The Lake House — Attraction in Pickering

If I could give this place 0 stars, I would. Chad Hollngsworth (General Manager) is the person who people deal with to book events. He was the most unprofessional, disorganised person I have ever met in the event planning industry. He did not show up for our appointment with him, which he had specifically made in the morning, and we when we asked if he had anything available for a later time, he said "we have an event all day, so it will have to be 10 am or another day. We showed up at 9:50, waited until 10:15 outside the doors. Knocked, called, emailed, nothing. The chef finally showed up at 10:35 and tried calling him but said "he doesn't carry his cell phone around because he doesn't believe in them". (Who the heck is in EVENT PLANNING and doesn't carry around a cell to be contacted in case of emergency, etc??!) We left and the chef called back half an hour later saying "he's here, you can come back to meet him". He got the chef to phone, because he did not want to do it himself. We went back because it really is a beautiful venue, and we were running out of options for this bridal shower. When we got there, he was dressed completely inappropriately, in stained clothing and sweats (for meeting a client, this is not how you should present yourself!) and was NOT apologetic at all. Said he had us down for a different time, when I had confirmed with him on the phone that is was 10 am on the Sunday. Did not shake our hands upon meeting, nothing. Then he proceeded to tell us outrageous room rental fees for the shower, saying the room we wanted was $1500 to rent for those 3-4 hours. This was unacceptable, as we had the paper in our hands which Paul Shannon had emailed to us quoting the room at $345. We don't know why he would lie like that. And if he thought that was the price, he had NO IDEA of how anything works at the Lakehouse. I would NEVER have an event here after this experience. Absolutely disgusting and I will be telling everyone I know of this experience, so that they don't waste their time the way we did. Lakehouse, get it together behind the scenes!!! Or else we won't be the only clients that turn away and find somewhere else to host our important...

Buyer Beware: I want to begin by saying this venue is very nice and we thought it would be an excellent place to hold our small wedding. With met with Paul the first week of July. One of the many things we discussed was the pandemic, and potentially needing to cancel. At no time ( by his own admittance) did he inform us of his refund policy. We were told that after the food was ordered in February ( 4 months before our June 2021 date), the final payment was due and once we reached that point it was non refundable.

We were asked to place a $2500.00 dollar deposit to " RESERVE THAT DAY" via interact transfer when we decided.

So we left to discuss our options. We signed nothing.

A couple days later we reserved the date. Sent the transfer. There was no mention of any refund policy. He sent a receipt we did not look at as we already had the interact receipt. We would have it all documented on our contract, so I believed. A contract was never sent to sign.

Due to the pandemic and our family dynamic (many have high risk factors), and the scientist telling us we will not be back to normal until 2022, we decided to cancel that date all together.

We contacted Paul and gave him 9 months notice of vacating the date and requested our deposit back.

At first he said no we have a no refund policy. I replied and informed him I am a recently retired business owner and am well aware of the laws concerning contracts and refund policies. I had to push him to the brink of small claims court, before he realized he was wrong. Instead of admitting his mistake he returned 1935.00 dollars of the 2500. Keeping the rest as an admin fee.

Get everything in writing from this man before you give him one...

Where to begin!?

From the very beginning, Paul and Chad have been nothing but amazing. They were super attentive to our needs and our billions of inquiries, always paying special attention to the fine details and getting back to us super promptly. We had been planning our wedding for a long time and we were initially to get married in August, however, due to my father's declining health, we had to push our wedding up to April 8th. Paul and Chad were so eager and willing to assist and accommodated for us without hesitation, even though this decision was made on such short notice.

There was so shortage of good food, drinks and desserts. We had several guests that fasted and they were incredibly helpful with arranging when meals would be served - and the food was AMAZING. Make sure you go to the tasting. They have so many great items to pick from- And they have halal options!

Moreover, the space was beautiful on top of it being in such a beautiful location - The water, boats, swans and breathtaking sunsets provide some gorgeous views. I'm hoping to update this review later on to provide some gorgeous pictures that were taken because words cannot do it justice! We truly ate, drank and laughed the whole entire night. Everyone had such a smile on their face. Overall, I'm so thrilled with how our special day turned out!!! It was literally our dream wedding.

Unfortunately, my dad passed away just a 2 short weeks later but I'm so thankful he was able to walk me down the aisle and enjoy such a special time. I'll treasure those memories forever.

Thank you Paul, Chad and the staff at the Lake House for an...