The Gardens at Gray Gables

st us in the best light. I have nothing but respect for you and enjoyed working with you throughout your planning process. I did, however, want to address some of the issues you had on your wedding day. 1. As discussed on the evening of your rehearsal, we had severe rotting on our front porch which had to be addressed, as we feared it could lead to injury of a guest, vendor or employee. While I understand that you wanted to have some photos on the front porch, unfortunately that would not have been able to take place whether we were redoing our front porch or not due to the rotting. To make up for this disappointment, we did reimburse you monies for the inconvenience. While the caution tape you mentioned was out for your rehearsal, we took that down on the day of your wedding and replaced it with a retractable belt barrier. 2. I do know that we had an employee go clean the cottage for 45 minutes before your arrival and her duties are to sweep, mop, dust and clean the restrooms. If there were droppings in the cottage that is something I will definitely need to address, as that would be completely unacceptable, and I do apologize. 3. The bar we set up on our cocktail patio is a stand alone bar, it does not have coolers or a storage area to keep beer and wine cool, therefore we pack a cart filled with beer and wine and bring it over to serve your guests. When we run low on one item, we have our event staff resupply from our main bar by the reception site. Once we are about 10 minutes away from your cocktail hour ending, we stop resupplying the cocktail bar and start packing up to make our way to the reception bar. We never ran out of any beer or wine throughout the evening, the only thing we did happen to run out of was Amaretto and once we realized we had gone through the two full bottles that we had stocked for your wedding, we did run to the store to get more, as we knew it was your favorite drink. 4. In your finalized timeline that you approved; we had the dances in the correct order. We also emailed this timeline to your vendors, so they would know when things were taking place as well. Unfortunately, we cannot control if the DJ veer from this, as we are not the one pushing the play buttons on the song. While I hate this happened, it is something that was out of our control. 5. We did forget to package up your remaining sparklers at the end of the evening with your other decor. That was never intentional, we still have them onsite, and you are more than welcome to come pick them up this week. 6. In regard to your cake cutting, we had set up your table with decor, your cake stand, knife and cake serving utensils as directed. Your catering company was responsible for setting out all of your plates, glassware, silver etc. for your reception. 7. Your sparkler exit was scheduled to take place right before your event ended at 10:30. We were never informed of a fake exit taking place, and at the time you decided to do that, Danielle was in the office unpackaging your sparklers to prepare for your scheduled exit at 10:30. Once she passed out the sparklers, she started lighting them, and by the time she was coming back down the line to notify you they were ready, you were already running through. Sparklers do burn quickly, and it is nearly impossible to light them at the same time, therefore when you start lighting them at one end of the line and end at the other, it is to be expected that the sparklers lit first would have burned more than the once just lit at the end. Once again, I do want to thank you for taking the time to write your review, and I want you to know I am heartbroken that you felt so disappointed with your experience on our property, as we strive to make all of the weddings and events that take place at Gray Gables truly special. While I do not personally feel we deserve the one star review you gave us, we will learn from this experience and strive to do better in the future.

my best to get back with everyone as quickly as I can. Because I do all of the tours, gardening, and work the events myself sometimes it does take a little while to get back to emails, which is why I give everyone my cell phone number as well because I usually have that on me most of the time. With that being said, at that time I did have two small children, and while that may have played a part in my delayed response, it is not an excuse. I did and still do have a bridal cottage attended who stays in the cottage with you while you are getting ready, just incase you need assistance of any kind; they help you with decorating, helping you get ready, assist you to the ceremony site, etc. I do remember your guest book (the bench) and how wonderful of an idea I thought it was. I don't remember it being moved, as this happened 6 years ago, but if my staff did I sincerely apologize for that and I am sorry that the markers were misplaced. You will be happy to hear that I do not direct anymore. Though I only did it for a short period of time (maybe a year or two) it didn't take long to realize it was a lot while also managing the venue on the day of not to mention running the business' day to day operations. Overall I am sorry that you had such a negative experience with us so many years ago. Things have changed, though I know that does not make your past experience any better. I do hope you are doing okay and life is treating you well.