Run – don’t walk – away from all the promises they will make and break for your special day.
DO NOT hold your wedding at Nesselrod on the New. We held our wedding there in November 2024. Though our wedding ended up being as beautiful and fun as we had hoped it would be, I would not work with the owners again for love nor money.
Brittany had just purchased Nesselrod when we looked at the venue in July. We were looking for a place to hold a micro-wedding of 50 guests. When we toured the property, we were told that the barn would be completely enclosed with walls by November, that the floors were heated, and a wedding in November would work just fine in that space because of the permanent changes they were making to the barn.
The planning period was odd. When we toured the space, she verbally gave us two different pricing quotes. When I contacted her to build a contract for our event, the quotes changed as if we should have known her pricing which wasn’t published anywhere. Brittany offered to decorate the venue because the former owner had left a house full of decorations. She asked for a Pinterest board of ideas, which I shared with her. We communicated via text for the most part. She often asked me questions that had been addressed in prior texts or were included on the Pinterest board. She didn’t make the effort to look back through the texts or look at the images I sent before asking questions or making assumptions. It took her 10 days to draft a contract and send it. When we got the contract, the signature had the former owner’s name and number as the signatory, and she had only made minor changes to the former owner’s contract. We asked her to include the promise that the barn would be enclosed by November 23 in the contract. The contract stated, “Walls will be up on the pavilion in time for the wedding, Bride and Groom can cancel with full refund if the walls aren't up a week before the wedding.”
Two weeks before the wedding Brittany texted me that the walls would not be in, but they would enclose the barn with cream colored canvas tarps she had already purchased. She assured me it would be warm enough with the heaters they would provide, the tarp, and the heated floor. By that point, our families had booked flights, and it was too late to cancel.
One week before the wedding, she texted, “We are trying to get the floors working tarps will go up Thursday [sic].” We had no idea that the heated floors were not yet working as promised during our walk thru. Thursday would be two days before the wedding. The weather on our wedding day was projected to be a high of 46 and low of 33. The week before the wedding, I got multiple texts from her asking questions that had been answered in previous texts and emails. It was an insanely stressful week because she left everything until the last minute and did not refer to her notes or information I had provided. Three days before the wedding, she was still asking me what centerpieces and decorations I wanted to use. Two days before the wedding, she texted, “I reinforcing the walls with plastic would you want clear or black. I vote clear [sic].”
Brittany texted me the following on the night before the wedding while I was in the middle of a family dinner celebration. I had to step away from my family and engage in the following text conversation:
Brittany: (Sends picture of barn wrapped in clear plastic) “I like it better without the tarps brings in more natural light”
Me: “The main thing is to make sure it is warm.
It's going to be dark.
We want the tarps.”
Brittany: “I'm not going to use them they cost alot for 1 time use”
Me: “You promised walls and didn't deliver. And you promised tarps.
Especially if you have a guest coming [I was told the week before that an Air B&B guest from outside the U.S. would be staying at the house adjacent to the barn on our wedding night] and going that could interrupt our ceremony. We expect you to keep your word. Please put the tarps up.”
Brittany: “Walls are up. I felt plywood wouldn't look good since complete finished walls could not be achieved in the time frame we had. I refuse to let someone's wedding look bad. There will be no noise entering or exiting the pavilion. I've gone above and beyond for the price you paid. I'm not making anything in the end. I will be keeping my word
Those tarps would have never held this wind out so I was lucky enough to sell a car to afford the plastic that is 100x more efficient at blocking the wind at keeping the heat in. I promise you'll be happy.”
By this time, I was crying.
My husband took the phone and texted:
“You gave us a quote and we agreed to your price without negotiation. It's not our fault that you missed on your costs. Plus it's very unprofessional of you to inform us of your decision to not honor your agreement the night before our wedding. We have both elderly and young children attending who are already worried about the weather. We told them there'd be tarps because we expected you to honor your word.”
Brittany:
“My price was ***. [Meaning that we did negotiate the price, which is beyond the point that the contract and promises made were not being fulfilled. ]”
“And if i put those tarps up they would freeze.”
“I am doing far better and putting something that 100% holds the heat I am solely thinking of keeping people warm. I should have not shown you i should have just kept going im sorry”
“If ud like the tarps up then ill replace the plastic and if it's cold that will be on you not me”
At that point, my husband turned off my phone and my entire family told me not to respond to her anymore since she had clearly gotten hostile.
When we arrived at the venue on my wedding day, Brittany and her husband were still stapling the plastic up outside the barn. When the florist came to deliver and mount the flowers for the arbor, Joe helped the florist while cursing the whole time saying, “who the f*** holds a wedding in November.” Thankfully, no kids were around while he was cursing and complaining. We also found out that the floor that was supposed to be heated was broken. They said they were hoping a package would arrive from Amazon so they could fix it before the wedding. It did not get fixed.
When I entered the space to walk down the aisle, I was relieved to see that it looked beautiful. The wedding and reception went well, though many people had to put their coats on from time to time. Brittany and Joe sat in chairs at the edge of the dance floor the whole time. They both wore casual clothes and sat there on their phones like they were at the DMV. Just after our dance and the father/daughter dance, two teenagers walked through the space holding a little dog. The teens were wearing sweatshirts and jeans. They helped themselves to the food and stood in front of the drink table talking to Brittany. (They even made it into my wedding photos.) The girls came in and out a few times. They set the dog down and let it run around the dance floor while people were dancing. It was so small, people had to take care not to step on it. My family was stunned by how inappropriate their behavior was.
After we left, our family stayed to clean up. We were only told that we needed to get all the trash hauled off to the dumpster on the property and that they would clean the rest. Evidently, someone had vomited in the bathroom and Brittany got angry and started asking them, “Who is going to clean up the bathroom?!” My father and daughter-in-law cleaned up the bathroom while still wearing their wedding attire. As my family was packing up all the decorations, Brittany suggested that they could just leave give them to her if we had no further use of them. She also said she could use the left-over plates, cups, and silverware. She offered to keep the extra food. By that time, my whole family was aware of how rude and audacious Brittany had been through the whole thing. They did not leave anything behind for her but some crackers she said she could use to feed her chickens.
Brittany is a terrible businessperson who lacks class and kindness. I have told people this story over and over and each person is flabbergasted by Brittany and her family’s behavior. If you want one of the most stressful wedding experiences in the NRV area, Nesselrod on the New is your destination. If not, run – don’t walk – away from all the promises they will make and break for your special day.