Ugh! Events Director at our location

[robbie3982]

I love the location of our ceremony and reception, but I''m not so thrilled with the events director. She just doesn''t seem to have it all together.

She told me in September that she would handle our chair cover rentals. I''d found a really great rental place and sent her the information because they were cheaper than the place that they normally use. When I still hadn''t heard anything about it after an email I sent in October, I sent her another this week. She finally responded that she''s working on it.

In the same email I asked about setting up a tasting. We''re going to have different choices at our sit down meal and she requested that we ask what guests will be having on the invitations. Obviously we need to do this before invites can be ordered then. She didn''t respond to the question at all so I sent another email to which she responded that we get to pick 2 things to taste. Uh...if we''re having 2 choices for guests why would we only get to taste 2 things??? That doesn''t even make sense! GRRRR

 

[akw94]

Is there someone else you can deal with? Can you tell her that tasting 2 items just isn''t enough and then give her a list of items you want to taste?
Sorry!!

 

[cara]

I did 4 tastings, with each company we only tasted two entrees even though we (like you) were planning to offer a choice of two the the guests. We asked about it, and were told something like "well we want to show you what the whole plate will look like with presentation and all, not just a small bite." The implication being we''d have to pay more if we wanted to taste more options.

In some cases, we liked one entree more than the other and if we had gone with that company might have changed one of them to another entree. Preferably with another tasting.

I know it doesn''t make sense - I care more about taste than presentation - but in my experience it was standard to only give you two entrees to taste.

 

[allycat0303]

Robbie,

Oh my guy's sister had the event coordinator from HELL! Let's just say that during the reception. DURING. Right before the toast, she went to the bride and demanded 2000$ extra to keep the bar open until the end of the party. Imagine, my guy's father had to put it on the credit card and the bride gave her ZERO tip and wrote a scathing letter to the reception venue (the event planner was fired by the way). But she felt that her wedding was ruined. There had been lots of signs beforehand, but she let it go. I think you should talk to the person above her, manager etc., tell then you are not satisfied with the event coordinator and list all the reasons. Sometimes early warning signs are a preview of what is to come! Places I've been to for tasting let the bride taste all of the options she was considering, usually 4-5 choices. If you are serving 2 and they let you taste 2, doesn't that basically mean "you take what we give you?" it makes no sense to me either!

 

[robbie3982]

I think I might have to have my dad call. My parents seem to be the ones that she pays attention to since they''re paying. The place actually caught on fire a few weeks after we booked it. I left frantic voicemails and emails to find out what was going on. She never called me back. She called my mom back. Said she couldn''t find my number. Uh... I left it with every voicemail and my email was obviously included in my emails...I have a bad feeling about her, but I don''t know what to do! She''s the Events Director. I don''t even know who would be above her! Plus, the place isn''t so big that they have tons of events people. There might only be one other person, and what if there''s not? What if I complain and then she gets pissed off and it makes everything worse?

 

[Pandora II]

I do a lot of tastings for my job - lucky me!

The last major event I did, they sent me a list of 9 starters, 27 (!!!) main courses and 8 puddings.

I chose 3 starters, 4 mains and 3 puddings to taste. I usually take 2 other people with me. They serve one of each dish so we can see the visual effect of the dish, then we have a plate each and we divide them all up between us.

I must have done tastings at 15-20 5 star hotels over London and it is always the same.

Just tell them that you don''t want a whole one of each dish for each person tasting (you''d be stuffed so full if you did anyway!) but you do want to taste more options. It doesn''t cost them much and you are spending a lot of $$ with them in the end.