I was in my cousin's wedding at this location. The venue is pretty and not too far away from the main strip. When we first met with Erin, she was so friendly and talkative and just an all around sweet lady. She made us feel at ease and made it seem as though she would be there for my cousin at every step of the way. I can't speak for my cousin, because frankly I didn't ask her any questions for fear of stressing the girl out more than she already was.
What I did witness was the following:
1. The night of the rehearsal, Erin told one of the groomsmen to, "shut up", and when another person in the wedding party raised his hand to ask a question, Erin dismissed him in a rude way (something like "I know you're not asking questions right now") and went on with giving directions. She wasn't the same friendly person we had met a few months back (before she had my cousin's money apparently). I am a teacher, so I understand when you are trying to convey your message and the children are talking or not paying attention. In this case though, she was dealing with adults and to be honest, the talking wasn't out of hand. A simple, "can I get your attention", would have sufficed.
2. The food was not bad tasting, but it was cold. I saw some guests request their food be microwaved.
3. At the end of the night, about 50 or so guests were stranded at the venue with no way of getting to their respective hotels. Erin and her staff assured us that they had already called a cab company (ACE I believe) and that they were just not showing up. Now, I understand that another company's practices are not under A Secret Garden's control, but what WAS under Erin and her staff's control was building a rapport with a cab company and making sure your guests weren't stranded out in the cold, outside your venue, for about an hour, waiting for cabs. The girl in charge at the end of the night (because Erin was nowhere to be found) was actually nice and came out when there were about 10 of us left, saying that she was calling cab companies and etc. but by then it was too little too late. We had taken it upon ourselves to calling our own cabs.
4. This last one is hard because I really don't know the details so I will go by what I witnessed: at the end of the night of the rehearsal, my cousin (the bride), my uncle (father of the bride) and Erin all sat down together in a room with windows so that all of the wedding party could see but not hear, but it was apparent they were going through the contract. I never asked my cousin what that meeting was about, (because I did not want to embarrass her) so it would be unfair of me to speculate. I did hear my aunt (mother of the bride) make a request for prayer so that " everything would turn out alright because some additional fees had come up".
This last part could have been my cousin's fault for not reading the "fine print" and I am certain that nothing illegal happened, but I just want to include it in this review in hopes that if something similar happened to someone else, they can speak up. If this is the way A Secret Garden works, we will hear from others, because, well this is what Yelp is all about, in hopes that we can save someone else a headache.
Last note: We were stoked about the "Open Bar", and wondered how they could make any money by doing that (especially with our family), we quickly found out how they were able to do that. They have ONE, extremely, slow, very nice, older lady as bartender! She had a line of about 10-15 people at all times. I personally stood in that line for about 20 minutes to get my drinks. The good part about that was that she allowed you to order more than one drink and she was really nice. The DJ was very nice and good at his job as well. I can't remember his name, but he was a young black guy. Very professional and seemed to be enjoying himself.
All in all, it was a nice wedding because we were surrounded with those we love, we are a resilient family, and we know how to have fun!