B Wasef
Google
Two stars because if we were to book our wedding venue again, we would NOT rebook at Columbia Collective. For the simple reasons of:
1. terrible communication. With us and with one another. One coordinator says one thing and then the next coordinator says something that contradicts (things that really effect your planning). for ex: the NIGHT before the wedding we got an email from the manager Shery asking us to tell her our rain contingency plan by SIX AM the morning of our wedding otherwise they would choose for us... even though we had JUST rehearsed the contingency plan with the coordinator that day. Also what if we weren't awake from 11:30pm to 6 am - that is a wild window to expect someone to respond...
2. poor follow-thru and follow-up. For ex: we were told when touring that there would be so many flowers planted near the grand lawn and a LUSCIOUS trellis with white flowers in it. 1 month before the wedding, after prompting (because they had dead flowers in the ceremony space), they fixed the flowers around the outdoor ceremony space and Bret (the VP of Landmark) promised that the trellis connecting the grand lawn to the outdoors cocktail space (which had literally 2 vines growing on it, NOT luscious) would have flowers & greens put on the day of the wedding. The day of the wedding came and there was no changes made to that trellis that morning as promised. Bret did not say that fixing the trellis was weather dependent. He said it would be fixed morning of the wedding. We took several pics outside during times when it was not raining and that trellis was no longer a photo opportunity. Again, just not following through on promises made.
3. Lack of attention to detail. We had 130 guests, the indoor cocktail space had 3 tables interspersed around the room; poor planning for large numbers of guests. We (bride/groom) did not get served bread or butter and then were served salad after we were halfway through our meal. We are glad that our guests got to try all the food - but we did not. They kindly got drapes to cover the room divider in the ballroom but the drapes were wrinkled from being folded and only steamed like 2 hours before the event and we had to ASK for it to be steamed. Next, for a group that requires an $18K minumum food/drink, they had some inexperienced bartenders who didn't know how to make some of their classic drinks (for a French 75, the bartender started pouring bourbon...and then insisted that is what a French 75 is with one of our guests). They ran out of ingredients so the drinks were made inconsistently throughout the night. They also ran out of proper glassware so caiprinhas were served in wine glasses. There was no soap in the upstairs women’s bathroom. It did not feel like we were getting the type of service for the money that was spent.
4. wasting time. The way that they conduct their food tastings for Herban Feast (which is required to use) is a huge waste of time. They have you choose 2 items from each category to try during your tasting and then if you don't like one of the 2 items you have to come back to try something else. Our interpretation of a tasting is that you have a taste of all items from each category and then you choose what you want on your menu from there. ONE TIME.
We do have expectations for quality.
The day itself was a nice day & food was yummy & Larissa our coordinator did a nice job setting things up and everything went very smoothly. But not worth the year long headache.
So, just save yourself the headache and try a different venue! I had 2 friends getting married around the same time as me and one of them booked outside of Landmark and had an excellent and relatively smooth experience & the another also booked with Columbia Collective and shared my grievances and headache.
