Greengate Ranch & Vineyard — Attraction in Arroyo Grande

I discovered Greengate online while looking for wedding venues. I grew up riding horses so when I saw the pictures on their website of brides posing with gorgeous horses and sunset pictures of brides and grooms in the pastures and vineyards walking with horses by their side, my heart melted. I knew this had to be my wedding venue. When we visited the ranch to make our final decision, we were taken up to the barn where the horses resided and were shown where the photos are taken during an event. I was in love. To picture myself in a wedding dress next to a classically leather bridled beauty was going to be a perfect dream come true. This however, was not the case and none of that came to pass. A month before the wedding, we came up to do a final walk through of the venue (which they required) and when we got there, I asked, "where are the horses?" To which the events manager nonchalantly replied, "oh, the horses are gone." My heart dropped. "What do you mean 'the horses are gone', why??" She then began to casually explain that they decided to no longer be a working horse ranch and just be a wedding venue. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. That was why we chose this place to begin with! I was dumbfounded and heartbroken. When I expressed how disappointed I was and asked why we had not been notified, she simply replied, "what we decide to do with the horses is our prerogative." There was absolutely no remorse or sympathy for my disappointment. She then said we still have 2 horses on site that you can still use for photos. I thought, thank god! At least it's not a total loss. She suggested I arrange with her to have them put in the stable in the early part of the afternoon for pre-ceremony photos and then back into the pasture for post-ceremony sunset photos, which I did. The day of the wedding arrives, and the whole bridal party and our photographer went down to the stable to take the aforementioned photos and guess what?? NO HORSES. It was just an empty barn. Again, my heart sank. There was nothing that could be done at that point so we just took photos without the horses. After the reception, our photographer came to get us for the sunset photos in the pasture. The 2 horses that were in the pasture were so skittish they wouldn't let us get near them even for a moment. I tried to be calm and reach out to them and one of them kicked out with its back legs and almost kicked me in the face. It missed me by mere inches! At that point I quit. I just put my hands up and said forget it! I wasn't about to risk a head injury on my wedding day. Again, utterly disappointed. I wish I could say that was all that went wrong with the venue but alas there is more. When we checked into the ranch house on Friday afternoon, there were no paper towels or cleaning supplies for the kitchen or bathrooms. We had to go to the store to by dish soap and sponges, and basically everything else one would think would be in a rental. None of the TVs worked throughout the entire house and that night we tried to light the fireplace during our rehearsal dinner and that didn't work either. The owner called and apologized and said we were the first wedding of the season so they hadn't stocked the house yet and forgot to check the gas line. Unbelievable and so unacceptable! It doesn't matter that we were the first wedding. It should have been done. We paid almost $20,000 to be there for 2 days (Literally just to stay on the property - not including any vendors) They refused to refund any of the money. The only compensation we received was a $500 refund for the late check out time on Sunday afternoon. When the weekend was over, I couldn't help but wish we had gotten married somewhere else. The only saving graces were the outside vendors we hired for the event: catering, flowers, and photographer. They made our wedding lovely. However, the location was not worth the level of disappointment and disenchantment we felt. Certainly not worth the money. Bad form...

2.0 star rating 5/20/2020

In early 2019, more than two years in advance of our event, we began looking for a site to celebrate a private graduation party for two graduates in June 2021. Another parent recommended Greengate Ranch & Vineyard. The grounds and location were perfect so we booked their Vineyard Cottage. Booking a place during graduation weekend in San Luis Obispo is incredibly difficult because of the sheer volume of people that descend on the area at the same time. Greengate was available and happy to take our reservation, even that far in advance. We paid a 50% deposit.

At the beginning of May, we received a very vague email stating that they had to cancel our reservation. No explanation was provided. We were understandably frustrated and immediately called and asked for more details as to why they would be cancelling a reservation in May 2020 that was scheduled for June 2021. The contact never returned any of our calls. She just continued to send emails and blamed the cancellation on the current pandemic, but when we pressed, we finally got a different story; Greengate would now only be taking reservations for wedding packages during the spring and summer weekend months, and that it would no longer be allowing families to reserve the cottages for graduations, or in advance for a private event. They made no effort to honor their current commitments, or to work with us to find suitable alternatives. The only thing we got were email links to other venues, all of which were already booked (for those that would work for our budget, size and event). The only property available was for a minimum 4-night stay (twice as long as what we needed) and for three times more than what we were paying with Greengate. That is not a comparable option.

We were looking for way more professionalism in how this process was handled. We know this is a difficult time, because we are all going through it. But sending an ambiguous email (instead of calling or returning our calls) to abruptly cancel the venue for a very important event is wrong, and just plain terrible customer service. We paid a lot of money for the venue, and expected more than just an email. A little professionalism and courtesy go a long way, and in this case, would have made all the difference in the world. Instead, we felt like we didn't matter and our reservation and event...

Greengate was the wedding venue of my dreams!! It was truly the most perfect weekend I could have ever imagined. Throughout the entire process, Jena was so helpful, organized, responsive and on top of it! It was honestly such a smooth process, and I was so pleasantly surprised by how easy the weekend was. The property itself is so stunning - almost every guest told us it was the most beautiful property and wedding they had ever been to. My whole family stayed on property all weekend and it was so fun! All the houses, rooms and amenities are so well done and well kept. The landscaping is unreal, the views are amazing, and it's so nice that you get to walk around the whole property and see the animals while you stay there. There are so many places to host events, so we did our rehearsal dinner, ceremony, cocktail hour, reception, and brunch all at different areas of the venue - and each location was stunning! I cannot recommend Greengate enough! We will definitely be coming back and doing future events here and I would 11/10 recommend having your wedding here!! It was the...