I had a strange experience with the Spot. The way I felt/how I would recommend from the beginning of our wedding planning process to post-wedding has changed a lot over the 2yrs we... worked with them. I don’t know if I would recommend this venue without a lot of asterisks including some of the stresses my experience included.
September ‘22, when touring The Spot, I had a very nice experience. Iimpressed with all of the amenities offered that were not additional costs since this was an issue we were running into with many other venues. Shortly after we signed a contract for our June 2024 wedding date, I found out one of the add ons that we were told wouldn’t be an added cost (table linens) were in fact an up charge. No big deal, we had more than a year to arrange what we would use.
We went on with normal (little to no) contact until about three weeks until our ceremony date when Sam reached out to my wedding planner to ask if we were going to pay the $250 charge to use the space the evening before our ceremony for a rehearsal space. We’d never heard of this charge. Not upon the first visit/tour, not upon any follow up communications, not in our signed contracts & not on the venue site. My planner told Sam to hold out on charging the card on file this amount until she spoke with myself & my fiancé.
Later that evening I left Sam a voicemail requesting a call the next morning to discuss. Around noon the following day, I had not received a call back so I called Sam (who told me she didn’t receive a voicemail from me the night before) & voiced my concern with never hearing of this charge and was told that the staff member that gave my tour “had maybe given ten tours before and was hanging on by the seat of her pants”. I was told “sorry you didn’t hear of it but the charge has to be paid for use” when I mentioned this wasn’t in our contract & I would like to talk to Christy (the owner of the venue) she said “sometimes Christy charges up to $500 for the space to be used for rehearsals.” I thought this did not seem possible, to change the rate per couple, but I did not dispute this as I was nervous to have the amount increased for arguing.
Sam then also informed me that the charge had already been made earlier that morning. Despite saying she didn’t receive my voicemail the evening before, that morning prior to my call, she’d charged the card on file without anyone’s permission.
On the day of our ceremony, chairs were set up differently than our layout & while my bridal party set them up, a bridesmaid overheard staff discussing what she was doing & how it was “wrong” rather than assisting or offering help, which was discouraging to her.
Sam was our wedding evening coordinator & she did not speak to myself (the bride) or my husband, the entire evening.
I loved the look of this venue. Our day was beautiful & went off without a hitch, but I give so much credit to my planner & the work she put in. The venue itself is very unique & budget friendly. But, after reading other reviews and comparing my own to other experiences, I feel like I was treated differently than other brides which is disappointing.
I’ve tried to look at this objectively & I’m not sure what caused the difference in my experience,l rave reviews given to specific staff members & experiences with them. I didn’t have a negative experience with any other vendors during my the entire time planning our wedding, so I may have been overly sensitive when things were tough here.