Our wedding at St. Clement's Castle in July 2024 was, unfortunately, an experience filled with dishonesty, unprofessionalism, and stress. What should have been a joyous day for us ...turned into months of frustration, disappointment, and blatant disregard for the couple's wishes.
First off, the pressure to book was intense, with constant lies about available dates to push us into a decision. The lack of transparency around pricing was equally troubling. Significant price increases happened on items that were not noted are subject to have price increases. After many disagreements, they reluctantly honored the original price of the item we were interested in, yet our guests, my husband, myself or our parents never even saw the item despite paying for it!!
My mother, noted missing items from her meal—no goat cheese on the salad, substituted with parmesan—and the pasta course was a joke. Large bowls of pasta as was usually given at their events, but guests were served tiny ramekins. My husband and I didn't even receive our pasta course at all!
As if the food issues weren’t enough, St. Clement's is rigid and controlling when it comes to customizing your wedding. They flat-out refused changes that would have made our day more personal. Worse, their discriminatory practices barred us from bringing in an ethnic celebratory alcohol tied to our culture—while allowing other similar drinks from different backgrounds. They nearly banned us from having our traditional dance as well. The venue’s lack of respect for cultural traditions was deeply upsetting for both us and our families.
Trying to coordinate with our wedding coordinator, Rebecca, was next to impossible, especially in the final weeks when critical decisions needed to be made. Communication became sparse, and it was clear they cared more about marketing to our guests than our experience. In a written email from Rebecca, she explicitly referred to our wedding as a "marketing event" for St. Clement’s, rather than focusing on making it a special day for us. This is not just unprofessional; it’s heartless.
Upper management, Pam, was just as unhelpful and disrespectful. When we raised concerns, she would constantly talk over us, going on long-winded rants to avoid listening to our grievances. At one point, she even claimed she was talking over us because she couldn’t hear us due to her air conditioning unit. Her dismissiveness and refusal to acknowledge our concerns were infuriating.
To add insult to injury, the venue completely ignored our detailed wedding packet, which included specific instructions and photos on how things should be set up. Despite months of planning and discussions, it was as if they hadn’t even bothered to look at the packet we provided that went in great detail so the venue could execute everything exactly as we would have hoped.
While no vendor can be perfect, the level of neglect we experienced at St. Clement's was beyond unacceptable. We poured months of effort into making our day special, only for St. Clement’s to ignore most of our wishes and treat us with contempt.
This venue is not only expensive, but also deceptive, manipulative, and discriminatory. It was by far the most stressful part of our wedding, and I regret choosing St. Clement’s. Many of our vendors and guests called their behavior “disgusting” and “unacceptable,” and I couldn’t agree more. Save yourself the heartache and look elsewhere for a venue that values your day as much as you do.