Central Park Place — Attraction in Grand Haven

I booked this venue in November (2016) for my October (2017) wedding. The amount of miscommunication and "nickel and diming" is absolutely ridiculous. The first instance of miscommunication was when I first called them...

When I originally called, I was told that since my sister lived in Spring Lake, she would get the local discount if she took responsibility for the event. When I called to confirm the amount she needed to pay, they told me I wasn't able to do that and that the person who said that was mistaken. Okay, no big deal, I understood. Then, they started to talk to me about the new prices for the bridal packages. I told them that they had sent me the old prices and that I wanted to make sure they would be honoring them, they said yes and that they made note of it.

In their list of guidelines, it states that one half of the rental fee is required to book the event and then the balance is due 30 days prior to the event. I had been emailing Char, the "community affairs manager" multiple questions since November and she was very prompt about answering all of them. We scheduled a meeting for 6pm, a month and a day before my wedding. This meeting is when I really realized how unorganized they are in this office.

When myself, my fiance, and my mother arrived, everything seemed fine, but then Char started asking multiple questions about our event that I had already gone over with her in previous emails. With every answer, she would say, "Are you sure you talked to me? I just don't remember talking to you about these things." I was getting pretty nervous, but I thought, no big deal, I'm sure she is very busy. Then she asked something that REALLY scared us. She said, "so this is for October 2018?"

What?? No. This was for a month away. We then had to go back to her office to confirm that they even had the opening for the day of my wedding! After we confirmed I was actually in the books, THANK GOD, Char began going over the wedding package. She mumbled to herself about the note written on my agreement, then actually asked me to pull up the email she sent to me to prove she sent the old prices to me! Once I did that, she decided to actually honor the old prices.

Char then explained to us that they now had to have an employee with us at all times that we would have to pay for, which was an hourly rate. However, since our event was so soon, she didn't know that she would have someone hired by that time. In that case, we would have to call an employee to come work the lights for us, but not to worry, they should be at the center withing 5-10 minutes. Uhh...great. In all actuality, the city worker was the only bright spot in this situation, super nice guy.

We were then talking about our caterer... We decided to have a pizza buffet brought in and Char told us that since they were not a normal caterer who wouldn't need the kitchen, that we didn't have to pay the $200 catering fee... Great! ...but then I reminded her that I emailed her and asked if we could use the fridge to store milk for our milk and cookies dessert bar. Yup, you guessed it! We had to pay $200 to STORE MILK.

No... it doesn't stop there. You also have to pay $50 to use the space for rehearsal, as well as "extra chairs" if you choose to have your ceremony inside. ($1 per chair) After going over the details and finalizing everything, Char sent me home with the amenities sheet to decide what I wanted/needed and told me that Val Duby would be in contact with me to get the last of the details.

It was the last thing that about made me lose my mind... Char told my fiance and I that we couldn't move ceiling tiles, but could use magnets to hang things from the metal frames, such a great idea! After the wedding, my sister told me that Char told her that they don't actually like when people do this, but would let it slide this time.

Don't worry Char, we will never be back.

Unfortunately, I'm not even able to put all the frustrating details of my interactions with Char and Val due to character limitations. Be careful,...

I booked a wedding package through the community center and while our big day went fine it was not without headache in the planning thanks to this venue. When we booked and signed a contract, we were told a price for the wedding package, but then once we were ready to pay the deposit, the price changed because of the city upping the prices on weddings occurring after a certain date. To me, it should have been weddings booked after a certain date, but we paid the higher deposit and booked anyway. Second, one of the women in the office was not very nice to talk to on the phone. She was very matter-of-fact about the many many rules of the venue and not helpful in trying to figure all of them out.

Beware that this venue is very much in support of local business (which I think is awesome if they would just say it outright instead of making a bunch of rules that make it practically impossible to hire anyone else).

Another problem was that about a month prior to the wedding we were notified that we would have to pay for an on-site coordinator for the day of from the time the catering service arrived until we left the premises. Another rule that the city added on after we signed the contract and forced us into. Even though we were upset about this I figured I would take advantage and let them do what I'm paying them for. However, the day before the wedding while we were setting up, the woman in the office informed me that they hadn't hired someone to do that job yet and that they would be sending a city worker to adjust the lights for us during the reception (only city employees could change the lights). I'm still not sure if we were charged for his time.

The last issue we had with this venue is that 2 weeks before our wedding the same less than nice office person called me to inform me that my plan for buying my own alcohol and hiring a bartending service was against their policies. I gave the office this information a month prior to this call! And again, the woman in the office was not very polite and blamed it all on me not reading the contract carefully enough and then got a bit upset when she realized that I was having a breakdown .

All in all this was a convenient and beautiful place to have a reception and wedding in the park across the street. The customer service just left a lot to be desired and the cheaper price gave many hoops to jump through and...

I booked a room for my daughter's birthday party on a Saturday. They had a craft fair thing call later and book the floor my booked room was on. They never contacted me and scheduled over me. I moved to the next day (Sunday) and thought it was booked. Two weeks ago by and I haven't received any confirmation. Had to finally stop in person to book, again. They gave me a discount on the room. Awesome.

Day of the event the tables and chairs were locked up and I had to wait and scramble to get access to set up. I had to sweep and mop the room myself because the floors were filthy. I'd not recommend this facility to anyone unless you have no...