Reading Farms Estate Reviews
Reviews
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4.4 out of 5 rating
4.4 out of 5 rating
6 reviews
89% recommend it
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![Chelsea]()
Chelsea B. Sent on 06/04/2020Beware a needlessly inflexible and ambiguous planning process
When my fiance and I visited the estate in the summer of 2019, we immediately fell in love with the beautiful venue. The grounds were stunning, and the property seemed to offer everything we were looking for.
Stephen, our point of contact with Reading Farms Estate and On Thyme Events, the property’s affiliated event-planning company, assured us that at Reading Farms Estate we would easily be able to achieve anything we wanted for our wedding. Unfortunately, that was not our experience.
The first red flag was the venue rental agreement, which was full of additional fees. For instance, if you don’t use the property’s “in-house” catering or its “event services package”, there is an additional penalty fee ($2,500, in each case). They require a dumpster on site for the event for a separate charge (even if the vendors “pack in, pack out”). No exceptions. This uncompromising reasoning was incredibly frustrating.
In addition to the rental agreement, Reading Farms Estate strongly encouraged us to enter a $10,000+ contract with On Thyme Events for wedding planning services and rentals. Drafts of this contract were often presented in fragments and without crucial details, leaving us confused about the fees and specifics of the services and rental items promised. After much back-and-forth, we still felt in the dark about the best way to move forward. On Thyme Events’ lack of transparency in communicating their services left us unconvinced that we could successfully collaborate with them to plan a wedding.
My fiance and I felt so overwhelmed trying to plan our event with Reading Farms Estate that we opted to look elsewhere for planning support. We interviewed a few wedding planners, all of whom warned us about Reading Farms Estate’s reputation for being difficult to work with. Most planners we interviewed also told us that they would have to charge a premium rate for their planning services to compensate for the additional work required with Reading Farms Estate. Had we heard these warnings before selecting our venue, we almost certainly would have passed on Reading Farms Estate.
After we hired a planner, who became our go-between, the venue staff refused to have a phone call with her and requested that all correspondence take place through email. We found this very discouraging as it limited our ability to efficiently talk through planning details and questions. Our concerns were validated when our planner was forced to repeatedly ask Reading Farms Estate for information that she had been promised, including details regarding the event services contract.
The last straw for us came after we requested to schedule a phone conversation to better understand our rescheduling or cancellation options as a result of COVID-19. It was becoming increasingly clear that a 2020 wedding would be either impossible or inadvisable to host. The venue’s response was that they could not talk to us on the phone and to insist that we sign an incomplete rental contract and pay a deposit to allow “more flexibility with moving the reservation to 2021”. This was particularly disturbing because it seemed as though Reading Farms Estate wanted us to pay even more money for the ability to have a conversation about their COVID-19 policies.
At every turn in this planning process, we have found Reading Farms Estate to be inflexible, difficult, and mystifying. Dealing with them has made the entire wedding planning process feel stressful (not a happy, positive, or exciting experience). I hate to write this negative review. However, I am shocked that there are not more of them, given the candid feedback we have received from wedding planners and other vendors who find it difficult to work with Reading Farms Estate.
Reading Farms Estate may be able to provide you with your dream wedding day, but I feel an obligation, from one bride to another, to warn you that the road there will be needlessly rocky and upsetting and to ask you to consider if it will be worth it.
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