Sinkland Farms — Attraction in Christiansburg

ATTENTION ALL BRIDES!!! Do not book your wedding at Sinkland Farms. I just had my wedding there and good lord do I have a story to tell. But this property has A LOT of improving to do. If only I knew how poorly the management was I would have ran out of that place and never looked back.

My stories starts 4 months before my wedding where I received a text from the venue coordinator (the lady I have been talking to on a week to week basis about wedding details and etc.) saying I no longer work here and the Owner will now be your main point of contact here is her number… my heart sank for a second. The lady that I have been working with for over half a year is no longer going to be there for my wedding! I personally had to reach out the owner (which I thought was very unprofessional) and she told me she would be doing my wedding. She assured my day would be perfect and so on.

Month of wedding: I had set up an appointment with her to a do preliminary walk through with her because I had a weary feeling about how unorganized she was and kept remember all the promises she made me and kept saying the day will be perfect and not worry about anything. But she wasn’t very convincing. We arrive and the venue is a cluttered mess (not the first time it has looked like this) The owner doesn’t show up until 35 minutes after our arranged time. Mind you, her house is 25 feet from the venue. I was already ticked off that we had to wait for her. As I was talking to her she kept calling me by the wrong name and was so unorganized. She loves to nickel and dime people. She would offer me a decoration piece and I would tell her “I loved it - that will look great!” she would reply with something like “Oh great! That will be another $50!!” I was getting slightly agitated as she knew we were on a budget but she kept pushing for the extra charges.

Final walk through: So many things were promised to us. For example, she told us that the venue would be set up exactly how we discussed and we were able to come in at 8 am and start setting up. We went through everything including where we needed tables, how we wanted the benches and pews, what time we were coming what we wanted done and everything. We were all on the same page that day.. so we thought anyway.

Rehearsal day/wedding: We are so excited! We brought family and bridal party at 8 am ready to go. She informs that her crew won’t be showing up until 9:30 to get the venue ready!!! I walk in to the barn NOTHING was changed from the final walk through to the day of the rehearsal. We could barely do anything venue related until way later that morning. On top of EVERYTHING not being ready/cleaned the freezer was broken and the main refrigerator wasn’t working well as it was dripping water into the fridge. You would think she would of checked these before hosting an event? They did replace the main freezer with a smaller freezer but it was a process and it took over half the day to freeze our items that needed freezing. By the freezer being broken set us back even more!

We hired Sinkland Farms bartenders and as my father and I were getting ready to go down the aisle the bartenders show up… Mind you, cocktail hour is in 25 minutes!!! She was very cold and not friendly at first. The Cocktail hour starts and no drinks were cold, no signature cocktails were mixed it was a freaking disaster. We had a fun crowd and people were looking forward to a cold beer that we couldn’t deliver on. Lastly, she kept referring to our family as the Anderson's. Clearly, that was not our last name…It was absolutely RIDICULOUS.

There is much more to this story but this post is already long enough. This venue is not worth your money! If I could do it all over again I would not put myself, my family, and my vendors through that disastrous place again. After reading this you are probably thinking poor girl but honestly our wedding turned out perfect; it was amazing but, ONLY because of the vendors we hired and our awesome family...

My daughter got married here 2 months ago, in June of 2023.

The good: The actual VENUE is amazing. Truly amazing with picturesque views; activities for kids; a ceremony, cocktail, and reception space all at one place; beautiful flowers and antiques that decorate the reception barn. Its really stunning on a late Summer afternoon and our weather was perfection so the venue itself does NOT disappoint.

The bad (and thus the reason for only 3 stars). The owner Susan is quite frustrating to deal with. Your first experience of trying to get a hold of someone over there will have you pulling your hair out. Once you get a hold of someone and go over to take a tour, the experience is pleasant enough, but the sales pitch is definitely front and center. As you will see in some other reviews, there's an "extra fee" for most things you see that you may want to incorporate, like the bridal suite (broken down into two sides), barrels, flower carts, etc. She will offer to be your wedding planner, florist, and everything else that goes along with your big event. I hired my own wedding planner (that I was planning on doing from the start) and was so happy that I had someone to be the "middle man" when dealing with this venue as I knew it would add a level of frustration to wedding planning that I didn't have the capacity to handle. Next bad: you can only pay by check and they will take a LONG time to cash it... like months... so be prepared. Finally, last bad: Their bar service, which you are contractually able to use, is NOT good. Their servers didn't know how to make two very common signature drinks we had for the wedding (despite a laminated recipe sheet we provided). They repeatedly asked another vendor, our catering team, to help them. They were completely unprepared for the starting of cocktail hour and had no drinks pre-poured despite that having been discussed, leading to long lines at the bar area. The bar service provided was just completely unprofessional. I will say, the intern working at venue was wonderful and very helpful.

This venue has the "bones" to be amazing. The management and staff could do so...

At the moment im writing this, we are still suffering consequences from the pandemic so of course we are all practicing social distancing, masks, and etc as a country/state/community.

So I was really hesitant going to this years pumpkin festival at sinkland. But I am so glad we did! It was a true treat! We had so much fun and so many things to do together as a family!

I recently have seen on social media people claiming that "sinkland wasn't making visitors wear masks" and more statements of that nature. But during the time we were there (just shy of the entire time they were open this past Saturday) we saw everyone wearing masks and distancing from others (that were not in their group). With the exception of people eating and drinking (which is the same as it would be in a restaurant or bar because u cannot eat or drink with a mask on) everyone we saw had masks and following guidelines for safety! And I saw that, if the staff did see the few oddballs in the crowd with their mask down (and not eating/drinking), they would come over to ask them politely to put it back on.

Regardless of anyone's personal thoughts on the pandemic/masks/etc they should not be spreading falsehoods about a local buisness! Im not sure if people are doing it for attention, or for some other unknown reason, but its wrong. We love sinkland and this year was no different!

And I want to add: if you are concerned about the mask regulation at sinklands (pumpkin festival specifally is what im vouching for) and/or have read lies similar to what I stated above, I can personally say i witnessed they are doing everything they can to keep it fun and safe for everyone!

We had so much fun and it confuses and upsets me to see people say stuff that just blatantly isn't true.

I highly recommend coming here and enjoying some...