We just had our wedding at Groveland Fairways and there were many many positives with some noticeable negatives. The grounds were absolutely gorgeous. They are well kept and it is evident that the owners take pride in their property. There were... numerous times that Nancy (the owner) went to the venue to let us drop things off (The wedding cake the day before the wedding, and the day after to get the decor..more on that to come). The food was delicious and we got many compliments. It is definitely budget friendly and there is a lot that you can do to make the venue what you want. Alicia was very flexible the night of the rehearsal with allowing my family to help with the set up. She was very receptive to our ideas with the decor.When the cake arrived and it was just a white cake, she went out of her way to put extra greenery on the cake to jazz it up. The wait staff was fabulous as well as the majority of the bar staff. I do want to note that Alicia did respond to emails in a timely fashion and I never felt like I couldn’t ask her a question or felt like it took too long to get a response.
Fast forward to the day of the wedding. We did run into an issue with a bar staff member who did not want to serve a member as she did not have her ID on her, which I understand as they need to protect themselves. She stated that she saw my father serve her alcohol (he gave my 28 year old sister a drink, not the girl in questions) and was going to shut the bar down. She then, in front of guests, stomped her feet, told my dad she “saw what he did” and ran to Alicia, who reiterated they needed to protect their license. Understandable, but many guests noticed. The girl in question got her ID and an apology should have been issued to my parents and it was never received.
Our wedding ended at 10:30. At 10, the wait staff began to take away and pack away all of the centerpieces and decor, as the wedding is still happening. Alicia then stated that we were to take all of the decor on the bus back to the hotel. In my opinion, this should have been discussed beforehand. She stated that she told both of my parents, in which they both said that is not true. My father communicated with her that that was entirely inappropriate (we were going on a motor coach bus with 60 guests) and we would be there the next day. It very much felt unwelcoming and like the staff wanted to leave. Realistically, the decor should have been left up and my guests should not have been subjected to seeing the room being broken down.
The next day we emailed Alicia to ask for an itemized receipt for the bar tab, as we did open bar for wedding party and soft drinks and were surprised that it was a bit higher than we expected. We asked for an itemized receipt the night of the wedding where the bar staff stated they could not provide it. Alicia’s response is attached in pictures, as well as the initial question. I found her response to be a little combative in nature. A simple, “I can get that over to you. I hope you had a great night!” would have been a much more appropriate response, in my opinion.
I really wish that I could give the venue a 5 star rating. I enjoyed my time there had a great wedding but definitely left with a bad taste in my mouth.
After posting on wedding wire, I received more unpleasant back and forth emails from Alicia. While originally rated a 4/5, I did bump it down to a 3 as the professionalism was seriously lacking since posting my review.