This review is for my wedding ceremony and reception which was held at Whites Ferry venue back in June of this year. Overall, although the venue itself was beautiful, all the issues mentioned below led to a very negative experience. All these issues were shared with Whites Ferry and not only did I not receive any response at all, they also proceeded to upload our event pictures across their social media.
1. Bar Setup - we had contracted for two bars (one outside and one inside) and two bartenders. Yet on the day of the event, both bars were setup outside (one bar was completely empty with no glassware etc.) and to make matters worse, there was only one bartender outside servicing guests at only one bar for the entire event. This led to long queues and long waiting time for all guests to be properly served. Additionally, since there was no bar setup inside, many of the guests spent their time outside rather than being inside celebrating. Lastly, Whites Ferry requires entire payment to be made prior to the event, so we ended up paying for two bartenders and two bars to be setup even though only one of each was provided.
2. Water Serving - We decided to not use Whites Ferry catering and went with another vendor. We had several discussions to make sure everyone understood what they were responsible for since we had to hire both vendors wait staff and Whites Ferry's. Water, juices etc. were to be provided by the caterer and caterer's wait staff was responsible for manning the buffet, setup and cleanup. However, wait staff provided by Whites Ferry Manor were supposed to serve water to guests (again this was discussed over the phone to make sure everyone knows whose wait staff was responsible for which tasks). Instead, guests had to go outside the main tent and get water themselves from a water cooler. This was not what we expected nor discussed considering we hired 5+ wait staff from the venue.
3. Flies - during one of the walkthroughs we were told that a new insect lining had been put in place after the venue realized during a previous event that flies at night was a problem, I am not sure if anything was installed or not, but if it was it had no effect at all. We had initially decided on setting up food inside the tent, but upon the venue telling us that they had installed an insect lining and recommending that we setup food outside, we went with their recommendation. At the evening reception, numerous guests complained about an abundance of flies and had to get new plates of food or new drinks due to flies falling in their food/drinks respectively. The cake which was left outside the main tent was covered with flies, which led to the Cake being inedible after a while. Additionally, all the desserts provided by the caterer had flies all over them, most people did not eat desserts as a result. A costly waste to the say the least.
4. Fans & Guest Management - I understand that the decision to have the wedding ceremony outside was ours, however when we expressed concern about potential hot weather we were told there will be fans which can be setup for guests if necessary. The day of the event, I asked our wedding planner to coordinate with the venue and get the fans setup since the weather turned out to be much hotter than anticipated (weather forecast called for a cloudy day, we all know how accurate these forecasts sometimes turn out to be). We were told initially that there were no fans, and then eventually a couple of hours later only one fan was setup which was aimed at the ceremony spot for my wife and me. This led to all guests moving ceremony chairs to the shaded part on the grass while we had to open up the tent for others to cool off, majority of the chairs we paid for went unused as a result and, as you can imagine, it was not the ceremony we expected since most people understandably could not stand being outside in the sun for several hours (this was an Indian wedding ceremony which can last for few hours). Prior to the event, we had discussed keeping the main tent open for the duration of the wedding ceremony for the elderly and children, yet after the event I was told that along with other guests, both elderly and children were also told (not asked) to vacate the main tent to allow for evening reception setup. This, in fact, led to one of the elders, Bride's Grandmother to pass out from heat exhaustion later after the ceremony since she had to leave the main tent. Finally, after the fact several guests reported Whites Ferry staff asking in a very rude manner for all of them to vacate the tent. This is not what we expected from Whites' Ferry staff nor is this how we expected our guests to be treated.
5. Table Centerpieces - table centerpieces which were decided and paid for were to be a mixture of tall flower vases and tall candleholders, however, there were few tables in the back which had completely different centerpieces which were not chosen or selected by us. We were never informed in advance. read more
