151-200 guest capacity
This venue can host up to 200 guests
About this vendor
Situated in Gatlinburg, TN, Almost Heaven Resort and Weddings is a beautiful wedding venue and event lodge that invites couples to hold their special occasion under the one roof. We are a family owned company that features 3 venues (2 mountaintop venues and 1 chapel) as well as beautiful mountaintop cabins and 1-2 bedroom cabins in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. We also have an 8 bedroom Chalet that sleeps up to 22 people with amazing mountain views! We are dedicated on providing our guest and clients outstanding service. Any event that you are thinking of having, we can host it! From weddings, receptions, anniversary parties, birthday parties, corporate events - just contact us and let us see what we can do for you.
Our Chapel by the Stream has made itself unique with its large log construction, custom stained glass windows and nestled in a wooded location just minutes from Gatlinburg. This quaint Chapel hosts up to 25 guests to preserve a sense of intimacy & romance for your wedding. There is a Bridal Dressing Room and Gazebo for photo opportunities. Our chapel has a wonderful . Smoky Mountain charm. Two bridges were also added to cross our stream that give us many more photo opportunities to complete the whole package.
The idea of a beautiful Mountain Top Sky location for weddings broke ground not long after the Chapel. This 130 Acre Mountain Top Resort was developed out of the cascading mountains of Cobbly Nob adjoining the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and just minutes from downtown Gatlinburg. The Sky Site was modified as little as possible to establish a flat location with plenty of parking, Gazebo, climate controlled Pavilion were added and of course a place to hold the Ceremony and Reception. The view from our sites are truly Almost Heaven!
The Garden Site is our newest location. It is Mountain Top with spectacular views of the Smoky Mountains and National Park. You feel like you can reach out and touch the mountains. The lawn area or the open air covered Log Pavilion is the perfect location for your Ceremony or Ceremony with Reception for up to 50 Guests.
All of our staff are professional Wedding Planners/Coordinators making your dream wedding a reality. In 2014 for East Tennessee Almost Heaven Resort & Weddings won best planners, best photography, best venues and best honeymoon & guest cabins. In 2014 Wedding Wire announced their prestigious award The Couples Choice which is only given to 5% of the Chapels & Resorts in the United States. We have a variety of different cabins from 1 to 8 bedrooms all located a short drive from the venues.
Amenities + details
Ceremony Area
Covered Outdoors Space
Dressing Room
Handicap Accessible
Indoor Event Space
Liability Insurance
On-Site Accommodations
Outdoor Event Space
Reception Area
Wireless Internet
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
Guest Capacity
- Up to 200
Settings
- Ballroom
- Garden
- Hotel
- Mountain
- Religious Setting
- Trees
Venue Service Offerings
- Bar & Drinks
- Cakes & Desserts
- Food & Catering
- Planning
- Rentals & Equipment
- Service Staff
Reviews
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3
out of 5.026 reviews
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RUN RUN RUN
I cannot tell you to run away fast enough. I wish I had seen these reviews before I started down this path. We filled out an inquiry form. No response. We sent an email. No response. We called 3 times and spoke to Mary. She told us we couldn’t talk to someone about a wedding until we booked and paid 2,500. She said there would be an event charge and it be 600-1600 and that included chairs. No problem. She said someone would be in contact with us the next day. We waited a week and Robin called us based the email we had sent 2 weeks before, not our actual booking. She then informed us we would need and insurance policy, a bartender (though we wouldn’t have a bar), security for the location. Once we explained how unhappy we were we spoke with the owner, Leroy, ultimately he said he couldn’t help us until we had filled out a questionnaire… that we hadn’t received. When we explained that he told us we were being too difficult and hung up.
Hopefully we will receive our refund as we have requested.
Run away as fast as you can! This place is an absolute nightmare. If you have a tab open with their website, close it and don't look back. Carefully read anything they send you, especially if you booked with someone like VRBO. Their contract is not the same as what you agreed upon and they will use it to rob you. As for the customer service.... good luck. When you do get someone to answer the phone, she is absolutely useless and cannot provide you with any info at all. Keep track of all your communications and keep them safe for when you have to open a dispute with your credit card company to try and retrieve your money. Again, I say RUN!
DO NOT BOOK HERE! Absolutely horrendous experience booking with this place. We had booked Breathtaking Views in August for a few nights and planned to get married on site. From day one, communication was AWFUL. I started by calling the resort before even booking to ask some questions about the property and told them I was getting married on the property. The woman that answered the phone (Mary) told me she would pass my information on to the person that handles weddings (Robin). I waited weeks and weeks for even an email response from this person that was supposed to be responsible for events on the property because I was told that a wedding would have to be approved and an event fee would have to be paid. Like most rentals in the area, I expected to pay an event fee and this was not the issue. After multiple weeks of waiting I finally was added to a phone call with Robin and a type of finance manager maybe (Stephanie). I was told by Stephanie that the event fee is $1000 and that if alcohol is on the property a security guard would have to be hired and a licensed bartender. Mind you, the house we booked sleeps almost 50 people and we were not planning to have many more people there than that and were not planning to have a bar just BYOB. I was willing to pay the event fee, but did not think it was necessary to hire a security guard or bartender since there was no bar. I was told by Stephanie that we would discuss this. Never heard back from her again. Reached out to Robin the next week to follow up because I was not given Stephanie’s information and she said she could not guarantee that the event fee would be $1000 and it will probably be more???? Like what?? She had me fill out a survey….twice …for info about the wedding because she couldn’t find the first email? Just wait it gets better. She then called me a couple weeks later to discuss the event fee. She then told me the event fee would be $1800. I told her that Stephanie had already told me that the fee was $1000 and that she was even in on that call. She stated that she did not recall that phone call. A few days later we were connected to another person whose role in this business I don’t even know (Leroy Tanker) that told us it was a law in Gatlinburg for events that a security guard had to be present and a bartender (for no bar?) AND also we had to pay someone from the resort to supervise our event??? We asked for the law that stated these policies and were told by Leroy that we were being difficult and hard to work with and HE HUNG UP. A couple days later I received a refund of my deposit to my bank account. DO NOT BOOK HERE. Awful communication, rude employees and a completely dishonest and disgraceful business.
If I could give them no stars I would. This venue is an absolute SCAM! I wish I read and the other reviews thoroughly before booking my wedding. It’s 1/7/22 and my wedding was planned for 4/23/22. It has been an awful year and a half planning my wedding with cece. My mother and I got ‘black listed’ from this venue for ‘asking too many questions’. My future mother in law stepped in and after months of being ghosted and getting unanswered questions she decided to reach out to the Smokey Mountain Wedding Board. This venue has a class action law suit against them for not holding up to their contracts. She reached back out to this venue to find out a new owner has come in within the last year (no mention of that from anyone). We had a all inclusive contract written and we’re told it is no longer inclusive because vendors won’t work at this venue. and now instead of $4k for the venue it was $6k. The owner responded to my FMIL bad review saying we didn’t pay and this is our own fault, and spreading rumors and lies. We asked for the contract for MONTHS to sign and pay and the communication was horrific and never received it. CALL THE SMOKEY MOUNTAIN WEDDING BOARD!!!! THEY WONT REFUND US OUR DEPOSIT! This place is HELL! PLEASE Stay as far away as you can.
Dozens of weddings have had to find new venues after the owner stopped honoring contracts and refused to refund deposits. Multiple lawsuits have been filed. Owner is verbally abusive if you manage to get ahold of him. Local vendors will not work here.
We did a destination wedding in Gatlinburg TN and had the ceremony at this location. We booked it over a year in advance and man was it hard not to tell people and it!! The views are worth every penny! Since we are 8 hours from the venue the day before the wedding they let us go up there again just to run things over. The girls are both so amazing to work with and they want it to be perfect for you! The package we got also came with a 2 night honeymoon cabin that we are using for our 1 year anniversary (since we have family with us didnt want to miss time with them).
Thank you again for making everything perfect!! -The Rawsons
I have left this place several voicemails and emails for pricing. Have still yet to hear back. Booked elsewhere. Couldn’t imagine trusting them with something as important as our wedding when there is no communication.
We just got hitched Yesterday! Cindi and Octavia where the most professional and knowledgeable staff!!!! Everything was PERFECT and organized! I didn’t have to worry about anything! This location is for our wedding was the most beautiful views! Hands down! The best place in the Gatlinburg/Sieverville area!!
Sadly my fiancé and I really loved the location but the location owners were very unprofessional in how they handled our requests for a tour
We have our own private priest and caters but with out reason or explanation we were told
“ your wedding isn’t suitable for our venue “
We weren’t planning on a ritual sacrifice
My family is primarily gluten free and has many allergies
And we chose to have our own priest marry us
Cindi and Octavia made planning my 8/11/18 a breeze. Cindi provided helpful advice along the way. You CAN NOT beat this view!!! My guests raved about how beautiful the location is. I highly recommend Almost Heaven Weddings.
Cindi and Octavia made our day absolutely perfect and we could not be happier ❤️. It was the best day of our lives and we will never ever forget a minute of it. Everything went so well and we are still hearing from people as to how absolutely stunning the day was and location! We planned everything over the phone and via email with Cindi and she made the magic happen. She turned my ideas into reality and never let me feel stressed. It was everything we could have imagined and more. Love them and definitely recommend!
We had the best time! Everything was so well thought out and put together! Mrs. Cindi made sure that our special day was nothing less than perfect! We would definitely point anyone in the direction of Almost Heaven, they make everything so stress free!! Thank you Almost Heaven, for EVERYTHING!
Our wedding was yesterday. I have to say, everything was handled very professionally, organized, and with excellent attention to details. Cindi, her assistant, and the photographer were very good to us and worked with us with last minute changes. They catered to our every request and with tons of friends and family to deal with, the last thing I had to worry about was extra stress. They made our day memorable and special. 3/12 Newman’s.
We got married at Almost Heaven on May 20th and everything was perfect!! My wedding day was everything I hoped it would be and I have no complaints. Cindi was amazing to work with, everything is taken care of for you and they made the wedding planning experience easy and stress-free. We did a ceremony only with 60 people and I used their photographer, florist, hair and makeup artist and tux rental services. Everything looked great and everyone was so nice and wonderful to work with. Pastor Ken Link did an amazing ceremony for us and was so great to work with. Also, the view at Almost Heaven was breathtaking! We checked out all the other mountain sites around Gatlinburg and nothing else compares.
I'll start off by saying that the outdoor space at Almost Heaven is breathtaking and the main reason we picked this venue. However, the positives do not outweigh the overwhelming negatives. We read the bad reviews before we booked and thought we could make it work; we were wrong. Now just being another bad review, I appeal to anyone thinking of making the same mistake. Don't do it! There are plenty of other fantastic venues that are much better with which to work.
Our wedding was, unfortunately, six days after the wildfires in December of 2016 where we also lost our home in Gatlinburg. The venue was out of power until a few days before the wedding, and there was no water including the day of our wedding. Cindy and her son refused to give us an entire refund because they said that the power would be on by the wedding (which did happen) and they would rent "very nice" portable wedding bathrooms and would provide bottle water. Obviously, we were very uncomfortable with this situation for multiple reasons, but we were also having a full sit-down reception. We told them we had to get another venue and they still refused to refund our money.
Because of this, we chose to have the ceremony there (since they were providing bathrooms and water) and move the reception to another location. We called again to see if they would at least discount the price so we could rent something else for the reception. At this point, Cindy (who we had dealt with the entire time) put us in contact with her son. After three calls, he finally agreed to a marginal discount and said he could not do anymore since they already prepared the venue and rented the bathrooms. He then told us that if anyone called him again, he would keep all the money and not let us on the property for our wedding (this conversation was the day before our wedding). So we chose to have our ceremony at the site because we didn't have time to find any other options and we were out a substantial amount of money. When we got to the venue the morning of the wedding (because they wouldn't let us go there earlier even though there were no other weddings), none of the chairs or tables were set up. There was trash and leaves on the floor. And to no one's surprise, there were no bathrooms or bottled water, and the water was still not working. The lights in the central area were different colors and hung very sloppy. It was incredibly disappointing, and I'm so glad we moved the reception to another venue (The Hive in Knoxville was fantastic and very helpful!). After all of that, it still took us weeks after even a partial refund.
Needless to say, I would never recommend this venue. Rarely do weddings go as planned, and if they are this terrible when something as devastating as this happens to the community, I can't imagine what they would be like for a typical wedding.
We had our ups and downs with Cindi, who is the bones of the operation. Side note - we booked them for the cermony only.
Cons:
- Cindi was completely non-responsive at times and really on top of things other times.
- Never got the script for the ceremony so we could choose between religious or civil which was disappointing and meant the decision was left until day of.
- We went to pick up the cake the day before and came to find no one at the office. The response when we got ahold of Cindi was that they had last minute emergencies and couldn't be there so they would deliver the cake the next day. I would have been pissed had our cabin been more than 10 mins away, but luckily we were really close.
- Cindi was disorganized at times, not remembering things we had told her or asked for.
- One of our groomsmen cancelled last minute, so our lineup needed last minute changes which were not handled well. We had instructed the changes and realized as the wedding was beginning that people were not informed of the order correctly. As the groom tried to fix it, the photographer alluded that he knew the order and it would be fine; but a few moments later said he had no idea who was going when... The end result was 2 girls walking down with one guy and one guy walking down solo. I luckily didn't find out about this until after the ceremony :)
Pros:
- the Sky location was breathtaking and made for beautiful photos.
- Cindi was really flexible/accommodating with things and dealt with our minor last minute changes well.
- We had the ceremony on a Sunday of a holiday weekend - technically they were not open but made an exception for a small additional fee.
- Got the flowers through Almost Heaven and they turned out beautifully.
- The cake through Almost Heaven was delicious (buttercream), though somehow ended up costing more than originally quoted.
- My hair and makeup arrived to my cabin late, so we were delayed in everything, getting to Almost Heaven about 20 mins late. Cindi rushed us a bit to get things moving so we could be on time but when the ceremony ended up starting 15 mins late, she didn't give us any grief.
- Bob, the photographer was pleasant to work with and very accommodating for pictures we wanted. On the negative side, he did very little staging and posing so some of our pictures look a little off:
Overall a lovely place and would have chosen it again but honestly would have second thoughts if I was doing anything more than the ceremony there.
This place is the absolute worst. I was overcharged by 50% and Cindy continuously lies and has no regards for the newlywed's most important day.
Cindy was HORRIBLE!! Rushed and rude!! She made 2 of my sisters guests, maid of honors parents, leave bc her employee miscounted!! They drove 5 hours to be there!!!! Wedding party and bride and groom were last to eat...didn't even know there were apps until way later when my husband said something. It was horrible!!!!! It was nothing but a cattle call wedding for her. I wouldn't ever consider this place for a wedding. Supposed to be on of my sisters happiest days was rushed, ppl literally yelled at, rudely ran, and not worth the money. The view was breathtaking and amazing but when the bridal party is treated the way we were and the bride is crying bc her second parents were told to leave bc of THIER stupidity... Words can not describe the anger!!
I just want to start by saying that I promise I was not a bridezilla, but Almost heaven ALMOST brought it out of me!!! Here's the reasoning behind my review:
1. If my parents wouldn't have helped so much, my wedding would've been a disaster. They attached a UHaul the the back of our vehicle with EVERY SINGLE piece of decoration in it, drove 10 hours to the mountains and set up EVERYTHING. The only thing almost heaven set up was the table setting.
2. They were EXTREMELY Unprofessional. They had dogs running around in their office. And when we told them that there may be a few more guests than we expected, they said that they wouldn't be able to eat because they were only providing a certain amount of plates. THEN they suggested that after one person finished eating, we could wash that plate and give it to the next person. How disgusting!?
2. They nickel and dime you for EVERYTHING!! On top of charging for the cake design (that they failed at MISERABLY) They even made us pay for ICE. ICE PEOPLE.
3. My cake was Lopsided.
4. The DJ screwed up my Father daughter dance. And out of a list of 100 songs I gave him (I love old school music), he decided to play what he wanted to hear. ( billboard hot 100. I HATE pop music)
5. I DID NOT use their photographer (Thank God) or their makeup artist or florist, so no problems there. Well I take that back. I let them do the centerpiece for the buffet table and it was extremely tacky. So tacky I took it down myself.
My advice?
If you want a small wedding with you,the groom and a few family members... By all means, you should use them. But if you want to do it big (or even medium), I suggest you keep looking.... Almost Heaven can't handle it. I'm just keeping it real.
Well worth a second look
I had great service and the wedding location was amazing! It was nice to relax and let them take charge. My photos turned out amazing, but they were a bit rushed due to a late guest. I had an amazing wedding!
The views for my wedding were spectacular! The ladies are very helpful. Their only flaw is attention to the tiny details. (i.e: Water in the chairs for an outdoor wedding - a few of my guests had to dry them before the ceremony.)Other than that, they always answer when you call, quick to respond to questions and really make your day very special!
Had a wonderfull wedding .... wife happy ... all happy !!!!!!!!! Thank you
Let me just start by saying, I think that they're sky site is absolutely beautiful and we couldn't have picked a better location for our wedding. The staff at Almost Heaven was very friendly and helpful during the planning process. However, when it came down to the day, if you can imagine it going wrong it did. The only thing that went "according to plan" was the hair/makeup lady- she was AMAZING. Other than that, the caterers were approximately 2 hours late (thats me being nice, my guests arrived before anything was set up), the grooms cake was the wrong flavor, the owner of Almost Heaven was rude to my guests as well as to me, the photographer left before getting a few last shots (never said he was leaving, it was snowing so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt on that one- oh and the snow didn't start until after the ceremony so that is not why the caterers were late), my flowers were wrong (right flower, wrong color and not cascading like we discussed), the tux rental place they use is aweful (very outdated, the lady that assisted my husband and our groomsmen made them feel as if she was fitting the tuxes in an inappropriate manner). I truly feel that if I was not an organized bride and if my amazing family was not there to help, the wedding wouldn't have happened. I had been planning this wedding for 3 years, everything was mapped out- literally- so that, I hoped, nothing like this would happen. I seriously check and double checked and triple checked everything, yet everything went wrong. Its been a little over a month now and honestly it still bothers me. I had the time of my life, and I am thrilled to be married to the love of my life. But your wedding only happens once, just once, and I will never get those moments back. The staff at Almost Heaven tried to "fix it" afterward, although they thought everything went just splendid. If my husband and I hadn't gone and talked to them on our honeymoon they would have thought that everything was just hunky dory. So, if you are going to use Almost Heaven for your wedding, I would still recommend doing so- simply because you will not find a more picturesque location than their sky site, but use all of your own vendors (except for their hair/makeup lady, she was awesome). Sorry if this review disappointed you at all, I just don't want anyone else to ever go through what I went through.
I just had my wedding at Almost Heaven Sky Site, and it was absolutely beautiful! I didn't have my reception there, but they still handled my flowers and my cake, which both turned out wonderful. Great place to have a wedding!!
For the price, the service was amazing and the views from the site could not be any better. We were very pleased with Almost Heaven and our pictures are amazing!!
Contact
4309 E Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN
Almost Heaven Resort And Weddings
Almost Heaven Resort And Weddings's photos