My husband and I found Red Barn online in November/December of 2019. We were aiming for an outdoor…read moreFall wedding, and the property for Red Barn was absolutely beautiful from the accommodations, the scenery of the surrounding forest, to the water, the gardens, and of course, the barn itself.
We reached out and scheduled a visit with the coordinator. The day of the visit we arrived, the coordinator had forgotten, but said we could walk around the site. It was no big deal, the day was kind of gray, but we could get a sense of what the property was, so we decided to go forward. We did have another meeting, and signed the contract for September 13th.
A couple months later, Covid hit, and we were in limbo about the wedding and evolving government regulations. However, we kept informed of the changes and adapted as needed, they were flexible and we were comfortable moving forward together.
So far, pretty good experience, you might be wondering why the low rating, but the turn happened a month leading up to the date. All of our vendors were booked and deposits all made. We had paid Red Barn ~$4500.
The first issue was that the in-house catering was no longer available, but we weren't made aware of the fact. We frantically searched for another catering, and were fortunate enough to find Cheryl's on 12th. So, again, no big deal really, just momentary panic.
Mon Sept 7th, however, issues started escalating. The huge Riverside fire was choking half the state, and with an outside venue, we were getting extremely concerned that this was becoming an impossibility.
Thur Sept 10th, the venue was in level 3 evacuation, our house was in level 2. Family was in the process of arriving from out of state, or traveling from around Oregon. We reach out and they say that maybe we can reschedule, or just see how things turn out.
Our vendors started calling. The catering would not travel to Oregon City, nor would the bartender, the florist, the baker, or the DJ. None of the vendors were willing to put their employees' health at risk to fulfill the business, and neither were we.
So we changed venues to SE Portland. One indoors with heavy ventilation. We made it work, our vendors could still do business in a nice area, and our guests didn't spend a lot of money and time making it out to our wedding for nothing.
We had heard nothing from Red Barn after the text mentioned above.
Here's where things soured greatly:
My husband reached out to Red Barn a few days after the wedding asking for a refund, and offered to pay ~$540 for their time of the meetings. There was a lot of back and forth. After months of negotiation, they said they would give back 50%, but with small payments over a period of time. That negotiation fell through, and Red Barn said they would only give back the deposit ($500).
My husband is a realtor and at the time had a client in Tillamook. He spent over 40 hours working with the client, found them a house, got it under contract, and in the end, the clients backed out. He was entitled to his commission (around $5500), but he didn't want to put his clients in a bad position, understood that it is part of business, and moved on. He relayed this to Red Barn, and they stated they were much like realtors in that they do all this work in preparation for a wedding, so they are entitled to the money.
Their communication was often condescending, talking about how lenient they were being with us, how generous they had been with their offers in the negotiation (i.e. "we don't generally offer this, but...")
What they were particularly insistent upon, was that the wedding could've been held at their venue. That there was no reason for us to even cancel in the first place (but, as they stated numerous times, "it was your right to make a different decision"), despite the repeated response that literally no vendors were going to be there. We weren't going to put our guests, our vendors, or their employees in that situation. The air quality was at the most hazardous level, and still in evacuation.
Over a year later, they responded with, "we even purchased a powerful air filter, the air in the barn was better than our own house." Knowledge we were never offered at any point. However, this is a barn. With wedding traffic, of guests, vendors, employees, no insulation, slim walls, it would be impossible. Our vendors would not be in attendance, and everyone would be subjected to some of the highest levels of air pollutants with its proximity to the fires.
In difficult times, we are presented with people's true character. The venue is lovely, the coordinator was nice enough, and we never actually met the owners. The odds of another pandemic and wildfires happening to sabotage your wedding day are indeed nearly zero, but going through it ourselves, we discovered that the owners of Red Barn have one priority above all else, where our vendors' owners did not: Profit over people. And apathy for an incredibly challenging situation.
