We got married May 3rd, 2014 at the Living Room. We rented both spaces for our ceremony and reception. This venue is absolutely beautiful! We signed our contract 10 months before our wedding and couldn't wait to show it off to our guests. U...nfortunately, we rented it on the worst possible weekend.
The parking lot had a pipe break! When we went to finalize a week before our wedding, the mess was covered with rocks that we could work around. There was plenty of parking. 2 days before our wedding, we drove by to see heavy machinery and mounds of mud everywhere. It had rained the entire week and they decided that it would be a great idea to tear it up, even when our wedding was that weekend. We did get an email saying there wouldn't be parking available, but the situation was downplayed. I was so upset that I met with Melanie that day. She reassured me that all work would resume after the rain stopped and they would try to get things done. I was also promised compensation due to the fact that our handicapped guests wouldn't be able to get in the front doors, all loading would have to be done from the back of the building, and most of the parking was gone. The gravel in the back was a huge issue for my elderly guests and it was very confusing on where they should enter the building. They literally entered the building through a loading dock area and had to walk through the building. They were able to finish a small portion of the concrete on the morning of our event, but was still left with a huge eye sore. Not only that, but they were powerwashing the mud off the sidewalk and the water flooded into the venue, which was more added stress.
My event went smoothly in between the guests arriving (when they found where to go) and the end of the night. We rented everything for our wedding, which made it very difficult to haul it all inside. My dad drives a van and asked the construction guys at the end of the night if he could back in to get all the rental items in the van. They gave him permission to. All of the guests got kicked out of the venue promptly at 1 AM and couldn't get out because the gate was closed. After trying to contact the venue manager twice through calls and text, no answer was received but my guests figured out how to get out. They couldn't trip the gate because it was blocked by mounds of dirt.
Not only was my whole security deposit not given back to me, but no compensation was given. They used the white chairs (which they charge $2.50 each to rent) because they wanted to test set up and tear down times. She gave us these at no cost for her benefit. These are required to rent now, but weren't when we signed our contract. We got no compensation, although we were told we would. When talking about the security deposit and compensation, they said the white chairs ($250 value) would be compensation enough, which was insulting considering she offered them to use for free! We got blamed for ruining their concrete warranty when my dad had asked before driving on it (he even offered to testify on their behalf so they could get their warranty back), and they threatened to call the insurance company.
If this would've been handled a different way, I would recommend it to others. With our situation, I know that the pipe breaking and flooding wasn't their fault, but they didn't handle it well, which is why I wouldn't recommend this venue. I felt as if money was more important than our happiness.