As the bride in the previous negative reviews, I felt compelled to clarify some of the facts. My mom, now husband & I fell in love with this venue in 2018. We shortly placed a deposit of $1000 to book a 10/2020 wedding. It was a year before we ...spoke again, where they requested $2000. We obliged, as per our contract. Once NYS shutdown in March, my mother & I reached out, asking for a delay in the next $6000 they were requesting in April. With the circumstances, we didn't want to put money toward an event we couldn't have. They agreed, & we continued discussions. My mom & I had a total of 4 phone calls with them, asking what the COVID protocols were. In April, they told us that weddings would be back to full capacity in July. We continued to stress that we didn't believe that, but we wanted to work things out. I was concerned for the health of my autoimmune compromised guests, considering that my mother is currently receiving cancer treatments. I decided to reduce our guests to 50 & move into a smaller room for the sake of safety. I was told this was possible, & that we would communicate with them about going forward.
A week later that I received an email, stating that if I were to go with this new plan that I lose my “exclusive use” of the space. This is unlike their review, which stated I didn't want to pay for this. This service was one of the reasons we wanted to stay. However, it was made clear that if they could add another event on my date, they would. Loosing this didn’t sit well-- I wasn't willing to risk my guests’ health. When I made my final call to them, I was given 4 options:
1. Have my wedding with the 50 people & share the space with another event.
2. Move my wedding to 2021, which I was told would require me to put down ANOTHER $1000 deposit & forfeit the previous one. I was also told that events in 2021 would cost more. We have been planning our wedding for 2 years. We just wanted to get married.
3. We could have an afternoon wedding in October, but it wasn't guaranteed that we wouldn't have to share the venue.
4. Cancel our wedding.
Unlike the vendor’s review, I wasn’t content with my cancellation. I couldn't imagine trying to plan a wedding where I would have to put people in harm’s way or pay more money to move it. Anyone would have chosen the same. It has become apparent that the negative reviews I have heard about this venue were true. As someone who fell in love with a dream wedding here, I can understand how someone could overlook this. However, I could no longer stand idly by. My parents & I only requested 50% of our money back, because we understood that it was not their fault nor ours. They refused. We lost $3000 & our dream wedding due to something out of our own control. While the venue was correct in saying my husband & I did get married in June, it wasn't our first plan. We decided to get married due to my mom’s cancer diagnosis. We were married with 10 people, socially distanced, in our wedding planner’s shop. While it was great, we didn’t run off & find another venue as implied. This was done for fact that my husband and I love each other & wanted to get married.
I would advise anyone looking to book here to STRONGLY think about how you want to be treated in a situation like this. While we were clients, they were professional & understanding about the wedding we wanted. However, it turned quite ugly pretty quickly. While I forgive them, I do not want someone else to have to deal with something like this.