Follow up to my venue saga

So, she ended up apologizing and dropping the charge. We had a good convo about the whole mess and what's been going on with them lately....like why they canceled all of the rest of the weddings for the year...some of which were two months away and all that. And now I feel a little better. A little.

Assuming you're still typing up their response....F5ing!

ETA: Glad you didn't get charged and that it's over! And, thank goodness you weren't one of the brides whose entire wedding got canceled!

Yeah, what's the story there with what happened? lol Do you know?

Glad you didn't have to pay the outstanding fee, that venue seems ridiculous!! I feel bad for the ones who booked and have to find a new venue now but I guess they sort of dodged a bullet.

So very glad the charge was dropped, but I am with the others...what in the world happened?!

Yeaaaah! Awesome news.

Yikes, sounds like a mess, but glad it worked out. Sounds like you guys aren't the only ones who've had problems with them!

Glad it worked out for you! i feel bad for the brides that just lost their venue though. but based on how they treated you, i'm not terribly surprised their business went under.

It all started with Jeri, the main coordinator quitting two weeks before my wedding. She was the glue that held it all together, but she got married and got another job in town (this venue is kind of in the middle of nowhere). Then they started switching from in-house catering to outside catering, causing their ENTIRE food staff to quit without notice. They were apparently really short handed on my wedding day. Then it was announced that the owner of the venue was putting it up for sale. It's just a huge cluster of things. It didn't help that they were one of the most expensive venues in the area. The crappy part was the lack of warning. If I had been warned that this was going on, I would have hired a real DOC to make sure everything was right, but I was told over and over by Jeri throughout the process that I didn't need to. Then she quit and I just didn't have the time or extra funds to hire someone, and her stand in, Amy, really dropped the ball.

I know it doesn't make up for the shitty experience you had, but I guess you need to feel lucky that you had your wedding before they started cancelling them - it would be no fun to have to find a venue on only a couple months' notice. It's great that they let the $500 go!

Yeah, I'm glad I didn't have to plan everything all over again...but a part of me wishes they had done me the favor of just canceling. Having to change our date wouldn't have been the end of the world, and it would have probably been cheaper. Oh well.

As for the other brides, I spoke to one who was using their venue as an out of town destination wedding in two months so I think she's back to square one. She was the most screwed. I've seen a lot of other venues reaching out to brides, willing to work with them. Apparently any venue that was similar (barn, outdoor, plantation, etc) from South Georgia through North FL has been getting called by these brides scrambling to find a plan. The bigger vendors that have worked with my venue all these years are saying that this is the most unprofessional and tragic thing they've seen since working in the industry.