Crystal Gardens Event Center — Attraction in Genoa Charter Township

I recently had my wedding/reception here and have mixed feelings about Crystal Gardens. Positives: They offer all-inclusive packages which are very convenient. Through that we had DJ Kayla included (TJ Monte Productions) and she was fantastic. The sales staff was a pleasure to work with and schedule meetings with. The open air chapel is beautiful as well as the venue. A lot of guests complimented how pretty it was. The chef is great and guests raved about the food, and I personally loved my wedding cake. But, there are definitely things I feel couples & families should know before booking with Crystal Gardens: 1.) You are allowed into the venue to set up centerpieces and decorations at 10 a.m. In my case, the reception area was not set up yet & it pushed my 2 bridesmaids way behind schedule since I already live 30 minutes away. They had to wait until staff was done to head back to get ready for the wedding. 2.) You are given a dressing room that you're allowed access to 2 hours prior to the wedding.The object (or at least mine was) to show up with hair/make up ready and allow the photographer to take pictures of your bridal party dressing you. What they don't tell you (or at least didn't tell me) is that you have to have it cleaned & cleared within 2 hours of your wedding starting. Meaning, you're expected to leave your reception (dinner, entertaining, taking pictures, etc.) to clean a dressing room. Again, we weren't told this & as I was in there cleaning near the end of the night..all I had to do was take my dress off and carry belongings out. A woman with long blonde hair in the clean up crew barged in, my husband had my dress unzipped and I had to pull my dress up as I wasn't clothed underneath. She said (very rudely, I'll add) "oh, you were supposed to be out of here hours ago!" Rolled her eyes, and said "so you're at least doing it now?" I was literally in shock that she 1. didn't even apologize for walking in on the bride practically naked and 2. that I was being yelled at for a rule I was never informed about. 3.) We had issues with the audio system in the open air chapel. Our officiant's mic kept going in & out throughout ceremony and several guests told me they only heard bits and pieces of our ceremony. 4.) We had a good 30 people RSVP that didn't/couldn't be there the day of. I really wished our coordinator would have instructed guests to move up in the rows during the ceremony because guests were seated sporadically & it's not a good look for pictures. I would have much rather seen my guests as a group at the front than seated randomly. 5.) There were decisions that I was trumped on by staff. For example, I wanted my 7 year-old nephew to stand with my husband and his best man during the ceremony. He was told he wasn't allowed to stand with them and had to sit with the guests. It was irritating because that was what I wanted for my wedding and can't see what difference it would have made. 6.) When they give you a reception ending time, that does not mean you're allowed to enjoy your party until the end. They start turning lights on and tearing down the reception 15-20 minutes prior to your party ending. No sooner than I was dealing with the dressing room incident, I was being pulled into the reception and being told I had to handle a situation because another cleaning employee was being mean to my mom & bridal party! She was rudely saying "um, you were already supposed to have these centerpieces down!". They had me, my husband, bridal party, and my poor parents literally RUNNING boxes of decor out of the venue to their truck AT the ending time (on the dot). We were walked out with final possessions and decor, gate shut behind us, no more than 10 minutes after our wedding ended. They clearly have very strict expectations but nobody makes the clients aware of them until employees are being mean to you and your family. My issue is not that they have high expectations and strict rules, but I don't like that they tell you what you want to hear instead of making those...

Two days after my wedding I'm still receiving phone calls and text messages from my guests letting me know how perfect the day was. Of course I graciously accept the compliment and selfishly say it was no big deal planning every last detail. The truth is, it was not at all stressful to me because the staff at Crystal Gardens handled everything and made my wedding day their number one priority, absolutely beautiful and 100% stress free.

Let's talk about Laura in the sales office for a second, she has been dealing with me and my " wedding planning committee" for over a year. My "wedding planning committee" consists of my mother as well as my mother in law and we all know that the mothers have their own ideas of how the day should be. Laura handled each and every occasion with grace and the upmost respect for their opinions. Every email and phone call was responded to almost immediately and she always made sure that I knew I could count on her for anything I needed for the wedding. She would even email me and let me know if she was going to be away from the office for a few days and would provide me with an alternate contact if I needed anything (shout out to Kari for all her help). By far, Laura was a pleasure to work with and made my entire experience at crystal gardens amazing.

Barb, the wedding coordinator made sure everyone was on point and perfectly communicated with my wedding party about the direction of the ceremony. During the early morning hours, while I was getting ready I received a call from Terri who was in charge of setting up the reception. We made our centerpieces and provided direction on how the table tops should be arranged. Something was missing and the directions provided (by my mother in law weren't 100% clear) Terri asked me if I knew where the specific items were and asked me to call her back once I figured it out. I never called her back but she took care of it, located the items and made sure they were exactly where they needed to be.

The wedding reception went off without a hitch and if there were any other problems the team at crystal gardens took care of it without me knowing anything was wrong. All of the servers were AMAZING. Jayne took care of the sweetheart table that my husband and I were at and plated our food, made sure we had enough and did whatever we needed, with a smile! She was absolutely incredible and on top of her game. Now, I bartended for ten years and I was very concerned when I was told that we would have one bartender to take care of the entire wedding reception. I didn't want my guests to have to wait for a drink and though I didn't doubt Dan's abilities... I didn't think he would be able to keep up (no offense, Dan ... I just know that I had a bunch of drinkers in attendance and I wanted to make sure that they were all taken care of). My man! Slinging drinks faster than people could order them. Dan was great throughout the entire evening and made sure that no one ever had to wait and that I never had an empty glass.

I would 100% recommend Crystal Gardens to anyone thinking about having their wedding there. Laura, Barb, Kari, Terri, Jayne, Dan and everyone else (I wish I had your names because I'd call you out right now) that was working on Sunday 5/24/15 - you were ABSOLUTELY AMAZING and made my wedding day incredible, perfect and memorable for all the...

Being a wedding photographer for some time, I have photographed several weddings at the Crystal Gardens Howell / Brighton location, and I've always been quite pleased with the beauty of the decor, staff organization, and tasty food. This particular Crystal Gardens has a spacious, outdoor, covered ceremony site, however, does not have a full bridal suite. There is a small side room with a changing space which is not ventilated near the ceremony exit door to the outside so if you do not come to the establishment already dressed in wedding attire you may wish to bring a fan if you're using the prep room.

I've had multiple clients utilize the Southeast banquet room which is lit from the South with a small patio area with a few tables outdoors. Regarding photography, the space is moderately lit; better than most halls but not exceptionally bright in the evening so bring flash or light kits. There is sufficient space to work around the tables on the raised part of the ballroom and the dance floor is ample for both wide angle and telephoto shooting. The room is wide enough to easily accommodate long head tables in the 12-16 range or so. The only caveat with this particular ballroom is the relatively long, narrow entryway between the coat room and the DJ's raised, walled podium partition. Other than that, this is an easy space to photograph in. Around the building, the grand stairway in the foyer is tall, well-lit, and beautiful for photos and the rear hallway with the stone fireplace is also a nice spot for pictures as well. Sadly, there is not too much greenery beyond the patio areas though.

The Crystal Gardens staff has always been punctual and respectful to the wedding clients I've worked with. Dinners have always been released by table. Additional evening options seem to be available such as Pizza for weddings partying into the night.

Crystal Gardens continues to be a popular reception venue for good reason and I'd definitely...