The Des Moines Embassy Club

We had our reception at the Temple for the Performing arts, which is run by the Des Moines Embassy Club (DMEC). Buyer Beware! The Temple is one of the most beautiful indoor venues in Des Moines, but I would have serious reservations about booking them if I had to do it again. The beautiful surroundings don't mean much when the customer service is subpar! Below are some examples of things that went wrong. 1. The food we were served at our tasting was NOT the food we were served at our wedding. The food served at the wedding only vaguely resembled the food we tasted and agreed upon before the wedding. For instance we had decided on a salt and spice encrusted Portabello as one of our entree options. What we were served was a rubbery substance that somewhat resembled a mushroom and had NO salt or spices on it. I could barely get a few bites down! Prior to the wedding, I had gushed to everyone that the food from our tasting was delicious. Needless to say, I was beyond embarrassed by the food that was actually served. To add insult to injury, the menus that I had printed (with details taken directly from our contract) were obviously for a meal other than that on our guests' plates. 2. Multiple items of decor were not returned to us. My mother had generously lent us an easel and a one-of-a-kind candlestick to use as part of our decorations. When we went to pick up our decorations the morning after the wedding the candle and the picture were there, but candlestick and easel that had held them a few hours before ( among other sundry objects) were not. When we notified the DMEC that the items were missing, they were very nonchalant about the situation and took no measures to rectify it. At my brother's wedding a few months earlier (held at the Renaissance Savery Hotel), we got back everything the next morning. Even little scraps of trash that we didn't want! 3. There were no napkins at the place settings. Linens (including napkins) are included in the contract and we had even discussed how we wanted the napkins arranged at our walk through the day before, but come the day of the wedding no napkins were to be found. We ended up having to use napkins from our decorator at the last minute(to the tune of an additional $200) since the DMEC couldn't come up with napkins for our guests. 4. We had a candy buffet and gave specific instructions, including photographs, about how to set it up. Instead of being set up on its own table prior to the reception so that guests would be able to peruse it during the cocktail hour as we had requested, it was thrown out haphazardly after dinner onto the guestbook table without any regard to our specifications. The table looked like an afterthough rather than the carefully curated and decorated treat display we had designed. The glass scoops tied with coordinating ribbons were "lost" as were the signs for specifying the contents of each jar. When we picked up the jars the next morning, one was broken and the "lost" signs and scoops were miraculously in the same box as remaining jars. 5. Communication was often an issue. It would routinely take days-weeks to get a response through email and it would often take multiple emails to get simple questions answered. To top it off the catering managers were late to the walkthrough. You don't have time to waste that close to the wedding day! 6. The voucher for our 1-year-anniversary dinner at a DMEC restaurant was much less than the amount specified in the contract. Although I doubt this is really of any consequence, since I can safely say that we will be having our anniversary dinner elsewhere.