Where to begin...First, I absolutely DO NOT recommend DC Centre to any bride who wants her big day to be stress free. Before the contract was signed, we were told everything we wanted to hear...how we pay the one price and they just take care of everything! Sharon described having two long tables with food to allow everyone to get their food faster, we were told we could have a hot cocoa bar, we were told we could arrive at 3pm to start pictures due to the bride and groom not wanting to see each other before the ceremony, we were told the bride would have a bridal suite to use for the evening, we were told the venue would set up all the decorations and take them down at the end of the night for us to pick up the next day, and we were told the venue would cut and serve the cake. After the contract was signed however, Sharon decided that having hot cocoa served would be too messy coming out of the decanter and that we couldn't do it. We compromised with her and changed to hot chocolate packets so that only hot water would be poured from the decanter. Sharon agreed to that so we purchased all the supplies to do it that way. Then, on the night of the rehearsal dinner, we were told by Nicole that Sharon said someone would have to man the hot cocoa bar the entire night because of the liability of the hot water and because, again, it would be too messy. We were told we would have to sign a waiver and pay to have the carpet cleaned if we didn't have someone watching it all night. On the day of the wedding, I showed up at 1:00pm to set up the wedding cake. The reception hall looked the same as it had the night of the rehearsal...as in, the memorial table, sign-in table, hot cocoa bar, gift table, head table, and even the cake table had not been set up yet!! The wedding was to be at 5:15pm (only 4 hours from that point)! I started setting up the hot cocoa bar myself while a different room coordinator got a cake table set up for me to use. I had the hot cocoa bar mostly set up when Nicole, our room coordinator, showed up and told me she was just coming in to do it. I said well, this is already done now but nothing else is and the wedding is now in less than four hours. She said "this is just how we do it honey, it would've all been ready to go on time" As I was setting up the cake, I told Nicole that there was a box under the table for them to save the top tier in. She said "Don't worry honey, we take everything back to the kitchen and wrap it up for you at the end of the night". She also then informed me that they don't cut the groom's cake; only the wedding cake. When I looked at her with a dumbfounded look because that was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard, she said "but don't worry about it honey, we can go ahead and cut it for you". Fast forward to pre-wedding pictures, our photographer was yelled at for showing up at 3pm, our wedding planner was yelled at for who knows what, and we were rushed out of the bridal suite with all of our stuff even though we were trying to keep the bride hidden. Time came for dinner to be served, there was only one table of food instead of the two that were promised. We had 150 people who needed to go through the line so it was a VERY slow process and quite a different scenario than Sharon had described before we signed the contract. I personally was finished eating before many of our guests were even able to go through the line. The salad ran out and instead of bringing more salad, they brought corn...there was still plenty of corn so...? They only provided ONE bartender even though we were expecting 200 guests!! Our guests were getting yelled at and even sworn at and one of our groomsmen was almost kicked out for "being belligerent" even though he wasn't doing anything but having fun at a wedding! In fact, no one was out of control or causing problems except the room captain herself! LAST, even though I KNOW I'm leaving things out, we were told we had to pack our stuff up and take it with us before we left that night even though they were supposed to be packing it all up for us to pick it up the next day. Everyone started pitching in to pack it all up so we could comply with yet another change in plans but apparently Nicole didn't like THAT either because she started arguing with literally everyone who was trying to help pack things up! ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE working with this venue. If Covid was causing you to be short-staffed, which was the general excuse we received for the above, then communicate in advance! Don't build up expectations and then blame your failure to meet them on Covid. read more
