The Lilac Inn

Beautiful inn with lovely rooms and gardens. The food was a big hit with all the guests, and the wait staff and bartender were wonderful. It was great to have the whole inn to ourselves for the weekend. The communication, however, was lacking throughout the process. Many emails went unanswered until I called the inn. One time a whole month went by without response until I phoned. Closer to the event date someone started responding via a secondary email account, which I later learnt was going to my spam folder, causing more confusion. The owner, Shelly, also told us she would be available as our day of coordinator. That was offered on our very first tour of the inn. I even double checked on that a few times over the year, because heck yeah, coordinator included! The weeks leading up to our wedding Shelly unfortunately broke her ankle and needed to be in a boot. However, she said she'd still be available to coordinate since she could still walk short distances. The rehearsal she wasn't there to coordinate though, and we had to figure out the placement and timing on our own. It was raining, so we were having the ceremony in the main hall/entrance. Our guests started arriving for the rehearsal dinner and it added some chaos as everyone wanted to hug and say hello. I had to direct the guests to the dining room so we could actually finish the rehearsal. The rehearsal I was totally freestyling. My maid of honor later organized guests during dinner to the buffet by table so there wasn't a huge crowd of people standing and waiting for food. The actual ceremony Shelly was also not present. We worked out a system among the wedding party so people out of line of sight would each know when to start walking. Of the whole wedding, including our musician almost not making it, being rained out of our planned garden ceremony, it was standing offside at the ceremony worrying about people knowing when to go--that our plan we made 5 minutes prior was sound--that was the most stressful moment. That's when I was like "wait, isn't the day of coordinator supposed to be managing this?" If I knew she wasn't going to be there I would have prepared more ahead of time. I had taken for granted that I didn't have to think about it. We were also overcharged accidentally, and again had to make a phone calls to get money correctly refunded since the email responses went silent. In short, beautiful inn, wonderful waitstaff, food is delicious, rooms are lovely. We all had fun at the end of the day. They do give you a lot of flexibility in whatever you'd like to do. The communication is a hassle though. And they don't do contracts. Our coordinating issues may have just been a one-off with Shelly's ankle though--she may really be on the ball with coordinating other times for all we know. Oh, and the cost of meals was higher than what's listed. They do make a note that costs are subject to market pricing, I believe the meals were about $10 more a head for us. We found that out when the bill came, so be aware for your budgeting.