The Hive Farm & Wedding Barn

We recently hosted our wedding at the Hive Wedding Barn in Waterford back in July! The property is absolutely beautiful with plenty of space for getting ready, setup, ceremony & reception, & overnight accommodations for our wedding party/family. The house has lots of rooms and we were very grateful for having an air conditioner in each one to keep everyone comfortable mid-July. They allow your dogs as well which was a nonnegotiable factor for finding our ideal venue! We had an amazing wedding weekend here & the review would absolutely be 5 stars if it wasn’t for the experience with the venue owner. First, and likely very important, the owner refuses any issues between his property and the town it does business in, however we had to cancel our bar service two weeks prior to the event due to the town contacting us & informing us that no permits are accepted for the property due to “ongoing code issue”. We contacted the owner to inquire and the topic was avoided & blame was placed on our bar service “for not securing the permit earlier”. Potential wedding couples please be advised, any licensed bar service cannot serve here currently until the town lifts the stop order placed on the venue. Second, we didn’t receive any communication from the venue owner on the morning of check in… check in is at 2pm and we sent a few messages prior to ask about gaining access to the home (contract states entry instructions are provided a few days prior). Thankfully doors were unlocked upon arrival, however the owner didn’t answer until 7pm once we had already arrived and settled into the venue the night before the wedding… The unnecessary stress of a non responsive venue owner isn’t the best way to start the weekend, BUT the weekend continued without any additional issues and just about everything else was provided as described! Lastly, when booking you pay a security deposit which is contracted to be refunded within 20 days of the event. The owner was actually quick to provide a PARTIAL refund via Paypal within a handful of days of the event.. We followed up to say thank you for the timeliness and to confirm the amount we were to be refunded for the deposit, since we left the grounds in amazing condition and followed all of the instructions provided in the house for check out. The owner responded and confirmed that it was an error that only a partial refund was sent, however he hadn’t confirmed the condition of the property and would send the remaining amount due after checking on the property within a few days (sent on July 18). Unfortunately, it is now August 6 and we have followed up via email twice with no response from the owner and no additional amount refunded back… Just a few other things to note: the property was not mowed for us as it was mentioned to be, we had to grab a weed whacker to clean the ceremony area… & a large hornet’s nest was above the barn doors leading to the ceremony that we had to remove.