Hello, All
I'd be grateful for a sanity check and some advice! So I got married in the early summer, and had a great day, but there were some issues with the venue, mainly after the event. Ours was a mostly DIY wedding, and we created the cake table ourselves, supplying everything. We sent the venue a picture of the stands and plates laid out so they could recreate it. They did- all fine. My husband and I were the last people to leave the venue, leaving three staff members clearing up. We'd boxed up the remainder of the cake and (against the advice of my Mum..!) decided to leave the cake table stuff to the venue to sort out. I was exhausted and left everything to be cleaned and put in the storage room, along with the table centres and other items we had brought. The duty manager had showed me the area where our items were being stored, and I trusted them.
We collected our stuff the following day, and out of the dessert table items, only the large cake stands were there. We were missing two very nice patterned plates, two vintage silver cake servers, two lots of flat-packed cake boxes, and a cupcake stand. Several emails later, the cupcake stand was found, but not the rest. Annoying, as they were useful and would have been nice mementos of our wedding, although they were not particularly expensive items. I didn't know what to think. We put a lot of work and thought into everything we did, and the items we chose.
There were a few minor(ish) hiccups on the day- for example, we had three very short, numbered playlists for before and after the ceremony. My husband met the venue manager on the morning of the wedding, to explain them, but she seemed rushed and quickly assured him that it was all clear. He had a feeling that he was being 'hurried away'. The music player ended up being mostly un-manned, resulting in us signing the register in silence, and walking out to to the same slow piano track we walked down the aisle to, whereas we had chosen something fun and lively to break the tension. I was a bit disappointed at the time, but it wasn't a disaster.
I eventually watched video footage of the wedding lunch (it's the only footage we have). It turned out that we'd accidentally left the camera running during the room clearance for the evening reception. I noticed some of the office staff had come up to the hall and didn't seem to be involved in the clearance- they were chatting and looking at the dessert table- all fine. Then I noticed at least one of them wandering around, eating one of the cupcakes from the display, and the venue manager didn't bat an eyelid. I showed my partner, who was a bit shocked, but we ruefully agreed that this sort of thing must happen all the time. The main thing is a) they didn't ask beforehand, or tell me b) I had asked specifically for any leftover desserts to be offered to the evening guests.
I was a laid back, but organised bride- far from a bridezilla. I would have been more than happy to share some of the dessert with the staff, if they had asked me. I feel a bit let down, but I was reluctant to complain to the company who owns the venue, because I didn't want to burn those bridges, and on the whole the venue had done a good job. I didn't expect the day to go perfectly- I used to work in conferencing, so I know the nature of these events. However, all the faff and slow replies from the venue regarding the missing items somewhat spoiled the post wedding period for us both, and seeing the staff eating our cake added insult to injury! Am I just being silly?! I've heard many worse horror stories and feel awful for the couples involved- my issues feel very small (although irritating) in comparison.....