Idlewood Venue — Attraction in Bartow

1/2 My husband and I were married at Idlewood this past October and wanted to give a thorough review. The venue itself is absolutely gorgeous. We were married under the live oak tree out back, which provided great shade for our 11am ceremony. The pool added just the perfect Florida touch. The garden area with swings was perfect for our cocktail hour and for photos. The inside was also beautiful and we made full use of both the bridal suite and the groom's getting ready area.

However, despite this venue's beauty, we could NEVER, EVER recommend this venue to anyone. From the time we signed the contract and paid our deposit, communication was a massive challenge. Our emails would go weeks unanswered more times than not. It would sometimes require 2 or 3 follow up emails to receive a response. And nearly all emails had spelling and grammar mistakes in them. Not a huge deal, but shows a major lack of professionalism. In our meetings or phone calls it felt like I was the one leading conversations, having to ask about everything and anything. I'm not a wedding professional and it was frustrating to have to consistently try to pull information when we're the ones paying wedding professionals to help with our big day. If excellent communication is something you're looking for in a venue, Idlewood is not the place for you.

Then when we got to our rehearsal day, the landscaping team was on site and actively mowing in the area where we were trying to rehearse, making it incredibly difficult to hear each other with the loud mowers. Incredibly unprofessional that they wouldn't pause or schedule outside of our reserved time frame.

Wedding day arrives: The person supposed to let us in to the building is running almost 20 minutes late. (Not a big deal except we had paid for an extra hour specifically and missed out on much of that time.) The tables were not set according to the pre-agreed floor plan. It took multiple times of asking staff to get certain tables placed, and one never was placed in time. Bridal party members kept getting pulled by staff to try to ask bride questions throughout the morning. Some questions are of course to be expected. But questions that were already asked and answered or questions that were already in the day-of notes. These day-of notes I had confirmed via phone/email and available to view digitally prior to the wedding day. We also had to ask multiple times during the rehearsal and the morning of the wedding that the deck entrance for guests be cleared of dirt. Yes, it's outside, but this was more than a normal amount and... it's a wedding! The indoor floors were also dirtier than expected. Within the bridal suite it was especially noticeable. The chairs for the ceremony were not set until about 30 minutes before the start time. Which made it incredibly difficult to finish decorating the ceremony space since guests were already arriving. We had two signature drink types (sangrias and mimosas) and had a cash bar available for beer, wine, and liquor per our contract. Our guests were not able to order anything other than the signature drinks during cocktail hour. Again, fine, but we should have been made aware of this policy so we could have adjusted our signage accordingly. There was a day of change to our menu that we were never made aware of. One of the egg dishes (we had a brunch buffet) was switched out for another. Again, fine, but it would have been nice to know this happened, even if it was a last minute necessary change. The food overall was really great though! Credit is due there, as it was delicious. The bartender was RUDE. Numerous friends and family let us know after the fact how short, cold, and snippy she was. Even told me at one point to not "choke on my ice". During our grand entrance there's a photo that was captured of myself and my husband and in the background is her with her phone out and pointed right at us. Her bright pink phone case was very noticeable in the photos. Incredibly unprofessional and not to mention a huge...

2/2 Please also know that this venue is STRICT with IDs. I understand carding the entire bridal party but it meant the bridal party (including bride) had drinks delayed, and none were offered to the party. Bridal party had to stand in line for every person to be turned away to locate and bring IDs. This could have been taken care of for the bridal party before the ceremony so it was smooth afterwards. A simple heads up would have been appreciated since it appeared that everyone under 40 without a beard was carded. I get the bartender carding people, but the manner of which it was done was rude and unprofessional. We were also rushed to clean up though we had a full hour for clean up included in our contract. We overheard and saw that the leftover specialty drinks were offered to staff because "no one drank". A small other thing was it appeared that some of the staff was not in uniform or dressed appropriately. Yoga pants and brightly colored tennis shoes are not the look for working a classy wedding.

As beautiful as the venue is and the food delicious.... please take caution in booking Idlewood for your wedding.

Note: I waited this long to provide this feedback because I wanted to be sure of the details. If Idlewood would like to reach out for further details, I'm more than happy to...

Amazing Venue from the food to the staff to the beautiful Interior and exterior! They even have a bridal suite and grooms lounge. Hannah the manager at the venue is amazing she was patient understanding and so helpful especially since we were DIYing everything and had no wedding planner she walked us thru everything and Jay our banquet captain was amazing as well he helped my vision come alive just by helping me set up and make minor changes in some decor outlay he went above and beyond to make sure everything would work for us especially since the weather was not on our side that day! I felt like everyone on staff here was dedicated to me and my husband to make our day extra special and stress free. My guest also were in love with the venue& catering and the way the staff and servers treated them. Me and my husband ordered a old fashion made by jay and it was delicious deff recommend you ask the bar for one and the steak was delicious thank you so much for making our day we will be booking again for other events we have and so...