Our wedding: The worst “best day” of our lives.
We booked our wedding at Beaver Creek Resort near Bancroft, Ontario (Canada) thinking we had found a diamond in the rough. It is indeed a diamond but it is very rough. Our guests, the setting and some of the on-site staff provided the best experiences, the management provided the worst.
The Good.
The location is beautiful, the place is new and clean with a beautiful dining room and accommodations (albeit with very thin walls). The on-site staff seemed prepared to work very hard on our behalf.
Most of our guests had a wonderful time in this setting as many of them were from overseas and found the beauty of Ontario in the fall to be breathtaking.
The really not so good.
We had booked this resort with high hopes, had great meetings with the staff and we were promised that every small detail we asked for would happen, but that all changed. In the final 30 days leading up to the wedding our documented but non-contracted food pricing went up (for extra non reception meals), never before discussed or documented charges were added (5 days before the wedding) and, as our main contact – their much reviewed Chef Michael – left abruptly a month before the wedding, our reception dinner menu was simplified from the highly gourmet fare we’d tasted months earlier down to basic reception food.
Regardless of why or how the changes were made, the big problem for us was that this happened within our contractual final 30-day no cancel period and we were told to take it or leave it despite our passionate objections to the changes and – most especially – the timing.
We were ridiculed and insulted for trying to stand up for ourselves and for the fact that they had represented themselves one way to get our money and when it was too late to change venues told us we were getting something else entirely. One thing we learned the hard way with these people… get EVERYTHING in writing and get it SIGNED. Verbal promises from now absent staff members were thrown out or ignored.
We had the resort to ourselves so had been promised a fully nut-free event due to severe allergies. During the wedding weekend, however, we found nuts in desserts and breakfast pastries and peanut butter was placed on the breakfast tables. To date, resort management has neither apologised for nor even acknowledged this potentially fatal mistake. This was inexcusable.
We also put up with late starting meals and very slow service for our 60+ guests, especially the hungry kids who had to wait nearly 3 hours for chicken nuggets from the kid’s menu, despite our asking that they be served first.
Then management approached me at 11:15 pm on the wedding day, just after the first dance – and told me that we’d have to end the reception at midnight unless we wanted to be charged more (they eventually “gave” us until 1:30 and ironically some of my guests stayed to help staff clean up).
Finally, to end a stressful weekend wedding on an even worse note, Check in and check out was disorganised and some of our guests were overcharged. They did refund them but only after I intervened and helped the front desk staff do the proper math. We later discovered that even more of our guests were also ‘accidentally’ overcharged and asked for these refunds as well. We did obtain the refunds a month later but only after many emails and calls.
So, despite a mostly successful weekend in a beautiful location, the entire experience of dealing with this resort’s management to plan our wedding was difficult, unpleasant and upsetting. These people do not understand customer service and have no interest in repeat business. They took the joy and anticipation out of our wedding in pursuit of our money.
We will not go back, and considering we were married there… that’s most upsetting of all.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
How sad that you went through all that on for your wedding. I’ve had so many people tell me after that ’special day’ that they wished they would have eloped and not bothered with all the expense. It all ended so quickly. It’s a shame the resort wasn’t a bit better in dealing with last minute changes on your end. Good luck in your future!!!
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 am
Hi David,
The Hamilton Spec passed your blog along. All I can say is UNBELIEVABLE! I’m glad together with your family and friends you were able to make the best out of a very challenging and frustrating situation. After reading your blog, my friends and I are now thankful for our mysterious double booking with Beaver Creek. It is the wedding that took our booking that our thoughts and prayers go out to! We too found Beaver Creek “impossible” to deal with. Lots of promises with zero follow through! Todate we are still fighting to get all of our downpayments returned & its been almost 3mths since we were told our booking would not be honoured – even getting them to admit that was like pulling teeth. I wish you and your wife all the best.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:24 am
Hi Lisa
I find it so sad that a place as beautiful as that could be run with so little care for customer retention.
Our wedding stress was overwhelming before and after, especially dealing with the embarrassment of having to go after money they owed our guests who had returned overseas. I am happy they at least did pay us back but it was not without many phone calls and emails.
I hope they do the right thing for you as well. The fact that you and others I’ve found on Trip Advisor are saying they had similar experiences tells me I was right to be upset with them and the ridicule they heaped on us for our stress and worry was just cruel. They often told me I was the problem but they never earned our trust nor even tried. They have no training in customer service and for a resort that just makes me scratch my head in disbelief.
Good Luck to you!
David
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Hi David
Just a side note, with our original booking (April 2008) Beaver Creek charged our downpayments through another company causing one of the ladies to cancel her credit card, their response was to contact her by phone and tare a strip off her. They blamed her for causing trouble with Visa. No apologies for not notifying her of how the charge would be made. We should have know then it was not going to go well. What type of business contacts a cutomer and yells at them. Again all I can say is unbelievable! I will check out Trip Advisor. I was feeling guilty about sharing my story but now I’m glad I did.
Take care.
February 1st, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Final Note to close this topic. Beaver Creek Resort has been forced by the bank to close its doors in the summer of 2009. Unfortunately in their last year of business many other couples planning weddings there were taken advantage of even more than we were and never even got their wedding (according to Trip Advisor Reviews). Good Riddance to them, I am glad no more people are going to be ripped off.