I just recently got married here on March 20, 2022, at Margaritaville Resort Orlando. 50 Person Wedding.
Disaster is an understatement. My wedding was stunning, do not get me wrong, but you know why that is? Because of my incredible day-of-coo...rdinator Samantha Follmer as well as the ambiance of the venue itself. This is how it started; Kasey Bussell sold the venue she made us feel so confident in our decision with signing here. She was sweet, down-to-earth, had years of experience, and just made us feel like we were her main priority. Three to four months go by, Kasey sends out a beautiful resignation email due to family matters - to all her clients to reassure them she will only find the best talent to take over her role. Kasey hired a woman named Kristie who had worked for Disney events for numerous years. Again, I reached out to her and explained my wedding vision. But, only about a month in, Kristie resigns leaving my wedding with only 6 months left to yet another venue coordinator. No one reached out to me to let me know Kristie left. I called around and finally, someone told me that a man named Jacob was to take over my wedding now. He was not on top of it at all. Every single time I called him he would always say, “remind me of your wedding again, I don’t have your file in front of me,” Very shortly after, Jacob left/got fired. Two weeks before my wedding! No venue coordinator. Rose Pope (Jacob’s Boss) took over my wedding two weeks before my big day. Even after countless phone calls, emails, and in-person meetings with Jacob, Rose Pope had no clue what my wedding entailed. So once again, I had to re-explain every detail again! The worst part was during my wedding reception (the last hour) they called me over (The Bride) to sign papers acknowledging the total cost of the wedding! DURING MY WEDDING. On the last hour of my special day, they wanted me to sign papers! If you ask me, it was a huge red flag to call over the bride at the very end of the night after a few drinks to sign some papers in the dark. It was so disrespectful and disturbing to me. The venue food was good but again, they ran out of food during my cocktail hour so numerous of my guests could not eat even though we paid for the number of total guests to have passed hors d'oeuvres. Rose did everything she could to not be involved and made the minimum possible effort. If we did not hire a day-of coordinator, the whole wedding would have failed in Rose’s hands. In the final two weeks before my wedding, Rose would go multiple days without responding to calls or emails, often requiring me to follow up 2-3 times. In meeting with Rose with my family during the rehearsal, rose made a short appearance but her lack of a sense of urgency or any reassurance was immediately apparent. When we questioned her about things that were supposed to be in order, Rose responded in a disrespectful manner that left us all shocked afterwards, which even more so lowered our confidence in Rose’s ability to handle everything.
Rose did not show up for even one minute during my whole wedding. The reception room and open bar were paid for until 10pm. They started breaking down the bar at 9:40pm and no one was allowed to drink anymore. Overall, please do not book this event space, they really dropped the ball on every aspect of my wedding weekend. I spent countless hours and thousands of dollars getting stressed out, disappointed the whole weekend of my wedding and even during my reception.