have any of the printouts for setting up the tables (like what goes on the table) or the floorplan. And the venue’s interior audio system was not working, so the band was literally doing a sound check 5 minutes before the ceremony was to start.
Despite hosting a bar based on a certain price budget, guests were told that pops were not available for them even though we specifically asked that pops be made available to our guests. And while the food tasted good, the portions were incredibly small. There was one tiny potato and 3 pieces of broccoli and a 3 oz. chicken breast for the main course ($24.50). For the price, I was expecting the sides to at least be more robust, even if not restaurant portions. And it took 45 minutes to serve dinner. Despite confirming that the entire wedding party table could be served in under 4 minutes, it took no less than 15 for all of us to be served and the couple was not served first despite making that specific request.
On to the most disappointing aspect of the event: staff did not do much in the way of actually setting up our event. With 15 minutes to go and guests arriving, the aisle had not been placed, there was no podium for our officiant, and the mobile PA was nowhere to be found. At 10 minutes before the start time, one of the bridesmaids had to ask Catina when they would be putting the aisle down since the ceremony was about to start to which Catina responded by asking the bridesmaid when SHE would be putting it down. We specifically asked that a mobile PA be placed outside for our use and that we be able to use the podium which we were told would be no problem. But again, at about 10 minutes before the slated ceremony start time, neither were to be found. They were quickly tracked down, but it was yet another example of scrambling and poor execution by the zoo staff.
The chairs were in the wrong place, there weren’t enough chairs, and things weren’t settled in time for our wedding party to actually relax before the ceremony began. Instead, our wedding party was running around getting things set up while staff was next to nonexistent. Our friends and family had to do almost all of the setup that wasn’t actually putting a table down or putting chairs out – even though they were out there moving chairs because they were in the wrong place. Because of that chaos, we missed wonderful opportunities to share a brief moment before the ceremony with our friends and family who flew in to celebrate us, not break a sweat moving chairs as guests were arriving.
Some additional gripes include, the cakes not being placed on the cake table during the social hour as requested, certain items not moved from the outside to the interior reception as requested, and next to no help breaking everything down after the event was over. We understand now that there was another big event that morning that acted as a fund raiser of sorts for the zoo and that several of the staff members worked that event as well, and they were likely very tired after a long day. But, there are two ways to solve that issue that wouldn’t negatively impact the second event: 1) hire separate staff for the second event; or 2) don’t host a second event if you can’t actually pull it off well. Lastly, as little as the staff made themselves available to set up our event, they did about that much to help break it down. Instead of assisting with removing any of the couple’s items, they focused solely on moving stuff out of the way to clean the space. It would have been much more efficient to actually help breakdown the event than to just move stuff around the room – especially since we were told they would assist with the cleanup of the event knowing that everything had to be removed that night before the entire party was gone.
For the amount of money we spent, we expected much better. The price included rental of the entire pavilion, catering, and a hosted bar. It did not include cake cutting services or tips. Overall, everything looked amazing, but that says more to the beauty of the venue and the dedication and hard work of our friends, family, and wedding party than it does the staff and coordinator. We had a lovely time, but a lot of needless stress because of poor execution on the Zoo’s part. It’s a beautiful space, but I would save my money and go to a place that is a little more tried and tested at this point. Maybe in a few more years they will have the kinks worked out.
