Celebrate at Snug Harbor

It’s so unfortunate and it upsets us to have to write this review, however we feel our story has to be told in order for future couples/​clients to be aware of what they’re getting into.
Yes, Snug Harbor and its grounds are beautiful & unique, but our personal experience with the management & planning staff of Celebrate was a completely different story. We hosted our ceremony on the lawn, cocktail hour in the Chinese Gardens, & reception in the tented pavilion.
Starting with Day 1, our Specialist/“Memorymaker” forgot our initial appointment to see the space & was hard to get in touch with. Both my husband and I had a bad feeling about it, but given that we are both typically very patient & easy-​going, & with the fact that we did love the property, we decided to go for it. After locking it in, our emails almost always went unanswered until we threatened to switch Specialists.
From the get-​go, they made many promises to us. Luckily, from reading previous reviews online, I already had my doubts & did not trust many of the things they offered, so decided to take most of it upon ourselves to coordinate.
The very few things we had to entrust to them never ended up being delivered — such as tea for the tea ceremony, aisle pedals, cake stand, etc.
We were also assured on more than one occasion (including the week before our wedding), that we would be the only wedding that day & that they don’t «double book». It wasn’t until the day-​of when our wedding parties ran into each other, and some of our guests accidentally entered the wrong wedding, that we learned of the other wedding. We wouldn’t have been upset had we known in advance & could plan for this w/​extra signage, but it was the fact that we were flat out lied to that is so unprofessional/​frustrating.
Now to the biggest issue. We were given a bridal cottage when we arrived. Everyone — bridesmaids, mother, coordinator, asked whether the place was secure & whether there would be someone watching this area throughout the day. This was important since we were all storing personal belongings & equipment in the cottage. We were assured by our Specialist and by the maitre’d that yes, it was & that someone would be watching it all day. They could not understand why everyone was so concerned & felt we were overreacting. Our coordinator even asked flat out whether there was a key, in which the answer from our Specialist was no.
That being said, with all of the assurances of safety we felt ok with leaving our belongings. During cocktail hour, materials including camera equipment and my bridesmaids’ personal belongings were stolen recklessly from the bridal cottage.
The security guard was MIA and the maitre d’ who had been watching the property earlier was now working as catering staff. At this time, the park was closed. The police were immediately called and came to the property during the wedding. Luckily the guests and most of the wedding party were unaware of the entire situation as the cottage was far enough away from the Reception for anyone to notice. Our coordinator and a few of my bridesmaids were mostly dealing w/​the situation & tried the best they could to shield it all from us so we could at least enjoy the night.
In the end, we had about $ 12k worth of equipment and personal belongings stolen. When our Specialist initially realized what had happened, she offered to cover all of the expenses, until learning the total value, in which she retracted all of her statements. Now she is saying no promises of security and safety were EVER made, when we have over 10 witnesses to the contrary.
We were later able to confirm a key does exist to the cottage and that it would have only taken a few minutes for Security to swing by and lock it up, but no call of that nature was ever made to them. Even the police & Detective that followed up on the case strongly feel that the employees were actually involved.
It’s extremely upsetting that they refuse to admit any fault here and are now lying to cover up their recklessness. While the wedding was beautiful and must say the food was fantastic, we had to spend the day after our wedding at the police precinct filing paperwork & the subsequent days trying to argue our case with Celebrate. I suppose that it shouldn’t surprised us that our emails & calls have gone unanswered.
Throughout the planning process & through this incident, our Specialist was very unprofessional & unorganized. We were also sent a few incorrect invoices that luckily we caught or we would have overpaid. I cannot say whether these were intentional or just an honest mistake, but as a client, we found everything to be extremely unorganized.
Again, we only have great things to say about the property and the food, but really think twice about whether you want to instill your trust into these people on what is supposed to be the best day of your life. It’s such a shame since this place could be so great if placed in the right hands.

We had an Indian-​Chinese wedding in September 2015 at Snug Harbor. We had our ceremony in the Tuscan Garden, our cocktail hour in the Chinese Scholar Garden and our reception in the tented pavilion. It was the best day of our lives and Celebrate at Snug Harbor definitely contributed to the perfection of the day. We were initially hesitant to use Snug Harbor because of mixed reviews, however we LOVED the look and feel of the venue… when we met with Terra Hudson (our contact there) she quickly was able to address all our concerns and as it turns out had been brought in to deal with some of the issues that had previously been brought up in past reviews. From our first meeting with Terra to our wedding day, she was professional, punctual and kept us up to date with everything. Our wedding day turned out to be the same day as the Autumn Moon Festival and anticipating the crowds, Terra was quick to offer that we move our ceremony to the Tuscan Garden from the White Garden at no cost. This was amazing, since the Tuscan garden was suited perfectly for our ceremony with the existing stage. In addition, she worked with our Indian caterers to ensure that they would be able to use the Snug Harbor kitchen facilities given the autumn moon festival would cause road closures impacting their ability to drive in the food. On the wedding day, the staff was on top of everything, ensuring that things kept to the schedule and that we always had a drink in hand and food if we wanted it. We would recommend this venue to anyone, it was perfect, especially for our event which was blending two cultures together.

We had our wedding here in May 2014. Although there was a little bump at one point when I was trying to reach the girl I was working with (she quit), I ended up finding someone to help finalize the details. Our wedding day was magical. The food was delicious. No bumps on our big day and no complaints from our guests… Only praises! The grounds were gorgeous for our pictures. The great hall was just what I envisioned for our big day, and with the décor was perfect!

Worse place to do business with. I had my wedding there june 21 2014. There was a breach of contract which I ended up filing a lawsuit against snug harbor and getting every dime back. They were very nasty on my wedding day said they would call the cops on me ruin my day. Smh its a good thing I married my soul mate or I would have been devastated. They get 1 star because parks department really did do a good job on this site

DO NOT have your wedding here! This venue is disorganized, unaccommodating, and unprofessional in their dealings.
I had my wedding and reception here in July 2014. It took the Celebrate at Snug Harbor team over 6 months to provide a decent contract — due mainly to poor management (with no experience) overseeing our event.
We were so frustrated with the management, that we ultimately asked only to deal with the owners. Even still, we received our contract only 2 weeks before our event, despite numerous phone calls and e-​mail reminders about items we needed addressed. Had we not already been locked into the nearby hotel, we would not have moved forward with Celebrate at Snug Harbor.
As a client, you can expect the Celebrate team will not be on top of e-​mails or phone calls and will drop the ball unless you do their job for them. The Celebrate team even went back on their word about things they promised us and our caterer.
As if this wasn’t enough — one week before the wedding, we found out the Celebrate team failed to let the landlord (the Parks Department) know where our tented reception was going to be held. This meant we did not have permission to pitch our tent at Snug Harbor. Our planner was luckily able to resolve everything days before the wedding, but with no help from Celebrate (who was trying to blame our tent company for their own mistakes).
Hours before the reception, the Celebrate team threatened to cancel our reception! They sent us numerous incorrect invoices in which they overcharged us by a couple of thousand dollars and refused to correct this. After 2 hrs of bickering on our wedding day, we finally came to an agreement.
I would never recommend this venue to anyone. It’s such a shame because Snug Harbor is such a beautiful, hidden gem, but Celebrate at Snug Harbor’s management is unreliable and disorganized — which I imagine will hurt them in the long run.