I fell in love with the Hazlehurst house immediately when driving up. It has such a grand feel to it and the garden patio is beautiful. After looking around at a few different locations I decided that I wanted to get married there. I mainly worked with Ashley at the Hazlehurst house. She is very friendly and understanding and I was happy that we were partnered with her.
Hazlehurst was very organized and you can tell that they have done multiple wedding and are very experienced. We had a few miscommunications however in the beginning as my mom was doing most of the wedding planning and was in charge of the decorations, coordinating flowers, etc. (we were trying to save some money by having a lot of DIY things at the wedding and not having to hire wedding planner). So parts of this stressed my mom out a good bit, and in turn stressed me out. It was things like being told we couldn’t set up early and would have do everything hours before the wedding, etc. However, thankfully, last minute, Hazlehurst let my mom go in the day before (no wedding before mine) and set up and store some of her bigger items. This was a huge relief on my mom and really helped us out and she was very happy she could do that. There were some other minor things during the wedding planning process, but everything did work out very well in the end. Part of it I think can be attributed to how stressful planning a wedding can end up being.
The rehearsal went ok. I was given a rehearsal director with the package from the house and I had never met her before. Although I think she was a very sweet woman, during the rehearsal I would have preferred her to be more assertive and gain everyone’s attention better. There were a lot of people talking when we were going through the different steps, etc. I didn’t want to have to yell at everyone or tell them to pay attention (I didn’t want to be a bridezilla), so I would have really appreciated it if she had been more direct and assertive. I probably should have said something to her, but I just let it be. At the ceremony, everyone remembered what they were supposed to do, so it turned out fine.
The florist wasn’t able to come until 4 (wedding started at 6), so the florist wasn’t too happy about that. Some of the staff upon her arrival commented to her that “you’re cutting it pretty close” etc., when that was the time that she was told she was allowed to arrive. So, I thought that was pretty strange.
I, as the bride, felt very stress-free and taken care of on the wedding day. I even had a bridal attendant who help carry my dress train. At the reception, we were able to sit down and our food was delivered to us, and it tasted incredible (catered with the Hazlehurst house). All the service staff were really good - I was impressed at how they were so professional, and how smoothly everything ran. We got so many compliments on the venue, food, cake, and service. I’d also like to compliment Russell, who was the banquet manager. Although I didn’t get much interaction with him personally, my mom had many guests who told her how personable, and friendly. From everything that I could tell, the ceremony and reception went incredibly well and nothing as far as I know nothing “went wrong”, which is a huge blessing. All the guests loved the venue, the food, and the cake, and were very impressed with everything. In the end, all of the minor things worked out, and I’m very happy with choosing the Hazlehurst house as our venue.