Melrose Caverns Lodge Wedding and Special Event Venue

was perfect. The cavern tours during the reception were a huge hit among the guests. The farmhouse was the perfect place to stay and get ready for the wedding and provided the most stunning photos for the bride and groom. We can’t thank Melrose Caverns enough for making this special day for our daughter and son in law more than what they dreamed of for their wedding.

y to work with. We had so many compliments on the tour, venue, and ceremony location.

. Jack, the wedding coordinator went over and above his duties and actually helped out in every facet of the event. Being in a country setting and historic venue my wife had trepidation with cleanliness - NOT A CONCERN. Jack and his team paid attention to every detail in the Grand Lodge, Farmhouse and Guest Station, we rented all three - the attention to detail puts this venue at the forefront. The day of the event, Jack was right...”I am all about the bride and making sure you have a great time.” Literally, he checked in with me or my wife Several times throughout the event making sure things were going great. We had approximately 125 guests and we were very comfortable and had ample dance space after moving only three tables. Back to the “attention to detail“...I was permitted to drop some items off at the Farmhouse Prior to checking in on Friday. I arrived and found Jacks mom vacuuming “inside the kitchen drawers, wiping windows, etc - HIGHLY recommend the rental of the Farmhouse and Guest Station Vice hotel. VERY CLEAN, with original Woodwork and updated technology - what a combination! The only problem we found (Not associated with Melrose) was hiring a local Limo Service forTransporting guests from the venue to the hotel. They were all closed due to COVID. If you want a Limo service you will need to go to Charlottesville. This is not a slight against Melrose in fact, Jack contacted local contacts to see if they would do a private transportation event but they declined. We would highly recommend Melrose Caverns for your event and authorized Jack to use us as a referral source for those that want to discuss the venue. We did our diligence by speaking with four previous brides and nothing negative was related - that is why we chose Melrose. FIVE PLUS STARS! Good luck, Bobbi and Bo

nd there is so much flexibility when it comes to how you want everything set up, and you have a lot of options open to you when it comes to how you want to organize your ceremony and reception. I would give 4 stars for the space alone--1 star deducted because there isn't potable water and there isn't a full kitchen, so you have to be creative in how you have food and drinks (a lot of extra work and money on our and the caterer's end sadly--buffet was the only feasible option and we had to buy a ton of water to provide for the drinking station, but thankfully water is cheap). However, there is a lot more to this venue than the space. The management and communication from management is horrendous. I started getting red flags a couple months after committing to the venue when we found out at a catering tasting that the manager we had met and helped get our contract sorted out was no longer there. It turns out she hadn't been there for at least a month by the point. We still had several months until our wedding, but you would have thought it common sense and the first thing anyone in the professional event business would have done is notify everyone who booked the venue of the change in staffing and introduce the new person. A caterer we hadn't even signed a contract for very uncomfortably had to tell us this manager was gone and it was through her that I received the new manager's name, and then I sent an email to the new manager to introduce myself--and keep in mind that this new manager assumed responsibility of the same email account the old manager had been using. Going forward from that point, it was like pulling teeth to get answers. I work event planning myself, so I have a solid idea of how things are supposed to work. If I send an email, I am expecting a reply within 2 business days. However, I was waiting weeks at a time and would have to call the venue manager to say, "Hey, I sent you an email. Did you get it?" To which she would say that she didn't, that it must have gone to spam, or it didn't go through. Seeing as several email chains had been exchanged between my email and the venue manager email, that is a BS response and that is not something that should be used as an excuse, especially more than once. However, it was used multiple times. At one point I had sent an email with a couple minor questions, nothing pressing at the time, and I realized that a month had gone by and I still hadn't received a response. I called the venue manager and she told me verbatim, "I receive 30 emails a day, so older emails get buried very quickly." Excuse me, but you are in a business that requires open communication via email and phone and you are trying to tell me that 30 emails a day is too many for you to handle and that is why I didn't receive timely responses? We took our concerns to one of the brothers who owns the venue when we went to do the cavern tour morning after the wedding. My husband and I were hoping he would be receptive to our concerns and assure us he would work with the venue manager to improve her responsiveness and professionalism, but he didn't seem surprised by what we shared and he didn't really seem to act as if the lack of communication was a problem. 100% concerning and I wouldn't be surprised if others have had the same issues.