The Fiesta — Attraction in Wood-Ridge

My Pakistani wedding was held at this venue (Day 2 which is called baraat) in September of 2021. I definitely meant to add a review earlier, but after going through some wedding pictures recently, I realized how I felt about this place and the staff on my big day. It was an absolute disaster even though we had met Jeff just a week prior to finalize everything, and we sat and confirmed everything. Despite being so detailed and our last meeting and going thoroughly going through my list of questions, many things went wrong. IF YOU ARE SOMEONE WHOSE WEDDING CONSISTS OF DIFFERENT RITUALS, PLEASE DO NOT BOOK THIS VENUE. The lack of customer service on the day of was disheartening. We requested specifically not have one individual as our matre-d and Jeff promised we would have another person on the team. We ended up with Bruce who we specifically asked not to have because he lacked empathy or understanding of our culture and our traditions. Bruce literally flat out told us we couldn’t do certain things when we went to finalize everything the week prior and that’s when we sat down with Jeff, who agreed that his colleague was a little old school. I believe we asked for Gary but he was already booked for another event. Jeff said he had someone even better and he said he’ll also be readily available for us throughout the night should anything go wrong. The issue with Bruce was that he was not in agreement with our table arrangements, and he doesn’t take an itinerary to follow and track the event. Also, the tables were not set correct. Lo and behold, the day of the event and I’m the first to walk into the ballroom and see chairs are missing, the color of the room wasn’t what we selected, and the cake table is not where we originally decided. I reach out to Jeff and he indicated that I did not provide him with the table charts at our last meeting ON THE DAY OF MY WEDDING WHEN I AM ALL READY AS A BRIDE. I explained to him that we went through this in person and we told you each table needs 12 chairs. My sister then came and began to address other concerns (lighting, why Bruce was our matre-d) alongside my cousin. And Jeff told her that only one person can approach him to discuss any concerns, in a very rude tone. At that point, only myself and my sister had approached him, alongside my cousin who did not even say a word and was just being supportive family. Going forward for the remainder of the evening, my sister was the only one to point out any concerns or issues to Jeff as requested by the venue. That was when I saw that they were unable to understand the stress of their clients and instead of helping the situation, they made us feel like we were at the mercy of the staff, and we had little control. The lights were never dimmed for certain times, such as my bridal entrance or our first dance, as was promised at the meeting. The venue is beautiful and it’s a shame that Jeff and his team could not keep their calm when under pressure. Another point - I didn’t use my bridal suite until the time of the event because I booked a room from the neighboring hotel (which is NOT included in the package when booking the venue). The prior people who were using the space much earlier in the day had used it and left all their trash. Jeff’s team was unable to clean that for my evening event. So the short time I was waiting to make my entrance, I spent on one chair upstairs because there were used napkins and dinnerware on all tables and couches. I was initially really happy booking this venue because Jeff had been amazing every time I reached out letting me know him and his team will take care of everything. He was very friendly and understood our stress when it came to planning the wedding and a lot of promises were made. Unfortunately most of those promises were not kept. The short interaction with Jeff from my wedding day made me realize that he didn’t really have any understanding or empathy with us during all the prior interactions; he was just being a sales person. Unfortunately, I will not recommend this venue to...

We reached out to the venue with this review and did not receive any response so unfortunately felt that leaving this here was necessary.

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This is a very bittersweet message on my part considering my family has had countless events here. I have celebrated many milestones here from my own christening, graduation, and to my most recent wedding shower. I felt forced to speak up and bring up my concerns following a super disappointing experience with the Fiesta.

My parents chose to host a wedding shower for me and my partner here and although we all in the end had a great time with our friends and family, we all agree that we regret our venue choice and will no longer be bringing our business here. Throughout the planning process, my parents and I consistently felt like an inconvenience, bother, and spoken down to by management. We understood that the venue has many events to run but in totality with all of the issues the weekend and day of, it would not be right to let this go unsaid.

Management was condescending throughout planning. We were asked multiple times to confirm details e.g., linens, table set up, number of guests, etc. yet every single of of these areas were incorrect the day of.

Day of, several things went wrong or were completely missing. Despite having been at the venue less than 12 hours beforehand, we were not informed that the linens we requested and had confirmed multiple times were not available. We walked in to see the linens and napkins were switched, buffet tables were in the completely wrong area, cake, sweetheart, and favor tables that we requested at their insistence were missing, missing sign holders, and on top of that table settings were missing on tables so we had to move people around to any open seating during the event. It was difficult to find someone that could help until about a half hour before the event was to start… that meant my family had been running around trying to find answers and rearranging the space to make the best of the situation.

I am hearing from multiple people that during the chaos of the morning, management was not only not helpful but also rude. Not a single apology or offer to answer questions was given. I believe the words, “It is already 8:30am, there is nothing we can do” were said for our 11am event.

I truly have to emphasize what other reviews and people have said, “Get every word it comes out of everyone's mouth in writing.” It seems obvious to a fault but one would think that details agreed upon during meetings would be included in the contract. Unfortunately, several details and agreements that were discussed with my parents were not echoed in the contract. Understandably it is our responsibility as clients to review the contract thoroughly and I take ownership for not having confirmed the agreements my parents made in meetings. But I highly recommend to future clients that they read contracts from the Fiesta thoroughly and do not trust the venue to accurately write up contracts. Multiple discrepancies were apparent - my name was even misspelled on the screens that they have outside. All in all, I feel that we were gaslit with the false promises but unfortunately there is nothing to do about it now.

With no help from the venue on the day of, all of our guests had a great time but a great deal of stress and grief could have been avoided throughout the entire booking process and especially day of. We were all scrambling into the event time to get everything together. Afterwards, several all of us all agreed that if we had just walked in to what we were expecting, that would have saved us over two hours of time and stress. I just still feel badly for my family and friends that had to scramble and set things up for us that the venue was responsible for that morning on what was supposed to be just a morning...

*I'm booking with The Brownstone and yes I did have opportunity to leave a deposit and listed why not below, and why would someone leave a deposit if you won’t honor the price after YOUR banquet manager made a mistake?

This place was more than unprofessional. I visited the first time and was told by a banquet manager he would hold my room for two weeks so that I can make up my mind. I went back less than a week later and he was busy with a wedding rehearsal party so I measured the room and walked out since I knew he'd be busy with the other group of people. I go back the next day (third time) and he is in not there so I speak to a different banquet manager. He tells me someone else is also on hold and their last day to confirm was that day. I was ready to give a deposit and asked him that I was originally given two weeks courtesy for a hold on the room and why would they also extend the same courtesy to another patron for the exact room while someone else already had it on hold. He called the other person as a courtesy and they never answered. I asked him to write me a contract but he wouldn't because I was not giving my deposit since he was charging 3.5% surcharge since I originally planned on putting it on my cc. He wrote all my details down and I promised I'd be back the next day with cash and he promised he'd hold it. The next morning a different manager calls me and tells me she gave the room to her guest after the fact she went over her "hold" date and knowing my name was written down on their scheduling book. I spoke with one of the owners and he was willing to squeeze me in for a different date in a different room. He did explain that it would be tighter and it was a cocktail room but he said its "beautiful and newly renovated" so my mom and sister went to look at the room and were greeted by RUDE DENISE that couldn't care less. When they were ready to give the cash deposit Denise mentioned that they would not honor the price the previous banquet manager provided because he calculated the math wrong and told my sister that "if you're sister would have also done the math she would have seen it doesn't add up". Where is the accountability for the banquet managers screw ups? After all this trouble and back and forth they would not honor the .99/person difference. what a joke. To me it wasn't about the money it was about how much of a hassle this was and how unprofessional they are, blaming their mistakes on the customer. One of the owners "Jeff?" that originally suggested the other room as an alternative "apologized for the confusion and that booking that room was also a concern due to another wedding being there after I would be there Why suggest it at all? I'm booking with The Brownstone, my mother and sister toured the place and it's...