First off I'd like to say it is a very beautiful venue and it has a very large area for outdoor ceremonies with several different options for Ceremony site, however it was just sold last year and is now owned by the local restaurant Lombardi's.
There are several reasons I would not recommend this venue after having my one and only wedding there this past month in July. First off I am by no means I'll pick you guy I am very simple I let my wife do most of the planning like I said I am a Simple Man and honestly could care about nothing other than my wife having the wedding she wanted. nearly everything from planning table situations everything she did herself with the venue being involved very little but pushing their restaurant to be the caterer for it highly, which and turned out to be one of the larger expenses.
#2, the bridal room as large as it was had a broken AC unit in the middle of July. Our bridesmaids and makeup and hair artist or miserable we were not told in advance well when we could have brought our own AC units or fans. I don't care what anybody says it was so bad that the groomsmen offered up our AC unit and it ended up costing us more money on the back end because it was impossible to get the makeup right. Second the very small new room for men had no sink and I ended up after getting dressed for the ceremony doing my hair in a porta potty out front because we cannot walk freely across the venue due to the possibility of running into the bride. Number three we were denied a bouncy house because they wanted to keep their lawn nice when any parent out there knows a bouncy house does not kill your lawn especially if it's set up appropriately by a vendor. Number four someone from the venue came in to our miserable bridesmaids room hugged my now wife and told her they would be giving her a refund because they felt so bad for the AC unit and the fact that, ( no fault of Nature's) we had 85 people RSVP that did not show. We paid the owners of Nature's connection Lombardi's for 150 guests per guest $36 a plate which comes out to $5,400 and we're charged over $7,000 for the food wow supplying all of our tables all of our silverware we were literally responsible for everything they did not do anything to take the stress out of a wedding. I thought a wedding was supposed to be a little less stressful and a happy day but I could not tell you who was there to celebrate with us because we were being pulled everywhere to deal with things I felt like Nature's connection should have offered or at least helped out with. Our day of coordinator was excellent and did her best. Needless to say we never received that partial refund that was told to the Bridesmaids and then not followed through with which is the only thing that really has me so upset and writing this review due to the fact that I don't like hearing after the fact, from our bridesmaids, " at least they refunded you that few thousand dollars after all of that mess"
This wedding was the most stressful thing I have ever done and the venue Nature's connection I felt did not do anything to comfort me my wife my bridesmaids my groomsmen or my guests. Our cake was served with no Forks are $700 cake by the way. Yes my 85 friends who did not attend but rsvp'd are the main reason for the ridiculous food cost but we had 20 lb of food to take home just to throw away because we immediately went out of town for our honeymoon the next day. I could continue on but I will not I tore this venue before it was sold and I loved it but after my wedding there I could not possibly recommend this place I much rather would have done it in my backyard. Broken promises lack of Care on part of the venue, and a wife who put in hundreds of hours of preparation for a wedding that was beautiful but more uncomfortable and stressful than it needed to be if the host of our wedding being Nature's connection cared a little more about their customers / gas rather than the free plastic forks they provided for us after hanging out our cake with no silverware. I thank you for the free plastic wear however it doesn't put a dent in the additional costs or distress and put on me the groom and my bride during our very special day. I hope you're not mad babe but this needed to be said because they have totally blown you off with the exception of returning our security deposit, which thank you Nature's connection you followed through with something read more