Wedding at Coco Palm, Pomona CA --> Terrible!

[Taky Cheung]

I just finished a wedding at Coco Palm Restaurant at Pomona CA last night. It was horrible.

Ceremony
- It's on top of a hill look over the I-10 freeway. No nice view and busy traffic noise
- There is no shade or tant or umbrella provided for the reception area. All the guests don't want to come sit down get grilled until the last minute.
- The only shaded area is the altar. It makes shooting extremely bad because of serious backlighting.
- Stair access everywhere only. Not good for elderly or people in wheelchair

Reception
- The decor of the reception room was plain.
- Big window all on one side. Making it back lighting on one side mixing with indoor color temp. Very tricky to get good shot.
- Food was terrible. We have chicken just like the guest have. Tasteless and dry.
- Around 8:55pm, all programme finished and open dance floor. Light was dimmed. Sharp at 9pm, they turn on all the light. Party is over.

The worst part, the owner of the place walked to each table to tell guest to leave.

[Chris Hurd]

Many years ago I once shot an outdoor wedding ceremony in San Marcos, at the city park in the gazebo by the river. On the other side of the river: train tracks. Guess what happened just as the vows were exchanged? Train. Slowly moving. Whistle blowing loudly. As if on cue. What a groaner that was! Worst. Wedding. Ever.

[Taky Cheung]

haha.. I have a similar experience at Universal Hilton here in Hollywood. But it was the police helicopter chasing runaway car. The officiant has to pause to wait till the helicopter went away.

[Kelly Langerak]

I was going to suggest putting a review on Yelp,... but I see you already did.

That sounds allllll bad.

This posting even comes up on the front page of Google when you search Coco Palm Pomona.

They can't do anything about the noise, but shutting down like that. They should of just talked the coordinator and made announcement 15,10,5 min prior to closing.

9pm? Maybe the bride should of rented it out longer.

[Taky Cheung]

The bride said the place has a very strict rule. But it's just rude for the owner to walk to each table to tell guest to leave. 9pm on a saturday night? You know, they turn on all the ceiling light sharp at 9pm... that's a signal the party is over.

[Cody Dulock]

Yikes! Do you ever contact all the vendors before the wedding day to get more info?

[Taky Cheung]

No.. that's the wedding planner's job. We just need to know where is the venue and go from there. This is the first time we worked at this restaurant.

[Jim Snow]

Taky, You will get a kick about what "The Knot" has to say about them.

http://www.cocopalmrestaurant.com/weddings.htm

Needless to say, there's a lot of misleading information with the "Wedding Help" services. I guess in some circles money will buy you anything.

[Taky Cheung]

oh woow.. by looking at those photos (and a slideshow linked from that site), I want to book my wedding there.

Still the fact is, there is no wheel chair access. I saw people helping their older relatives walked through all the stairs yesterday. I was carrying my gears on wheel... with my assistant's help, it's still quite tough to get through all the stairs.

The scene there is pretty, as long as you don't get close to the rail... as all you get is the busy I-10 freeway when look down, and hear the noise.

Maybe someone else love the scene there. But it doesn't change the fact that the unfriendly owner went to each table to ask the guest to leave at 9:05pm with his unfriendly tone and facial expression. 4 of us (2 videogs and 2 photogs) were standing in the corner waiting for the bride to pay us.. We were told to leave too.

[Taky Cheung]

Originally Posted by Jim Snow

Needless to say, there's a lot of misleading information with the "Wedding Help" services. I guess in some circles money will buy you anything.

That is very true. In another thread I was talking about wedding planner asking us for referral. She cited other venue like resort, golf course all giving her 20% to 25% kick back.