Almost Heaven Resort And Weddings

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.

ned 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.

ve if you manage to get ahold of him. Local vendors will not work here.

re 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

edding when there is no communication.

! This location is for our wedding was the most beautiful views! Hands down! The best place in the Gatlinburg/Sieverville area!!

ers 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

I highly recommend Almost Heaven Weddings.

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!

in the direction of Almost Heaven, they make everything so stress free!! Thank you Almost Heaven, for EVERYTHING!

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.

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.

egatives. 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.

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.

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!!

uldn'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.

t. I had an amazing wedding!

f 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!

y 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.

out wonderful. Great place to have a wedding!!