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My Opinion of Emerald at Queensridge for a Wedding

Discussion in 'Vegas Weddings' started by raraavis, Jul 14, 2012.

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  1. raraavis

    raraavis VIP Whale

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    I am going to do a review of each wedding venue I visited, and the first section of each review will be the “Background.” If you have already read the background from another one of my reviews, feel free to skip to the actual venue review.

    Background
    I got engaged in December 2011. After a month or so of trying to settle on a state (yes, I said state), we decided on Nevada (Las Vegas specifically of course). My family/friends are primarily in Michigan; fiancé’s (we’ll call him J from now on) are in New York City area. We live in NJ. If we had it in either Michigan or NJ, we would have well over 250 guests since we assumed that most people would be willing to make the drive (or short flight if they choose) to either location (p.s. we have many friends in Long Island, and it would be at least a 1.5 hr drive for them to come to our area in NJ). Then J kept saying it wouldn’t be fair to his friends and family if we got married in Michigan (where it is at least half the cost of NJ weddings btw). So I countered with the same argument for my friends and family, haha. We were at a stalemate. Well I had mentioned Vegas when we first got engaged and told J it is my number 1 choice. But J was hesitant about having a destination wedding. After thinking of the pros and cons of being married in the mitten (aka, Michigan) or in NJ, J finally agreed that Las Vegas was actually the most practical and fun thing to do. Next on the list was to make sure our very closest family and friends would be ok with flying to Vegas for our wedding because frankly they are the only ones that matter!

    We booked a good deal at Bally’s for Sun-Thurs and stayed with my dad the other days of the trip (he lives there). My initial plan was to see 13 venues, but I decided not to see the two at mt. Charleston. So I only saw 11 venues over the course of 3 days. It was a lot!!

    Basically the type of wedding I want is a non-religious ceremony followed by a traditional wedding reception. I do not want to get married in what I deem a “wedding factory”, which is what some of the venues I saw felt like. In the same regard, I do not want a chapel wedding at all. I did check on the strip, but nothing met our needs or was within our budget. I began my search in January and finally narrowed it down for our June trip. My tastes revolve around golf/country clubs apparently. We are planning for a Thursday wedding in October 2013.

    Emerald at Queensridge
    891 S. Rampart Las Vegas, NV 89145
    http://emeraldatqueensridge.com/

    I met with a person from Emerald; I think her name was Kelsey. Emerald had been my top choice up until about 2 months ago. Too many of the reviews mentioned the same negative things. When they were my top choice, I had a nagging feeling that it was too good to be true. I was right. They have a wedding package special that is $9500 (taxes and gratuity included) for 100 people (they do charge a fee for premium months too) and includes the following:
    Ceremony
    • Officiant who will customize your ceremony
    • Pre-ceremony and ceremony Music
    • Complete unlimited Photography coverage with multiple photographers
    • Chiffon draping in the trees and gazebo
    • Ceremony rehearsal
    • Complete coordination of your ceremony
    Reception
    • "Buffet Style Dinner"
    • Open Bar "Beer Wine, and Soda" package
    • Ivory Table Overlays, Chair Covers, and Sashes
    • Complimentary centerpieces
    • Cake
    • DJ/MC who will customize your music package
    • State-of-the-art overhead surround sound system
    • Video projection screen for your DVD Montage
    • Unlimited Photography coverage
    • A Twenty page custom designed 6X6 Graphistudio Wedding Album
    • Complete coordination of your reception

    Sounds great right? Well the photography “package” just has unlimited photos that are taken. You have to pay extra for any prints you actually want and $1000 extra for the proofs. :eek:

    That is just one example of their shadiness. They draw you in with this all-inclusive package but are very vague about what is really included. :poke: I mean, Kelsey mentioned that the wedding they were setting up for actually cost $26,000! It didn’t look that good, and there are so many other places to go in Vegas and spend that much money. The bride started at the package price of $9500, but she kept on adding upgrades. Also, she only was having about 70 people there when the package is for 100. Why in the world did this bride choose this place??? Doesn’t make sense to me. :rolleyes2:

    Anyway, we get there and are in the office area of the building (this site is specifically used for events and is not a gold club or country club). It actually shares a parking lot with a business park. I didn’t like the office; it was too open, and it didn’t feel like our meeting was private. There were other couples there asking their questions with another worker. And that’s another thing, there are about 10 workers wondering around the office. It just felt like they hired whoever without requiring wedding planning experience. The girl we met with could not have been older than 21 and didn’t seem to really know her job. She was nice, but she reminded me of someone who had just recently memorized a list and was trying to recall it. This place soon fell in the category of “wedding factory” for me. :nono:

    There are tons of pictures on their website, so I didn’t take any myself. Kelsey shows us the reception room, and it’s really big. I think it’s way too big for 70-80 to look ok in there (it was actually set up for about that and looked really empty). The dance floor is small compared to the size of the room.

    Next is the ceremony site, which is nice. However, there were a lot of obstructions between the guests seating area and the wedding party area. I just felt like it would be difficult to see everything. And the way the gazebo was you would have a hard time seeing our wedding party because they are behind pillars. It just didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Next we went back to the reception room, and she showed us the different lighting effects (extra cost of course). Then we went to the ready rooms. Here is the only place that Emerald redeems itself. The bridal ready room has 6 sinks and vanities, has a bridal stage and mirror, 2 bathrooms, and a patio. They provide champagne and snacks. The groom’s ready room has a huge tv and a playstation/xbox and games, and the men get beer and snacks.

    We head to the bar area in the reception room and are discussing the various spirits when I see this lurker hovering by us. It’s distracting and annoying. The poor girl showing us around seemed nervous and then even more so when she saw this guy watching us. She introduced us to him; he was the manager! :eek2 Really? Wow, take a lesson on customer service dude. He was just creepy. And before we could even say anything, he starts going on about how he charges what he does for a reason. He said he’ll show us all of his profit margins and the exact costs of all of the extras, etc. etc. He was way defensive for no reason. And this lines up pretty well with all the negative reviews. Many of the bad reviews centered around this guy and his nickel and diming.

    We’re done with the tour and go back to the office to ask this girl some questions. She really didn’t have answers and had to ask. Workers (I was told this was a family run place) were eating throughout the office, and it just appeared very unprofessional. :nono: I didn’t like the vibe at all.

    So J and I kept trying to get al la carte prices since we only were going to have about 70 people. She finally had to go get the creepy manager guy. He wouldn’t come out and discuss it with us (he was in the next room with the door open eating a burrito). She came back and said that the manager said it would be more expensive than the package they have already put together.

    First, you couldn’t even come out and talk to prospective clients about a wedding question? :nono: Second, you answered our question without answering our question! The poor girl looked like a deer in headlights trying to give us a straight answer. Why in the heck couldn’t the supposed manager just come out and talk to us, especially since he had no problem interrupting our guide in the middle of our tour?? He was really pissing me off. :grrr: I was frustrated with him and the whole place. :bang: If I am frustrated now just with touring, I can’t imagine what I would have to go through dealing with them for my wedding. No thanks; it just screamed stress to me! Since it was obvious to me that we were not going to get a straight answer, I was ready to leave and told the girl thanks. But J was being persistent and wanted to know the al la carte price. So we got in an argument because he wasn’t taking the hint that I had already lost interest and didn’t care about the al la carte price. Grrrrr. The air was tense. I just wanted to get out of there.

    Needless to say I do not recommend this place as a wedding location. It has a very “wedding factory” vibe, and the management was horrible. I can’t deal with people who lack customer service when they work in customer service. Very disappointing experience.
     
  2. vegasdrea

    vegasdrea Buckle Bunny

    Joined:
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    My friend Jessica got married here last summer; I was one her bridesmaids. OMG. This place was horrible! The cake was TERRIBLE, the DJ was HORRIBLE!!! Jessica was pissed! The food was mediocre. She had her wedding in July. Outside. In Vegas. I was going to KILL her. The reception of course was inside, but we were sweating our balls, asses and tits off during the ceremony, in all the pictures there are sweat stains on my dress from my armpits. She said is was $8500 because it was in July and if they would have gotten married during a peak month (one when it wasn't 115 degrees) it would have been $17k. Well DUH!!!!!! Nobody wants to sweat that much in the Vegas heat unless they are sitting by the pool with a drink!! LOL. Her gripes were the same as yours about the "photography" package.

    The biggest thing I have to say about this place was the damn alcohol. They did give us a bottle of champagne in the bridal suite and the guys got a 6 pack of beer, but they would not allow any outside alcohol at all. They said if they caught us with alcohol in the ready rooms they would charge Jessica some ridiculous amount like $500, so we had literally a DROP of champagne each from the ONE bottle they gave us and split between like 12 girls and we could not drink anything until after we did the grand entrance. So needless to say I never had a good buzz going at all that night and really didn't have that much fun until we went out after the wedding. Also, the night was really rushed she had the venue for 4 hours total including ceremony and reception, we took pics ate dinner cut the cake and before I knew it we were leaving. I felt like it was so rushed.

    I think you made a good decision to pass on this place...
     
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