If you want a super laid back do-it-yourself kind of wedding, this is your place;if you are someone who needs consistent set plans and guidance sprinkled with a little elegance, you may want to look elsewhere. I booked this venue with full on S...weet Home Alabama vibes. I am a city girl but with coronavirus still somewhat at play, we booked this charming country outdoor venue to ensure some social distancing.
We initially loved the venue but what we were not told is that during the time of our wedding, they would be undergoing remodeling to the venue bathrooms and the designated area where we had our rehearsal dinner and got ready the day of.That upset me because it was not included in our contract nor was it aesthetically pleasing at all, no flooring & finishings, and we were not warned that they were going to be doing this until we arrived for our wedding weekend. I had to purchase a carpet myself for women's bathroom as they only had plywood flooring and guests were having to walk through wet grass in heels to get to bathroom as they did not yet have an entrance.
The venue is owned by a sweet couple who basically run the entire operation with some family, along with their friend who is the wedding coordinator. Very nice people, but not big on organization/planning. Ie- the day of the wedding my coordinator said they would be there in the morning to set up.The day came, my florists show up, and coordinator is not there, nothing is ready, so my parents and friends scrambled to set up tables. We had the venue until 11pm, but venue owners instructed dj to announce last call at 10pm.Little things like that, where we were told one thing by the venue and then those things never came to fruition, continued to happen which impacted my final review of venue.They offered us wedding props but said we would have to pay to rent them-fyi there is a much nicer venue down the road (who is booked out 2 years) that lets you use all props for free and charges the same amount as HPR.
The weekend package includes wedding coordinator and shuttle bus amongst other things. Only crucial benefit in opting for weekend package is to ensure there is not a wedding at the venue the night before yours. The wedding coordinator was kind but did not do much the day of the wedding or prior,I felt that I did most myself. Ie-I had to call someone to escort myself and my entire wedding party by golf cart to the reception as I could not walk in my dress and my wedding coordinator was nowhere to be found.We also had little details promised to us for the reception that were not given because they told us they simply forgot. We were also told the venue had wifi for guests by the owner the day we toured the venue, but again this was not true as I asked for the wifi info during our wedding weekend and was told they did not have it by the same person who said they did.
The reception area is beautiful and a huge part of why we committed to this venue. Beyond that, much of the the venue is travel by foot and all locations are just far enough away that, in a dress/heels/tux you really want to be diligent about how much you have to walk- separate areas of the venue include an area to get ready, the ceremony, to the reception.There is uphill/down hill, gravel and grass torrain.This is also why it was upsetting when my wedding coordinator was nowhere to be found when my and my wedding party needed to be introduced at our reception-we ended up being about a half hour late.
Much love HPR!