Not what we Expected

Our experience with God's Gift Events was incredibly disappointing. During the planning stage, we were initially promised the moon and stars by Caro, who assured us that this venue would be worth the hefty price tag. However, communication quickly deteriorated. The bride was not allowed to see the room where she would be getting dressed, only shown photos, and on the day you are basically restricted to the bridal suite because the outside was not properly equipped. We were also promised a dedicated wedding planner/coordinator who, despite Caro’s reassurances, never made any contact with us and only appeared—not dressed according to our wedding`s dress code—on the day of the wedding. Despite being told that our questions would be welcome, Caro ignored many of the bride’s messages in the months leading up to the wedding, sometimes for days at a time. Only two days before the wedding, Caro informed the bride that the décor needed to be delivered, then blamed her for being “late,” even though no such instructions were given earlier. When we brought the décor as requested, Caro sent an assistant to meet us, who confirmed everything we had discussed. Yet, that evening, Caro suddenly had more issues with our plans and refused to accommodate what had already been agreed upon. On the day of the wedding, things only got worse. Caro decided, without consulting us, to put yellow flowers on our tables—something the bride never requested. The rust-colored table runners we had specifically discussed were completely missing. The remembrance table, which was extremely important to me, was poorly arranged on the smallest table available and shoved to the side, completely disregarding our wishes. I wasn’t even able to have the flowers I had paid extra for, because Caro failed to communicate properly, wasting both my money and my time. The package we paid for included ten roses per table and sherry for the guests, but neither of these were provided, with no explanation and no refund. The bathrooms were filthy, with used toilet paper everywhere, dirty floors, and toilets that didn’t flush, forcing my guests and the groom’s party to deal with disgusting conditions. The driver provided to take guests to the bathroom was asleep and unfriendly, leading many guests to walk instead.The wedding coordinator/planner was nowhere to be found, and I had to constantly ask if anyone would be handling the timeline of the event. The waitstaff were dressed unprofessionally and even took drinks from guests while they were still consuming them. To top it off, the venue staff began cleaning up before the agreed time, turning off the music and leaning over my guests to clear the tables. Even worse, they packed up all my décor and accused me of *****ing items, despite the fact that Caro herself had packed everything into my car. My décor was treated with complete disrespect, with broken candles and items carelessly tossed into boxes. After the wedding, our frustrations continued. To this day, Caro has not provided legitimate receipts to justify the absurd deductions from our deposit. She accused our guests of *****ing a sign from the bridal table but has never provided an invoice showing the replacement cost. When we inquired about the corkage fees we were charged for unused wine, we were told to send a photo with a date and time stamp of the leftover wine (which we did as we still had all the wine in a box)—this turned into an unreasonable and unrealistic request given that Caro had made no mention of this requirement beforehand and we were unaware that the photo`s time and date stamp she was referring to was supposed to have been on the day of the wedding. Now, she ignores our follow-up WhatsApp messages, refusing to communicate and leaving us with no resolution. This experience started fine but turned into a nightmare, and I urge future brides to get everything in writing and to read all Annexures, and be very careful when they start clearing the venue after the function.