Sarah-Jane J. Sent on 21/01/2023
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Quality of the service
1.0 out of 5 rating
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Response time
2.0 out of 5 rating
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Professionalism
2.0 out of 5 rating
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Value for money
2.0 out of 5 rating
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Flexibility
2.0 out of 5 rating
Please be aware!
*Please note that after months of back and forth with the venue, we received some compensation for the issues that we experienced*
Our wedding took place in August 2022, and after some careful thought, we think it is right that we leave a review of our big day at Harrild & Sons so that no other couples go through the same disappointment and frustration that we experienced.
We selected H&S due to their brilliant online reviews, so when it was announced that the venue changed hands at the start of 2022, we had immediate concerns that we would not receive the amazing pub wedding we envisaged. It turned out that we were correct to have these concerns, and unfortunately for us they really showed through on our big day.
Although our initial agreement with the venue was honoured, due to staff changes and miss communication, we did not receive the same top tier management that other reviewers of this venue have reported. We were assigned a wedding manager which made us feel at ease, but it seemed that all our conversations reading up to the day were pointless.
The errors during our day are plentiful, with the major errors listed as follows -
- No experienced wedding manager present on the day. I hadn’t met the person that was assigned on the day before and they had clearly not managed many/any weddings previously.
- Our welcome drinks were not served to guests, instead, a bottle of gin, bucket of ice and some tonic bottles were placed at the back of the room. Guests bought their own drinks instead.
- Staff did not know about our £2k bar tab and charged drinks to guests until we realised what was happening. They also did not put out the sign we had made to alert guests on which drinks were on the tab.
- Our wedding cake was not served to guests and we took it all home with us. Complete waste of money.
- During our initial meeting we were told that fairy lights were wrapped around the pillars for all weddings, but these were not done. We found out after the fact that it was for us to sort ourselves but this was never communicated.
- Selected wine from our tasting was not available on the day, I had to taste and select wines when I arrived at my wedding.
- Food was completely different in quality than we tried at the tasting. The beef (that nearly everyone had) was tough and had not been cooked for long enough. It was hugely embarrassing as we had raved to guests about how good the beef dish was.
- When we requested to see the itemised receipt against our tab, we found that many drinks had been costed wrong, it was completely inaccurate towards the charges/services agreed.
- Security agreed for the night did not turn up and random punters came in several times during the night.
- Doombar was ordered in specifically for the father of the groom, but it was not available even after double checking it would be two days prior to the wedding.
- Camden Hells was off after 2.5hrs of us being at the venue.
- Wrong table plan was used.
I hope no one experiences this level of issues during their wedding.
We were expecting a couple of things to go wrong, but never anything to this scale. It honestly felt like staff hadn’t handled a wedding before.
Thankfully during the day we were in such a giddy, overwhelmingly happy state of mind, we forced all of these issues away from affecting our experience at the time. However, upon reflection, we feel hurt and hugely disappointed, especially that we had to fight so hard to receive any goodwill and decent customer service from the venue.
After two months of back and forth with management we received some compensation which has helped ease a bit of bad feeling, but I hope making others aware of our experience will give some further closure.
Thank you for reading, and if you’re looking to book with H&S, please make sure that none of these errors happen to you.
*Please note that after months of back and forth with the venue, we received some compensation for the issues that we experienced*
Our wedding took place in August 2022, and after some careful thought, we think it is right that we leave a review of our big day at Harrild & Sons so that no other couples go through the same disappointment and frustration that we experienced.
We selected H&S due to their brilliant online reviews, so when it was announced that the venue changed hands at the start of 2022, we had immediate concerns that we would not receive the amazing pub wedding we envisaged. It turned out that we were correct to have these concerns, and unfortunately for us they really showed through on our big day.
Although our initial agreement with the venue was honoured, due to staff changes and miss communication, we did not receive the same top tier management that other reviewers of this venue have reported. We were assigned a wedding manager which made us feel at ease, but it seemed that all our conversations reading up to the day were pointless.
The errors during our day are plentiful, with the major errors listed as follows -
- No experienced wedding manager present on the day. I hadn’t met the person that was assigned on the day before and they had clearly not managed many/any weddings previously.
- Our welcome drinks were not served to guests, instead, a bottle of gin, bucket of ice and some tonic bottles were placed at the back of the room. Guests bought their own drinks instead.
- Staff did not know about our £2k bar tab and charged drinks to guests until we realised what was happening. They also did not put out the sign we had made to alert guests on which drinks were on the tab.
- Our wedding cake was not served to guests and we took it all home with us. Complete waste of money.
- During our initial meeting we were told that fairy lights were wrapped around the pillars for all weddings, but these were not done. We found out after the fact that it was for us to sort ourselves but this was never communicated.
- Selected wine from our tasting was not available on the day, I had to taste and select wines when I arrived at my wedding.
- Food was completely different in quality than we tried at the tasting. The beef (that nearly everyone had) was tough and had not been cooked for long enough. It was hugely embarrassing as we had raved to guests about how good the beef dish was.
- When we requested to see the itemised receipt against our tab, we found that many drinks had been costed wrong, it was completely inaccurate towards the charges/services agreed.
- Security agreed for the night did not turn up and random punters came in several times during the night.
- Doombar was ordered in specifically for the father of the groom, but it was not available even after double checking it would be two days prior to the wedding.
- Camden Hells was off after 2.5hrs of us being at the venue.
- Wrong table plan was used.
I hope no one experiences this level of issues during their wedding.
We were expecting a couple of things to go wrong, but never anything to this scale. It honestly felt like staff hadn’t handled a wedding before.
Thankfully during the day we were in such a giddy, overwhelmingly happy state of mind, we forced all of these issues away from affecting our experience at the time. However, upon reflection, we feel hurt and hugely disappointed, especially that we had to fight so hard to receive any goodwill and decent customer service from the venue.
After two months of back and forth with management we received some compensation which has helped ease a bit of bad feeling, but I hope making others aware of our experience will give some further closure.
Thank you for reading, and if you’re looking to book with H&S, please make sure that none of these errors happen to you.
