Willow Creek Farm & Winery

services you received but instead are the unfortunate byproduct of uncontrollable circumstances. As a young couple planning an extravagant wedding, we know that you were under a tremendous amount of stress, and the curveballs thrown by the COVID-19 pandemic only caused further frustrations. We pride ourselves in providing excellent service and have always relied on our many years of experience as a major part of our appeal. We’re used to having all the answers for virtually any question a couple could ask. Unfortunately, navigating COVID-19 was an entirely new experience for us, and although we tried our best to be a reassuring presence during these difficult times, we didn’t always immediately have answers for every question and concern related to it. Sadly, some plans had to change to ensure the safety and wellbeing of you, your guests, and our staff. We know you were disappointed that adjustments to your dream wedding needed to be made in name of social responsibility. In retrospect, we don’t believe that there were any reasonable options available to us that would have made you look back on your experience more favorably. However, we were able to learn and grow from this experience, and are sympathetic to the distress you felt. We also have emerged from the experience better prepared to assist our current couples who are still navigating these difficult times and our future couples who may face their own unexpected situations. Although it’s clear from your hurtful words that you carry a tremendous amount of personal animus in your heart, we hope that you can one day look back on your wedding day fondly. A review of your fabulous wedding video shows just how lovely the evening was and how much your guests enjoyed themselves. In spite of global uncertainty and difficult times for many, your wedding was beautiful and blessed with the most glorious weather that an August evening at the Jersey shore could provide, and your guests were able to eat, drink, and be merry as they celebrated the love between you and your bride.

negative aspects of your review. Notably, your review contains a significant amount of misinformation, which we would respectfully like to correct. First, we would like to address your dissatisfaction over the perceived lack of wedding coordination. While our venue includes an event manager and two one-hour meetings for each event hosted at our farm, you opted not to contract for any of our additional in-house wedding coordination or planning services. We actively encourage couples who are not using our in-house services to consider independent wedding planners as we strongly believe that they can provide an additional layer of hands-on service that most couples desire when planning their dream wedding. From locating vendors to managing the most minute details of your special day, a skilled wedding planner is an incredible asset that every couple looking to host an extravagant wedding should consider. We also think that your negative comments regarding communication require some clarification. As you are aware, every time you reached out to your event manager, you received a response within 72 hours. However, sometime in mid-May 2020, your parents claimed that they were unable to contact the event manager despite making several attempts. As you are aware, the reason your parents were unable to reach the event manager was because instead of emailing her at the company email address you had been provided, your parents were sending emails to non-existent or outdated personal email addresses that have not been in use for several years. We are still unsure how they obtained these email addresses as we do not publish our employees' personal contact information. After realizing what had occurred and in the interest of helping to make communication easier, the owner agreed to meet with you and your family several times to reassure you that the emails had not been intentionally ignored and we were fully onboard to produce a beautiful wedding. To further assure you and your family, we also offered several upgrades and significant discounts as a showing of good faith and understanding of how frustrating it was to be planning a dream wedding in the midst of a pandemic. You did receive an absolutely stunning wedding and were a beautiful bride. The event was so lovely, in fact, that your wedding video has been featured as a prime example of what our venue can produce. However, we absolutely can understand why the setup changes necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic caused you distress. Your wedding was originally scheduled to be roughly half indoors and half outdoors; however, in the months leading up to the wedding, several government orders were issued in response to the pandemic. Unfortunately, large portions of the orders were vague and lacked guidance on how they should be interpreted. To compensate for this lack of guidance, we proactively contacted lawyers, assemblymen, state senators, and other politicians on both a local and state level for advice on how the orders would affect yours and other weddings. Overwhelmingly, all of these contacts expressed that in their professional opinions, we could produce a partially indoor event in compliance with state law. We intended to move forward in reliance on these opinions. However, all of the hard work and proactive efforts were defeated when our receptionist received a call from a sergeant in the local police department stating that a complaint about your wedding had been made and that officers would be dispatched in response to any complaints of the wedding moving indoors. Immediately after receiving this determination, the event manager informed your father of the situation. It had been agreed in advance that your father would act as the point of contact on the wedding day, so that you and your husband would not need to be disturbed. Your father was informed that the event would need to be entirely outside, and in less than an hour, we were able to call in additional staff to install two tents that would provide coverage for your outdoor dining. This was understandably incredibly stressful for everyone involved, and no bride ever wants to hear that there must be a change of plans on her wedding day. Unfortunately, this was out of any of our hands, and we attempted to handle the sudden change as quickly and professionally as possible. Again, we appreciate your time in writing this review and understand that the unnecessary stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic contributed significantly to your feelings, but we are saddened at the lack of appreciation for the time and effort that went into producing such a lovely wedding under these circumstances. We and our staff were always transparent with you and in constant communication over the last two months leading up to the wedding. We also pride ourselves on producing truly beautiful events and providing excellent service. We still do not understand where your frustration began, but we apologize for any possible inconveniences on our end that overshadowed your memory of such a special day.