December wedding Disaster

Why reconsider having any function at Cradle of Life? We had a nightmare of a wedding thanks to Cradle of Life.

We had our wedding at Badplaas Cradle of life, 27 December 2019.

We have visited Cradle of Life plenty times since 2017, this was a place we made our second home. When we got engaged in 2018 we knew immediately where the beauty of our union will take place. The planning phase was stressful, since we don’t live in or near Badplaas, but we got constant reassurance that everything will happen the way we have requested on countless meetings that we travelled for, I ensured every week to be in touch with Cradle of Life checking that the finer details will be handled.

This was supposed to be the most joyous day of my life, being a bride. It turned out the total opposite. I am really disappointed in Cradle of Life.

Accommodation;

My groom and his parents arrived two days before the wedding (25th Dec) and getting to the accommodation the place was not very hygienic, the bathrooms had brownish stuff on the floors, mold in some areas of the bathroom, dirty bedding but the beds were set and there was no electricity at the chalet, calling Cradle of Life management, there is loadshedding. Funny enough chalets surrounding had electricity. It started raining, as summers do in that part of South Africa, rain was falling through the chalet roof. They asked for buckets to assist the water issue which was received a few HOURS later. The electricity came on at a point close to midnight and wanting to warm some food, since my father in law, being a stroke patient and having to take meds, the microwave didn’t work, they requested a microwave eventually it came with the worker, who was drenched in rain, poor guy. After the first night being almost unbearable, hoping the second day would be better they decided to have a shower and get on with the day, to their surprise the shower could not drain the water, one literally showered in ankle deep soap ****. They eventually got to a point and moved to Ndalo Hotel who greatly assisted. This was extra costs, speaking to management of Cradle of life advising they will not be using the chalet anymore and also the other chalet that was booked for one night, this was for the Priest that traveled from Durban, we could not allow them to stay in such conditions, a refund was requested, Cradle of life said they will assist with this, as it's not fair paying for something that did not work.

Myself and my family arrived the 26th, calling Cradle of Life telling them we would arrive earlier (after 12 midday) cradle of life having one chalet available at that time of the 6 chalets we booked. We were okay with that, arriving to the chalet, beds were not yet set. We assumed the cleaners will still be coming by to set beds, that did not happen.

At around 18:00 / 19:00 the evening, the other five chalets keys were requested by the occupants. Getting there, no electricity in SOME chalets, blaming Eskom of course, dirty dishes were scattered, beds unmade, dirty bathrooms, broken windows, broken toilet seats, also broken microwaves.

There were even unsafe DB boxes this is a huge hazard for residents staying at the chalets.

Wedding;

Having to focus on the wedding preparations, we spent most of the night at the reception hall which the majority of the work was set up by myself and my family since cradle of life's personnel was moving in and out of the hall after promising to do complete setup of what we wanted, of course being an undelivered service from their side.

The morning of the wedding, myself and my mom, on our way to the hair Salon, 6:20am, I receive a phone call from the Chef that the kitchen is not yet available and will only be available in the next hour, after promised being available at 6am by cradle of life. After receiving the kitchen at 7:30am, no gas is available, and yet again an amount of R2900 was paid extra to cradle of life for gas. My fiancé, at that time, was meant to be getting ready for the wedding, had to go to a nearby supermarket to buy gas bottles. This is two hours before our wedding! I don’t see why we constantly had to give out money because of lack of execution from the venue side. This is money that should not be negotiable, Cradle of Life was supposed to provide something we paid for they did not.

I went to the reception hall at 8:30am, to ensure things are in place, on my arrival, boxes that contained some of the décor things we brought are in the walk way where guests must arrive. This is where I had a minor panic attack and just broke down, this is not what a bride should have to deal with.

We were assured on several occasions ‘you tell us what to do, we do it’, we were also assured that the setup in the reception hall will be done by Cradle of life the night before and only be opened the day of the wedding but we had to be there till after midnight, no family time, no relaxing time, I was not paid for this, I was told the day after the wedding that it is my fault as I did not have a wedding planner, when we approached Cradle of life in April 2019, I was given a wedding coordinator who promised to do everything for me. What happened to this?

Arriving at the honeymoon suite after 7:00am, as Cradle of life promised the availability it was not yet available for me, arriving again at 9:00 the cleaners were still busy cleaning while the photographer is there and the make-up person, this is unprofessionalism practiced by Cradle of life yet again.

At a point I felt to cancel the whole wedding, but something inside of me thought, ‘they would not let you down, months of planning went into this’. Arriving at the amphitheater, the wedding ceremony commenced. Fifteen minutes in the ceremony, the microphones stopped working, we looked around, asked around, load shedding was the response, I don’t understand this response as South Africa was not experiencing load shedding in this period. During planning stages, the question was asked over and over and over, ‘if we experience power-cuts what happens then?’, I was reassured over and over and over, ‘we have a generator that will kick in immediately, you need not worry your wedding will not be affected in anyway’. The electricity came on twenty minutes later. We specifically asked Cradle of life to ensure the fans that we hired are at the amphitheater for the ceremony, not one fan was in sight, we could have had serious medical implications, it was extremely hot out there, thank God this did not happen. We paid extra for juice and water to be served, we requested for ice, this was told we will get this for free, all the drinks that were served was warm, no ice was provided? I felt like an amateur, at some point it felt like no thought was put into this day. The ceremony concluded and guests moved down to the reception hall. Arriving there they sat in complete darkness, no music playing to create an atmosphere, a complete mess. Myself and my husband wanted to enter, we were told hang on, the radiator on the generator does not have water give us 20 minutes. How does this become my problem? How is this not prepared for? How is crisis being run at Cradle of life with such an important event? Half an hour later, we were given the go ahead to enter, our entrance song started and we entered, one minute into the song electricity failed yet again. This is a moment we will NEVER have back, this is a moment Cradle of Life has taken away. We continued to our table, getting there seeing our chairs specifically having no chair covers how embarrassing is this?

The wedding finished, and the evening we decided to go up to the honeymoon suite, we arrive there, no lights were working, but there seems to be power somewhere as some switches are working. But looking down from the balcony some surrounding chalets have lights. Expecting the gift basket that was promised in the wedding package. Nothing is there. We sit in complete darkness, we were hoping for the wedding basket would have eased the day’s mess.

It cost a lot of money and the execution thereof was a complete failure due to the lack of responsibility Cradle of life is took in this, as such a big business that has done plenty of big functions, crisis planning is crucial and I cannot accept the response ‘it was out of Cradle of Life’s control’. Just after our wedding we receive news there is new management and they cannot accept responsibility for previous mishaps, we made them understand we did not work with a person we worked with a business, they have been making promises to pay back our money for gas this still hasn’t happened, the accommodation money they told us will not be paid back as they don’t do reimbur*****ts on this (after promising to do this when we told them we are moving to other accommodation).

If you are looking for a perfect wedding or any function in Badplaas, I do not suggest this venue.