The Gale Mansion

ith a more professional venue with a full staff. Most of the reviews you see for Gale are years old and before the property was sold and gained new management. Now, there's only one person there who doesn’t appear to have any experience in weddings. The communication is extremely poor. After I booked, I would go months at a time without getting any response from them. In the weeks leading up to my wedding, I hadn’t heard from them in over a month despite repeatedly trying. Eventually, since I don’t live in state, my sister had to show up at Gale and wait for someone to arrive, so that we could get in touch. Even then, we drafted our own mock up of the dining room/table arrangement, I created my own schedule of the day, communicated with each vendor about when they should arrive and who they should contact, etc. Gale requires that you cater through the venue, but they canceled our tasting after we flew in for it and subsequently canceled the catering altogether. This was maybe four or five months out from the wedding. I did ask or a partial refund at that time but was denied. While stressful, if you do host your wedding at Gale I highly recommend getting an outside caterer. Fork & Flair were life savers—not only was the food amazing but they were the only professionals helping during my reception. The caterers went above and beyond—when someone broke a vase during cocktail hour, it was the servers who cleaned it up. I was later told that at times no Gale staff were at the venue at all during the wedding. When we did get a hold of them leading up to my wedding, I asked about their coordination—as they promote and told us a DOC comes with the venue when you book—but was told they really don’t help decorate, or much else. I had all the final calls with my vendors and planned the entire day myself. I also had to bring in outside help to decorate/coordinate, since they woudn't help. Moreover, when we arrived to set up the day before the wedding (something that was difficult to set up) I found that we had to pull everything out or storage and set it up ourselves. We set up all the tables and chairs, laid the linens. I don't think it would’ve gotten done otherwise. I will say, it is a beautiful and historic venue. And it's more affordable than some others in the area, but that’s essentially because the extent of what they offer is the space and unlocking the doors. We did save money by hosting our wedding there, they allowed us to get in early to use the suites upstairs to get ready. We had the entire mansion to ourselves and for entire day. That being said, I’m not sure if I’d do it again. After the wedding, my family went back to clean up and to get the rented linens and decor. They were told two different times to arrive by staff members. When they’d arrived everything was dumped on the floor, some things were broken and they were unsure they retrieved it all. Overall, it’s beautiful and I treasure the day and the photos but I cannot express how much more stressful wedding planning was made by hosting it at Gale. They are impossible to get a hold of, and they can’t deliver the services they advertise—or even the ones they require you to partake in . If you’ve booked here I would hire someone fast, or be prepared to treat planning like your full time job.