Venue is beautiful, perfect for the shower/exactly what we were looking for aesthetically. CAUTION:…read moreDocument everything discussed with Franchesca and proceed with caution when communicating. For some strange reason she always "means something else."
It seems that Franchesca's preference is to talk over the phone rather than providing written responses to emails. During several conversations with myself, mom to be, and mother of the mom to be (all separate conversations), Franchesca gave favorable responses then changed her response about capacity, parking, ADA access, clean up, rentals, etc. (I believe she just needed a booking so she said yes to all of my questions). Franchesca never updated the contract, did not send a fully executed contract, was misleading about parking and ADA access, didn't know how to work her own speaker, told us that the shelves in the fridge couldn't be removed to put the cake inside, and the list goes on.
Franchesca also told me that she would not be present during the event but would be in reach if I needed her because she doesn't have an office on-site, which was fine. During set up, her husband introduced himself and said that if I needed anything, his number was on the wall. He didn't leave, in fact, he babysat our event, walking in and out as he pleased. Several people asked who he was because he was very much out of place. At one point I came out of the kitchen and he had a plate of food. Another time, I came out of the kitchen and he was eating a slice of cake. He certainly wasn't there to help because we did absolutely everything (set up, trash, dismantle, speaker, etc.).
After we paid in full, Franchesca became difficult to talk to. She kept cutting us (mom to be, myself) off during conversations before we could complete a thought. She also told us that she would clean everything, then decided that she didn't clean and we had to remove our own trash unless we paid her $150 additional for trash removal because she didn't have access to a dumpster.
The time allotted wasn't worth the price, especially when her husband lingered like we were in his way (very tacky). Wasn't a comfortable feeling as we felt we were being watched throughout our rental. The shower was gorgeous and all the guests were pleased. My overall experience for the price I paid is about a 4 (1-10 scale).