Villa Ragusa

Other than Maria, there is no one competent at Villa Ragusa!!! I was told that I would be the ONLY bride as we booked the east gallery combination, but then when we went back to make sure everything was still ok and on schedule (merged to The Villas), I find out there is another wedding!!!!!!

The short guy who works there (forgot his name) said they would deduct the cost of the 2nd room as we only tacked on that portion of the room to guarantee no other wedding would be booked; however, at the end of the conversation, when I asked for EVERYTHING in writing since they seem to be lying through the entire process, he went back on what he said and only gave us a $500 discount! When you are talking thousands, $500 bucks is hardly a discount. Plus, I didn't want another bride there. PERIOD!

They assured me that they would not let the two brides (myself and the other) ever cross paths! That was a bunch of BS! When our wedding party was being introduced, the other bride pulled up. (They said they tell the limo drivers to drive around the block if the other party is not all inside yet - LIE). The other party got out of the limo and started coming in. I was FURIOUS! I had to hide in the office while the other bride went into the bathroom! (REALLY?!?!) ugh. Really good way to avoid having the two brides see each other. Joke! This happened again while we were leaving, but I think you get the point from above.

Finally, other than the room being great, the food being good, and the bar being awesome, the customer service and the lies are ridiculous! I would not recommend this vendor as there are far too many other good locations and vendors!!

After searching reception sites high and low that would accommodate 250 people we came across Villa Ragusa. We met with Marisa and instantly hit it off. Their prices were very reasonable compared to other sites. We went with the priceless package and felt that it was the best value. It included things such as votives and candles, cake, appetizers, and chair covers. We also liked that they had a flat fee for their bar packages instead of a per drink price as all of the hotels do. The site was definitely more modern than some of the others we visited and the staff was very helpful. We did run into one issue at our tasting with the food that was served. They were very attentive and quickly re-schedule a new tasting. They assured us that all the concerns would be corrected, and they were. We received many compliments on the food. Marisa made sure the night flowed smoothly and that everyone had a great time. We recommend Villa Ragusa to anyone looking for a reception facility.

I would highly recommend this venue for a large or even small reception or party! This is a one stop venue which has a wonderfully flexible staff as well as reasonable prices for catering & bar packages! This place is such a wonderful find! Like a diamond in the rough!

What a beautiful venue, it turned out perfect, just what I wanted. Make sure to discuss the flowers much in advance!

I had my wedding at Villa Ragusa on June 14, 2008, coordinated by Alison Gardinier. The planning up to the event was great. Alison responded to all my emails quickly and answered all my questions. The reason I give Alison and VR a 1 star is because of the service they provided me the DAY of our wedding. After all the "Wedding Day" is the main event right?

After the reception was all set up and my guest were enjoying the cocktail hour Alison had left the event and had gone home because apparently she had become ill. She did not inform my own personally hired coordinators that she would be leaving and that Marissa (the 2nd Villa Ragusa coordinator) would be taking over. Marissa ended up working two events at one time, our wedding and the other wedding that was happening in the other ballroom. Again we were not informed of this.

(Note: The week before when we were finalizing our menu we let Alison know that we would be paying the $500 fee to extend our reception by one hour. We would then be scheduled to end at 11:30 pm.)

At about 10:30 p.m. the caterer from the Del Monte Restaurant (DID I MENTION CATERER not coordinator) comes up to me and informs me that me and my guest need to be out of there because our contract time ended. She informed me that the lights must be turned on and that our DJ needs to turn off the music. This (obviously) was incorrect

After arguing back and forth with her for 30 minutes (she kept insisting that I was incorrect and that she was right)...We tried to call Marissa and Alison on their cell phones but NOBODY was picking up! We finally go downstairs to the office where we look over the contract and in big letters it reads "1 HOUR OVER TIME PAID $500". We continued the party but at this point I was livid! Even though the party continued, they compensated our entire bar tab, it doesn't even make up for the frustration and angry Del Monte and Villa Ragusa put me through ON MY WEDDING DAY!

THIS is why I was upset.

1. Alison (whom I've worked with from day one) should have told my coordinators that she was leaving.

2. The VR Coordinators did not stay until the end of our event. As customers we PAID for their service and they should not have left until our event was over.

3. During the dilemma Marissa and Alison were nowhere to be reached in person or by phone.

4. Villa Ragusa and the Caterer had very bad communication. They should have discussed everything clearly before letting Del Monte Restaurant take over

5. I had originally told my florist to come back at 11:30pm to pick up all rented items BUT early that day VR told them to come at 10:30pm (which obviously shows that VR did not have the correct ending time at all)... My poor florist had to wait 1 hour at the venue until the correct ending time of 11:30pm.

6. MOST importantly!!! The caterer should NOT have come up to me (the BRIDE) and tell us to turn the lights on. That is why I had hired my own personal coordinators. She should have approached them, the groom, any of the bridesmaids... NOT THE BRIDE!

In the end Alison felt bad and did compensate our bar tab BUT as I mentioned before that does not make up for the anger, frustration and irritation they put me through DURING our event... After all, the Wedding Day is the most important aspect and the service I received ON THE DAY was horrible!

I loved working with Villa Ragusa. They worked with our budget, gave us lots of options, and in the end we ended up with exactly what we wanted/needed all for a price that none of our guests would believe. We got tons of compliments on the food, the bar, everything! The men especially have been coming to me, raving about the size of the prime rib. :-)I worked with Alison Gardanier throughout the whole process. She was very helpful, accommodating, and quick to answer any of our questions. The day of the wedding she was attentive to our every need and made sure that we were comfortable throughout the night.I have to say, though, that the main reason we chose Villa Ragusa over other reception venues was the combination of size and price. We were estimating around 300 guests for our wedding, so our reception options were a bit limited. Most hotels maxed out around 200 and those that didn't were pretty pricey. In the end, we chose a hotel that maxed out at 280 and just tried to be happy. Luckily, a bout of bad service from that hotel prompted us to cancel our reservation and begin the search anew. Good thing we checked out Villa because we were able to accommodate more people, have much better food, a bigger dance floor, more space and a full bar for much less than we would have spent at the hotel.

Villa Ragusa was great for our reception. My husband and I have big families and they had a very nice and big room too accomidate us. There were two other rooms to choose from, but the one we were in had a beautiful wooden dance floor and a long bar. They were great throughout the process. The coordinator met with us a few tie to explain things as well as talked to us frequtly on the phone. They had everything set up for us before we got there so there wasn't any last minutes things that my family had to worry about. THey had many options for colors and center pieces. Overall everyone had a blast at the reception and said that Villa Ragusa was beautiful. Tip: Great photo op. Have your photographer stand at the top of the stairs and look down at you to take pics to get the VG symbol. It is a great angle.