When we first looked at Surly for our wedding, the reviews sounded great. Katie was charming and promised Surly would bend over backwards for our special day. We quickly paid $1000... to secure our reservation.
We took off work to attend a tasting at 4:30 on a Friday. We were disappointed that the event was more of a corporate thing with small bites and a bunch of expensive items we weren’t considering. Katie knew we were thinking plated dinners, so we were shocked we couldn't taste them. Surly had 3 of 8 plated options on display only. The plates were very skimpy- the $42 ribs had 2 small bones and it was the best looking option.
We were upset and said as much on a feedback card. Katie contacted us after the event and after going back and forth, finally agreed to do a private tasting. After the 2nd tasting, we decided the a la carte sides and carving stations were a better value.
We wanted sweet tea for our guests that don’t drink alcohol. Surly offered to provide unsweet tea for $40 a gallon. Surly tea somehow costs more than a gallon of Surly beer.
We wanted to bring in chairs through a vendor. Katie told us we could have them delivered Friday, but told the chair company they could only be dropped off Saturday. Again, we had to advocate for ourselves to get what we were originally promised.
The day of the wedding we had trouble with security staff. My wife got to Surly just before the ceremony. Security tried to stop her & bridal party from entering without showing their ids. Security was very rude, acted like they had no idea a wedding was taking place, and delayed their entering significantly.
Later my wife’s brother went to check on our getaway car. The security watched him walk out, and then wouldn’t let him reenter without showing his id. He was in a hurry to let us know we could leave and security wanted to mark his hand. He just gave them his id. Not 10 mins later he came back to get his id and the same guy acted like he had no idea who he was and demanded his full name and DOB so he could id him. He did, and the guy pulled his id out of his pocket without even looking at it. I get this is a venue that serves alcohol and has to be careful, but they were profoundly unprofessional.
Surly offers to change the brew tank lights for you, but the day of the wedding, the lights were broken and couldn’t be changed.
It costs extra to use their projector screen, which we didn’t want or need. We let Katie know we wouldn’t need the screen months in advance, but the screen was down during the entire ceremony. My MIL tried to get Surly to put the screen up before the ceremony. Katie told her not to worry about it, but she never fixed it. Katie later told us it was broken after we complained during our reception. After this we never saw Katie again.
The screen was up during the reception, but somehow broken during the ceremony? It’s really confusing why the screen was down at all- it was up during our rehearsal/final walk through the day before.
Surly, esp Katie, never ceased to amaze me with their ineptitude. I don’t know if she is stupid or just really didn’t care/like us. She would smile, say ok, and never deliver. A lot was easy to brush off, but we are devastated that all of the pictures from our ceremony are ruined by the screen. Every time I look at pictures from the best day of our life, all I can see is the screen in every picture.
If you really want your event there, make sure you ask lots of questions before you spend the money.