My stepdaughter and her fiance had their ceremony and reception at the sunken gardens site in June. If there was a rating above for beauty of location it would have gotten a 5 -- but if you have a wedding at any of the Lauxmont sites, go into it knowing that this is what you're buying -- a beautiful location. Don't count on them for anything else.
The bride and groom live in Manhattan -- they planned a visit to Lauxmont with their New York wedding planners in March and confirmed it with their Lauxmont planner in advance -- she forgot. After the staff called her to say we were there, she showed up almost an hour late saying, ""You know,if you don't write appointments down, they slip your mind!"" That set the tone for the rest.
We were told the arch by the fountain was permanent and so the bride and groom decided not to bring their own. When they arrived the day of the wedding -- no arch. They had to scramble to get it re-erected. The pool area was un-swept and covered with debris. It was a very hot day -- we'd been promised a fan but it was set up in the caterer's tent. Luckily we had rented two of our own. It poured and the crumbling cement floor of the tent flooded. Lauxmont had started to brick over the floor at our March visit and had all the bricks there, but on the wedding day we found that they had taken those bricks up! Women in long dresses had to hike them up to keep them out of the puddles. The trash cans in the bathrooms overflowed.
Worst problem -- we had a guest who had a serious medical emergency. We called 911 of course, and then the SIX Lauxmont emergency phone numbers we had requested in advance. No response to any one of them. No Lauxmont person ever arrived --I do not believe there was anyone from Lauxmont on site even though there were 5 weddings taking place that evening. We eventually got a call back from a Lauxmont representative about an hour after we had called -- well after the ambulance had found the service road to the tent in the pouring rain thanks to guests who ran up in the downpour to direct them in.
To add insult to injury, when I called to discuss these issues with Lauxmont they were nothing but defensive, ""Our staff doesn't have medical training, what exactly did you think we could have done even if we HAD arrived?"" Nice.
When I told her how great the caterer (Festive Board) had been she said,""well, they're a service company, we're not"". Clearly. Book the place if you want a beautiful spot. Get everything in writing and plan everything yourself. Don't count on Lauxmont to make your day special.
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