Laurel, unfortunately, doesn't own and manage this anymore. The venue is beautiful and it is great in the sense that it has all the decorations and has so much charm. However, the new owners are a couple and his parents. The older parents (I suspect were the ones who funded this venture) are absolutely sweet but I think it is the younger couple who manage it. The younger couple have other jobs and are not as attentive to this one. The son is a thug and the wife isn't much nicer. He and his wife have horrible management skills. Beware, they won't accept a credit card without an added 3% fee. There is an added charge for tablecloths (you can purchase your own for much less on-line). In their brochure, they state that the tablecloths are $12/ea but they put a table cloth on everything and sometimes layer them. The top tablecloth is usually a fancier one with an upcharge--which was never mentioned. Also, there are some caterers who provide tablecloths for free with their catering. Find out about that before finalizing details.
When we had our appointment for our final walk-through, they emailed me a couple of days in advance and said they were unable to do it at our appointed time and they would need to reschedule. They offered to do it an hour before our originally scheduled walk through. We agreed. It turned out that they weren't able to do it at our originally scheduled time because they got a last minute booking and it overlapped a little. Thats fine, we adjusted our schedule and came an hour early. Everything was very rushed. We had little time to make decisions about table decor, linens, sound system equipment, etc. When she was done, she said we would receive a proposal in a couple of days with the final bill and the details. We never received one. I was attending to other wedding details and forgot until the final week before the wedding when I was going around paying everyone. I messaged the son for the final bill and noticed I was charged $297 for tablecloths. (I only had about 10 tables). I also informed him I wouldn't need the tablecloths for the buffet table since they would be provided by the caterer. He replied that it was too late because they had already been ordered. I said, "Okay, fine, I will pay your bill but please tell your future customers about your linen charge structure ahead of time and please send the bill out when you say you will so your future customers may catch the details ahead of time or before you order your tablecloths." Had I known this ahead of time, I might have made different decisions about my arrangement of tables or bought my own tablecloths. The son did refund $105 back and I decided I needed to just let it go.
The night of the event, the son and his wife never came out to greet me or see if we needed any help setting up or to see if we needed anything for the night. For example, we were told that they had easels we could use. Couldn't find any. We were told they had a microphone and there was no microphone anywhere. When I knocked on the little area where they were sitting for the night, they acted irritated every time I asked a question. (We needed the lights dimmed and the wife was very annoyed at having to get up to show me where the light switches were.) She stamped around and acted angry and super passive aggressive. I needed help finding a place to put favors and couldn't find her to get the help I needed ahead of time.
The final straw came at the end of the night when we did the sparkler send off. There was a little accident where some sparklers were lit and dropped on the concrete. There was a little charred place on the concrete where they fell. The son went ballistic (not an exaggeration) and started demanding my credit card. I went and got my husband. When I came back, the son was insulting our guests and saying things like, "You have to be smarter than a sparkler!" etc. My husband offered to clean it off and asked for a brush but the son wouldn't give it to him (even though he was standing there holding it). It had been such a fun night despite the challenging experience we had dealing with the managers/owners. It was too bad that it ended on such a sour note. And even in front of guests. Honestly, if I had to do it again, I would probably book somewhere else with more professional managers. Sadly, because it is so beautiful. But not worth the aggravation and lack of professionalism. read more
