Granlibakken Tahoe

I got married at this venue in August. Karina was the event coordinator that I worked with and I could not have been happier with her. We met weekly for many months working out the details of my wedding. She was extremely helpful and responsive to my requests. Unfortunately, the day of our outdoor wedding on the Big Pine Lawn we experienced thunder storms and intense showers. Karina was very accommodating to our needs as I was adamant that the wedding still needed to occur outside. We rearranged the schedule and did cocktails before the ceremony to allow the storm to pass since that was indoors. Her staff worked so incredibly hard to set and reset tables as they got drenched in the rain. Everyone was so accommodating to us despite the stressful circumstances and it felt like a very collaborative process. Our bartender, Carlos, was such a trooper sporting a garbage bag as a raincoat before the umbrella arrived. The drinks were impeccable and everyone just had such a great time! I would definitely recommend this venue as it was perfectly nestled in the trees, there were numerous areas onsite to take photos, and it was lovely to have all our guests stay there so that we could run into them at breakfast or walking to the hot tub, etc. It was a memory that will last a lifetime and my husband and I have zero regrets with hosting our wedding here!

While our wedding day turned out be wonderful, I absolutely would NOT recommend our venue to any other couples. We secured our date 18months before our wedding, and in that 18 months I was shuffled between multiple event coordinators within Granlibakken with no communication. I eventually ended up working with Suzanne to plan the majority of the event. Suzanne was unresponsive, often taking multiple weeks to a month to answer after multiple attempts to reach out by phone and email. When she did answer, she was passive aggressive towards me and blamed all mishaps on coordinators who no longer worked at the venue. Through our many in person meetings and discussions over email she was never able to correctly identify any details that had already been discussed, and many aspects of the even had to be redone or replanned. Despite going back and forth for 8 months consistently asking for the same order regarding food and alcohol, she was not able to deliver and sent me many versions of the “final bill” riddled with basic math errors and not providing what I had been asking for. I did not have the final confirmation of the price of my wedding until 5 days before when I asked her manager be involved. The weekend of she was not communicative and became defensive and passive aggressive towards me and my fiancé and our coordinator upon asking for event details. She then avoided us for the entire event. Luckily she was unnecessary to the success of the wedding as our personal coordinator took over. The communication issues with the event caused us to come very close to calling off the wedding one month before. Additionally, the most important thing we were looking for when picking a venue was somewhere where all our guests could stay on site, which Granlibakken provided. However, the rooms were not to the quality of the price we paid. Many of our guests had issues with AC, windows, and items working within the room, all of which the front desk did not address despite our requests. Additionally, the cabin we had booked for the bridal party to stay in had 2 rooms that were flooded and our guests had to move to different properties, which was not communicated. Despite asking the front desk multiple times throughout the weekend for new key cards, we could not get any key cards to work in the cabin and spent the whole weekend with the doors to all rooms open. If I were to do it all again I would 1000% choose another venue. Granlibakken is not prepared to host an event like a wedding, but will gladly take your money and let you struggle through it with them.

While we ran into some hiccups along the way, we could not have been happier with the way our wedding turned out at Granlibakken. Like others, we went through three separate on-site coordinators during the year or so of our planning. That led to challenges, but we were lucky enough to have a fantastic off-site coordinator (Stephanie Morris) who really dealt with the challenges of that in large part. There was an issue at one point with a misquote in cost, but Granlibakken made multiple concessions to make it right, and in the end, I feel completely satisfied with our experience. The current on-site coordinator, Freddy, is fantastic. While I only had the opportunity to meet him in passing (as he transitioned into the role only about one month before our wedding), I understand from our planner that he was great to work with and our communication with him via email was always great. He is timely in his responses and seems to really care about what he does (and is good at it). Hopefully he will stick around! The execution day-of was honestly flawless. We received so many compliments about how quickly and stealthily the Big Pine Lawn was turned over for dinner during cocktail hour, the bartenders were fantastic, food was amazing, etc., etc. The space is also really beautiful. I think honestly some of the photos they have on their site don’t do it justice and show its complete potential. It was important to us that our friends and family be able to stay on site somewhere with us so that we could really spend good quality time with everyone over the course of our wedding weekend, and Granlibakken gave us exactly that situation. We enjoyed using the Big Pine Lodge as a general gathering/hanging out space, and it was so amazing to have everything for our wedding ceremony and reception in the same place. If you are looking for a venue with on-site accommodations, a chill vibe, natural beauty, and a relatively low site fee, definitely check out Granlibakken. Note: I left 4 stars for responsiveness because of our overall experience in communication, particularly with turnover in on-site coordinators and just a couple of other minor things. Freddy, the current coordinator was always great with communication. I would recommend hiring your own planner just to help with the process and in case there is turnover during your planning. I think that really goes for any site, not just Granlibakken. Hopefully Freddy stays, but you will not regret having the help of a coordinator who is "attached" to you and not a site.

To be clear, we did not hire this vendor. Thankfully, the tour alone gave us enough of a taste that it would not be a good experience. We had been communicating with the vendor about traveling from out of state in November to look at venues. Upon arrival we wanted to better understand availability of the date in October that we had discussed via email and when booking a date would be required. The response; for October dates you cannot book until April, 6 months out. Even though the vendor knew 100% of 200 guest list would be coming from out of town ... that just wasn't enough notice. The point of contact went on to say that if a conference wants that date before you book it, they take priority. Well that was concerning. We proceeded with the tour starting with the ballroom, but there was a conference in each of the 3 sections, which was never communicated prior to our arrival that we would not be able to see part of the venue. The next part of the venue, the Big Pine Lodge, was also booked so we could not see that either. Again, it was emphasized to us that conferences always take priority. This places wants ~$35k for their venue and catering, plus they require that you book 20% of your guests in their lodge. And this the type of service you get. A complete waste of our time even going, very disappointed. Awards