The Greenbrier

Our Greenbrier wedding was so dreamy! I cannot believe how beautifully it all came together! The Greenbrier venue is enchanting and offers so many unique options; we had falconry at our welcome party and were picked up by a horse drawn carriage from the ceremony at the beautiful chapel. Our wedding planner, Laura, was so helpful with every detail from custom chocolate stamps on our wedding cake pieces to having scissors in the bridal suite for bridesmaids to remove dress tags. I even forgot my vendor tip money in the safe in my room and Laura personally picked it up for me so I wouldn't miss 10 minutes of the reception. She went above and beyond! Also, Gillespie's flowers was fantastic! I'm not well versed in florals and Martha was able to take my vague thoughts and perfectly match what I imagined. Laura also contacted Martha day of for a very minor mishap on ONE of my flowers in the bridal bouquet. They fixed it within 5 minutes. Unbelievable! This duo knows how to put on an event and I highly recommend!

First off, The Greenbrier is an absolutely beautiful property. The Chapel is gorgeous, as are the grounds, plus there are so many activities that can appeal to all different guests. However, a word of warning–HIRE YOUR OWN OFF–SITE WEDDING PLANNER. I can't fully express how difficult it was to work with The Greenbrier's wedding team, in particular Laura Richter. Another team member (Whitney Mills) writes/edits contracts and, after signing, you're turned over to work with Laura Richter. Be extra careful in laying out your contract. Make sure that absolutely everything is included and it's as specific as possible before signing anything. We felt pressured to sign but demanded changes until we were satisfied, and still were surprised with "property charges" Thursday before our wedding. Laura didn't even present our terms of agreement/initial bill until FRIDAY before the wedding, even though it had been requested a month before. Whitney will go days without returning emails, and our final bills (room charges, etc.) weren't even sent until 4 months after the wedding. Their billing department completely ignored our inquiries. My aunt planned a farewell brunch, and even her bill wasn't sent until December. She sent multiple emails and left phone messages, all of which went unreturned. Their customer service and accounting practices truly make no sense. There are also way too many cooks in the kitchen, with Laura having to go to someone for every single approval. This leads to a lot lost in translation, which can result in unexpected charges. They do not stand down for anything, so you'll be responsible for often–questionable fees. Another heads up–The Greenbrier is union–operated, which affects how things are run (for example, they had to "hire extra front desk staff" to give out welcome bags at $2/each.) I can't imagine if we had not hired our wedding planner. She took so much stress away, simply because she was the one that had to cross all barriers for clear communication with them. She was also a godsend for all day–of duties. The Greenbrier will tell you they offer full wedding planning services, but this is simply not true. An off–site wedding planner was probably our greatest investment. Martha at Gillespies was awesome, but she is the only Greenbrier–affiliated vendor that I'd recommend. Like I said, it was a beautiful weekend and the photos are stunning. However, if your heart isn't set on The Greenbrier, I'd take this word of warning and look into other venues.

I’m going to start off by saying that I had a beautiful wedding at the Greenbrier and had a wonderful experience working with Gilispies. However, the wedding planner, Whitney Mills, was a nightmare to work with. She took days to return my emails, got the menu wrong for our rehearsal dinner (blamed MOG when confronted), forgot to include important details for our reception, and failed to put out coffee for our post wedding brunch. She blamed others when she messed things up and made the whole wedding planning process more stressful than it should have been. As beautiful as The Greenbrier is, I would never recommend getting married there, unless you are able to have a different planner.

Seriously don't even waste your time. The wedding planners are the most unorganized and most uncaring people I have ever met. They have horrible communication skills. I saw bad reviews about the weddings before but thought that it couldn't be right, after all it is the Greenbrier. I should have listened to those reviews. Then when I told them I wanted to cancel they acted like they just did so much for me and I was in the wrong for not trusting them and wanting to cancel. They also had the audacity to tell me I was canceling because I could not afford it. Are you sure it's not because your customer service sucks?