Elks Lodge 343

Terrible, Do not recommend

I had my wedding reception at Elks Lodge (10.14) and boy was the planning process a mess. Aliena is not organized at all and talks about her past brides. A good family friend was married there before me and when I mentioned her, Aliena immediately referred to her as a bridezilla and said her family was just as rude. I've known them for years and I've never known them to be rude. Why do we call women who ask for what they want a bridezilla? Totally unprofessional and uncalled for. While having a sit down planning session with her, she asked us for a "mandatory 20% gratuity" 6 months before our reception. I did not pay it, and my contract does not state anything about this mandatory gratuity. Also, we were originally told we would only have 1 bartender and that if we wanted a second we needed to pay 150. Then on a phone call a month later it was 100. Then week of the wedding it was 125. Why so many changes? Know your prices. And then night of the wedding we had 3 bartenders instead of 2. On the day of my wedding, she emailed me that morning asking me if she should light the candles for our reception. Literally emailed me asking if she could do her job. She then emailed me an hour later telling me she decided to close the golf course and we were no longer allowed to take our wedding photos there due to "golf course flooding". First, she's lucky I even happened to check my phone. Second, my photographer was great and immediately pivoted and found another place for photos. When we got to Elks for the reception there was no flooding on the golf course at all. When it came to the food, they served something different night of the wedding than what was asked for. Overall this doesn't seem like a huge deal except that my Maid of Honor has a very severe egg allergy. Aliena approached both myself & her night of and let us know nothing had egg in it and she was free to eat whatever Elks served. She took one bite of a meatball and immediately had an allergic reaction at the beginning of the night. We had a giant sheet cake to be served to our guests. A sheet cake serves 90-100 people and they cut the cake in huge chunks. Only about 50 slices were served and my guests complained about not having cake. Aliena was no where to be found, & come to find out just left our reception early. Overall, the communication with Aliena absolutely sucked. She didn't listen to us and did not communicate well. Not worth the amount we paid to have our wedding there. Absolutely do not recommend.