Davis Islands Garden Club — Attraction in Tampa

Davis Island Garden Club is such a pretty venue with the combo of the water and gardens. I knew it was my wedding venue right away. Thankfully for planning a wedding by myself and instilling the help of family and friends, it turned out lovely, besides a few things. Pros: They provide tables as part of the rental which was much appreciated!, I selected a weekday (Labor Day) and was able to get a more affordable rate. Cons: The service provided by Amber Beaty was inconsistent. Correspondence was good at times but then sometimes would take a while. As I got closer to the wedding date communication was fine, however, I did not receive the final coordination email from her, which was super important, luckily I reached out and she resent. She did accommodate us on a special request to park a vehicle at the venue with decor overnight , that would've saved us a tiny bit of time the next day. On the day of the wedding, I was expecting to be met by her to be able to ask any questions, instead, she sent a text stating that everything we requested was ready, etc. I was a tad bit disappointed as I am particular and I wanted to be able to ask any questions that may have come up. Throughout the event set up process she was somewhat hard to reach, did reply to some texts but a quick pick up of the phone when you are on a timeline is my preference and would've been nice. My biggest gripe about the day is that when I arrived right before the ceremony the air was set at 74 degrees, our wedding cake was melting (bad), and I feel as this was a contributing factor. I don't even keep my house at 74 let alone a building in summer that is going to be filled with people. There is no way for the couples/guests onsite to adjust the air.She had to do it (had some type of virtual control). The biggest damper was finding out a month later that we would not be receiving our 700 deposit back. We were upset about this for sure after taking measures to ensure we were staying in a specific range. She didn't even have the decency to let us know until I inquired about where the deposit was via email. Additionally I was super adamant about following all of the clean up rules and procedures thinking that I was getting a deposit back, HA!. The security person walked the property before I left the night of and told me everything was great! Come to find out my friend (who acted as my Day of coordinator) was responsible for purchasing and using a few strips of 3M tape to execute the gazebo design that I wanted. I had no clue as I left the venue after a couple house to get ready. I understood that this was a breach of the agreement however, the "damage" to the gazebo was not worth 700. I was told she would discuss with the "board" and get back to me. A month later I have heard nothing. To me its not even about the money, its about the principal. We utilized family and friends to help and they were unaware of that one specific guideline of using no tape, which you think there would be some understanding on the venues part. Keeping the whole deposit is definitely a way to get over on people, the appropriate thing to do would be to get a quote to fix the damages and then take that and return the rest of the deposit. Needless to say this put a whole damper on the happiness we were feeling from...

I honestly really want to give DIGC more than one star, but the staff truly made the experience so terrible and borderline unbearable I cannot in good faith recommend this to other brides (or anyone considering having an event here).

The story starts 2 years before our actual wedding. We had heard that DIGC was a great place to have a wedding, with limited vendor restrictions (technically "true"), a low fee (also technically "true"), and an amazing venue (also technically true, if you're fine with rats). The only "downside" of the DIGC we had heard was that there is a noise restriction starting at 10 pm. When we toured the venue, we specifically asked about this noise restriction, as we were getting married on new years eve. We were specifically told (my husband and I both remember this), that on NYE there was not a noise restriction due to the fireworks. I will admit, we only asked and did not get this in writing, however, we specifically remember asking and were going to look elsewhere if there was a noise ordinance policy on NYE (our wedding date).

Flash forward to our wedding, and 3 days before our wedding the venue comes to us and tells us our timeline is not allowed (and this was after they had the timeline for 2 weeks). They said that they never said there was no noise ordinance and we were making this up.

If the venue lying to us and delaying telling us "issues" wasn't enough, I was told by multiple vendors how strict and difficult DIGC is to work with.

Additionally, a rat ran across my wedding dress outside. While I know this is outside (and thus can't be controlled), multiple guests reported seeing this rat. Someone pointed out that this rat ran across the grass multiple times and thus was very comfortable around people.

Also the "fireworks" you can see from DIGC are all but blocked by a tree.

2 mornings after our wedding we woke up to a $550 charge as our breakdown went 45 minutes over. Meaning it took 1.75 hours as opposed to 1 hour. $550 for 45 minutes.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you are ok with being lied to, having your plans changed at the last minute because they can't communicate, being charged extra, and rats, go with DIGC. Otherwise, there are much better venues for...

Very poor experience. This was where I really wanted to have my wedding… I had visited the gardens and knew it was the perfect place to have our ceremony and reception. I called twice, on the second call left a voicemail. I did not hear anything back so on day 3 I sent an email as well, as an inquiry on Wedding Wire. Again 2 days passed and I called again and sent one more inquiry on Wedding Wire pleading for a response because I know places book quickly. I understand that it is first come first serve and I know DIGC gets many inquiries, however, at least a response stating that they have received my request would be nice. I truly didn’t know if they went out of business or were no longer holding events there or what. Amber Beaty finally responded and was very brash & rude in her email - pretty much criticizing me for reaching out instead of just apologizing and explaining the process. She even took the time to explain how busy she is and that I basically needed to chill out, but didn’t even answer my questions. I replied and then did not hear from her again for another week. She finally reached out to schedule a time via Wedding Wire and acted like she didn’t even know who I was. We set up a time for a call and I cleared my schedule and sat by the phone waiting for her - did not call her directly because I feared the backlash of being bothersome. The call never came and then she had the audacity to message me the next day and say sorry you didn’t answer my call, is this the right number? So she blatantly lied to me. I let her know that it was the correct number and she hasn’t responded since (it’s been a week). Just overall very inconsiderate and extremely disappointed in the customer service and treatment when this is supposed to be a very exciting time for me and my fiancé. I understand you are busy but take pride in your work and be professional and pleasant. Will not...