OK, I write this with great sadness. Mostly because I feel bad for the woman who owns it. But, as…read morea Bride wanting other future brides to have the best possible experience for their wedding, I feel I MUST share my experience.
I will start with the positives:
1. From an outsiders perspective, Willow Manor was a beautiful place to have a wedding.
2. The site allowed me to have my dog, many friends stay all weekend and have no time limit for the party (both rehearsal and wedding. We were able to party well in the night.
3. There were SOME times that the owner/planner would be right on top of things, making planning very easy for us. She was accommodating to us and our needs for the house.
Now, I will share the not so positive experiences:
1. When we arrived at the site for the wedding, the place was FILTHY. It has only been spot cleaned from the wedding 5 days before. The floors were not swept or mopped. There was broken glass on the floor, the kitchen was a disaster area with crusted over food particles, dirty dishes, ants, sticky floors, rotting food. There was ROTTING TRASH outside that smelled like 50 rotting animal carcasses that was not taken out until AFTER the rehearsal dinner. How embarrassing for us that our guests had to smell that!!!!!! There were NEVER cleaners the entire weekend like she said there would be. My friends and I had to scrub toilets, sinks, sweep floors, empty trash, etc before the wedding. Imagine a bride cleaning on her wedding day because the "girls" she kept talking about that were going to come in never did.
2. My brother and nephew were nearly injured when the canopy to one of the beds collapsed on them. That room had random clothes and things shoved into a corner, very haphazardly. The closet door was falling off and the closets were stuffed with dirty clothes, and random stuff left by her or other wedding parties. Another one of the rooms, the air conditioner was not working in. That room also had a HUGE ant problem.
3. One of the 3 showers was out of order. People were in and out of the bridal suite all day of the wedding taking showers and getting ready.
4. The cabinets in one of the bathrooms had rodent waste in it....YUCK. I almost threw up I was so disgusted.
5. The grounds were OK but quite overgrown. I had to weed the alter area (weeds coming up in between the bricks) because it was overgrown and unsightly. There was poison ivy growing up all around the alter area that my little nephew was walking in before I alerted my brother.
6. During the ceremony and reception, my parents had paid for 8 staff to serve at the wedding for 5 hours. Im quite certain I only saw 4 including her. And I know because I was so busy during the wedding entertaining my guests AND making sure to let them know things that caterers and planners should take care of. For the toast, there were suppose to be staff passing out champagne, but because there were only 3 other staff members, not everyone got champagne. Only a couple of tables received it. The rest were told to go to the bar (while the toasts were happening) Then the planner let all her staff go by 10pm so Instead of having a wedding planning controlling things going on, she was the only one left and was tending bar.
7. The owner/wedding planner was disorganized. She promised me one date for my wedding. Said she would hold it for us while we went to see another place that same day (because I was not living int he area at the time I have to view many places on one day) When we contacted her the next day to tell her we wanted to sign the contract and have the wedding on that date, she took 6 days to get back to us, then telling us that her "assistant" (whom we never met or saw) had rented the place and took the deposit. She offered me the only other day avaiable...which really messed with my summer plans and caused us to delay our honeymoon until 4 months after the wedding (because I teach school and had to get back to work)
2. Communication was difficult from day one on every front. She took 5 to 7 days sometimes to get back to us regarding things that we paid to her to do as our wedding planner (Book hotel rooms and get those contracts signed, secure hair dressers, nail appts, etc.) Sometimes she would be right on it, other times she would ignore emails and phone calls for over a week or more.
There is more, but frankly I am exhausted from even thinking about it all. In my opinion, she is very unprofessional misrepresented her property and services. This place ONLY gets 1 star because my friends and family banned together to make the wedding awesome and fun.
It was really embarrassing to me and my family to have the place so filthy. My friends who stayed there talked about it for weeks after. Everyone had a blast, but the place will forever be remembered by some as disgusting, filthy and smelly.
I would not recommend this place or Willow Manor's services to anyone planning any event.
