Kellam Estate Reviews
Reviews
4.7 out of 5 rating
4.7 out of 5 rating
6 Reviews
95% recommend it
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![Ashley]()
Ashley S. Sent on 11/06/2021Beautiful Historic Estate
My husband and I got married at the Kellam Estate venue on October 9 and we highly recommend it to future brides and grooms! Working with Alex and Chelsea was wonderful from start to finish, they were quick to respond to emails and were on-site for our rehearsal and day-of to answer any questions or help. The space itself is very versatile and could be set up in many ways, but we used their back pasture for both our outdoor ceremony and tented reception. The stable and barn area were perfect for our cocktail hour. We have had so many positive comments on the venue and our other vendors truly enjoyed working here. Thanks again, Chelsea and Alex! -
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![Cece]()
Cece Sent on 09/01/2021Stress free
The Kellams were wonderful to work with, they kept the process extremely stress free and enjoyable! The property was absolutely perfect and everything I wanted for my wedding!Kellam Estate's reply:
Thank you for sharing your experience with us, Cece! We loved having you all at our Venue and cannot wait to see the rest of your photos!! -
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![Storm]()
Storm M. Sent on 06/07/2021Long Awaited Magic
The Kellam Estates was everything I could have asked for in a Wedding Venue. The owners, Alex and Chelsea Kellam were awesome to work with and always quick with responses. This was my first time planning an event and with COVID moving my wedding date back more and more, and living out of town, Alex an Chelsea made it so easy to reschedule and get things done when it seemed like it would never happen. The grounds are beautiful with multiple areas to hold your event, the house that you get ready in is perfection, and it is in a local area to Virginia Beach so it is easy to get to and find but as soon as you go down the driveway you feel like your far from the busy life of VB. My event, pouring rain and all, was magical and a night I won't forget and Chelsea and Alex are a huge reason why. If you have an event, wedding or not, defiantly checkout The Kellam Estates!Kellam Estate's reply:
Thanks so much Storm! It was worth the wait to host you and your family. Such an amazing day with great people. We wish you all the best!! -
![Karli]()
Karli H. Sent on 08/27/2021Disappointed
I really wish I was leaving a better review. Initially planning with Alex and Chelsea was perfect. They got back to me right away and were super nice which was a HUGE plus considering it was a destination wedding for us since we are military and live in WA.
The day of the wedding came and upon arrival they were no where to be found. I wondered around the house looking for them because I wasn’t too sure where anything was. Fortunately I figured it out and wasn’t greeted by Chelsea until about 3hours after being there. A major issue of the night was that there are no signs on property stating the house is off limits to guest. I tried my best to tell people beforehand. But of course they didn’t listen. While we were getting ready I was able to kick some people out but once the Ceremony started it was sort of out of my control. I was incredibly shocked when I had my coordinator come up to me DURING our photos stating we had to remove all of our items from the house immediately otherwise we would be charged. This caught me off guard because we had until the reception started to do such per the contract. Nonetheless we scrambled to gather everything in a rush to get out of the house. Following this apparently a few kids wondered in the house during the night. I was told that Alex supposedly yelled at them which I don’t appreciate and was also charged fees because they spilled liquid inside. This was incredibly frustrating because I feel they should be in the house to tell people to not enter or have the doors locked since It’s out of my control. Especially since I had to run around mid cocktail hour to get all of our stuff out.
At the end of the night, again I had my coordinator tell me that all the trash had to be taken off property otherwise I’d be charged a $100 fee. Which I was very caught off guard because it never stated that in the contract. Which I later brought up but still had to pay half because they already took care of the trash. I disagree with this considering it was their mistake they didn’t keep up with the fact that my contract didn’t have that new rule in it. I let it go and just let them refund me half. When we did return the next day to clean. A few items were left in the house during our rush to clean up. For instance my moms new steamer; normally you’d think they’d gather the items and let me know. Instead they found it necessary to throw them on the lawn outback. Which it rained so that new steamer is now broken. Overall I was very disappointed. I’m not sure if they had something going on which is why they were so absent during the day no where to be found but it was unacceptable.Kellam Estate's reply:
Karli, we truly enjoyed hosting your wedding and we are sorry some of the details during your event did not go as planned. The two of you trusted us and we appreciate your feedback, however, I would like to address some of the items the way we remember it.
Upon your 9am arrival, Chelsea and I were outside working on a few areas of the yard and I do not recall the exact time she went in the bridal suite to check on everyone, but it was certainly not around 12pm. We also list my personal cell phone number on our welcome sheets that are in each bridal suite in case you need anything throughout the day. Our venue is on roughly seven acres so we may not be visible every minute of the day, but can assure you we are nearby if you need anything.
As for guests re-entering the home, we make it clear on our contract that the suites are private for you, your bridal party and immediate family. We certainly do not mind personal items to be left inside during the event. We also do allow bridal party to re-enter the home to gather items or freshen up after the ceremony however, during cocktail hour there were quite a few outside guests in the home and it seemed to be turning into a cocktail hour space. At that time, I brought this to your coordinator’s attention, as I did not want to interrupt you. I do not know how the coordinator expressed my concerns with you however; I did not intend for her to take all of your items out of the home. We have since added signage to our entrances to alleviate this issue in the future. I agree that it is almost impossible to keep people out however I felt it was important to bring up to your coordinator before it got out of hand as the bridal suites were then being utilized outside of their contracted use.
During the reception, Chelsea and I were upstairs when we heard a loud crash and kids running around downstairs. I went down to check if anyone was hurt and found 4 or 5 unsupervised kids in the grooms den and pool sticks on the ground, one of which was pouring a bottle of water on our rug. I kindly told them that the indoors was off limits and they left the room. I never raised my voice. When I came back to the room with a towel to dry up the water I found red stains on the pool table, rug, wood floor, walls and tapestries. I immediately started cleaning the room. Chelsea and I ended up cleaning the entire house that evening and the next morning instead of hiring a cleaning crew, as we did not want a large cleaning bill outside of our regular cleaning costs.
When your coordinator asked about what to do with the trash at the end of the night I stated that it should be taken off the premises by the client or caterer, which is in our contract. She was unaware of this and to be honest I was shocked she did not know so I reverted to our current policy on trash removal. I did not go back to your contract that night to review your terms in specific and apologize if we charged you for taking trash off site. Again, we refunded half since there was still much effort and time on my part cleaning this up. Additionally I removed nails from our historic Gas House that were unauthorized and cleaned up a discarded box of flowers, coffee cups and the box of nails from our parking area. At the end of the day, we refunded $425 of the $600 deposit.
As for the steamer or any other personal items that were damaged, neither Chelsea nor I moved or discarded any items from the home. I am unsure who removed your personal items.
Our goal for every event is to ensure the guests are safe, enjoying their time at our venue and that vendors have everything they need during the event. We continuously check on vendors throughout each event however never want to seem like we are hovering around you guys so we keep our distance and are ready to lend a hand when needed. (For example: while the bridal party was inside getting ready, we went to check on the coordinators in case they needed anything and they asked if we would mind help with the setup of ceremony chairs. We did not mind at all and helped with no question even though this is not a usual protocol.) I am sorry you ultimately would have had things done differently and we can assure you that we have adjusted our contract and other items so we can be sure that certain aspects are clearer for future events.
Thank you for your feedback and we wish you all the best,
Chelsea & Alex Kellam
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