The Barn at Stanton Crossing

I’m giving one star because i’m unable to rate the barn at stanton crossing with zero stars. My husband and I drove 3 hours north to check out what we thought would be our dream destination venue. We scheduled a date to meet with event coordinator Aleecia and when we showed up ended up meeting with one of the owners, Kristen. Kristen had sold us on the venue and we booked shortly after in Aug 2019 for our wedding in Sept 2020. We had minimal communication after that until someone named Cati reached out end of April 2020 wanting to schedule a food tasting in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic. She was apparently the new event coordinator. I explained how we were very anxious due Michigan being completely shut down- no restaurants or gatherings permitted. Cati assured me things would be “normal” and sent me a letter that they were sending to May/June brides for “closure” on how to proceed with our wedding. I was told they were offering a 50% refund. Mind you, their contract specifically states you will receive a full refund if your wedding is canceled due to impossibility i.e. government not allowing you to have your wedding. At one point Cati stopped responding to me, as you can see in other reviews her communication skills are nonetheless non-existent. We ended up hearing from Kristen who refused to stand by the signed contract stating we would receive a refund due to impossibility clause. We ended up getting married in our hometown in OH as MI governor made it impossible for weddings in 2020. After our wedding date we e-mailed a letter twice and even sent it via mail requesting our refund and owners Kristen & Rocco did not have the decency to even respond. I hope future brides never have to deal with what I did during my wedding planning- to put it simply, do not book this venue unless you want months of headaches down the road. Customer service is horrendous.

This barn is absolutely beautiful! When we first booked this venue we knew it was perfect because we could have our ceremony at their location and our summer barn wedding could also have air conditioning which was a huge plus! It was also convenient that they offered catering and bar services so that we could handle all of those vendors in house. Not to mention the bbq and Mac n cheese was delicious. However we did have issues with communication during this whole process. When we first booked the venue we were in contact with Kristen and I was emailing with questions and we didn’t hear back from her for months until I finally sent another email expressing my concern. She texted me finally and said that it would never happen again. Until it did. I was calling and texting Kristen but never got any response until I got a call from Kati who I had never been in contact with. I felt like this was very unprofessional that Kristen couldn’t give me a courtesy message that we would now be working with someone else. From there Kati was helpful at answering our questions, the only discrepancy was when she would tell us one thing, and then later come back and change the answer. Also every time we talked with her we had to explain who we were, our date, and our details instead of her being prepared or organized with which bride and groom she was speaking with. The communication also continued to be frustrating during all of the changes that were happening with the state executive orders which we understood they were trying to figure it out to the best of their ability. At the end, they did everything they could to help us make sure we were able to still have our big day. Almost everything on our wedding day went perfectly! We had access the day before to set up most of our decorations so there was only a few things to be taken care of on the day of the wedding. We had a beautiful day with our ceremony outside, cocktail hour was indoor/outdoor so people could enjoy both spaces and play yard games, and we were able to have dinner upstairs with plenty of space on the outdoor patio so our guests could also enjoy both spaces. Our hiccup on the wedding day was that we paid for their “fill the taps” add on to the bar service which gave us beers that we thought all of our guests would like. However, the ones they told us would be on tap were not and beers that were on tap downstairs were not on tap upstairs. We were disappointed seeing that our guests were buying their own beers when we paid extra to have the options they would want. At the end of the day, I can not speak highly enough though about Rocco and how great he was on the day of our wedding. This meant everything to us!! He worked with our DJ to make sure everything went smoothly. He asked me what I needed when we got there which was unexpected but I was so grateful. I can’t speak highly enough about our experience with Rocco on our day, he handled it all! Overall this is a beautiful barn venue and we had a wonderful wedding day but we wanted to share our honest review and experience so that these things could be improved on and the next wedding there will be even better.

It is a beautiful venue. But there is more to a reception than the space. The owners and manager are incapable of being professional and fixing problems as they arise. Our list of “troubles “ as owner Kristen quoted, were issues with the bill, food that was inedible, gluten free meals were unavailable at the reception for our guests with allergies, quantities of cocktail hour food misrepresented and we ran out in 15 minutes, and the threat of keeping $400 deposit because the couple opened a bottle of champagne approved by manager. As MOB I wanted to negotiate these issues before our kids came back from their honeymoon. Kristen and Rocco blamed me, were condescending, rude and completely disrespectful. All I wanted was acceptance of responsibility and an apology. This has not happened and they both refuse to speak with me. You couldn’t pay me to use them again!

We had our son & new daughter’s wedding at the Barn at Stanton Crossings. The barn had many benefits including having room for a ceremony/cocktail hour/reception all in 1 spot. The staff was initially accommodating, we were working with Kristen D. (co-owner) & Kaytlin (manager). They were flexible in timing our set up & rehearsal, helpful during set up with direction & advice. But on wedding day, when you really want things to go well there were a few hiccups. Just prior to the wedding I checked with the bar to confirm timing for the bar options (we paid extra for a “fill the taps” to ensure good beer/cider choices) & I was told that their beer truck didn’t arrive & we would have to do with what they had, they also didn’t have the cider that was ordered so not enough cider to last through the evening. While this isn’t going to ruin the night, it was disappointing that the beverages that the bride & groom chose were not available. -They did offer to add another option to the menu when the cider ran out. In addition, we timed the ceremony being done & guests to be at the bar at 6 so scheduled the bar to open then. When the ceremony ended early (only 15 minutes early) & guests were all downstairs, they wouldn’t open the bar until 6. I had to go upstairs & plead to have them open the bar so our guests could have a beverage along with the food that was all being served. Only after assuring them that they could close the bar at the end of the evening early to accommodate did they send one bartender down to serve 130 people, the bartender was so angry that she spilled all over the bar as she was trying to show her haste (she was very unpleasant). As planned, the bar closed during dinner with the exception of the head table being able to have wine, when the groom asked the mother of the bride to get a glass of wine (she was so busy with guests during cocktail hour that she didn’t have time to get anything prior to that) so that she could be included in the toast, Kristen refused, even when we explained that this was for the toast, she refused. The food was good, served on time & there was enough. Kaytlin tried to ensure that everything was fine & did her best to accommodate as I believe she felt bad for the mishaps. The icing on the cake was when I contacted Kristen for the couples deposit check to be returned to them so that they would have it when returning from their honeymoon, her response was "the contract stated that they had 30 days to return the check". There was no reason for them to hang on to the money. Even at the 30 day mark the new couple was yet to receive the deposit return. They had to call 2 more times to have the check finally sent to them. My take away is this, they were unwilling to be flexible on the day of the event, but they required us to be flexible with them not having the bar options we paid for & also with them not returning the deposit check in a timely manner. I want them to succeed, the building is great and is a beautiful venue for a barn wedding. This is their first year doing weddings and I know that there are to be bumps but I hope that this is something that they learn from. A 15 minute adjustment to a schedule on a wedding day should be accommodated without a blink, the mother of the bride asking for one glass of wine should be accommodated, bar menu that was an upcharge should have been honored, and certainly it does not take 40+ days to issue a check to return a deposit.