The Westwood — Local services in Garwood

On Saturday, June 18, 2022, my immediate family had a long planned Retirement Party for our beloved, Mother/The Matriarch of our large extended family. I should note a few important points, so that you understand the type of family & people we are. I'll start w/saying that my mom, thee honoree, is a true jewel in the community, church & Union County Administration, where she was employed as the very 1st & only Black Deputy Clerk of the Union County Board of Commissioners. As a trailblazer in County Government Administration, she opened doors for minorities to finally be welcomed into positions of Administration & in addition to her employment, she is a minister & faithful servant of God, a warm & loving member of the community, who is always available to assist, counsel & rescue anyone in need. While juggling all of thee aforementioned, our mom raised her 3 most prized possessions, us her children, so we planned this party to give her her roses while she is here, alive & well to smell them.

The day started out poorly, as we were told the party before our evening event would end at a certain time, giving us ample time to decorate, return home to get dressed & return to the venue. Upon arrival, the Matre D. initiated contact in a very aggressive, unfriendly, unprofessional & outright nasty manner. We were made to wait an hour as the previous party had run over by an entire HOUR & now we would have to wait for the cleaning staff to complete their job & then we could decorate. Our contractual agreed start time was 7 p.m., but since we had just completed decorating the room, we were now forced to rush home, shower, dress & unfortunately HAD to delay the program of pre-arranged speakers, including politicians, dignitaries, clergy, out of town surprised special guests, etc. As we were finishing, our D.J. was arriving for set up & early guests begin arriving in the parking lot. Several members of our decorating crew, were also apart of the program, thus, the program could not begin at the slated 7:30 p.m., but had to be pushed back to 8:30, an entire HOUR BEHIND SCHEDULE BECAUSE OF THEM ALLOWING THE PREVIOUS PARTY TO RUN INTO OUR CLEAN-UP/DECORATING TIME BY AN ENTIRE HOUR.

As the event began, things are going over without a hitch, but we notice the Matre D., walking about, standing in various places around the room, RIDICULING GUESTS IN REGARDS TO THEIR APPEARANCES, WEIGHT, PHYSIQUE, ETC. He continued to be SHORT, IMPATIENT & NASTY. At thee end of thee evening as we were readying ourselves to pack our decorative leftover items to leave, HE MADE THE CHOICE TO DISCARD OUR BOXES, LEAVING US W/NOTHING TO PACK OUR THINGS IN & HE REFUSED TO PROVIDE AN ALTERNATIVE, INSTEAD STATING, "YOU PEOPLE ARE JUST TRASH & I JUST WANT YOU TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE". He also aggressively jumped into my relatives face, in a physically aggressive & threatening manner, frankly acting a complete unprofessional, prejudiced, jerk, who was clearly biased from earlier in the day, when our family members handling decorations arrived. We are a respectful, loving, kind family full of educated, accomplished people, but I imagine the Matre D. & the woman who was on staff there as some sort of administrator, wouldn't see that, because they didn't judge us by our character, since noone disrespected or lost their cool w/either of them from the onset, throughout the entire evening, until closing when the Matre D. jumped into my relative's face, referring to our family & well put together, classy & distinguished party as "TRASH", bottom line, because we were a ROOM FULL OF BLACK AMERICANS. If you are a minority or an ally of people who are treated unfairly for no sensible reason BUT the color of their skin, perhaps you'd consider using another venue. Reading through their comments last evening, I see that this particular lead Matre D., very CLEARLY has a problem, HE IS IGNORANT, UNPROFESSIONAL, IMMATURE, IMPATIENT, INHOSPITABLE, UNFRIENDLY, UNWELCOMING, JUDGEMENTAL, PREJUDICED, BIASED & FRANKLY, A RACIST!!! ⚠️BEWARE, CHOSE THIS VENUE AT YOUR...

Hosted a sweet 16 party here recently. After having a number of issues the night of the party, we tried to reach out to the venue to resolve it. The manager, Erin Williams, called me, with a terrible attitude and nasty disposition. I cut the conversation and told him he breached our agreement. Needless to say, I would not recommend people to use this venue. They were unprofessional, mismanaged, and downright rude! Here are just a few of the issues I had at the venue: the party was supposed to start at 6 pm. The room was not ready for a number of reasons. Guests were forced to wait in the lobby until well after 6:15 pm. I have over 30 witnesses to this issue. When discussed with Erin, he denied this occurred and refused to acknowledge the problem. we did a run down with the venue weeks in advance. We confirmed how the place setting were to look in order for our decorator to set up. Upon arrival, the napkins were setup incorrectly so we could not put down the chargers and table decor until they were redone. We asked if someone could fix it and Joe, the head of staff, told us he had to do things to get ready for the wedding across the hall and I need to wait for our Maître d' that will arrive at 4:30.

— Our attendee didn't arrive until 4:45. Even though he was great and very helpful he didn't get staff to change out the napkins and add the chargers until 5:15. They didn't even have all the chairs dressed and bows added at that point. From the beginning it was impossible for the head of staff to think that they could set an entire room and do the waters and bar setup in 45 minutes. We were scrambling to get the chargers and masks down to the last minute.

all of the necessary and agreed upon tables needed were not there. The gift table, the table for the DJ giveaways, and the photobooth table were missing. We could not setup anything on those tables until they were brought in at 5pm.

the glassware was disgusting. They put glasses down that still had lipstick marks and smudges and finger prints all over. They changed a few, but Then Joe said there isn't enough time or glassware to change out so best they could do was wipe it down "if they see it". I told him that was unhygienic he didn't care.

we had approval from the venue to decorate certain common areas, such as a piano right outside of our ballroom and the bathroom on that floor. We decorated the piano and Joe removed all of the decorations and opened the piano back up. All of our things were thrown on a small table and whatever couldn't fit were thrown on the floor! When we asked him what happened, Joe said we were not allowed to to decorate the piano as it is a communal space. I told him we had permission to decorate the piano. He insisted it was not allowed or I should have someone "standing guard" to make him aware that we got permission from the venue! This was just utterly irresponsible on the venue’s part. When raised with Erin, again, he completely disregarded what occurred.

Same goes for the metal signs and flowers I had in the bathrooms. We couldn't locate them. Once again Joe told our Maître d' that is was a communal area and the signs were in back by the kitchen but we couldn't find them. We never got them back, and the venue refused to compensate for the loss.

The ceiling tiles had water stains and there was a mouse trap right by the doors leading to the kitchen exposed for guests to see. We told them to put it on the other side of the door while the party was going on.

At the end of the night when cleaning up they just started throwing away our items. This is despite the fact that we were actively there packing up our things, along with the decorator.

More than 20 party favors were packed up by our decorator to be delivered back to us. When she went to her car with one load and came back, the favors were gone. When discussing it with Erin, he said it was not his problem. It was a disgusting display...

We just had our son's bar mitzvah on March 28, 2015. We had a cocktail hour in the cocktail room on the main floor- there was so much food!! Everyone was impressed with the "spread", Not only did the food look great but it tasted terrific! There was plenty of tables and seats for our guests. For our reception we used the main floor room-- we had about 130 guests. We had a red carpet open photo booth, a caricaturist and a 5 star DJ ( with laser lights and fog, tv screens- the works)- not form the westwood's list. The space was a perfect fit. I had decided to design my own centerpieces to keep our costs down. On the day of our occasion, I arrived early to set up the centerpieces which they kindly stored in a closet for me. The matre D helped me set up the pieces . He even gave me and my helpers some appetizers and drinks. Cathy was wonderful!! She was able to more than satisfy our guests that had special diets ( gluten free and vegan). They raved about their dishes. Our matre D- was unbeleiveable!! He made sure that my husband and I( as well as our children) were completely taken care of from the moment we walked in until after everyone had left. He packed us (my 5 person family) a dinner meal and extra cake to take home for each of us-- because he said he knew that we would be hungry after the affair. And he was right- we were so busy enjoying our guests, that we forgot to eat our dinner. It was so thoughtful of him to take care of us in that way. I can't say enough nice things about the westwood!! I will certainly be having our next special occasion there- and recommending the westwood to everyone. And many of our guests, complimented us on the westwood ( like we had anything to do with their service). But it was nice to know that our guests were just as impressed with the Westwood as we were. It was a pleasure the entire process. From when we went to tour the facility to the last moment of...