I had my wedding here on 05/24/2014!
I'm gonna be honest...when I first came to the hall in downtown i completely fell in love with the hall upstairs, but for other reasons we rented the one downstairs...Alma kept insisting to rent it because she was going to leave it so beautiful. But the only reason we rented it was because we needed the garden because of the large family we had invited. We got the package deal that included the tables, decoration, and flowers. Every time we would go and ask Alma something -she would just had the easiest answer, if we would ask her for her opinion she looked lazy and didn't even know how to answer. The first time she showed us the sample of our table...OMG, i was in shock on how ugly it looked! i mean really?! i was surrounded by other beautiful tables she had made as samples and my table was completely ugly! My family hadn't had a big wedding like the one i was planning in a long time so i didn't know how things should go or any suggestions i could give her to make her work better. I mean here i was thinking she knows what she's doing but in reality it looked like someone else did the work. Alma really needs to work on her PEOPLE SKILLS because i really WISH i had meet the ALMA everyone claims was so helpful. When it came down to me telling her what i wanted she would always write it in a piece of paper and say she was going to add it to my contract. 2 days before the wedding she comes to me and asks me what it was that we had agreed on?...really?! I showed her my notes and then she still has the nerve to tell me that the bows on the chairs were not included. what?! she said that each bow was a dollar extra, I couldn't believe my ears, even though her sample included the bows she still wanted to charge me. I told her if that was the case i didn't want the bows. After we went through everything...mind you we made the entire balance 1 month before the wedding...she "REMINDS" us of the $300 insurance deposit and incidentals. I told her that my contract did not state that...and to be honest we we're low on funds so that really threw us off. She showed me her contract and how She herself wrote down the $300 fee. whatever...we paid it but we were going to get it back on Tuesday. She had also mentioned that the hall upstairs was never rented and offered it to us for the same price. (we found out the day of our wedding, that the only reason she offered it to us was because she booked a wedding on that SUNDAY)
A day before the wedding we went to take a few things for the tables, and when i walked in again...i was in shock...they basically just put all the tables in the center and didn't care if my guest were going to have any room to move. There wasn't any room for the waiters to take the food, it was ridiculous When she saw how upset i was, she literally almost just walked away but i stopped her and i told her to fix the way everything was set up because it just look super cluttered. She could basically care less of my opinion and said she would do it early in the morning of the wedding. When my friends got there to set up for the candy table they saw how sad i was and helped me and my husband re-arrange half the tables so that the room can have more space. It looked AMAZING (NO THANKS TO ALMA) Also it was obvious why they just threw all the tables together...they didn't want us to see that the floor was super dirty and not mopped. I also noticed that most of all the chair covers were stained...i was so disappointed in her services. Me and my husband work hard for our money and for the amount we paid...i would have hoped ALMA would have given me an awesome service but i was clearly mistaken. The day of the wedding when i saw the flowers on the centerpieces another disappointment...i told her i didn't want any Green stems showing and only rose's (like the sample she showed me) but it was obvious that they did what ever the hell they wanted and didn't care for their clients wishes. Also, ALMA told me that parking fee was only $5.00 but the day of the wedding they were charging $7.00 that was completely embarrassing. we noted down the parking fee on our invitations, and for people to find out it was more omg! it was just so embarrassing it's obvious they're all about making more money.
Our experience with penelope designs and representative ALMA was the worst. If you guys do end up booking this place always make sure ALMA notes down everything you agreed upon in your contract. And always ASKS questions...i think that's the only thing they don't charge you on.
Alma, if one day you do read this (because i really doubt that you will)...i hope you don't act shocked and lie to yourself about my comments. You and I both know that you were NOT helpful when it came down to giving us advise or suggestions to the wedding. You really need to be more open minded and be more talkative with your clients. Don't make another persons wedding experience dreadful like you did ours. read more