The Mason Dallas

The Mason has always been my #1 venue since its grand opening in 2020. I recently got engaged and set up a tour with the Mason via email which took about a month for them to have a time block available. I arrived to my 1:30pm appointment 10 minutes early, and was greeted by a not so great looking gas station across the street on Sunset Ave and a giant dumpster facing the venue on the S Beckley Ave side of the street. We walked to the front door and was greeted by Kyle, the venue director. He handed my Fiance and I his business card and a flyer with information about the venue and then asked us our budget to which we responded with “we haven’t gotten that far in the planning process yet” he then reprimanded us like children for not being prepared with that information before showing up. We shrugged it off and followed him throughout the venue tour where he told us “sorry I talk really fast so stop me if you have any questions” he then began robotically going through his tour spiel, completely ignoring the details we gave him about what we intended for our vision for the big day. For instance we said “we are doing an extremely small ceremony, potentially 6 people and we are mainly focused on the reception” and he still proceeded to tell us about the aisle, ceremony layout and other details that did not pertain to us. Kyle’s demeanor was pure rigidity and control in a sense of “this is my venue, and this is how your wedding will be!”. After viewing the upstairs ceremony space, reception area and groom/bride spaces, he showed us the calendar in his office and we felt so awkward and unwelcome that we decided to not ask him if we could take a picture of their available dates for fear we would get a snippy response. We were then taken to the library where we were told to sit and look at their wedding books and ask him any questions. The 1-2 questions we asked he basically responded with “that’s in the email I sent you” or “we will talk about that when I get to that part of the tour”. He also let us know about the gentrification of bishop arts slowly making its way towards the venue and disclosed to us that the food pantry next door is only active Monday-Thursday and that houseless people shouldn’t be a problem here. He also mentioned that they have a security guard that walks the property during any events. He then Asked if we were working with a wedding planner and I had reminded him that we just got engaged and started touring venues to get a feel for what we like. He then gave me some vendor business cards and my Fiance and I felt so uncomfortable we couldn’t think of anything we could ask or needed. I have never felt so judged, talked down to and made to feel like I don’t belong somewhere. My heart is truly broken that my vision of this place was tainted by such an awful first impression. This place is truly gorgeous and one of a kind, but if this person is anywhere on the property during our wedding day, I would not feel at ease to enjoy my day. I get that this place is special and people have put a lot of time/money/love into it, But if you can’t show some semblance of kindness or interest in a prospective client during a tour at the least, you’re seriously only hurting your business.