The Millstone

I attended a wedding at the Millstone June 10, 2017. Though the venue is pleasant the management of the facility lacks much to be desired. The bride and groom had made arraignments with the staff (Wendy) over a year ago to have the facility until 11 am on the 11th. The manager the evening of the event would not allow this , stating the person who made those agreements had been fired and they would have to have the venue cleaned and be gone by 9 am. When asked if it were possible to stay later the manager (Lisa) then stated that she could "shut this party down right now". This was before 9 pm. I had spoken to the manager before the wedding earlier in the day and she has told me that there could be no alcohol served after 10 pm , music has to be turned down by 11 pm and all guests gone by midnight. So why was she approaching guests and ruining a perfectly good wedding reception before 9 pm ? There were no venue policies being broken. This manager (Lisa) ruined this couples reception with her attitude and a call to the owner was no help whatsoever. Basicly I feel that after this operation gets your check they feel no obligation for customer service or satisfsction. There were no apologies from the owner or manager for the inconvenience caused by their employee (Wendy) who stated they could stay until 11 am. the following morning or for the rude behavior of the venue manager that evening. Though many of you have stated that there was a contract...you weren't there that evening to see this young couples wedding reception ruined by poor management with a bad attitude toward all involved. I would never recommend this venue based on management style .

I had not intended publishing a review until I saw the owners’ comments on Facebook accusing the guests of harassment for posting honest reviews which were then deleted to prevent the public seeing them, and some of the comments on Google Reviews defending the Millstone, from people who were not there and did not witness events. I can assure everyone that my review is an honest account. It is important to stress that there was no confusion about when the bar would shut, or when the party would finish. This was not a frat party, but a wedding celebration with mature, professional people. Problems arose because as soon as Lisa arrived she immediately started giving instructions to the bride in a very abrupt and rude manner, in the middle of her Wedding Party, on how she should clean up the venue. The bride explained she had been promised the venue until 11am on Sunday by Wendy with whom she had made the booking and plans were in place to have the venue cleaned and tidied by then. At this stage Lisa said Wendy was no longer employed by the Millstone, and told the bride to start packing up because another bride was coming at 9am the next morning. The bride’s family explained they had been promised an 11am exit time but Lisa’s condescending response was she should have read the contract. People on the Millstone Facebook page who were not at the wedding have chipped in saying she should have read the contract. The owner was contacted on Saturday, and although he wouldn’t speak to the family, he sent a message saying she should have read the contract. The bride and groom did read the contract and on their copy of the contract it stated they had to leave by 9am “if applicable”, (why have the words “if applicable” if not to confirm flexibility), and here is the important part, they were promised by Wendy that they could have the venue until 11am and they made their plans accordingly. When the Millstone took a booking for 9am on Sunday they should have informed the bride who could have made alternative plans for the clean-up. It was obvious from her reaction that she had been misled. The owner could have said, don’t worry and enjoy the rest of your wedding reception and we will bring in people to tidy in the morning, but instead he just ignored what his employee had promised. What a disgusting way to treat a young couple on what should have been the happiest day of their lives. To those who had a great experience at the Millstone in the past, I am delighted for you. Now stop and think how you would feel if the bride at your event finished up in tears? Please do not comment on an event you did not witness. To summarise, the venue is stunning, but the day was ruined by The Millstone’s despicable customer service, and the owner’s contemptible attempt to hide behind a misleading contract rather than try to help defuse a very upsetting situation and put things right. What about the moral contract you have to provide the best wedding experience possible? Future brides beware, the venue is beautiful but do you want to trust your special day to a business run like this? Do not trust verbal assurances, and make sure anything agreed is put in writing. People in business make mistakes, but the true measure of a business is how they respond to put errors right, not to hide behind a piece of paper. The owners of the Millstone should hang their heads in shame and apologise to the Bride and Groom for ruining their day.

My experience with the Millstone was my wedding on the 10th of June 2017. We initially found the venue to be a perfect fit for our wedding. It was a good layout and acceptable handicap accessibility for the types of venues we had been considering. The event coordinator we dealt with was very friendly and accommodating of our needs while working on our contract. This would eventually be the genesis of our issue on the wedding night. While sorting thru the particulars of the rental contract she stated that the venue liked to have everyone and everything cleared out by 9 a.m. the day after an event. I expressed concerns with the viability of that given that the wedding would be as much a long anticipated family reunion for my brides far flung European relatives, as it would be a celebration of unlikely nuptials as she and I had met in Afghanistan. I told the coordinator that if 9a.m. was the best they could do we would likely have to find a different venue as I knew the event would run till midnight with her family, and neither of us would want to be out of bed before 9a.m. Wendy seemed to be very understanding of these circumstances and we agreed that 11a.m. would be when we cleared the venue. Needless to say we were pleased with the arrangement and she assured us that since she handled the bookings we had nothing to worry about, and we trusted her. The only issue we had after that was getting an electronic copy of our deposit receipt emailed to my fiancé, but after several requests it was sent. We then had no contact with the venue until the Friday before the wedding, which we also booked, when I called to get the key code for the door. I only mention the lack of communication between the venue and us because I had booked the Millstone on 5 January 2016 so ample time was available for them to contact us especially to follow up on the former coordinators accounts after she left the organization to make certain all of their policies were well understood by each party as they applied. The day of the wedding we had a fantastic ceremony and reception until about 8:30 that night when the new coordinator came to me to express she would like us to start shutting down soon. I repeated our timelines as I recalled them back to her and ended with and we will be all cleared out at 11a.m. This is when I was informed the venue needed to be cleared by 9a.m. I protested saying that Wendy (the former coordinator) had told us we would have until 11. It was at this time I was informed that Wendy had been fired and we would be cleared out by no later than 9. I was taken aback and a bit upset so I excused myself so I could gather my thoughts and try to negotiate for what we had already been assured. I was flabbergasted. Unfortunately while I was trying to figure out my next step Lisa (current coordinator) began interacting with my guests telling them they also needed to begin the process of wrapping the party up in a very authoritarian tone. It is important to note that it this point in the evening no policies had been violated nor were any policies in threat of violation so there was no need at all for her to address our guests. At that point with great sadness and frustration I simply began packing everything up to leave as my wife booked a room for us for the night instead of using the bridal suite.

I booked this venue last year where I'm based in Germany and have had a problem with communications from the start. It took five emails to get a receipt for our deposit. Last June (2016) I went to see the venue and Wendy who was our contact for booking walked us round the venue, she explained to us that the bar would have to close at 10pm, the music at 11pm and all guests would have to leave by 12pm. We had booked it for the Friday and Saturday, Wendy told us that we could leave the venue at 11am on Sunday as the bride and groom get a complimentary night, and as the check out day would be a Sunday it was highly unlikely that anybody would book it for that day so we may be able to leave later, however, if there was a booking she would let us know. My wedding weekend. We called the venue on Friday to get the key code and began setting up. The venue did look fantastic and the day had been perfect, that was until Lisa, the new events manager with whom we had had zero contact at all began to involve herself. At 8:30pm she informed me that we needed to start packing up because there was a bride due at 09:00am the following day! I could not believe what I was hearing! From that point my family took over the discussion as I was too upset, some of her comments included ‘Well Wendy doesn’t work here now’ I only get paid $15 an hour, I don’t need to deal with this crap’ and ‘I can shut this party down now if I need to’. My guests were not rude and tried their hardest to make her see it from our point of view, we understand what the contract says, but that is not what we agreed with Wendy, we were told we had till 11:00am the following day and would have been contacted if that was to change. This resulted in my wedding guests, local to the area and many from as far as Scotland and England packing up the venue for us as there was absolutely no way my husband and I would have been able to do this by 09:00am. I was so embarrassed and could not believe the lack of empathy from the staff at the Millstone when this was their oversight! Had we had been notified prior to 08:30pm on my wedding night we would have moved our wedding to the Friday, so we had time to take down and remove all the items with no stress and without involving my guests in the teardown. Now, let's skip to today; It’s four days after my wedding, my family had reasonably given the Millstone a negative review on Facebook. This is what inspired the owner to call before they returned from vacation the following Monday. The owner, William Barrett, set the tone early in the conversation by threatening my husband with a libel suit over the reviews our guests had left of their account of the evening's events. He went on to say that Lisa was given abuse and a great deal of undue disrespect. I can assure you all that Lisa was met with the same attitude that she dealt out, my family, my husband and I was upset, and rightly so, some guests had travelled thousands of miles to come to my wedding! The venue has now removed the option to review on their venue via their Facebook page and added a statement, of their own that is not accurate. I am so upset about the way they have handled this whole situation by saying my family was aggressive. I am very much looking forward to the owners returning from vacation and watching the footage, which will show otherwise. This venue's management team care nothing about you once you have given them your check.

Beautiful venue!!