The venue that Shasta weddings provides is absolutely breathtaking! It is such a beautiful place in the middle of nowhere, great for people who want to escape into the magical woods with friends & family.
However, there were *several* problems which made my experience less than ideal. I would like to frame this review as me helping anyone who might be considering Shasta weddings as a venue, not complaining. I am grateful for our experience but I would have done things completely different had I known the following information:
First of all, the most major problem is that there is no service & no wifi. I had no idea about this, as we visited in June & had service at the time. Regardless, the day of the ceremony, we arrived & had no service. This was problematic because several people did not have directions so a lot of people were late or unable to come because they never got directions. Further, Shasta Weddings has a satellite & wifi, but Beth wouldn't share it because it would slow down her service. Several people asked & she ignored them. Then those people were bugging me, which annoyed me on my wedding day. Not only was this bad for directions, but it was bad for our musical selections. Any songs/music not downloaded were unable to be downloaded. So, if you're planning a wedding at Shasta Weddings, you need to definitely have everyone on the same page as far as directions, knowing that there is no service, & the DJ having all the music pre-selected & downloaded. Not too hard, but in my opinion, unfair... even though, admittedly, we were never promised wifi or service.
Second of all, I did not realize that check in for EVERYONE was by 5pm. This makes absolutely no sense for a DESTINATION wedding in the middle of nowhere... No one lived close. Everyone had to travel. Why should they be expected to arrive no later than 5pm?
With that in mind, the way that check in was done was bizarre. Beth had mentioned to my mother-in-law that she could be "in charge" of people checking in after 5. Several of my friends & family members either didn't end up coming, or left the venue to go get a hotel because it was snowing. Many also got there when my mother-in-law wasn't sitting at the table waiting. Regardless, the payment for those guests was taken out of our deposit. Thus, WE were still responsible for paying for the guests that couldn't stay due to weather, not being able to find the venue, or just didn't end up coming. etc. I had no idea about this, as my last update was sent to her 9/21 for my 9/28 wedding, & on the paper it is written "You are not committed to the placements but we can help if something seems amiss." which is interesting because apparently i had committed to those placements... since i had to pay. With this in mind, i would suggest hiring someone to take care of the names/collect the money, so that you will have some of your deposit left back!
Beyond that, she was generous with the rest of the deposit, as we left in a hurry & didn't clean much beyond the basics. she even did not charge us for the "campers" who were supposed to camp but obviously could not since it was freezing. So i am grateful for that! As i said, I would hire someone for that & save yourself a few hundred bucks.
Lastly, just so any brides-to-be are wondering about the nearest town, Redding, for beauty treatments... i had some of the worst experiences in my life in that town! It was sad :( I left them all Yelp reviews so feel free to check. For some good news, I choose Sequoua photography for my pictures, & she did an amazing job. She is listed on their vender sites.
LASTLY- if you are a vegan or vegetarian, I recommend making your own food instead of eating the food Beth & co make. Apparently the meat sandwiches they made were AMAZING (as was the vegan chili- so so good! ) BUT the sandwiches were.... cucumber & hummus.... Every vegan came up to me CONFUSED & slightly offended lol. But all in all, it's a great venue especially if you are simultaneously on top of your shit & also not really caring how things might end up, & are willing to do the aforementioned suggestions.
LASTLY- the curfew for all guests not staying on site is midnight... This is kind of annoying but understandable for the way the road is set up (essentially a paved, one-lane, spooky road) it might be done for safety purposes... however, later than midnight I doubt anyone is coming up that road, so going down should be even less of a hazard at that point. This disappointed a lot of our Airbnb guests who wanted to party all night with us.... but, since it was soooOooo cold, we didn't even end up partying all night, so it wasn't too bad!
Beth & John were super nice. The venue is gorgeous. They were also very communicative & asked me if i needed things frequently. So no hard feelings, it was an amazing time. I just wanted to advise other people how to navigate this venue so that they can have a slightly better experience than I did. read more