Whilst the venue itself was so unique and the setting was everything we wanted, the service we received from Trafalgar left us disappointed on our wedding day.
Most issues stemmed from and were attributable to the Events Manager (initials YL). She was disinterested in us as clients throughout the planning process and on the wedding day itself. Her lack of preparedness and poor management of the day caused a multitude of errors – most of which were basic. We provided a detailed breakdown of our table plan, with guest names and dietary requirements weeks before the wedding. No issues or concerns were raised to us and so we thought we could trust the Events Manager to handle the food service without issue.
The Events Manager confirmed she was at the pass during the meal service so the following issues all took place under her watch:
- Meat dishes were served to the table of vegans, vegetarians and Jains. A guest had to ask for it to be taken away. This caused particular offence to guests on the table, and I personally felt very embarrassed and offended. It’s culturally unacceptable in my family and therefore, reflected extremely badly on us as a couple. We happened to see this instance happen ourselves and I had to stop eating, get up and intervene myself to ask the wait staff to please check the table plan provided.
- Event staff on the day were not properly briefed or prepared. This meant food was served late, in a very disjointed manner with very long gaps in between – the sides were served first and then nothing else for 10 minutes which meant they went cold. The pork came out so late it went to waste.
- Waiters didn’t know what they were serving and couldn’t answer basic questions from guests e.g. is this dish vegetarian. One waiter was serving green beans and telling the guests it was spinach…
- One table was only provided 1 of the 4 desserts – when guests asked why, the waiter said he was told by the bride not to give them any desserts apart from fruit. This never happened – I couldn’t believe it when a guest told me this.
- Serving spoons were not provided when dishes were being served so guests had to use their dessert spoons which meant they didn’t have cutlery when dessert was served. There was not enough cutlery on hand for all the guests.
- The mains were not cleared away before dessert was served so it was very messy and chaotic on the tables.
- We paid for tea and coffee for 100 guests and they staff put out 25 cups…
To add insult to injury, we negotiated a partial refund from the Events Manager due to the really poor service we received. It took an entire month for the money to actually reach our account – we were told it had been processed and would take X days, I would have to chase because we still hadn’t received it. In fact, I had to chase 3 times and in the end, the Events Manager ghosted us. The only reason I got the refund after a month was because I called the venue and spoke to someone helpful who actioned the refund and sent proof of payment within 24 hours. It was that simple but the Events Manager could not be any less concerned with correcting her wrongs.
I asked for the contact email address of the manager at the venue so I can share my feedback and was ignored so I’ve resorted to posting my feedback on a public form so other brides and grooms are aware of the venue’s shortcomings.
My advice would be if you are going to choose this venue for a very important day in your life – do not leave it solely in the hands of the Events Manager/staff at venue. Our day would have been much worse if we hadn’t hired an independent on-the-day wedding coordinator. She really saved the day in many instances but unfortunately when it came to the food service which was entirely in the hands of the Event Manager, we as the bride and groom and our guests were poorly serviced.
We spent a considerable amount of money at this venue and would have expected a far better service than we received pre, during, and post wedding.