We attended my girlfriend's sister's wedding and like the other reviewer, were impressed by the…read morevenue itself. The food was also incredibly good and the bar even took the steps to serve modified Old Fashioneds (no simple syrup).
However, their customer service ahead of and at the end of the wedding (and even how they treat their staff) was well below expectations. And as you will see in their response below, they continue to argue with customers (and in this case their guests after the fact). It's quite surprising to see a vendor argue with someone in a public place. A bit about my background, I led a $2B business selling to a major retailer - and in my career, I never argued back with that customer because it seemed dumb to argue with folks keeping us in business. So, the response below (and now in a picture) is shocking to see on a $30k+ per transaction business. It also seems to imply that 'pushy attitude' is written in their contract and they will not flex from what's in the contract. Example, the venue had no booking during the day and so opening early, seemed possible [maybe they bill for 1-2 people to be there from the venue itself?].
Their actions and sometimes lack of - led to a higher than expected stress level for the bride and family. All of these things seem easy to remedy on their part. However, if you decide to get married here - it seems critical to have everything you expect of them spelled out in the contract (down to requiring the demeanor of the management to be polite, consistent, and responsive). As I understand it, many commitments were made by the venue ahead of the big day - only to be told over email at 1 AM, two nights before, were not included. This is after leading up to the event never being able to have a consistent contact person - perhaps, requiring the event sales rep to give their cell # to customers is a good idea? One example, was saying last minute they would not provide vases for the flowers on tables. In a last stitch effort, vases were rented from the florist. Day of, the venue was insistent that those coming to decorate could not be in Ivy Hall any sooner than 4pm for a 6pm start. At the end of the night, the staff quickly broke down the tables and expected those of us packing up the gifts, vases, flowers, signs, etc to be extremely quick. Amidst that chaos, there were candles and plastic domes around them sitting next to other things that were the wedding party's. We started packing the white candles and the manager came over and said "Those aren't yours! And great, you messed them up!" She then proceeded to chastise the bar tender for not paying attention to us stealing things. Why would we want 10-20 used candles? And, my girlfriend overheard them loudly say 'we're trying to get them out of the bridal suite' - when they were packing up the bride's things. As an aside, it takes me back a little to have the management call the bride's family "vendors" in her response (see picture) as we were the ones setting up and taking down decorations.
Great venue, good food, bad service. A well spelled out contract defining your (not just theirs as the management states in their comment) expectations is a must-have if you do a wedding or other event at Ivy Hall. You only get one wedding, venues do many of them - might consider elsewhere if you are seeking guidance from the venue's experts throughout this once in a lifetime event for you.
