Please do your homework and do your research about this venue before booking!…read more
First of, our son and daughter in law booked this venue way too early, like a year and half before their wedding date. Although it is a pretty venue, the communication from their staffing is horrible!!! They don't return phone calls or emails after they get your booking. My husband and I wanted to get involved prior to our son's booking, but our son is 27 yrs old. We thought he's old enough to handle doing business with this venue. Wrong! This venue knows how to up-sale about their property. They know that young brides and grooms are emotional. They capture on that emotion and tells you anything to get the booking.
Lisa, the manager couldn't careless after she received the deposit and final payments. I've called and left numerous messages multiple times with the venue staffers that I needed to speak to Lisa. Not once did she ever returned my phone calls.
On the day of the wedding, as the mother of the groom, I was served pizza!!! Our son asked about a special menu for vegetarians, pescatarians and vegans. During the sales pitch, their salesperson told our son and his bride that there wasn't any issues making special meals for those guests, me being one of them. Can you believe the nerve of this venue served me pizza on the day of the wedding???
Before the wedding, our son and his bride did the food testing. They were told no one else could come to do the food tasting. Mind you, we were the ones that paid for this venue. Our daughter in law forwarded me an email from the venue, by their chef, that no one else could come to the food tasting.
Anyhow, not only myself was given pizza, our other 2 guests were also served pizza. Mind you, there were only 3 guests total that had a special dietary restriction. I was so embarrassed and horrified. I had to tell my aunt and the bride's grandmother weren't notified ahead that the venue was serving individual pizzas to dietary guests. The venue could at least offered some sort of vegetables or couscous, but nope, nothing!!!!!
I can give you a very long list, but I'll only give 3.
Number 1: Food wasn't cracked up to be. Even their regular menu like the basic of chicken and red meat, was real bad.
Number 2: We paid for a Photo Booth thru the venue. The photo booth folks never showed up. Although the venue refunded the money, but all was lost of having our guests take pictures for memories are long gone. Luckily we paid for good photographers (like 4 photographers+videographers). They were able to capture some moments of our families and guests.
Number 3: We had wedding crashers! The venue told our son they will have 3 security guards on the wedding dat. We saw none, not only 1 insight. These wedding crashers had the gall to eat cakes, ordered alcohol at the bar and joined our guests on the dance floor!!!
Mind you we paid for a premium package which included open bars. Our daughter in law contacted the venue to let them know about all these issues, they didn't offered any compensation or some sort of refunds accept for the photo booth that never showed up.
We have 2 other children. We'll never use this venue going forward. We told all of our friends about this venue. A lot of them were at the wedding, so they too know not to book this venue for their own children's weddings. This venue isn't worth mentioning their names. Lake Oak Meadows is pretty but not worth your money to book. There's plenty of beautiful venues around. So please, please ask questions, do comparison before booking. Don't let them tell you that they've a special going on and if you don't book right then and there that you'll loose the deal. It's not worth your money!
