Pen Ryn Estate — Attraction in Bensalem Township

I have been waiting to write this to gather my thoughts & although I am pleased with the venue itself I am giving it 3 stars based on my experience my husband & I had with the staff. First off, I’d like to say the venue itself it’s gorgeous timeless and elegant. Everything we wanted for our wedding day. Our guests raved about the picturesque views & had a blast which we are so happy for. We were sadly disappointed with how the night turned out. When we did our drop off appointment, went over all the details for the day of & what a waste that was considering all the notes taken weren’t adhered to. We stressed heavily about concerns we had that there would not be enough food during cocktail hour given the small servings & limited amount when we did our food tasting. We got to the venue, started doing pictures, everyone was quick to note all the POOP on the grounds. I get you can’t control what animals come through but the staff could have at least cleaned it up before we came & did pictures. So myself & my bridesmaids had poop stains on the bottom of our dresses, on our shoes, etc. One “fun” thing we did was have tambourines during our ceremony for everyone to ring when we kissed & not that it’s a huge deal but I asked for them to be set up as guests walked in (the guests were let in DURING our pictures which I was also annoyed about) the tambourines were in the reception hall and had to be moved out. Not the biggest deal but just annoying. Then since we were under our minimum we ended up getting an add on which I have to say I’m SO thankful we didn’t pay full price for. We added the cape May canoe which is advertised as this pretty canoe that says CAPE MAY (HUGE deal for us since we spend half our time in Cape May NJ so it was a meaningful addition we couldn’t wait to take pics with) the day came & it was this ugly green boat that didn’t even say cape May on it. So needless to say, no pictures with it. For the cocktail hour inside the canoe was shrimp cocktail oysters & crab dip & cape May IPA. We asked frequently if it was going to be refilled throughout cocktail hour and we were assured yes it would be with the other hors d’oeuvres. It was only refilled once and then the staff said they ran out of food for it when we asked for it to be refilled again. Not to mention the 21 passed apps I did not see at all. From what we did have the food tasted good. Our food tasting was scary to us with not having enough food for the guests that were there so we were already worried about that. All these things seem so little but when you’re paying money to have what you want & how you want it and basically end up not getting what you paid for it’s frustrating. The BIGGEST mistake of all was the fact that I said TWICE in my contract with them that I am ALLERGIC to pineapples & not that my allergy is more important to anyone else’s food allergy, but me being the BRIDE that it’s noted more than once in our contract & was served pineapple on our dessert plate. When I tried to find one of the attendants I couldn’t and asked one of the waiters to grab them. Although they said sorry, it was followed up with we don’t plate the food the kitchen does. WHY DOES YOUR KITCHEN NOT KNOW THE FOOD ALLERGIES THAT ARE IN YOUR CONTRACTS!? I was infuriated. I am LUCKY that I caught onto it quickly. I tried to put everything aside and just enjoy my night and brush it off and I woke up the next day so distraught with everything that had happened. We also found out the next day that a few guests were served raw chicken when they received their dinners. Again, the venue itself was gorgeous and I have no complaints of cleanliness or views or pictures, none of that. My sole complaint is for the staff whose lack of attention to detail not only disappointed me, but nearly HARMED ME. Over all I am SO heart broken that the day turned out the way it did and I wasn’t able to actually enjoy my...

BEWARE If you are considering this venue for your special day, FIND ANOTHER VENUE! These folks are NON-COMMUNICATIVE, reprehensible, greedy individuals. There are many other pretty venues to book and you should do so. They were not compassionate at all during our Covid experience last year, and you can see from the reviews that is consistent. We were originally booked at the Mansion and due to the great PA Gov, had to switch to Rivers Edge just 6 weeks prior to our date. As there were considerable less amenities with the tent, we had to scramble to bring vendors in to give it the elegant look and feel we wanted. They were of no help! Paris, daughter of the owner, told us when we toured there would be ceiling draping, 2 chandeliers and a custom bar. NONE OF THAT HAPPENED! We had to do our own research on all vendors as they dragged their feet on getting back to us on EVERYTHING! The chairs took from Jan until Oct for them to make a decision. NO ONE WAS AVAILABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH US THE ENTIRE WEEK BEFORE THE WEDDING - email, phone, texts. We advised months in advance that we were also affected by Covid and our numbers would be lower. They said they would revisit when we did the table set up a couple weeks prior to the wedding. When the time came, they charged us for 50 guests that they had to do nothing for! We asked for the food to be donated since we paid for it, they refused. We asked for them to meet us half way since we were both affected by Covid, they refused. PLEASE BEWARE - they intentionally wait until that time knowing your vendors are paid in full, then they are unavailable and know it’s too late to back out. THEY OFFERED US 3 TIMES TO LEAVE OUR DEPOSIT MONIES ON THE TABLE AND WALK AWAY - one offer in front of 3 vendors! That is not the relationship you want for your wedding day. Only good news is that all vendors we used that day were also appalled by their lack of professionalism and rudeness and all personally called us after to say they will never perform services there again! Shauna is the worst human being we have ever met - she is extremely rude, crude, talks over you on the phone and will try to talk you out of bringing vendors in. She told us we didn’t want to enhance the tent with draping and it would cost at least $25K - it cost us $3,500. They will make your DJ or band use their sound system - it sucks and didn’t work so only half the guests could hear the speeches. Our band All About Me said it was their worst nite ever with a venue! And don’t believe the fully heated and AC tent. In Oct, we asked 3 times for the best to be turned up. Our guests sat with coats on. It did not work! They made ZERO adjustments for us afterward. Just as many of the reviews state, they are greedy, scum bag folks. Even the Small Claims Court Judge is in their camp - he’s not an attorney, a local guy, and has ruled in their favor on every case so far. They are just horrible people which is why they took down their own Facebook page last spring and the Phil Inquirer featured them in a very negative story last year also. There are many other beautiful views in the area - these folks will make your planning miserable. Despicable human beings and not worth your stress trust me! Our wedding coordinator was the Director of Catering for the Renaissance for years. After the first meeting with Shauna, she said she had never worked with such unprofessional folks. Same for the band, photographer, florist and draping folks. PLEASE DO YOURSELF A HUGE FAVOR AND FIND ANOTHER VENUE. You will be much happier and less...

My wedding was 3/17/2023 at the belle voir. I have to say that the scenery & the beautiful pictures on the river were the highlight of the whole day. Everything leading up to my wedding day was great from the communication and discussing everything we wanted but the day of the wedding I could not have been more disappointed with the service. I have attended so many events at the pen ryn and I always believed it would be an absolutely perfect venue for a reception. I could have paid less money for a better venue without the scenery but with better service. We paid a large amount of money to have our dream wedding at this beautiful venue but the service was insufficient. I am going to tell you why I asked for and had it written in the contract that the leftover Mac and cheese would come to the sweet heart table as the groom does not eat most things and this was agreed upon with no issues. we asked for this when we sat down and all we received was ONE small martini glass of Mac and cheese. When I asked a managing staff member about this, they said they would have the chef make more if there wasn't any and apologized. This never came and when we asked again, they said no sorry there wasn't anything and there was nothing they could do. -because of the Mac and cheese dilemma, the server who was personally serving us at the beginning of the night, did not come back to our table again and when my husband asked what happened to him, he told my husband he was scared to come back over because they didn't have the Mac and cheese. -The cake was not announced so my guests were unaware there was cake and all of that cake was wasted because the pen ryn was not able to even wrap any of it up for anyone at the end of the night, a guest I was standing next to, asked for water and he was told no because it was the end of the night, I understand the bar closes 10 minutes prior to the end of the reception but he only asked for a water -I understand its a liability to card people for alcohol however I was not informed of this occurring ahead of time or else I would have made sure my guests and my bridal party had them readily available especially the bridal party with everything they had to bring. We made the pen Ryn aware we were having a 21 and over wedding guest list aside from the kids. Again I understand but I should have been made aware ahead of time. -as the bride, I was constantly out of my seat and my plate was cleared after only eating two bites off my plate, along with other guests told me the same thing happened to them because they would get up to dance for a few minutes and then their food was cleared from the table. I dont believe that is appropriate when we are paying 130$ a plate for our guests. -The favors also were taken off the table before 11pm and so guests were not given then chance to grab them on their way out and also a wasted expense on the bride and groom.

I have been in the catering business for a long time so I understand everyone is working long hours and are on their feet all day. They want to get home but I just feel as though everything was rushed and not genuine and my reception and my guests did not matter because the pen ryn already made their money at that point. I wanted to love everything about my reception but I am extremely disappointed and I can not recommend the Pen ryn to anyone getting married and looking for venues. You can call me at anytime tomorrow Monday to discuss this further because I don't think believe this...