Mallinson Vineyard and Hall

I want to start by saying that the area was absolutely beautiful for an outdoor, fall wedding…. But the way the event coordinator, Michelle, handled the event I attended in October was some of the worst “customer service” I have ever seen. I arrived to do hair in the morning and heard multiple stories throughout this time of incidents with Michelle. I was hoping these were isolated incidents. Unfortunately, this was not the case….. Michelle physically shoved my 4 year old!! We were waiting in line for food, right outside the door and as the line moved my son began to walk inside. As I was reaching for his shoulder to ask him hold on, a lady grabbed him by both arms and pushed him back hard enough that I had to steady him. Before my husband could even react, I told her to never put her hands on my child again. The lady became hateful, with a passive aggressive apology. I informed her I didn’t appreciate her tone. She then stated “that’s a first”. I just want to bring attention to the fact that SHE PHYSICALLY PUSHED MY 4 YEAR OLD!!! She didn’t even give me time to tell him to hold on!!! I also personally witnessed Michelle watch the photographer begin to collect equipment from down where the ceremony was held. Michelle then closed the gate. A member of the wedding party opened the gate, helping the photographer. Michelle proceeded to lock the gate, forcing the photographer to walk completely around to collect the rest. She literally refused to just wait. This was before the reception. There was absolutely no rush!! I am completely disgusted with the encounters I witnessed and heard about!

If you want your family and guests to be treated the way guests at a wedding should be, this is not the place for you. I witnessed the “event coordinator” represent the establishment in the worst way possible by yelling at the bride’s grandmother only because she was trying to go to the basement where food and drinks were actually being served. It was so bad, my husband had to step in and help the woman. I honestly had no idea who she even was and was astounded to find that she was the event coordinator for the wedding. I’ve seen better customer service skills from someone in a fast food drive through. They promised patio heaters as it was a late fall outdoor wedding and reception and they failed to provide them. It was 45 degrees outside. The bride also purchased the beer and wine package and the bartenders were charging guests for those drinks! I am all about supporting local businesses, but please understand that this venue’s owner promised the bride many things that 1) she paid for and didn’t receive and 2) a refund because the service was so bad. She has not received ANY of those promised

We attended a wedding at Mallinson in October. The wedding coordinator, Michelle, was the rudest person I’ve ever encountered (she is new, and unfortunately took Melissa’s place). She was so rude to the brides 90 year old grandma a guest had to step in, and she grabbed a guest’s child by the arm and swung him around so hard the mother had to step in. She made the entire weekend hard for the bride and groom, didn’t abide by the contract, and all around made it miserable for everyone involved and the guests. Guests were charged for the beer and wine, which were supposed to be included, and then the coordinator still handed the bride a bar tab. We contacted the owner, Matt, regarding this, and all he was worried about was bad reviews being left, not making things right. In fact, the contract states the bride will get her deposit back within 30 days and has kept contacting the owner with zero response, so he is in breach of contract. Not only did he breach the contract regarding the deposit, but breached many aspects of it during the wedding weekend, and was so unprofessional he didn’t even show up for the rehearsal. Matt, Michelle, and Mallinson will either take this review down like they did the others, or say this is inaccurate, but if you’re considering having a wedding there I would highly encourage you to reach out to me. We have the texts, emails, and contracts to prove all. Don’t put yourself, your wedding party, or your guests through this!

Recap of my experience with this Vendor Hi Matt, Thank you so much for the opportunity to host our wedding at your venue. You truly have breathtaking grounds that were the perfect backdrop to the vision we had for our big day. When we met with you for our tour of the vineyard over a year ago we fell in love with you and the vineyard. As you know, we originally planned on just purchasing the Saturday one day package. When talking with you that evening, you sold us on the easy, convenient, stress-free, peace of mind experience the all inclusive weekend package could offer us. From getting access at 9am on Friday and having all day to set up, not putting my friends and family to work after the rehearsal, to not needing to rush to clean up after our event because we had access to Sunday at 3pm. We left that evening after spending nearly 2 hours with you knowing that we were making the right decision to host our wedding at Mallinson and truly felt we were making the right decision. Then, the following week, my best friend and mother came with me to meet with Melissa to sign my contract and they too felt we found a true hidden gem in the wedding venue world. Melissa was amazing, kind, and responsive to call my questions. Even when I was bringing other close friends to the winery for events being hosted just so they could see the beauty that you have there, Melissa would answer my questions and was always more than helpful and responsive. I would like to recap my experience with Michelle so that you are aware of how I was treated and hopefully it will prevent any future brides from the same awful experience I had. My first interaction with Michelle was August 22nd upon receiving an email from her threatening to cancel my wedding if she did not hear from me in 36 hours. She had previously emailed me on August 17th and it went to spam. She did not attempt to call/text me when the first email went unanswered, just received a threat to cancel my event. As you can probably imagine, this put a really bitter taste in my mouth as I was not even made aware that Melissa was no longer with Mallinson Vineyard. After playing phone tag and getting schedules to match up on September 24th, Michelle, myself and my mother were able to meet and discuss my wedding. During this meeting, I found out that Michelle had replaced Melissa in MARCH, and the end of August was the first time that I had heard from Michelle, and again, it was a threat to cancel my wedding. During this meeting there were several issues that arose and Michelle was simply unwilling to accommodate things that I had been promised which had ultimately led me to book my special day at your venue. The first being that wine slushies would not be available to my guests. During my contract signing meeting with Melissa I was told I could exchange some of the wine bottles for wine slushies for my guests. Michelle stated that she could not honor that. My mother knew I was upset about that so she attempted to contact Michelle and figure out a solution and Michelle finally offered an exchange of 2.5 slushies for a bottle of wine. I, myself, could have thought of several solutions to this problem, such as offering for me to purchase them at a discounted rate, however that did not happen. Then, I found out from Spencer the issue was that the winery closes at 6 and that the machine is located in the winery. Again, there could have been solutions provided here; either have a bartender cover the winery for a few hours or the machine could have been unplugged and moved down the bar for the evening. I understand that is not "how you do things" (this is a phrase I never wish to hear again thanks to Michelle!), however I was promised something, that I then printed on my invitations to my wedding, and then when I finally met with your new coordinator I was told “no we will not honor that.” The next issue that happened in this meeting is that Michelle told me that the package I purchased was now $10,500 and that my purchase price would not include her services even though that is not what I was told from Melissa, as well as, what your website states. The next issue was that Michelle made it very clear that she did not like my timeline and how we wanted our wedding to happen. While not typical, I believe that it worked well and is not completely out of the ordinary. The last issue is, Michelle told me that what I paid as a deposit was not the deposit and that Melissa was not taking the deposit correctly and that I would not be getting a deposit back after the wedding which is absurd since I booked under those conditions. I will give credit where credit is due, Michelle did offer a timeline of how she likes/wants weddings to run, unfortunately, that is the ONLY way she wants to do things! We wanted to be married under the stars which required an evening wedding and obviously did not fit HER vision for MY wedding. This leads up to Friday morning. We were granted access to the houses as soon I let Michelle know that we were headed that way. We were promised by yourself and Melissa that we had full access to the place to set up and do what we needed to be stress free. I was still under this impression because Michelle did not clarify that we would only have access to the air bnb houses. We asked for access to the tables which we were given by Spencer and we did take them out and played with how we wanted the patio to look for the reception. Later in the evening when I asked for access to the table cloths I was told that she would do that the next day. Can you imagine the stress when I was told I could not set up Friday night like promised? I later texted Michelle asking why I paid for a full weekend if I was not able to set up. She requested to speak with myself and Chris when we were done with the rehearsal. When we went to speak with her, she did say she was here to help, however, that is the opposite of what she told me in my earlier meetings with her. I felt like I was being scolded by my mother for getting the tables out to set up. She was SO rude and I was so frustrated I stopped speaking and allowed Chris to do all the talking after that. We felt ignored and were given excuses rather than help, solutions, or answers. Michelle stated that all she needed was communication in order to help, however, she made it clear to me that she was not included in the price that I had paid for my event, so I tried not to bother her or ask questions. She also offered to pick up the pizza for the rehearsal dinner, something I thought was nice but she had made clear wasn't included (her services to pick up the food I was under the impression I was to provide a receipt to be reimbursed), so when she offered I was surprised. But, had I known that my pizza was going to arrive almost 2 hours prior to my dinner (even though I told her what time dinner was) and we were going to have cold pizza I would have just done it myself. I did forget to ask for drinks so I was thrilled when she had left drinks for us to use. Then while we were still eating she came and took them all away. We all felt this was a passive aggressive way of rushing us out of the hall. She didn't even speak when she was in the hall, just took away items that she had provided to us. I was a little upset that we didn't hear from you Friday evening, I just figured that something had come up as is very typical when you are as busy as you are. However, I then learned from Michelle that you had been present at the Birthday Party that was being hosted upstairs in the winery. I was confused as to why you didn't come over. I am also confused as to why if I was to have full access there was a private Birthday Party being hosted in the upstairs of the winery (again something you had sold us an idea, Chris and his guys could relax up there play some games) but that was taken away from us. When we had met with you, we shared that we were night owls and did not want to have to wake up early and be setting up or stressing over setting up. Since we were unable to set up Friday night I had to ask my wedding party to assist with setting up bright and early Saturday morning since the ladie's hair and make up was starting at 9am. When Chris and I spoke with Michelle Friday night she asked us what time we would like to start, so we told her 7, but she did not arrive until 730 and we were locked out of the hall and only able to work on the things that we had access to. When she finally showed up, she argued with my bridal party about what time I should be getting ready (again, it didn’t fit HER timeline for MY wedding). While setting up she only allowed us to have 12 rounds for my 120 guests (eventually the 12 tables only had 8 chairs placed at them and she argued so much we finally gave up on this). She stated that there were enough tables and chairs, but as a result after the ceremony when we were having the reception we had run out of tables and chairs and my guests had to STAND!! There were at least 2 more round tables available that we were not allowed to have access to. I had a guest needing handicapped parking access, so I followed Michelles instructions and gave her a special password as well as the guest, but this guest was then told there was none left because the bridal party took too many spots to park. I had 4 cars in my bridal party and 2 vendor cars (1 for hair and 1 for makeup) so there were PLENTY left. I am confused why my guest was asked to park far away from the entry and the excuse given was to place the blame on myself and was not true in the least. I put lots of thought and planning into where I placed things throughout the grounds, mostly because I wanted everyone to see the entire beauty that was there. I placed the photo guest book away from the entry because I wanted people to get up and walk around, make their way into the winery, ect. Without my consent she moved the guestbook table location and backdrop prop I had rented. When setting up the remembrance table, I had purchased a sign that I wanted displayed on the table but I found a plain printed sign that said "In remembrance" that I had to remove twice from the table, placing it inside the hall in the bar. After the second time showed up again, I told my Maid of Honor if she saw it to please remove it. My Maid of Honor also removed the sign and made sure to tell Michelle I did not want it out there. Much to my surprise when I arrived later, there was the sign that I did not want present and had removed a total of 3 times. My cake vendor and Michelle also had differences of opinions (and by that, I mean Michelle was rude yet again). My cake vendor explained to Michelle that she understood Michelle wanted things a certain way but with all due respect I had hired her and gave her clear directions on what I wanted and she was going to do just that. When Chris requested a table to set up for the guest book location she yelled at him saying "we put the guest book on the wine barrels" to which Chris replied he “believes Brittany wanted a certain decoration there.” She eventually got him the table after a fight. Again the repeating theme of Michelle wanted things her way and she was unwilling to allow us to set them up how we wanted to set them up was showing. During the meal time (the meal I asked to be elsewhere and Michelle still set up where she wanted), Michelle yelled and refused to allow my 90 year old grandmother that uses a Walker to use to opposite direction staircase because she cannot stop on stairs like the line was currently doing. I am sure Michelle is going to fall back on her ole "liability" excuse here but there is zero reason whatsoever that you can give me as to why she would not allow my 90 year old grandmother to use to the less busy side of the stairs so that she could get down the stairs safely or speak to her the way she did. Thank God my best friends brother and wife were there to witness this interaction and safely assisted my grandmother down the stairs and to a table to rest before she got up to fix her plate. Another guest of mine had her 4 years olds’s arm GRABBED by Michelle when he was attempting to use the "wrong side" of the stairs. Again there is no excuse that can be given to me for the facility manager to grab a child by the arm and swing him around. My guests were being charged for WATER, yes a dollar for waters, soda/teas, beer and wine. I am confused how any of this could be miscommunicated unless there is something fishy going on here. Michelle was the one that gave me the idea to have the winery provide all drinks rather than having me bring in cans of drinks and trying to keep the cold, etc. Again was sold on this magical idea of convenience. I told Michelle that made perfect sense and that we would be covering all soda/tea, beer, and wine. The only thing we were not covering was hard liquor. Imagine the horror when my niece came to ask me for a dollar for a WATER!!!!!! Then I have asked a lot of my guests if they were charged for water, soda/tea, beer or wine and nearly all of them reported that they had to purchase. I was so embarrassed that we printed on our invitations that we would be covering beer, wine slushies, and wine, and yet my guests were being charged for these items. Some of my guests even asked Michelle why they were being charged when it was to be covered and she blatantly ignored them and wouldn’t answer (we have credit/debit statements to back up purchases). My guests were made to pay for their drinks, and I was STILL handed a bar tab that I know is incorrect since my guests were charged for their drinks. During our reception, Michelle physically locked the gate to the patio, prior to her locking the gate, any guest that tried to go through it she held her arms up and said “you’re not going through here.” While we were attempting to set up for the Grand Entrance, she had blocked/locked the door telling some of the groomans and a bridesmaid they were not part of the bridal party and were not “allowed” in. There was a longer then needed delay in the Grand entrance because of this. During my meeting with Melissa she stated that there were 2 space heaters that would be available for my use. When I asked for those I was told by Michelle there have never been space heaters at the winery, however, when Chris asked her husband he said “oh those are broken.” We also saw them in the garage during the day on Saturday. Had I known that those were broken (or didn’t exist according to Michelle) I would have rented or found a solution to provide some warmth to my guests. Especially since I was told by Melissa that the hall could hold 120 guests and Michelle told me that was not possible. Michelle was so unfriendly towards my guest that they thought my wedding DJ was my coordinator and not Michelle. That just blew my mind. After the reception had wrapped up, we made sure to abide by the strict noise ordinance, and we quickly and efficiently got everything torn down and got it inside since it had begun to rain harder than just a mist. We offered to assist Michelle and her husband and again she was unfriendly and rude when we trying to assist and made everyone incredibly uncomfortable. Also, one side of the patio lights either were never turned on and/or were not working. This brings me to Sunday. During my meeting with Michelle she stated that we had to be out of the air bnb by 11, even though my contract stated that I was allowed access to everything until 3pm. However, Friday in front of Chris she backtracked on that and said that she was not rushing us out but never provided a clear time/exception of when we needed to be out. So based upon my earlier conversations with Michelle, I had made arrangements with my family and friends to arrive at 9 am to assist us with getting everything cleaned out by 11 am. I text Michelle at 9:20 to tell her we needed access to the hall to get my items out since it was still locked, and after saying she was on her way she didn't arrive until 11 am. The time that she wanted us out. Again, it would have been nice to sleep in and not rush but I was following Michelle's rules only for her to be completely disrespectful of our time. If she was not able to get there within 30 minutes she should have reached out to you or another employee to give us access. Overall, the magical weekend that was sold to us and promised was not given and in fact it was quite the opposite. I feel that I could have saved myself the additional $3600 that it cost to have the entire weekend. We originally felt the additional money was worth it for all that was promised and to give us the stress free experience we wanted (and were promised). I feel like I paid that amount to just have access to the air bnb houses, which breaks down to $900 a night. I live 15 mins from the winery and our entire wedding party all live less than 30 mins away, so the houses were not something I needed. Purchasing the weekend package did not include any of the peace of mind promised. I am telling you all of these this to hopefully save any other brides from this horrible customer service experience on a weekend that was supposed to be amazing. You truly have a beautiful site however with a person like Michelle in charge of facilitating the customer service relationship I have no doubt that she will run it straight into the ground. I would also like to leave you with 2 suggestions; a diaper changing station (I had to lay my nephew on the bathroom floor to change him) or change the venue to be a 18+ venue so that there are not future issues with diaper changes or children being scolded and/or unacceptably grabbed by Michelle.