The Rock Garden Weddings & Event Venue — Restaurant in Howard

Working with The Rock Gardens was an absolute nightmare. When we first expressed interest we told Lacey that we were looking at having the ceremony and reception together. When we first met we went over and through both areas. Lacey failed to mention that each had their own contract. When I first reached out to Lacey about doing the tasting I asked if we could look at the courtyard and go over some details. The morning of she sent an email claiming she forgot to put us down in her schedule and she had a meeting when we had our tasting. We were able to meet with her after the tasting for 10 minutes. When we went for the tasting we were surprised with a bill. Lacey failed to mention there was a charge. When I brought the bill up to Lacey the only thing she said was “it’s in the contract”. Lacey also told us we would be refunded for the tasting fee and that never happened. After the testing I asked if we (my husband, both sets of parents and two bridesmaids) could look at the courtyard to get an idea on what it will be like. Lacey then told us we didn’t have the courtyard reserved. I became upset and she stated again “it was in the contract”. I asked if we could still reserve it (we were less than 60 days out from the wedding). Lacey told us yes and then said “well let me check”. After we left we (my husband and I, his parents and our two bridesmaids) went and read the contract and there was NO mention of a separate contract OR fee for taste testing. I emailed Lacey and attached all paper and documents we received from the Rock Gardens and asked her to circle or highlight where it said there was a fee for tasting and a separate contract. She then responded that “I never said it was in the contract, the fee for the tasting would have been verbally said”. Everyone that was with us at the tasting heard her say that they were in the contract. She never apologized and just kept saying it was in the contract at the tasting. Getting the email the day of the tasting that she “forgot” was a HUGE red flag. I reached out asking to work with someone other than Lacey because my husband and I were now questioning what else she failed to mention to us. If we had to redo our wedding, I would NEVER go...

I’ve never written a review before, but in this case I feel I need to. My husband and I had been together for 14 years and never planned to get married. That is until I got cancer, we decided to finally get married in 2019. Because of the COVID virus, we were not able to officially celebrate my cancer free result in February. So, we decided to go all out and celebrate by having a great reception in August, 2020. We picked the Rock Garden knowing they have done many receptions, hoping they would make the night special. I had my family fly in from 3 different states, that have never visited me in the 25 years since I moved away. We picked the prestige package for our reception mainly for the hors d'oeuvres and the sweet treat buffet. The hors d'oeuvre were to be out for an hour, but after about 25 minutes they were no where to be found. The sweet treat buffet was a complete joke. I was referred to as the mother of the bride during set up. My name was spelt wrong more than once!! We complained and had a meeting with management, where he took many notes during the discussion. He then set up a phone conference with his management and myself. At this point I was sick of talking about how horrible the night was, and told him to do what he felt was appropriate to make up for all the issues that occurred. After making up all the excuses in the book, I asked him one question, what in all of your notes, do you have about our feelings or how this night meant to us. His only response was literally “What that you survived cancer?” as if I was using that to get a better refund. All I wanted was to know was that they actually cared about making our special night so unpleasant. I think this was the worst part of the whole experience. I would not recommend to anyone to spend your special night with the Rock Garden, it was such a...

We had 12:15 reservations for Easter brunch in 2018. While our expectations were that it would be busy, not being seated until 12:40 was unacceptable. This is a hectic day for a lot of people, especially those with multiple families to visit throughout the day. As such, we were robbed of precious time with family that we hardly ever see.

Their management either overbooked on purpose, or were ignorant on how to properly run a restaurant. I'm still debating which one is worse. Their waiting area/bar was uncomfortably over-crowded with other agitated customers.

The food was mediocre and the place was so dark, you could hardly see anything (which always scares me as to the true condition of the food). It was definitely over-priced, coming in at over $20/person (including children). Our table wound up being right next to the over-crowded waiting area, so I had the pleasure of multiple people rubbing various body parts on me while I tried to eat and talk over the loud crowd. Plus, who doesn't put out bacon on a brunch buffet?

The only saving grace was that our server was...