Let me start by saying my wedding was beautiful. However, the process leading up to that day, was more of a headache than I could have anticipated. What I thought would be a simple transaction turned into a complicated ordeal. What this vendor ...has that others don't is the guise of a 'non-profit' that they use as an excuse for nickel and diming you at every corner. At first, my husband and I only reserved the ballroom for our reception (we really wanted the ballroom for both the ceremony and reception..turn-around would cost us $5,000 extra) Later on, we caved and decided to reserve the concert hall for the ceremony. I informed Cacia of this, Rachel's assistant, who conveniently never received the email. Despite having a back-and-forth conversation about the details of the concert hall, she never followed-up after "not receiving a final answer." Needless to say, we believed we had the hall reserved for MONTHS. Then, 5 months before the wedding, she informed us about not receiving the email. I forwarded it, and naturally, never got an apology. Instead, she told my husband that I just never reserved it. My husband and I lived out of state for most of our planning period, so on one of the few trips we had in St. Louis, we wanted to take our officiant (also from out of town) on a tour of the facility. We called more times than I actually have a number for. Each time, the receptionist directed us toward their offices, assuring us they were there, and NOT ONCE DID ANYONE ANSWER. We literally called every hour for an entire business day. So we showed up. We were instructed to wait in the greenroom, directly behind the concert hall stage. We peaked our heads in, and then someone, came halfway down the stairs to tell us to leave. As she was saying this to us, she walked back up the stairs. It was the most unapologetically rude encounter we had the entire planning period. The next day Rachel returned our many voicemails, and never apologized for the behavior of that worker (who might have been Cacia but we had never met her in person before and she didn't introduce herself before instructing us to leave and walking away), and informed us that they have to schedule all tours. Which we had tried to do for days. They are awful at communication. You could have had an email conversation for over a few hours, and then radio silence, in the middle of answering questions, and not hear from them for weeks. This happened once, and again, we called, and were told they were gone for the day. Why wouldn't you inform someone in the middle of the exchange that you were going to leave for the day? They also can't give you a rehearsal dinner date until 3 months prior. So if you have out of town guests booking flights, you can't give them any details.
I don't expect someone to be at my every beckoning call, but I do expect communication and basic customer service. Beware of the other hidden fees: multiple bartenders and tips and if you want to have a break in between the ceremony and reception, prepare to open your wallet and tell all of your guests to leave, because that has to happen. Another fun surprise that happened on the day of our wedding: clean up had to be that night. Would have been nice to know that literally at any other time other than 11:00pm after our wedding.
Like I said before, our wedding was beautiful and our pictures are wonderful, but I don't recommend The Sheldon if you live out of town, are on a tight budget, or like planning in advance.