I have put off writing this review for a year because our experience at Village Pizza is still…read moregenuinely painful for me to think about.
We chose Village Pizza in Corrales for our wedding reception. We had more than 50 guests there for approximately 3-4 hours eating pizza, salads, and drinks. Our guests enjoyed the food, and several family members have told us since that they now regularly return to Village Pizza after discovering it through our wedding.
Unfortunately, what happened with our wedding cake--and especially how it was handled afterward--overshadowed that experience for me.
We ordered our wedding cake from a separate bakery and expected it to be delivered to us at Village Pizza. When it didn't arrive, we repeatedly called the bakery trying to locate it. At our scheduled cake cutting around 6 p.m., we still believed our wedding cake had never been delivered, so we ended up cutting a store-bought cake someone happened to bring.
Then, around 8 p.m., as our reception was winding down, a Village Pizza server asked whether we were going to cut our cake because it was in their refrigerator.
Our wedding cake had apparently been there for hours.
The bakery had given it to Village Pizza staff rather than to us, and no one made sure the bride or groom knew it had arrived. I understand that mistakes and miscommunications happen, and I believe the bakery also bears responsibility. What I could not understand was the complete lack of empathy afterward.
When I spoke with the owner of Village Pizza, instead of an apology or even an acknowledgment that this was an unfortunate mistake, she became defensive and emphasized that use of their large room is free and essentially told me they had done us a favor by allowing us to have our reception there.
That was incredibly hurtful and insulting.
Yes, there was no separate venue fee, and we appreciated that. But we also brought more than 50 people into the restaurant who purchased food and drinks for several hours, and some became repeat customers afterward. We weren't expecting to be treated as though allowing our party to eat there was an act of charity.
More importantly, the room fee had nothing to do with why I was upset. Their staff accepted my wedding cake, put it away, and I wasn't told it was there until my reception was almost over. Because of that breakdown in communication, we missed cutting and enjoying the wedding cake we had carefully chosen and paid for.
I wasn't expecting anyone to magically fix our wedding day. I wanted someone to care that it happened.
A sincere, "I am so sorry. We should have made sure you knew your cake had arrived," would have meant so much to me. Instead, I was met with defensiveness, no responsibility, and no empathy.
I haven't been able to bring myself to return to Village Pizza in the year since our wedding. Even now, thinking about it makes me emotional. It isn't because of the pizza--the food was good. It isn't because I expected a free room to provide the services of an expensive wedding venue. It's because when something went wrong on one of the most important days of my life, I was treated as though I was unreasonable for being hurt by it.
Mistakes happen. How a business treats someone afterward matters. Unfortunately, that is the part of my experience with Village Pizza that I remember most.