Grace Gardens

Finally, a venue with Christian values! (They were recently in the news because they refused to do a gay wedding). I attended a friend’s wedding here and loved the place, they had an outdoor wedding on a beautiful tent and it was spectacular. I would love to have my wedding in a place like this. I would just like to make sure they follow other biblical rules so I made a list of questions for the owner, hopefully they can answer:
— Do you have a place to house and feed my slaves? I own 5 man, 3 women and 4 children, all foreigners. (Leviticus 25:44−46)
— Can you forward me a link to your dress code for women? I want to make sure my female guests don’t wear expensive mini skirts or jewelry (Timothy 2:9). I would prefer not to have to stone my mother in law to death on my wedding night.
— Please confirm that you have NEVER EVER served scallops, shrimp or lobster! Remember that just as gay marriage, this is also an abomination (Leviticus 11:12).
— Do you provide rocks (to kill the bride in case she’s not a virgin)? As the bible states, after the ceremony we are going to check her vajayjay and if she’s not a virgin where going to proceed and kill her with stones (Deuteronomy 22:20−21). We’re gonna need maybe 10 – 15 rocks, 20 – 30 lbs each.
Thanks. God bless!

If you are a same-​gender couple, this venue chooses who they are going to allow to use their services and you are not on the list. Please choose another venue who will respect your human rights to equal service.

I would classify Grace Gardens as the top banquet hall in El Paso. The facilities are beautiful and the grounds are impressive. You cannot beat the customer service (the food was great). I attended a wedding reception at Grace Gardens and then recently worked to coordinate an athletic awards banquet and both events were very memorable. I would recommend Grace Gardens to anyone!

I just had my wedding early Oct. 2012. I must admit I am a very organized person and I started planning 1year before my event. I worked with Alice as my wedding coordinator. My perspective was a bit different since I was planning my event from a different country which only gave me 3 opportunities to come into town and make definitive arrangements. Their venue is a one stop shop including: wine, food, décor, beer, lighting, flowers, dj and ceremony space. So this was the place for me. The cherry on top is that you bring your own liquor and that is always a hugh cost savings to customers. I chose the tent which has the beautiful chandelier and draping.
The GOOD and the BAD:
Cost were on the higher end in El Paso but they really don’t have many competitors who have updated venues. As a former El Paso resident I know all existing venues have not been renovated and have an 80’s look to them.
I did have 2 tastings and made the menu as simple as possible because I must say I was not impressed with my first tasting. The upside is that they will make anything you ask for. Everyone was very satisfied with the food despite being late by about 1 hour due to our limo driver. The green chile corn chowder was a huge crowd pleaser! It’s a must if you are going for the southwest flavor in your menu. I personally encouraged this to our chef. I have had better food at other weddings but in the grand scheme of things everyone was sufficiently impressed so this pleased me.
I did not use their florist nor their DJ. I will say that the DJ was definitely the most unprofessional person at Grace Gardens. I attempted to customize the songs played and make a flow of everything and he replied in one sentence answers to 2 emails and took 1 month to get back to me. I went ahead and looked for someone else which worked very well. The Dj was never a problem because I was well ahead of schedule.
One thing I will complain about is the security detail. 2 police officers were on duty all night and the bartender cut off several guests despite all guest having full access to shuttle service. I had many guest comment about this and how it made them feel like they were doing something wrong, illegal etc. I personally have never been to a wedding with police inside the venue and constantly circulating. I was informed that there would be security and that they would be outside. This was a very uneasy feeling and it just destroyed the ambience that we tried to create. Not cool.
Linens they provide are good and there is plenty to combine to make tasteful arrangements. The tables looked classy. My outside florist did an absolutely superb job!
They offered lemon scented warm towels after the cocktail hour which was a nice touch for my guest.
Midnight burritos were awesome!!! hats off to the chef. Many satisfied guest.
Ceremony was beautiful and once again my florist was simply amazing. Alice helped with an unforeseen quartet absence. Ha! I believe she was more upset than I was but I think they set up a CD player that was only audible to guest. Who knows?
Mosquito city!!! Once it got dark out it was crazy! I left several {off repellant} at guest restrooms. It is a must with the pond.
All in all I really liked the venue and what they provided for us. There was not a single person who didn’t have a good time. I would highly recommend this venue to anyone who is planning from out of town and still wants a tasteful wedding. They are organized! Alice was amazingly patient and gave me a total of 3 – 4 quotes due to incoming «guests». She rolled with all of it with such grace. Thanks Alice. All the best.

Writer’s Note:
This is an updated review that I felt compelled to write after the following exchange that took place this morning. The original review follows this one.
This morning, I received a call from the owner of Grace Gardens and George’s Tents & Events. George told me he heard I was planning a wedding for «next June or July». He seemed to have no knowledge about my past attempts to obtain a quote for a tent for May 26^th, 2013 or the fact that it took three weeks for someone (now I know his name, Edmund) to contact me on July 7, 2012. George definitely did not know that Edmund in fact met with me, my wife, the bride’s family, the sales manager, and the catering manager at Coronado Country Club at 1:00 p.m., five days later on Thursday July 12, 2012. George also apparently was unaware that we have been patiently waiting for a quote for the 7,000 square foot tent – almost one month later to the day.
I informed George that after not hearing from Grace Gardens/George’s Tents & Events for a couple weeks, we were subsequently forced to obtain two competing quotes – one from a local tent vendor in El Paso and one from Albuquerque. Both quotes arrived within three days and we’ve been in regular communication.
After explaining to George all of the above, he felt the need to trash talk the two largest private country clubs in El Paso (his competitors) and replied, «I sense a negative vibe, so I am going to refuse to quote your event.» I responded, «Thanks for your call.»
BUYER BEWARE!!!
Writer’s Note: There were plenty of other problems that are not described above. If you’re even considering using this vendor for your event, you may contact me through Unilocal!,I’d be happy to share more.