First off... The venue itself is very nice. We feel it was very high priced and that their "$1000…read moreoff" promotion was ridiculous, taking the venue itself from $6495 down to $5495... Especially when they charge so much for everything else. There is mandatory coordinator that they charge you $850 for, they also charge $400 for the bridal room and the $400 for the groom room for the day of, they misled us into thinking that we would be able to provide our own alcohol, which we find out after signing the contract that they "don't allow that anymore" and that the girl who showed us the venue "was mistaken". We had 110 people there, and the bill just for Chapman Hill was $10,215...That did not include ANY of the vendors. Again, its very pretty place to get married...We loved it!
BUT...here are the reasons we give them 3 stars and not 5...
1.) You pay $400 for each the bride and groom cabins for the day ($800), and they literally took our stuff out of the rooms starting at 6pm, when we had a 5pm ceremony. When we expressed our concerns, Susan sharply says, "Its in the contract. Its in the contract."...not even allowing me get anything out of my mouth. She then continues, "We need to get everything out so that our cleaning people can come. Also, we don't want anything left behind, so thats why we do it this way." I can tell you...things were left behind, things were lost, and it cost us money.
2.) The groom's cabin...nobody bothered to turn on the heat before we arrived. We started arriving at 10am the morning of the ceremony to a cabin that was 45 degrees...not kidding. By the time 6pm rolled around, temperature inside was at 62 degrees. Also, though the bridal cabin was probably well worth the $400, that grooms cabin was NOT! Hardly any space to get ready, they have 4 TVs on the wall, which seems cool, until you go to change the channel and they all use the same Roku remote...hahaha. We finally just gave up on the cabin and walked outside.
3.) LISTEN...YOU HAD BETTER INSPECT AND TAKE PICTURES OF EVERYTHING YOU USE THAT IS THEIRS. 3 weeks after our wedding, I get an email from Don, the owner, stating that someone from our party damaged their "plastic wicker" furniture. He sent me pictures and the damage that was done, there is no way that anyone from our party caused that. There were full strands of the plastic missing, pieces obviously cut very sharply off to remove hanging strands...this damage was done throughout the life of that furniture. Bottom line, when raised that concern, they charged me for it anyway, taking it out of my deposit. 3 weeks later, and how many events after ours, and they bill us. They probably charged everyone else too...got themselves new "wicker" furniture from Lowes.
4.) The $850 for the coordinator, meh. The coordinator was nice and all, you're sold a bill of goods that she will always keep a drink in your hand, we won't have to worry about anything, "I'll be here making sure everything goes smoothly,"...Not really. We had to get our own drinks, we find out 3 weeks later furniture "was damaged by our group", shoot...As the groom, I only interacted with her 4 times that whole day. We had to ask if we could go down to the fridge and grab a few beers. LOL. Oh Well.
Just know, that although the owners are super sweet and nice up to the day of the ceremony, giving you premarital booklets, super responsive, explaining "everything" to you, when push comes to shove, they are running a business, and you are a paycheck.
