Grand Oaks Resort Reviews

This was our first venue we toured and although we didn’t book here, this venue was absolutely beautiful. We really enjoyed the tour we were given and would definitely recommend taking a look here!

Our wedding was November 4th 2017 and we have the best time. Julianne and her team are amazing to work with and very professional. She took care of all of our needs and kept us on schedule for the day. The grounds are beautiful with plenty of space and places to pick for a ceremony and reception, or they have a beautiful ballroom as well. They have there own bar and catering all you have to bring is your cake. It was a very fun and relaxing Wedding day for us.

We got married at the Grand Oaks in October, and I couldn't imagine having our special day anywhere else. Julianne is the most amazing coordinator - seriously she knows the answer to everything and always has a solution to make your worries disappear. She was there for us throughout the entire planning process and was such a huge blessing to us. The venue itself is breathtaking and maintained very well. Just go give the place a visit, and I swear you'll never want to leave. We also stayed in one of the cottages on property - gorgeous! We love everything about this place and highly recommend it!!

The Grand Oaks Resort has been my dream location to get married since I was a little girl. My dad brought me there to visit the Carriage Museum many times in the 90's. Making it the easiest part of all the wedding decisions; since I already loved it there!

When you arrive on property you feel the tranquility instantly with the beautiful scenery, the love on the staff's faces and the cleanliness throughout the entire property.

Julianne was our point person - our wedding coordinator and much MORE than that. I could not have been more pleased with the urgency behind every question/answer via phone call or email. It's much more than a job for her it's her passion. When I say I couldn't have done it without her I really mean I could not have done it without her. Hurricane Irma was in our path the week of the wedding. If you can imagine how scared I was it'll give you great relief that she did everything in her power to make sure I still had a wedding. I was terrified that I was not going to be able to have my perfect day. She called me two days before and said "I'm going to get some trees cleared, we have power -- let's do it!" The actual day she made sure to contact me the morning of the wedding, throughout the day and checked on me at the cottage on property
(Acorn Cottage was beautiful).

In our package included a horse drawn carriage ride that was absolutely amazing something I've dreamt of since I was a little girl.

The option of getting married at the Pergola was the best option for us- with the rain here in Florida being 50-50 you have the option of getting married in " The Barn" should it rain. We did our engagement pictures inside that and that was a beautiful, too!!

I strongly suggest if you are interested in an outdoor vintage/ rustic wedding to check out the Grand Oaks and ask for Julianne!! Xo



A video from our day:
Courtesy and Rights to Cole Young Media

https://vimeo.com/234833348

Gail and I held our wedding reception here on Saturday 8/26/17
It was fantastic - Julianne and her crew could not have done a more
wonderful job - the setting was perfect - the food was delicious and
the service was first rate - all our guests were much impressed.
Thanks Julianne for making our day very special

We got married at The Grand Oaks on 3/25/16 and had the most amazing time!!! The best choice was having our wedding here and the prices were great as well. Catherine was amazing to work with. She always responded right away and made sure we had nothing to worry about on our wedding day. Everything ran smoothly thanks to the staff at The Grand Oaks. Our guests really enjoyed the Carriage Museum before the wedding and we still get so many compliments on how beautiful our wedding was. We are so glad we found this hidden gem and can't wait to come back to visit. Thank you Catherine for your hard work and dedication to making sure we had a special day! You were willing to go above and beyond for us and that meant the world to us.

I am so pleased and happy that we chose to have our wedding at the Grand Oaks. The entire staff was amazing at helping us through the whole planning process making sure that the big day ran smoothly, and it turned out absolutely amazing. The venue has their own catering company they go with and the food was delicious! They also have a beautiful outdoors area that was perfect for taking pictures. I would hands down recommend this venue to anyone looking for an elegant yet fun wedding!!!

Sue Kelley and her staff are very nice to work with...the venue is gorgeous and every girls dream!

The Grand Oaks had everything I was looking for and more. Sue Kelly and Misty were wonderful to work with and always made sure everything was perfect. The day of the wedding was so stress free it was unreal thanks to those two. It was such a beautiful location and I could not imagine anywhere else to have said "I Do."

This place is amazing and fit our Rustic Elegant vision that we both had for our big day. The staff was very friendly and helpful to accommodate all of our needs and request on and before the day of the wedding. This is a must see Venue regardless of what vision you may have!!

They are set on a huge spot of gorgeous land with horses and beautiful scenery everywhere. We got married on their lake with our reception in their barn/chapel. It couldnt have been a more beautiful day and we got the most amazing photos, including one with one of their very friendly horses! Their staff is extremely friendly and helpful from hanging lanterns to carting people to and from bathrooms. It was the perfect day and they have the most gorgeous outdoor venue around!

We had an amazing wedding at the grand oaks resort! The staff was very accommodating and there is nothing like this place! A true diamond in the rough!

Beautiful location and great place for any bride to plan a wedding around. Nice day of coordinators, that work well with Brick City catering.

The Grand Oaks is the perfect place to get married! It's absolutely gorgeous. It was my fairy-tale wedding. Just some things to keep in mind... There is a disco ball in the formal ball room. They don't make accommodations as far as taking it down or covering it up in anyway. They said someday they will be putting up a chandelier. Also, the labor fee for them hanging items for you is a bit high. NIkki and Sue Kelly are great. I understand Nikki is a very busy women, but she can be hard to get a hold of and get a response back from. But overall wonderful.

The location is a truly beautiful place to have an outdoor wedding. There are options for outdoor ceremony locations with an inside reception. The horse carriage entrance into the ceremony took all of my guests breath away. I did get several extras offered such as the chavari chairs and uplighting offered. I had issues with additional charges that I had to work through but all in all I recommend before you sign a contract to ensure you read all of the details and that you are in agreement.

The Grand Oaks Resort is beautiful and peaceful. They offer many options as to the site of the ceremony, 3 beautiful outdoor locations. We loved that and everyone commented how pretty the venue is. We were also excited to have the wedding planner on site. Throughout the months leading up to the wedding we went through 3 wedding planners. Two times not being aware of the switch of staff. The last being the week before the wedding. We did not meet our wedding planner until the rehearsal, which is a little unsettling to a bride in my opinion, especially when you had everything planned with someone else. Then at the rehearsal she wasn't even sure if we should go to the ceremony site and practice. She gave no direction on to how to practice, stating, "It's your wedding, do whatever you want." My thoughts, okay, thanks.. just paying you to help guide, I've never gotten married before thought you'd be a little more helpful. Then asked what time we'd be there to decorate on the day of the wedding my bridesmaids and I responded 9 am (as stated on the multiple papers I filled out and gave her). The planner reported she would be there at 8 am. We arrived at 9 the doors were locked. Thankfully, Robin was there cleaning the room and let us in. Let me just take a minute and say how much I appreciate Robin she cleaned everything just as we wanted and went as fast as she could. She felt terrible that things were not ready as they should have been. She even offered to grab food for our flower girl. Robin was amazing! I really don't know what we would have done without here. She deserves some recognition. Anyway, the wedding planner texted me at 10:15 asking what time I'd like her to open the doors to start decorating. I kindly let her know it was already done. Everyone complimented how great the food was! So compliments to the chef (Sorry I forgot his name). We were told there would be a golf cart available to drive my bridesmaids to the ceremony site, turns out there wasn't so they had to drive there own car there and walk down the aisle. We were also told there would be a golf cart available to drive the photographer to the ceremony site (this way she could get pictures of my father and I in the carriage on the way to the ceremony). At the time, it seemed like a big fuss and that she would have to drive herself as well. In the end, she was able to get a rid on the golf cart. It was just nerve wracking hearing all this as your about to walk down the aisle, when we'd had a specific discussion relating to this topic at the rehearsal. We were also disappointed we weren't able to get horse and carriage pictures as a married couple, because they told us the horses weren't acting right. Well, then why was it okay for us to ride with them in the first place? We were told by those cleaning up that the wedding planner left before they were done and gave no instruction on locking up.

This venue has a problem with keeping Wedding Event Managers... we went through two in the year we had the venue booked and the third one finally stayed through our wedding day. Each wedding event manager told us different information which lead to A LOT of confusion! I had to argue about my contract that was signed in 2015 by the GM who all of a sudden decided that he wanted to add extra charges to my wedding. I had to worst time dealing with this venue!! I never got invoices that I requested, I got other people's information and emails, I had to document every time I spoke to the venue (date, time, who I spoke with and what it was regarding) because I could literally call back in 10 minutes (or my fiance would call) and we would get different information. I spoke to a lawyer and was ready to bring this venue to court because of the nonsense they were pulling.

Thankfully, the wedding day went well-- besides me overpaying and not getting any money back.

It's a shame that this venue has such horrible service because it really is a gorgeous property. I would not recommend this venue to anyone because of their lack of professionalism and horrible communication skills.

The place itself was absolutely breathtaking! Way better than I had ever even imagined it being! I got the carriage and it was worth every single penny spent! Everything went so smoothly on it and the carriage drivers where super nice! The only downfall and this is HUGE to me is... customer service! Besides the two on the carriage, it was horrible! Everyone is so rude and irresponsible. No one knew what was going on. They lost some of our things. The hair stylist even had a bit of an attitude. I just did not have a very pleasant day as long as their staff was around.

It is with a heavy heart that I can't give The Grand Oaks a 5 star review. When we first started the wedding planning for my daughter's wedding we worked with Julianne Cuomo which was very accommodating. The week of the wedding we were advised that she was no longer with them and they had hired someone to take her place. Apparently that didn't work out. Julianne was there for my daughter's wedding but things didn't go as we expected. It was difficult to get any call backs the week of the wedding and we were not sure who to call. Julianne did come through and was very helpful. The problem was the venue and management. The reception hall was 89 degrees and was very uncomfortable. We were told that too many people were going outside. That was not the case. I have an employee's wife that attended an event 2 weeks prior and the air conditioning was not working that night either. It was clear the management knew that there was a problem and did not take care of it. Really? All that time, money, planning and they can't make sure the air conditioner was working???? People were going outside to get cooled down! We felt very deceived by The Grand Oaks and this is probably only one of the reasons why Julianne left her job there. I assume the newly hired girl to take her place left after she saw all the potential problems. The venue is beautiful, the food was good, but 89 degree's in the reception area ruined the night and did a number on the cake. Shame on the management of The Grand Oaks! If you do plan to have a wedding there, please put in writing that they agree to keep the reception room at a reasonable temperature before signing all of their requirements.

On March 18th, after being unable to schedule a meeting for a month through Jennifer, the employee we booked our wedding with, to see the operations manager, we went to the venue in person hoping for resolution. The Operations Mgr, Tom, met with us and was very polite, professional and apologetic. He took full ownership of the scheduling issues but didn't seem to grasp the problems we had with Jennifer.
He mentioned the negative reviews on social media that I posted and said he was willing to still offer us the venue and try to resolve things or give us a refund. We accepted the offer for a refund and I voluntarily offered to update my reviews with the resolution. Tom never asked me to and it was never a condition of the refund.
After our meeting we received an email from Tom confirming we would receive a refund but stating that he felt we could have resolved it without me posting negative reviews.
Keep in mind I only began posting negative reviews after hearing nothing about resolving our concerns or allowing us to see the operations manager for a month!
We chose not to respond to this absurd comment.
We received our refund on the afternoon of Friday, March 22nd while out of town.
On Monday morning, the 25th, we received a nasty email from Jennifer, stating we had not held up our "end of the agreement."
We replied, asking her what she was talking about. Jennifer then told us that Tom agreed to the refund only on the condition that we remove the negative reviews.
I'm not sure if Jennifer is just rude and crazy or if Tom actually thought this. But offering to cancel a contract and give a refund on a booking in which we were lied to and there was mass disorganization on the part of the venue that made all the reasons we booked now impossible was proper. Demanding that we not offer accurate reviews, however, is not right!
The venue is beautiful and offers multiple indoor and outdoor options and several amenities that other venues don't, like on property lodging. But when staff doesn't communicate and provides incorrect information that you base your booking decision on, she became, in our case, rude and refused to take responsibility or actively work on a resolution.
Tom and other staff were polite and professional toward us, but Jennifer made our wedding plans a horrible and stressful event. I would not recommend The Grand Oaks Resort to anyone if they have to work through Jennifer.
If you look at other review sites, you will realize as I did after booking, that there's a 50/50 chance of either a dream wedding or a nightmare.
I just want anyone considering this venue to be aware and make sure ALL promises and even small details of the wedding are in writing up front.

This venue was beautiful but the customer service is absolutely terrible. Do not waste your money here. They have terrible attitudes the food was awful and they overcharge you and will not respond to you. Absolute waste of money find somewhere that the people being involved in your wedding care about their customers.

Don't get married at the Grand Oaks!!! I can never reach them to ask questions or organise anything. The person who is in charge of weddings is either unavailable or gone and replaced with a new person who has no idea what is going on... True nightmare!!! Nine months away from my wedding and I am booking another venue!!! I can't even reach the Grand Oaks to tell them to take us off their schedule!!! Ridiculous...