OAKS AT MENORAH PARK

Here is an excerpt of an open letter written to the caterers at the Oaks:
‘The first glitch that we encountered, was a clear case of dueling personalities between Jarrod, the manager, and my father-​in-​law. Despite this obvious tension, our family decided to move forward with the contract and payment — that is until out of the blue one day I received a startling email from Jarrod that he had «oops» given our date away, and would no longer be working with us. After months of correspondence, this childish reaction to his miscommunication with my husbands family was shocking. Ultimately, with the help of some family connections we were able to get to the bottom of the issue, which was simply that Jarrod did not like dealing with my father-​in-​law. Though it never sat well with us to continue this unprofessional relationship, we really had no choice. My mother became the point person for all future catering communications, because Jarrod simply refused to return calls from my husband’s family.
Then, on the day of our wedding, naturally things happened. Weather, mostly. The morning of the wedding, we arrived to take photos — and all my place settings had been changed. Chairs had been moved, things had been shuffled around, and more than one of my hand-​made personalized candles had been broken and shoved in a corner as if we wouldn’t notice. Despite all this, my husband and I made our best efforts to greet the staff and explain the situation. Eventually, the call was made that the ceremony had to be inside, and so our incredible team of friends snapped to it, moving everything into the barn. From this moment forward, the attitude we received from the caterers as a whole was unacceptable. Namely from our baker, Pam, who gave no response when my husband greeted her simply to say «Hi, nice to see you again.» The entire day, her face was fixed with a sour look, and anytime a request was made, she met it with further attitude.
Perhaps our biggest disappointment with the whole mess, even more than the childish attitude towards my father-​in-​law, was the pitiful dessert display. Even though I had personally offered to purchase cupcake tiers and brought in my own wood blocks for this romantic, rustic dessert display — I was assured that Pam had a plan. She certainly did; a bunch of soggy looking cupcakes lined up on napkins, and an even sadder cake sitting lopsided on top of a box. This cake looked like a botched home economics project, and included none of the details we had gone over months before. In fact, all of the desserts looked sloppy, and like they belonged at a child’s birthday party. Not to mention that they were set out BEFORE the ceremony, and by the time the reception got underway they were already way past inedible. At the moment where we went to cut our cake, we had no knife — and when I asked Pam politely for a knife to cut my wedding cake, her response as she walked away was rude and fueled by the same poor attitude she’d given us all night. Luckily a friend found us a knife, because she certainly couldn’t be bothered.
While I have strong feelings about the poor way in which certain individuals at The Oaks conducted themselves, I would like to also commend those who were wonderful to work with — such as Stacey. She kept in constant contact, helped us so much with our floor plan, and was just plain decent to work with. I also would like to thank the bar manager and staff for being so friendly and encouraging to a scattered bride whose wedding had just been rained on. These people’s kindness and professionalism does in fact get noticed. Just as the juvenile behavior of other individuals does in fact get noticed.
My husband and I are reasonable, easy going people. Our main role in this whole thing was trying to keep the peace between Jarrod and my husband’s father. We have both worked in the service industry and customer service, and know very well what it is to have a customer you don’t particularly like. But the least you can do is put on a happy face, and do your job. We felt it was important that you also heard from the bride and groom, whose wedding could have easily been ruined by your lack of professionalism.
Let this serve as a warning to your future customers. If you can find another Kosher caterer anywhere in the state, use them instead.’