Renault was the very first place we visited while venue shopping. And maybe we're amateurs, but we signed a contract that same day...and we don't regret it one bit! We fell in love witt the grounds- from the beautiful bridge by the fountains to the glass room and la Galerie to the champagne ballroom where we had our ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. It's definitely unique from any other venue I know of in New Jersey. Our guests had photo ops everywhere! As for Renault's staff, we couldn't have asked for better people!!! From our first tour to 3-month check up to dinner rehearsal and wedding day, we've had the best experience! So thankful to have met and worked with Marina and Samantha! Thank you to Alayna, Melissa, and Maggie! You ladies were all so wonderful, professional, attentive, and kind! Ken and I aren't used to attention like that and Renault's staff made us feel incredibly special. This includes the bartenders and servers as well. Everyone we encountered was so warm and polite! Our overall experience was AMAZING and we would totally recommend this venue

I recently wrote this review on The Knot, but wanted to share with Wedding Wire brides as well.

I will start by saying that the grounds at Renault are gorgeous. We got many beautiful photos for our wedding and we truly enjoyed the sights. Dealing with Renault Winery however, was a complete nightmare. Renault has a very high turnover in employees which made it difficult for our emails and questions to be answered leading up to our big day. We were assigned multiple event coordinators, multiple day of coordinators and assigned multiple hotel block staff over the course of our wedding planning. To this day there are still emails we sent that were never answered.


My spouse and I stayed at Chateau Renault a few months before our wedding as a trip for my mother in law. We wanted to show her around Renault.
Renault's hotel staff was extremely rude to us during our stay. I had voiced my concern to our event coordinator that I was worried about hotel staff being rude to our guests on our wedding day. A Renault manager called and apologized to me and assured me that this issue would be taken seriously and that their hotel staff would never showcase that behavior again.
Cut forward to our actual wedding day.
The hotel staff was indeed VERY nasty to our guests. My Maid of Honor and my mother were upset because one hotel staff asked them if they "knew how to read" because they inquired about what the price was for the weekend. Another one of our guests staying over complained to us that hotel staff rolled their eyes at them when they asked for a welcome bag that was sitting on the floor behind the desk. We had been assured that all of our guests would receive welcome bags (which we had worked on and put together) so we were surprised that our guests relayed how hotel staff treated them. Usually when you check into a hotel, you are greeted and welcomed. Hence the welcome bag. But our guests relayed to us that staff was cold, rude and unfriendly.
I am embarrassed that our guests had to encounter this while all they wanted to do was to celebrate a wedding weekend. I was upset that staff could speak to people in such a degrading manner.

The day of our wedding we had our day-of-coordinator who started the morning with us. She was very helpful while we got ready for photos. For the night of the wedding, we were told Renault provides one bridal attendant who is with you the entire time and the day of coordinator. During our reception, after our first dances, our day of coordinator completely disappeared.
After cake cutting, BOTH our coordinator and assistant disappeared and we never saw either of them again.

It wasn't until after our after party ended that we had went to gather our belongings in the Winemakers Hall storage room and the lights were turned off on us. We asked a nearby bartender if they could power back the lights, and they went and found our coordinator. We asked her where she was all night and she said "setting up for your after party of course!" in a joking manner.
Mind you, this was after our after party had already ended and we were headed back to the hotel for the night. We had not seen her for HOURS.
We were promised a coordinator and an assistant for our wedding for the entire night. We paid for a coordinator and an assistant. We tipped for a coordinator and an assistant. We were not given that coordinator and assistant.
Had we known Renault would not uphold their promise, we would have hired our own outside coordinator/day of wedding planner.
One of the biggest reasons why we picked Renault as a wedding venue was because we were promised these coordinators to help us for the night.
There were points in the evening where we needed help and there was no one there to help us.
Our vendors were asking us where their final payments were. We had no idea where our coordinator was with those payments.
I, as a bride had to run around my own wedding trying to find their payments. After almost 15 minutes of searching for our day-of coordinator, our vendors took over. Multiple vendors of ours had to go into the kitchen and ask around for our coordinator.
Instead of dancing and mingling with my guests, I had to manage and coordinate issues myself.
We had been promised that our coordinator and assistant would manage these issues, but that was not the case.

Our band had dismissed for dinner and there was no food for them. There was suppose to be a set schedule that Renault and our day-of coordinator designed with us, and the schedule was not followed nor were there any coordinators to help figure things out. We were on our own.
As a bride, I should not be the Maitre'd of my own wedding and telling people where to go. The whole organization of Renault is a mess.

We were also suppose to have a wedding rehearsal the afternoon of our wedding. Our day-of coordinator never came to find us during our photos as she had promised she would. We were getting ready for our actual ceremony when we finally found her and she said "let's do a super quick rehearsal!"
Our guests were already starting to arrive at that point. We had to rush our bridesmaids and families down the aisle, when our rehearsal was suppose to be hours earlier. As a result, our guests saw us before the ceremony, which we were trying to avoid.


We were also told that cake would be served to our guests at their tables.
At a certain point in the night, a huge line forms wrapping around the entire dance floor and reception area where people were in line for cake. Cake was apparently being served in the cocktail hour hallway. Our coordinator had originally promised us she would help us to manage crowds, but again she was no where to be found.

The Vineyard Ballroom where we had our reception was also very hot. For the majority of our reception, the air conditioning had broken. At one point in the night, staff did come and fix this problem, but we did have guests complaining to us that they were over heating.

We booked our wedding at the end of 2022 for a 2024 wedding. We had a contract for certain prices and menu items. There were a few instances where room block employees told us that fees were a certain price, but our contract stated otherwise. We had to argue and present our contract for them to adjust prices accordingly.

We felt the vibe that Renault is a "gotcha" type of place. We recognize that weddings are expensive, and the industry is fast growing. But, speaking with many friends who have gotten married the same year as us, they never had that sleazy vibe that we got from our wedding venue. We always felt Renault was trying to take advantage and if we did not continuously present our contract to protect ourselves, they would get over on us.


One down side which was uncontrollable, is that there are many random Renault restaurant guests who watch ceremonies. In the background of many of our ceremony photos and our video, you can see random people watching and standing near us. During the ceremony, Renault staff never asked people to leave or give us privacy. That made me a little uncomfortable.

Overall, we were extremely disappointed in how our wedding day was conducted. We truly regret picking Renault Winery as our wedding venue.

We were looking forward to coming back to Renault to celebrate anniversaries, but I could never stomach going back to Renault again. We trusted Renault to follow through on promises that we paid a great deal of money to have, and they did not deliver. We can only warn future brides of the mess that is Renault Winery.

Our wedding at Renault in August was beautiful on so many levels - the weather, the views, the scenery. We really had the best day ever, received so many compliments from guests, and had a great experience working primarily with preferred vendors.. The main setback from our experience (and may/may not matter depending on the couple and if you have an outside planner or coordinator) is that despite the high price tag, the level of service ahead of the event was less than ideal. Our original coordinator AND sales coordinator left between the time of booking and event, and when these roles were up in the air, there wasn’t great communication from Renault on the matter (we didn’t have a coordinator for 3+ months so had to send any inquiries to the general inbox which is not actively monitored based on our experience). Our understanding is that in the last year, they’ve experienced a ton of turnover, but we did not know this upon booking so may have supplemented with outside help if we had known. The day of went off without any issues and the coordinators/staff definitely have their routine down, so it really was just in the lead-up. The steaks for our guests were on the rare side and John (Head of Catering) was swift in checking in with guests to make sure it was to their liking. We were in the Champagne Ballroom and did not notice the wedding in the Vineyard Ballroom, aside from their guests being on their roof during cocktail hour/our ceremony.