Dixon's Apple Orchard

seemingly complicated to do, except promised it would be no problem. Communication was quick but very to the point and sometimes unhelpful. Otherwise, we loved the venue and got numerous positive comments.

amazing to work with and very prompt with responses to questions. Our day was beautiful and we couldn't have asked for anything more!

make fully educated decisions on the venue they choose for their most special day. Ultimately that is how we ended up picking Dixon’s in the first place. But, you only get to experience your special day once and you want things to go well so that is why I’m sharing my experience. With that being said, our wedding was in September of 2024 and we had an incredibly poor experience. When we booked with Dixon’s, we were told that Becky would be there to help things run smoothly. When my bridesmaids and I arrived in the morning, the first thing we noticed was that the bridal suite was not clean and items were not replaced. The counters were dirty, the floors were dirty, and the sink looked like someone had vomited in it. There was also a shattered glass of some sort in the dining area. One of my bridesmaids could tell that I wasn’t pleased and was going to try to atleast clean up the table for our snacks, except the paper towel roll was completely empty. We went to find Becky to talk to her about it but couldn’t find her. This was a rather small blip and we decided to not let it ruin the day. My girls and I had a good morning otherwise despite guests from the night before coming in and out of the bridal suite declaring that they were still drunk and making sure that everything was cleaned out even though they were supposed to be out by 7pm the night before. Nothing like random women AND MEN walking in on girls getting ready in their bras. There were also cars parked in front of the groom shack so their wasn't space for my husband and his groomsmen to park. At this point I was slightly questioning the organization of the venue and who was supposed to be monitoring these things. I didn’t see anyone that worked at Dixon’s the entire morning. Nobody came down to see if I needed anything or to go over last minute details which I thought was odd since we were in the bridal suite from 7am-2:30pm getting ready. The only time I saw someone was when a tour was being given through our reception space while we were setting up. My ceremony was at 3pm so we were told that the bridal party should get to the wagons at 2:45. My bridal party helped me into the jeep (since my dress had such a long train) before walking down to the wagon and my dad and I followed in the jeep. At this point my dad and I were flagged down and told that they weren’t ready for us and to back up the jeep and wait at the top of the hill. We did that but then were told that we needed to go back in the bridal suite and that they would come and get us. Well when I got out of the jeep, my dress got caught and ripped because I no longer had my bridesmaids to help me. I went back into the bridal suite and waited for 30 minutes with absolutely no idea what was going on. I ended up cutting my foot on a broken piece of glass that must have gotten caught in the bottom of my dress and my foot was bleeding and there was no paper towels. I ended up struggling to get a shard out of my heel since I was in such a big gown. I ended up sliding my shoe on and just letting my foot bleed because I didn’t really have any other options. I actually have a picture of my heel and it was a BAD cut. Someone finally ended up coming to get me so I got back in the jeep and off we went. I was so excited to marry my husband at this point that I didn’t even care about any of the other things that happened. Well as we were driving into the woods, Becky’s husband started yelling at my dad and I. He said “what the hell are you guys doing, everyone has already walked down the aisle, the music has already played, don’t you know how to be on time.” He actually yelled at us so loudly that some of the guests heard him. I was MORTIFIED. I did not understand why this man was yelling at the bride right before she was supposed to walk down the aisle and I was confused because we had been ready for over 30 minutes just sitting in the bridal suite like we were told. As we pulled up to the ceremony site, I saw that it was indeed true that everyone had already walked down the aisle while I wasn’t present. This caused me to have a full blown panic attack. I was sobbing. I couldn’t believe that they had started the ceremony when I wasn’t even there. The plan was that the ceremony wouldn’t start until I was there. That was important to me just so my girls could give me one final look over and possibly help me with my bleeding foot, and just for my favorite people to help take away any remaining nerves. I also wanted to be present in watching my family and closest friends and my nieces walk down the aisle, even if I was watching from behind. To just be in the moment and to listen to the special songs, that my husband and I picked out, play. I missed out on those moments that were extremely important for me to be present at. I was devastated. I also had my cousin learn my aisle walking song and she was supposed to sing it special for me to walk down to. We practiced endlessly and it was meant to be such a special moment. That was taken away too because since they started the ceremony when I wasn’t there yet, she needed to start singing. She ended up singing the same song SIX times. The special song that was just meant for the bride. I was able to get through the ceremony but ultimately it ruined the rest of my night. The panic attack took everything out of me and I was exhausted after that. I tried so hard to turn my mood around but I just couldn’t because I was so devastated that the ceremony went so horribly. I also found out that my mom and 2 of my bridesmaids asked why they were sending them down the aisle before I was there but there concerns were ignored. The person that was assisting with the ceremony was the owners future DIL and she had never run a wedding by herself. She was thrown into it because the owners weren’t there. Later on I found out that my caterer was upset because he had to direct guests on where to park and where to go because the owners weren’t there doing it. This ended up putting him an hour behind on food because he was getting pulled in so many other directions. The garbages were full and toilet paper had run out but we were never showed where the items were to take care of these things. When we went outside to take pictures, there were maybe 10-20 people by the pond taking what appeared to be family pictures. They were not guests of our wedding. Dixon’s contract does state you will get all the acreage for yourself but because the owners weren’t around, their was nobody monitoring who was coming and going. Come to find out that Becky was at an event in Duluth and although we had seen her the night before at our rehearsal, she failed to mention that she was not going to be at our venue the day of our wedding. Her husband apparently got to the venue around noon but I did not see him until he was yelling at us in the woods. He also openly said to our caterer that his wife is the one who handles all of the wedding events and that he wasn’t very comfortable running the show. We ended up having a meeting with Becky because so many things went wrong on our day and during that meeting Becky was very hostile and defensive and kept pointing blame back on us, acting as if we are the ones who own the business that literally does weddings nearly every weekend in the summer and fall. We have never gotten married before so we really didn’t know what we were doing and expected that a $5000 venue came with some sort of direction, support, and organization. Her attitude was very off putting and just furthermore showed her lack of professionalism and ability to manage a business that literally works with couples on the most important day of their lives. She also stated that she was gone because of an “emergency.” But her future DIL and husband had previously mentioned that she was in Duluth at a different event. I didn’t question it in the meeting but instead tried to be understanding that emergencies happen. Well once I got home I decided to google our wedding date and events in Duluth and found that she was in fact working Apple Palooza in Duluth and therefore she LIED to our faces. Moral of the story: Dixon’s is a BEAUTIFUL venue, but the beauty is not worth it if you are too stressed out to enjoy it due to the unprofessionalism and disorganization of the owners. Furthermore, the very first meeting you have with Becky, she will make a lot of promises to draw you in to booking the venue. Becky is VERY good at selling her product but she did not follow through on ANYTHING. Make sure everything is in the contract! Dixon’s contract is very vague and it’s so easy to get distracted by all the amazing things that Becky is selling you that you actually won’t end up getting. All in all, they did end up giving us $1000 back, but no amount of money makes up for how heartbroken I was about our day that I don’t get a do over on. My hubby dealt with a sobbing bride the entire car ride to our hotel, and on and off the rest of the night and most of the next day. Thank goodness he is such a kind hearted man and was very understanding of how I was feeling. I had just lost someone very close to me in a motorcycle accident and was really struggling with grief and just needed our wedding to go as smoothly as possible. Unfortunately the owners dropped the ball big time.