I will start my review by saying that had it not been for the absolutely stunning (and unmatched elsewhere) view provided at Arrowhead, I never would have kept this place as our wedding & reception venue. I am a wedding coordinator myself, and never have I worked with a more unreliable and staunch venue.
Setup: To start out, their 90 minute window for setup is absolutely absurd. Having done many-a-wedding setups myself, I know that for a setup time, this is REALLY cutting it close for even a simple wedding. We had dropped off our linens the day before (as instructed by Arrowhead), who ENSURED me that they would be set by the time we arrived so my decorator could start setting up centerpieces and decorations right away. WRONG. Tables were everywhere, linens were on the wrong tables (despite being hung on hangers and explicitly labeled as to which went where), forget the plates and napkins being set up. I (THE BRIDE) had to go out and fix the linens before I could get into my dress. MY BRIDESMAIDS had to run their butts off to get the place set up before the ceremony because their staff was incompetent and VERY late on setting up. The poor girls were exhausted by the time the ceremony started, and because of all the chaos, we barely even got lined up in time. Oh -- if you want more time? $300 per HALF AN HOUR please! Absurd.
Working with our other vendors: We couldn’t bring in lighting vendors because the lighting guys would have had to hire SO much extra staff to get the lights up in time, the cost was exorbitant. The band wasn’t allowed to plug in to any of their outlets (even though we obviously weren’t using a lighting vendor), so they had to bring a generator. They also had ZERO direction from the venue on where to set up the second mic for the ceremony, and consequently ended up standing off to the side of the pergola (visible to the entire wedding group and audience).
Food: Disgusting. We did a tasting here and the food was awful the first time around - so we’d tried to return for a second tasting (after we’d already put down a deposit that we would lose if we changed venues), though living out of state made that impossible. We sent very specific requests to the venue about altering the food (adding more spices to the bland lasagna, adding some kind of sauce or something so that the chicken wasn’t so cardboard-dry) and none of that happened. Honestly I felt embarrassed serving that to our guests. We ran out of both appetizers (homemade by my dad) and desserts (Nothing Bundt Cakes) because people preferred that over dry chicken.
In my experience in catering, we ALWAYS had a staff member attending to the bride and groom, making sure that if they needed anything at all, they would be taken care of. However, my husband and I never had drinks on our table -- we only got a taste of the champagne toast and that was literally the first drink we’d had from our open bar all evening (⅔ of the way through the night).
Oh - and did I mention that their staff sat around all night and didn’t help break anything down, so my new husband and I had to stay to break down our wedding??
Overall, the pictures were great, the view was stunning, but the venue itself? I would NOT recommend getting married here unless you’re in undying love with the view (as we were) and are ready for one HELL of a headache.