Wedding Issues - Help!!

Samuel T. Cogley

Cancel and small claims court for the deposit if needed. You'll find the unfair contract terms regs useful here I think.

lazygal

It's changed ownership though, there's no guarantee standards will be maintained.

Teyla Emmagan

Aud2009 wrote:

I know the venue and I had my wedding there. I could not fault it. The food was fantastic and a lot of people who have got married there recently have given great reviews.

But the OP was there a few weeks ago and the food wasn't good at all!!

rainbowtrout

susb wrote: »

Absolutely agree but main priority is to have sufficient accommodation. They haven't sorted that 100% yet either and we have found another place we loved that has availability the day before if we are to change. Some guests have already booked flights which causes a bit of an issue if we are to move it fwd and we won't get a day 2 there so we are going to have to weigh it all up.

Not fun!

But if you have guests coming from Australia and Dubai, and they still have to travel from Dublin to Sligo, staying a 10 mins away from the castle isn't going to make much of a difference.

Honestly the guests aren't going to be talking about the inconvenience of travelling 10 mins out of town to the wedding, but they will be talking about travelling half way round the world for crap food.

People will be waiting all day for their dinner, if it's crap and the service is rubbish, people will not be happy, and they really won't be happy if they can't get food elsewhere.

Good food and decent music are the most important, let people sort out their own accommodation.

CeilingFly

Just two points on the food.

1. An open weekend probably is more about showing the venue and would possibly not be set up the same way as a wedding as staff would be trying to be personal to too many people.

2. Avoid fillet steak for any large event. It will never be cooked to everyone's preference and served at same time and can be a bone of contention - ribeye is a better option (and far tastier)

Aud2009

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

But the OP was there a few weeks ago and the food wasn't good at all!!

And that's one person's review, maybe just on that evening it wasn't cooked the way she liked it.

If you look at reviews of the hotel for weddings so far all extremely positive. I had my wedding there and all I know it was fantastic. The food was exceptional and my guests would say the same. I had fillet of beef and it was perfectly cooked, they asked guests how they would like it cooked and it came out exactly how people asked. I'm from a food background and I know good food.

I think she needs to contact the hotel and discuss her concerns and they will work with her. I don't think people can judge this venue on her sole experience. Slightly over reacting, she needs to breath and discuss this with the hotel. Discussing it on boards.ie is not could to resolve her concerns.

Teyla Emmagan

Aud2009 wrote:

If you look at reviews of the hotel for weddings so far all extremely positive. I had my wedding there and all I know it was fantastic. The food was exceptional and my guests would say the same. I had fillet of beef and it was perfectly cooked, they asked guests how they would like it cooked and it came out exactly how people asked. I'm from a food background and I know good food.

She said nobody in her party liked their food, except for her Dad who said it was 'fine'. And maybe they're all from a food background too.

You sound like you work there.

CeilingFly

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

You sound like you work there.

Christ, the childish response!!!

beertons

Personally, I'd have gone to the restaurant. And not told them who you were or why you were there. I got married in one of their castle hotels 8 years ago. And I still remember the taste of the food. They obviously had the B team running things that day. The A team were been rested for a proper function.

mcgiggles

Aud2009 wrote:

Also some of my guests stayed in the apartments on the grounds they just booked them on time. I don't think it's the venues responsibility to ensure your guests have accomadation. If someone else has them booked they just had it organised on time. There is plenty of accomadation in Sligo town not far from the hotel.

The issue is the OP had the accommodation booked, and the ownership of the accommodation changed hands and they have the decency to inform them that they no longer had the booking! She's not just looking for the hotel to sort accommodation out of nowhere

beertons wrote:

Personally, I'd have gone to the restaurant. And not told them who you were or why you were there. I got married in one of their castle hotels 8 years ago. And I still remember the taste of the food. They obviously had the B team running things that day. The A team were been rested for a proper function.

That's the thing, there is no restaurant. The hotel deals exclusively with weddings, that's their excuse for not having a food tasting! (which i think is a joke but that's for another thread!)

jenjoeful

susb wrote: »

Hi gang,

Sorry I'm new to this but having an absolute nightmare at the moment with our wedding venue.

We booked it for October back in December and the venue itself is beautiful, as well as the area having a special place for my family.
Anyway, all seemed great at the get go and we put our initial deposit down.

Things went a bit funny when we got our contracts in the post - there were a few things on it that I wasn't happy about so I called them and they said that it's all fine, the contracts need to be updated, etc. Essentially it was taking no liability if things went wrong, they could cancel at any notice etc. Needless to say, we didn't sign it.

Then when we asked about when we could have our tasting, they told us that they didn't do tastings but they'll send us photos so we can choose the menu from that...
I get that not everywhere does tastings but our venue isn't cheap and we don't know anyone who has had a wedding there... How can you base food for 180 guests off a photo. Anyway, they had an open weekend a few weeks ago and we asked if we could join for a dinner (as they aren't a restaurant, they only have open weekends when there is no wedding on).
We went with our families and the setting truly is stunning. However, the meal itself was just not good.

From when we arrived, no one took our wine orders and there were no servers around checking things were ok. We had to wait until our starter was brought out before we could ask a server for wine and then they brought them out and just plonked the bottles on the table. They also didn't give us the cutlery for the starter so we had to ask for that as well.
The staff were generally very young and inexperienced, but the biggest problem for me was that there was no one watching and overseeing this.
The food itself was really disappointing too - I ordered fillet of beef (which we wanted to have for the wedding) and it was an incredible fatty piece of steak that had been quickly seared on a pan so that it looked cooked but was rare on the inside and I'd ordered it medium. I barely ate it and no one questioned it when they took it away. The only person who was happy with their main was my dad who had lamb which he said was 'nice'.
After being to so many weddings, food is really important to us, and we knew it was a bit of a gamble going somewhere we didn't have a direct review of but we didn't think it would be so lacklustre. We have since heard really mixed reviews of the food there from friends of friends who said not to order the duck, the fillet of beef, etc.

The final nail in the coffin was yesterday when I sent out an email to my friends with the cottage accommodation onsite (that sleeps about 70 people, we also have 30 rooms in the venue itself). It was previously owned separate to our venue and I had been in contact with them in January to hold them for our wedding party. We are having a day 2 in the venue as well so most will be staying for at least 2 nights. Anyway, she was told the accommodation was full. I obviously freaked out and called them, to be told the accommodation has been recently taken over by our wedding venue. They informed me that they had taken a booking from a bride the week after mine and they have block booked it for the full week as they are coming from America. Apparently in the changeover, bookings and provisional bookings were lost but you would THINK they would call the couples who have their weddings on and give priority to them on their dates! She then told me to call a hotel about a 10 min drive away to see if they can host our guests.
90% of the people attending this are travelling over 2 hours and a huge reason we booked this venue is so everyone can be on site. They said they'll 'ask' the american bride if she will give up the booking for 2 of the nights but that this is obviously not guaranteed. The only reason they even said this was because I freaked out and said I will pull it unless we get suitable accom.

It's been the most incredibly stressful and upsetting thing and I genuinely feel like I no longer want to have my wedding there but it's 6 month to the big day.
We have paid 1500e as deposit and that's it...

Can anyone offer any advice? Am I completely overreacting??

Also Name and shame the venue!! disgraceful behaviour!

jenjoeful

susb wrote: »

Hi gang,

Sorry I'm new to this but having an absolute nightmare at the moment with our wedding venue.

We booked it for October back in December and the venue itself is beautiful, as well as the area having a special place for my family.
Anyway, all seemed great at the get go and we put our initial deposit down.

Things went a bit funny when we got our contracts in the post - there were a few things on it that I wasn't happy about so I called them and they said that it's all fine, the contracts need to be updated, etc. Essentially it was taking no liability if things went wrong, they could cancel at any notice etc. Needless to say, we didn't sign it.

Then when we asked about when we could have our tasting, they told us that they didn't do tastings but they'll send us photos so we can choose the menu from that...
I get that not everywhere does tastings but our venue isn't cheap and we don't know anyone who has had a wedding there... How can you base food for 180 guests off a photo. Anyway, they had an open weekend a few weeks ago and we asked if we could join for a dinner (as they aren't a restaurant, they only have open weekends when there is no wedding on).
We went with our families and the setting truly is stunning. However, the meal itself was just not good.

From when we arrived, no one took our wine orders and there were no servers around checking things were ok. We had to wait until our starter was brought out before we could ask a server for wine and then they brought them out and just plonked the bottles on the table. They also didn't give us the cutlery for the starter so we had to ask for that as well.
The staff were generally very young and inexperienced, but the biggest problem for me was that there was no one watching and overseeing this.
The food itself was really disappointing too - I ordered fillet of beef (which we wanted to have for the wedding) and it was an incredible fatty piece of steak that had been quickly seared on a pan so that it looked cooked but was rare on the inside and I'd ordered it medium. I barely ate it and no one questioned it when they took it away. The only person who was happy with their main was my dad who had lamb which he said was 'nice'.
After being to so many weddings, food is really important to us, and we knew it was a bit of a gamble going somewhere we didn't have a direct review of but we didn't think it would be so lacklustre. We have since heard really mixed reviews of the food there from friends of friends who said not to order the duck, the fillet of beef, etc.

The final nail in the coffin was yesterday when I sent out an email to my friends with the cottage accommodation onsite (that sleeps about 70 people, we also have 30 rooms in the venue itself). It was previously owned separate to our venue and I had been in contact with them in January to hold them for our wedding party. We are having a day 2 in the venue as well so most will be staying for at least 2 nights. Anyway, she was told the accommodation was full. I obviously freaked out and called them, to be told the accommodation has been recently taken over by our wedding venue. They informed me that they had taken a booking from a bride the week after mine and they have block booked it for the full week as they are coming from America. Apparently in the changeover, bookings and provisional bookings were lost but you would THINK they would call the couples who have their weddings on and give priority to them on their dates! She then told me to call a hotel about a 10 min drive away to see if they can host our guests.
90% of the people attending this are travelling over 2 hours and a huge reason we booked this venue is so everyone can be on site. They said they'll 'ask' the american bride if she will give up the booking for 2 of the nights but that this is obviously not guaranteed. The only reason they even said this was because I freaked out and said I will pull it unless we get suitable accom.

It's been the most incredibly stressful and upsetting thing and I genuinely feel like I no longer want to have my wedding there but it's 6 month to the big day.
We have paid 1500e as deposit and that's it...

Can anyone offer any advice? Am I completely overreacting??

Also Name and shame the venue!! disgraceful behaviour!

SarahS2013

It's pretty easy to figure it out...

(Google 'Castle Wedding Sligo')

CeilingFly

SarahS2013 wrote: »

It's pretty easy to figure it out...

(Google 'Castle Wedding Sligo')

and near perfect ratings everywhere - Facebook, Tripadvisor, Google, Wedding sites etc

A quick look shows about 300 reviews and average ratings range from 4.7/5 to 5/5 on tripadvisor (and remember its almost all private gatherings/weddings)

So even a cursory glance at hundreds verified reviews would suggest very little to worry about.

lazygal

The original venue we booked with has fantastic reviews and does a good few weddings. However, once they messed up we couldn't trust them, no matter what people on tripadvisor had to say. If they drop the ball before you even get into the business of organising the day, how can you trust them to follow through on the day itself?

CeilingFly

lazygal wrote: »

The original venue we booked with has fantastic reviews and does a good few weddings. However, once they messed up we couldn't trust them, no matter what people on tripadvisor had to say. If they drop the ball before you even get into the business of organising the day, how can you trust them to follow through on the day itself?

So someone doesn't quite match one expectation and you run away without giving opportunity to correct it or prove it was an error.

I reckon, considering how fussy brides can be, that any venue that specialises in weddings and has hundreds of extremely positive reviews may be worth talking to before cancelling.

susb

Aud2009 wrote: »

I know the venue you are talking about. I had my wedding reception there last year and I could not fault it the food was fantastic and the venue was beautiful. We had the fillet of beef on our menu and it was cooked perfectly. We were disappointed we didn't have a tasting but we had eaten in Cabra Castle same owners so we knew the food would be good.

I have heard excellent reviews from people who have had their weddings there. Maybe you should contact the manager and discuss your concerns.

Also some of my guests stayed in the apartments on the grounds they just booked them on time. I don't think it's the venues responsibility to ensure your guests have accomadation. If someone else has them booked they just had it organised on time. There is plenty of accomadation in Sligo town not far from the hotel.

I had them booked back in January. It should have been their responsibility to double check any of the previous bookings and let the people getting married in their venue know of the changes of ownership. Instead they just blamed the previous venue for not effectively managing the bookings - which I get - but how they have dealt with the situation has been just unforgivable.
I've literally never heard of anyone getting married that had to deal with these kinds of issues from the venue that they had booked out for 2 days. If I hadn't booked them, it would have been different

susb

Aud2009 wrote: »

And that's one person's review, maybe just on that evening it wasn't cooked the way she liked it.

If you look at reviews of the hotel for weddings so far all extremely positive. I had my wedding there and all I know it was fantastic. The food was exceptional and my guests would say the same. I had fillet of beef and it was perfectly cooked, they asked guests how they would like it cooked and it came out exactly how people asked. I'm from a food background and I know good food.

I think she needs to contact the hotel and discuss her concerns and they will work with her. I don't think people can judge this venue on her sole experience. Slightly over reacting, she needs to breath and discuss this with the hotel. Discussing it on boards.ie is not could to resolve her concerns.

there are only 18 reviews for the hotel. I've also been contacted by a few different people who haven't had positive experiences as guests there and substantiated our experience at the dinner.

We have contacted the hotel but haven't been getting an adequate response back which we find the most worrying.
I get that you had a lovely day on your wedding but I'm not sure how I'm over reacting when we have been dealing with pretty serious issues in relation to it and haven't had a fully satisfactory response to it.
If you could PM me your details it would be great to speak with you about your experience there, unless you are affiliated with them as you have only made 4 posts, all in relation to this thread?

If people can't discuss concerns on boards.ie then what is this for?

susb

CeilingFly wrote: »

So someone doesn't quite match one expectation and you run away without giving opportunity to correct it or prove it was an error.

I reckon, considering how fussy brides can be, that any venue that specialises in weddings and has hundreds of extremely positive reviews may be worth talking to before cancelling.

We absolutely have discussed everything with them - we haven't just pulled it and tried to give them an opportunity to resolve it but still awaiting a full response back.

There are only 18 reviews of the venue, not hundreds.

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Mitzy

OP run a mile. This is your special day and from the sounds of it the venue are not seeing it like that. They are seeing you as just "another booking". There are so many fabulous places throughout Ireland that will be amazing for you & your guests.

You will be stressing right up to the day in case things go wrong that are beyond your control which will stop you enjoying the excitement & build up to it.

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This post has been deleted.

susb

....... wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

There may have been reviews from years ago, when it was under different ownership on other sites but on trip advisor there are only 18 reviews.

CeilingFly

....... wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I always find the "they must work for xx" comment to be an incredibly stupid and imbecile comment and reminiscent of a primary school playground. Posters using such stupidity and imbecility are best ignored.

OP seems to be searching for issues and wanting to find fault. Maybe best to go elsewhere as the op will be certain to find something wrong to prove she was right.

btw, reviews
Facebook 271
weddingdates.ie - 34
tripadvisor - 19
google 73
expedia - 68


that's 1st page of search

susb

CeilingFly wrote: »

I always find the "they must work for xx" comment to be an incredibly stupid and imbecile comment and reminiscent of a primary school playground. Posters using such stupidity and imbecility are best ignored.

OP seems to be searching for issues and wanting to find fault. Maybe best to go elsewhere as the op will be certain to find something wrong to prove she was right.

btw, reviews
Facebook 271
weddingdates.ie - 34
tripadvisor - 19
google 73
expedia - 68


that's 1st page of search

I'm not sure what the attitude is? Please explain how I am searching for issues and trying to find fault... I don't think many people would want to find fault with a venue they have booked and organised all their friends and family to go to for 2 days.

If you had also read my previous response, you would also know that I had said that there were hundred of old reviews in relation to the venue when it was under different ownership. Go back and check the dates to see how many there are from the last 2 years, or perhaps this doesn't suit your agenda.

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This post has been deleted.

GingerLily

susb wrote: »

I'm not sure what the attitude is? Please explain how I am searching for issues and trying to find fault... I don't think many people would want to find fault with a venue they have booked and organised all their friends and family to go to for 2 days.

If you had also read my previous response, you would also know that I had said that there were hundred of old reviews in relation to the venue when it was under different ownership. Go back and check the dates to see how many there are from the last 2 years, or perhaps this doesn't suit your agenda.

Honestly, ignore this poster!! Afterall they've ignored every reasonable post that doesn't agree with them!!

aquinn

We were at a Wedding here at the end of 2017 and I thought it was a beautiful venue and a great day.

I thought we would be absolutely freezing in an old castle but the heat was roasting.

Our food was very good, lamb if I remember.

The room layout isn't great for seeing the top table.

The dancing in the basement was cool and they had a little kitchen and dining room off or for others to eat and relax if they wanted.

I really enjoyed the day as a guest but from a Bridal point of view I would also be concerned at their lack of help and understanding.

susb

aquinn wrote: »

We were at a Wedding here at the end of 2017 and I thought it was a beautiful venue and a great day.

I thought we would be absolutely freezing in an old castle but the heat was roasting.

Our food was very good, lamb if I remember.

The room layout isn't great for seeing the top table.

The dancing in the basement was cool and they had a little kitchen and dining room off or for others to eat and relax if they wanted.

I really enjoyed the day as a guest but from a Bridal point of view I would also be concerned at their lack of help and understanding.

You're a star aquinn, thank you so much for sharing.
I have heard good things on the lamb alright so that is great to hear.

Really appreciate the feedback and glad to hear that as a guest, you enjoyed it as that's the main thing for us!

aquinn

susb wrote: »

You're a star aquinn, thank you so much for sharing.
I have heard good things on the lamb alright so that is great to hear.

Really appreciate the feedback and glad to hear that as a guest, you enjoyed it as that's the main thing for us!

Oh a pleasure.

I forgot to add we didn't stay at the venue but in the town. They had busses organized from one hotel to the other and that's how we got home too. If I can name the hotel I will or PM to ask.