My husband and I attended a wedding at Rustic Pines this past weekend, and witnessed an incident…read morethat I feel is important to share. We arrived by Uber, driven by a kind, well-spoken driver who happened to be a Black man from Africa, with my husband and I seated in the back. As we pulled into the venue, a man directing traffic, who we later learned was the owner, approached the car and demanded, in a harsh and aggressive tone, "What's your business here? What are you doing here?" Before our driver could even finish explaining that he was dropping off guests for the wedding, the owner cut him off and demanded he roll down the windows so he could see who was in the back seat. Our driver remained polite and composed throughout, though it was clear he felt he had no choice but to stay quiet and comply. It was heartbreaking to witness.
Before we got out of the car, my husband and I told our driver how embarrassed and sorry we were for the way he'd just been treated, but even that didn't ease the heartbreak of knowing someone had to experience this kind of treatment at all. I also spoke up in the moment, because I believe those of us who hold a position of privilege have a responsibility to use it when we witness this kind of treatment. The owner's demeanor didn't change in response, he simply directed the car to pull forward, without any acknowledgment of how inappropriate his behavior had been. The venue itself is beautiful and the wedding was lovely, but this encounter left us deeply unsettled. A venue owner's conduct toward the people serving his guests says a great deal, and this is not the kind of treatment anyone should have to experience. I would caution anyone considering this venue to be aware of how the owner treats people he perceives as outsiders, it's left me unwilling to ever return, regardless of how beautiful the grounds are.
This gets worse-
Stephanie, the co-owner of this venue, found one sentence in my review that she could twist, and she twisted it. Google notifies a business the moment a review is posted, so she saw it right away. She then called the bride, who was out of the country on her honeymoon, and told her we thought her wedding wasn't good enough for us. Anyone who reads the review can see that's false. I said the wedding was lovely. It was.
The bride had no reason to ever see my review. She only knew because Stephanie told her. This was a bride Stephanie had just spent months working with and collecting payment from, and upsetting her on her honeymoon to deflect from a review about her family's own conduct is disgusting.
A family member of the newlyweds reached out and asked me to take the review down from Google, and I did, for their sake, not Stephanie's. My Yelp review stayed up, and I've now cut that last sentence here too, so it can't be used against anyone again.
I actually spoke with Stephanie over a phone call and told her what I witnessed: a man treated poorly, and I believe he would not have been treated that way if he were white. I expected a thank-you, an apology, maybe a promise to address it. Instead she was completely unapologetic and said she wouldn't discuss it.
Like father, like daughter. When confronted, neither one acknowledged what happened.
