Tad Akers

Recommends

Hillary C.

Joined 1 year ago

I had the most AMAZING reception!!. Okay... I just want to start out by saying that I looked at MANY venues. I took into consideration what they included and what they did not include. I looked at price, apperance, and value. We absolutly loved Tad Akers. I am a busy mom of a three year old, my fiancee (now husband) is a pilot, so I planned most of this wedding myself.

Tad Akers is an all- inclusive facility. Once you sign, you use their cake vendor, their caterer (you have choices on who you choose though), and their DJ. You don't have to use the florist. I know that because we chose to go ahead with another florist who was much cheaper than theirs. I think once I told them why and how much I was saving they appreciated my honesty.

The cake (Cakes by Jula) was awesome. The tastings went great and both my cake and my husband's airplane cake (get it, pilot?) came out perfectly. We had so many compliments on both of them.

The DJ (Sound Connections) was great too. We met with the owner of the company about 6 weeks prior to get an idea of how things would go. Two weeks before we faxed a play list and a timeline which they shared with Kay, the coordinator at Tad. Two days before we got a personal call from our DJ going over final details.

The caterer was really good. So my only true annoyance was with the caterer (Robinette). I called to have a sample of my dishes (they are a "dine and dash" company) and up until the day of my wedding I had not tasted a single dish from them. I told Kay this and she said she would speak with them. i went with Kay's suggestions and am so happy I did. Everyone... I mean Everyone could not tell me enough about how great the food was.

Now, the only thing I can think of regarding these bad experiences is that I fully understood my "wants and needs". I know I didn't need the really pretty tablecloths. And I figured because I wanted the really pretty tablecloths they would be more, so honestly I wasn't suprised. Our liqour tab was a little more than I would have liked but then again my husband ordered too much.

All in all.. the ladies are so nice. Kay is so extremely wonderful. Teresa is great, she helped me pick out my wine at a tasting. You get one- to- one service.

My day was so fablous because of the women at Tad Akers. Thank you so much for making planning my wedding reception so easy.

Doesn't Recommend

par11

Joined 2 years ago

do not have you're wedding here. Every bride figures out more and more as they plan their wedding, being that it is the first wedding they have ever planned... the further I planned my wedding the more I regretted signing a contract with Tad Akers.

First, I feel continuously taken advantage of. I had a similar experience to shellshell86 who also has written a review. Tad Akers continuously tried to make their services seem like a "great deal" when they were up-charging the hell out of us over and over again. Once you sign a contract you are obligated to use companies contracted through them which is "included" in the pricing. You are required to get your cake, dj, alcohol, linens, and more through Tad Akers. This may seem like a more easy approach to planning a wedding, but not when they refuse to give you an accurate itemized receipt. Teresa and her crew also own a flower shop which conveniently is not inlcuded in the price.

The DJ they're contracted with never showed up for our meeting, we waited at Starbucks for an hour before he called. The number we were given on multiple occasions was invalid for the DJ. On the night of the wedding we had previously requested that 5 specific songs be played at some point throughout the night. I kept waiting for the song I had planned to dance to with my stepdad to, to play and it never did. Coincidentally I never danced with him the night of my wedding which is something that I will never be able to do over again. We could understand if all of our requests were not played if we had given the DJ a list of 100 songs of something, BUT WE ONLY REQUESTED 5!

We were really disappointed with the cake company we were required to use through Tad Akers as well... the cake tasting is supposed to be one of the most fun experiences when planning a wedding! When we arrived at the cake place the woman who owns the place saw us waiting but did not come to help us for 5 minutes. When she finally did approach us she did not introduce herself or smile.. (which she did not end up doing through out our whole meeting.) She told my husband she could not make the cake he wanted. When the meeting was over she ran out to her car and sped away. This was really comforting to us, considering she must have been rushing through the whole meeting. When we e-mailed Tad Akers to complain, which we did so in a very polite way, they proceeded to tell us that they hadn't gotten a complaint about their cake lady in 8 years and acted like we were crazy. Our cakes came out nicely for the most part but mine was lop-sided.

Over all any advice Tad Akers gave us was bs, they just tried to squeeze every penny out of us that they could. They tried to make everything on the wedding day very systematic. We got out of using catering through them but not even including catering our bill came out to a large amount of money for not much work by them. There is so much more I could say but this review and the other reviews should be enough for you to not use Tad Akers... there are plenty of other great places out there so don't waste your money here.

I just wanted to include a couple more things... we had a HUMONGOUS line of people waiting for food (being served by Tad Akers staff) and once people got their food it was cold... the bride and grooms food included. They also turned on the lights at exactly 11 o'clock when our four hour window of time was up. They could have announced that we were leaving and everyone would have followed, instead they gave off a feel of a high school dance ending and wanting everyone to get out of there asap.

Doesn't Recommend

shellshell86

Joined 4 years ago

Pretty place, horrible management. This is long, but every detail in here just adds to the reason why Tad Akers is NOT the place you want to have your wedding!

I had a place booked at a church. Unfortunately, due to hurricane damage, I had to find a new place at the last minute. I looked everywhere, and everywhere I looked was booked. That's when I found Tad Akers. My now husband is in the Army, and when I called them for info, they informed me that they offered a military discount. So I went and looked at the place - it was beautiful. Decently priced (or so I thought) and offered everything I would need (catering, cake, decorating). So I began to book it, and asked how much the military discount was. That's when they told me that I had to be mistaken, because they didn't offer one. I overlooked it and decided to book with them anyways. I asked about a dj, and they specifically said that they had a few I could use, but they didn't want to recommend one to me since they didn't know them that well; but that I was more than welcome to use one of my own (my husband's father is a dj on a local radio station). The next time I saw them, I informed them that I would be using him for our dj. They proceded to inform me that I couldn't use one of my own, but had to use one of theirs (another $650 charge), and that once again I must have heard the wrong. Excuse me, WTF, I know what I heard, because my friend and grandmother that came with me heard the exact same thing I did. Also, I had already set a time with them for the rehearsal - 6:30 the Friday before. A week and a half before then, they sent me an email saying that the time was no longer available and that the latest I could do it was at 4:00 (on a workday, mind you)(. Throughout the next weeks of planning, they continued to say one thing, then the next time went back on what they said and looked at me like I was retarded. I guess they caught on to how irritated I was with them. The day before the rehearsal they tried being nice, and even said if I was able to wanted to bring the rest of the decoration the morning of rehearsal then they could set it up for me so I could see what it would look like. I like the idea, but was unable to get it there that morning because of already scheduled events (hair, nail, etc.) They called me the morning of rehearsal, yelling at me, saying "You were supposed to bring the decorations this morning! Just bring them with you to your rehearsal (as already discussed could be received by then), and I hope my staff can set up all your decorations in time for your wedding!" (the next day). Well, it wasn't. None of the place settings were out. They were rude to me, my friends, and my family. The wedding turned out to be beautiful, but even on the day of the wedding they were snippy to my maid of honor and my own mother! They didn't even serve my husband or myself with a peice of our own wedding cake! The venue is beautiful, the catering is exceptional, and the cake vendor they used was terrific, but overall, their attitude and continuous habitual lying made this place a waste of time - NOT RECOMMENDED!!

Doesn't Recommend

houstonian2009

Joined 4 years ago

Would NOT recommend. Attended a wedding there - the staff was very rude including the guard outside. The wedding planner was very rude and on a RAINY day made guest return to their cars after walking in the rain because she said the doors will not open for 12 more minutes. She also was very rude to the brides family. Was later told my the bride that they over charged them and tried to charge them more just weeks before the wedding. Thought the building was nice - but staff needs a makeover. The food also was not warm - in addition planner was also rude to the DJ and was upset because of candy on the floor at the end of the night stating "this is the worst wedding ive ever hosted and dirty people" she mentioned this to GUEST of the wedding. I would not reccomend this location appears to be a "deal" until the try to harge you weeks before the wedding and also have rude staff working your wedding day.