Disappointing 60th Birthday Experience at The Garden Venue

We recently hosted a 60th birthday celebration at The Garden Venue, and sadly, the experience was far from what we expected, especially given the amount we paid for 30 guests.

Our original event coordinator, Suku, had been handling the arrangements but left the business before our event. Unfortunately, the new coordinator, Litha, was never properly briefed on our requirements. He tried his best to manage, but the lack of preparation showed, and the event simply didn’t come together as planned.

Upon arrival, we were immediately disappointed. The décor was not what we had agreed upon, the Tiffany chairs were dirty, and the umbrellas were broken , one was even being held up by bricks, which looked unsafe and unprofessional.

While the food itself - particularly the meat - was good, the service and setup were unacceptable. The food warmers were unstable, and at one point, a lamp fell onto the floor. Instead of taking responsibility or helping, staff blamed us, and we had to resolve the situation ourselves. There were no serving s****s, and some salads were either missing or arrived late, even though they were included in what we paid for. When we asked, we were told the kitchen was busy, which is not an acceptable excuse for a fully paid, pre-booked event.

We also added a few extra guests last minute and paid for them in full, yet no one mentioned that the venue did not have sufficient resources to accommodate them properly. If the venue knew they couldn’t handle the additions, they should have been transparent - why take the money if you can’t deliver the same standard of service and setup?

To make things worse, there were no waiters present, even though waiter service and tips were already included in our invoice. Guests had to fetch their own water and drinks, and the food service was delayed and off schedule.

While Litha did step in to help at certain points, he was largely unavailable during key moments, and it was clear that he was unprepared due to the lack of handover from Suku.

For future outdoor events, The Garden Venue should consider using stretch tents instead of umbrellas, as the broken umbrellas looked tacky and even caused one of our guests to trip, especially given the limited space.

We were later offered a complimentary tab as an apology, but honestly, that did not make up for the frustration, disappointment, and embarrassment of the day.

In summary: Beautiful venue, but poor execution, lack of communication, and disorganized service completely ruined what should have been a special milestone celebration.