I had used 1830 Wedding Barn as my wedding venue October 12, 2019. We had booked them May 6th, 2018. During the time that we had booked them, and were under contract with them, to the date of the event they had changed many aspects that they had originally sold us on. They had told us we had the week of the wedding for all of our needs, the entire day before the wedding for rehearsal/set up, our dog was allowed to be in our wedding, the day of the event we had from 10 am to 10 pm to arrive and departure, as well as to clean up Sunday morning. October 5th, 2019 The wedding barn sent out an email outlining new guidelines of the venue. In these guidelines they state no animals, all clean up must be done the night of the wedding, we now only had 2 hours the Friday before for rehearsal, dinner, and for decorations, and a max time the reception could be is 4 hours.
Rehearsal day, I was told to arrive a little bit earlier to unload decorations before the rest of my bridal party/family showed up. We had set the time for everyone to meet at 5 but the venue had told me to arrive closer to 3:45 to be sure I had most things set up (conversed in person and through email and text). I had walked into the barn and nothing had been set up (tables, chairs, and special curtain we had paid $150 to be put up). I had walked in and instantly looked at the girl who I had spoken with to make this plan and said "wow, your hair looks amazing". She greeted me with attitude, "Is rehearsal dinner not at 5?". Taken back by her remark, I had explained that she had told me to come in early to deliver decorations (I am sure wedding season is busy and everyone needs a little reminder sometimes.) She then snapped at me stating that I only had 2 hours to be there. She did not recall telling me to come early, though there were texts, and emails confirming it. We had also spoken prior to the rehearsal about my legal contract and that they agreed they would honor "what ever was in the contract". In the contract it was written that we had ample time the week prior and the entire day Friday to set up. If anyone else reading this had gotten married, they understand how stressful it is in general, (especially the day before) and having to process and deal with substantial changes a week prior, I was incredibly stressed out. After being greeted with such attitude I had just broken down and cried. We had many other issues with the wedding and we were about to call the entire thing off right then and there.
Day of wedding, there was no organization of the staff at all. I had shown up with my friend and we were told to drive around back so that I wouldn't be seen. As soon as we had driven out there we were screamed at for driving on their grass but had been instructed to drive down that dirt road. They had also screamed at my poor grandmother for driving around back since she was unaware of where to park, since they were not directing traffic coming in (many witnessed that had written me statements). TO note they would not allow any of my vendors to arrive at the Venue before 12pm, though the contract stated they could get there at 10am. They had shut my DJ down at 7:45 telling him multiple times to turn down his music and rushed us out the door by 8:30. This included us rushing to clean up our own wedding and many valuable things went missing afterwards. We were under contact for our wedding and wedding schedule to end at 10 not be rushed out the door the entire day. My vendors, who have written statements, felt uncomfortable by the venues presents and tried to avoid them at all costs. One had noted smelling strong alcohol on one of them during Rehearsal as well as the day of the wedding. My event coordinator/wedding planner also did NOT have a pleasant experience with them at all.
There are so many other things that had happened to make our experience subpar but at the end of the day they knowingly violated our contract stating, "we didn't expect you to remember all the things that we sold you on in our first meeting".
I totally understand the need to change and improve each wedding, however with big changes like these we should have been notified prior to a week before the wedding and a new contract should have been issued to outline their changes or giving us an option to move elsewhere if their new changes didn't work with us.
I only ever plan on getting married one time and unfortunately every time we look back on the day we deeply regret choosing this facility or even having a wedding in general. With all the stress they had put us through we should have just eloped.
I know some people had a great experience with these people but I am just sharing my personal experience that I encountered. read more