Venue 116 — Attraction in Brookshire

This venue is beautiful! The inside is full of lacquered wood, high ceilings, and beams. it has a HUGE bridal suite that has couches for everyone to relax on, a table for snacks, individual makeup areas, and a reveal area so the bride can surprise her girls when shes ready! The grooms suite is very "manly" and on the other side of the building so theres no worries of accidental peeks before its time. There is a built in bar for your bartender, a seperate room for catering to set up, an entire wall of windows that looks out onto the property and its a historical building that has the actual cotton gin preserved inside so its like having a museum as an added bonus. Outside theres a patio with a greenery wall for pics so you dont have to worry about that and also a big fountain thats perfect for pics as well. If you dont want to have your ceremony inside they also have a big tree outside that you can get married under or there are two other spots you can pick from that are a rustic metal background, and theres also a pergola! If thats not enough, they even have a playground area for the kids, and provide vames for adults to play too! Like corn hole, big jenga, and yahtzee! There is tons of parking, on cement not rocks so your guests dont have to worry about mud or tripping in heels. But they also have a covered circle drive so ladies can be dropped off at the door if its bad weather. The covered drive also has the really high ceilings and beams, like the inside and at night it has uplighting that makes it perfect for pics of your getaway. I love this venue!

As far as management goes, they are very reliable. I never have issues trying to get ahold of them, or getting them to respond to questions. Marlene and Melissa run the place and i feel like they cover everything very well. They try to work with people to make sure every event is perfect and they even stay there and keep up with the trash and restrooms so you dont have to even think about all that. No one wants to hear about the restroom conditions on their big day! I never even thought about it before but you dont have to here. The prices are also very affordable. If someone says they're getting married in a historical building with wood that shines everywhere and this huge suite and all the extra spaces and things to do outside you think wow i bet thats super expensive but they have very affordable pricing. They also offer a linens and decor package and they have a room full of centerpieces and arches you can use for free! I definitley give The Cotton...

Ok, the easy part first. Yes, it's a pretty venue and kudos to them for saving a building of historical importance.

Here's the reality after that.

First off, they do not clearly mark the driveways for entry or exit, so that's a guessing game when you arrive as to how best enter the lot.

Next, I am dumfounded at these people. They have NO HANDLES on the outside of the front doors. I myself, guests, police officers, ALL had to fumble with the doors. When I arrived for a wedding, I couldn't event enter the building save for a side door that I had to hunt down, which had been propped open by a rock. The staff gave me some line about keeping the A/C in, which is nice, but you can keep the air and still PUT A HANDLE ON THE DOORS! If even the police officers on hand had trouble with the doors, what confusion would take place if emergency crews had a crisis and had to enter?

The space was a cotton gin, never a meeting space. It's interior, while beautiful, is compact, narrow, and very claustrophobic with 80+ people. It's not a very good space for layout of an event. There are a lot of blind corners, and you can hardly get a view from one room to the next. Noise carries loudly. It's a good thing the space has a playground, as no child should play inside, there's too much to have an accident with. There is one main way in and out of the back, which creates a 'bottleneck' for guests.

Here's the real rub for me. I had to get through three accidents on the freeway out of Houston. I arrived with barely minutes to spare to see two friends get married. Thanks to not being able to enter at the so-called main entrance, I missed the entire ceremony. I heard the couple/my friends get cheered as I stood at the front doors wondering how the hell do I get in.

After all the effort to make the venue on time, their own front doors kept me from sharing a moment I cannot ever experience with my friends again.

If you want reliability and comfort of space....go somewhere else. The only reason I give them 2 stars is because I like cotton gins and Texas history.

I've never seen or heard of a wedding venue that hinders entry at the front. That's about as dumb...

01/29/2024 Review created We had my wife's birthday party at this venue, while it is nice and located away from the busy city life, the owner of the venue who micromanages it made life miserable for us. She was very restrictive and did not allow us use things agreed upon during planning and not clearly spelt out in the contract. From charging significantly higher than commensurate labor to move their chrictsmas tree off the stage to looking for every possible contractual loophole to keep and not refund our security deposit 6 weeks after the event despite multiple reminders. While the staff may be nice, I do not recommend this venue, if you have to use it, watch out for the owner exploiting you unless there is something about us she hates and decided to treat us this way.

01/30/2024 Response to owner My review was created to guide customers on my experience which includes the refund of my security deposit that is still to be addressed and we are on google responding when in the ideal situation you should have picked up reminder calls or respond to text messages and emails. You were providing details of how fair you were or made concessions but forgot you only honored concessions made by your manager who understood contracts never cover everything but serve as a guide for good business experience between the binding parties. You decided to personally take over handling my event less than 2 weeks to the event from your manager and made sure anything not spelt out in the contract is used to max out charges knowing fully well it was too late for us to cancel. I do not want to deviate from the focus of issuing me the fair portion of my security deposit.You did not respond to reminders until after about 5 weeks and you sent me a laughable check without engaging me to discuss what you were trying to do. I have my reasons of why it feels there is something about us you hate and will spare readers that but all I ask is to be issued the fair portion of my security deposit while readers digest...