Mariners Landing Resort at Smith Mountain Lake

My wedding was beautiful in the end and day-of they did all they could to help fix everything. But getting there...this place was a nightmare to work with. The original wedding person I worked with there was fairly new and terrible, then like a month before the wedding she left and the new lady, Sharon, is much better, but it was already such a mess. The real problem is with the management above these people. Regardless of who you are working with, you will not get an itemized contract without repeatedly begging for it (and you can't be nice about it). You will have no idea what you're paying for and the math will almost definitely be wrong. We didn't get real contracts for our rehearsal bbq or wedding until week-of and still...not itemized. It's very frustrating. Their "ceremony chairs" included in the "package" are like plastic pool chairs, so you have to rent your own. The linens are white and don't go to the floor on the round tables. Basically, there's not much value in the "package." We spent a ton on renting our own stuff, (reception chairs, ceremony chairs, draping and lighting to cover up the ugly, linens) but I think eventually negotiated some of the bs package stuff out. The dance floor looks like someone took a hammer to it, but we used it anyway. The lighting made it not obvious. It was a real headache...the whole thing..and a constant fight. When we were setting up on the day-of no one knew what was supposed to happen. It's like emails disappear into thin air. So it was a real scramble for my mom and friends and coordinator to pull it all together with the staff there. Like I said...in the end it was beautiful and the crew there the day-of really worked hard to fix everything for us, but there was a lot of stress and tears along the way trying to get it there (and I am a very easy-going person). They do not make it easy. Gorgeous setting. (There's a visible electrical box in the ceremony location though...its in my sand ceremony pictures). My guests loved the place. Warn them about the 30% mark-up on your room "group rates" though. The food was good. But on every single price you are quoted..add 30% for tax and gratuity. On EVERYTHING. And don't do alcohol by the head. It's a rip-off. We saved several thousand with a host bar. If you book here...good luck! Maybe one day they will get their act together because it's a beautiful venue and it could be really great.

Communication was not at its finest at this establishment. Six months before the wedding, the planner hired by the venue dissapears and all the information for the wedding went with it. Mariners gave no compensation for the re-work that instilled in preparation for the wedding. A new planner was hired that seemed in a pickle for who was in control of the wedding. There was a planner, a vendor coordinator and a manager.. throw in the restaraunt manager and it got very confusing, very quickly.. The wedding happened and so did the reception but there were little things that could have been avoided.. The reception was not managed and no one was moving the events along, because of the lack of management another hour had to be added in order to have the bouqet and garter toss. I was told that all of these issues would be resolved for a wedding in the future (not mine unfortunately). The venue had us pay for the extra hour immediately after the reception was over. It was very disheartening as much as the venue put us through that they would nickle and dime our celebration. The view was gorgeous so I would definately do it all over again with the right management!

Great location for outdoor wedding--both mountain and water view. Condos are comfortable and some are quite spacious (particularly 3 BR). Staff is friendly and helpful, though wedding coordinator was intermittent with return contact, which was at times frustrating. She was great to work with when you could talk to her. They could also use more people on the ground during the wedding to direct wedding party--we got trapped outside in a crowd of people after pre-wedding pictures and couldn't get in the building due to the guests flooding out the door--no one was there to direct us, which was unsettling.