Genesee Country Village & Museum

n was extremely poor and as a result a lot of things went wrong on our wedding day. The invoices are not itemized, so after paying for the venue we thought that the horse and carriage had been ordered and paid for, since we had discussed it during our first meeting with the coordinator and she stated it would be included in the invoice. I should have double checked earlier, to be fair, but it was never ordered and we ended up not having it as a part of our wedding. The ceremony, for the most part, was perfect. I would not change anything about it. The reception dinner ended up being a bit of a disaster. Our wedding package did not include plates… we did not know this. We handled our own catering, having a family member pick up the food for us. The venue stated that they could set it up on the buffet with the included sterno, without any issue. After realizing that we did not have plates, no one from the staff said anything to my family or my husband and I for two hours. We were getting photos taken, but someone could have let us know so we could send someone out to get some. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if someone had communicated with literally anyone in attendance. By the time we realized, it was too late to send someone out to get plates which made it very awkward. The staff rallied around and got us something eventually, but they copped an attitude with us from this point on. Also, most of our food was burned because no one put water in the basins below the food. So the sterno started to burn through the aluminum, nearly ruining the food. If I had known the staff wasn’t familiar with how to set this up without this happening, I had family members that would have done it for us. But this was not communicated, and so they burned our food and made the reception hall smell like burning aluminum. Since the staff was angry with us by this point, they started acting passive aggressive. All of us had gotten ready in separate buildings from the reception. I had asked if we could leave our personal items there and go back for them after the ceremony, and was told yes. While I was getting photos taken with my husband, everything was packed up haphazardly and quite literally tossed on the floor in a room off of the reception area. We could not find the cash we had set aside for tips and various things - literally thousands of dollars - for over an hour. My husband and I were going through a silent panic thinking that the money had been taken or lost. We found it, but that was not a nice way to end the evening. There are still items we never found, a few items were thrown out without my permission, and other items were dirty or damaged. It was generally just unkind, or maybe just careless I’m not sure. I don’t believe that our extra hour we requested was ever billed to us, so I’m going to have to reach out to them to make sure. So I also got the feeling that the staff didn’t know we had until 9pm (with the extra hour) before we had to start cleaning up and getting ready to leave. So we left feeling a bit strangely toward the venue, because I had a few things go wrong that could have been preventable or at least fixable if there had been better communication. I’m still really glad we had the opportunity to get married here, it has special meaning to us because my great grand parents attended and were married in one of the churches on the property. I was able to get married where my family has so much history, and I loved every second of it. We had the most perfect weather, and the golden hour made for such a gorgeous backdrop for our photos. It was truly magical. My recommendation to anyone getting married here, document everything and hire your own wedding planner. I still recommend them, with caution.