SoireEstate Weddings and Events Venue at SB Nursery and Gardens — Attraction in Citrus Park

We recently had my daughter's wedding here. The property is beautiful. The staff that worked the wedding were polite and all did a great job. Unfortunately it rained the entire day and night of the wedding. Monica had told us all along that they had a backup plan in case it rained, but unfortunately we never discussed that plan. It was not ideal, but we made it work. Not having the outdoor space made for an extremely cramped cocktail hour. We also had a mud pit to deal with because of the rain. Obviously this is not the first time that it has rained so the venue was well aware of the issues with the mud. The driveway leading to the delivery entrance/drop off area and the entire drop off area was disgusting. There was no way to avoid it. One of our vendors even got their trailer stuck and sprayed mud all over a few guests trying to get out of the mud.

Monica was very helpful initially. When it was about a month before the wedding, Monica was very hard to contact. She was never available and didn't return texts or emails. I even went to the venue one night, after setting it up with Monica, to see how the tables looked and to get some measurements and go over a few details and she was nowhere to be found. I was there for about 45 minutes and never did see or talk to her. She never contacted me after that night and still had not responded a month later on wedding day. She was definitely not a positive part of the experience.

Monica told us that the venue could handle a sit down dinner for 250 people. This is definitely not true. We had about 185 people and it was cramped. They put too many people around most of the tables.

We were told that we could bring in our own desserts and the venue would store them on wedding day until after dinner and then bring them out to our dessert table for our people to set up. They did not ever bring them out. Luckily at some point, my daughter realized that we were missing half of the desserts and my sons went and retrieved them and brought them out to the dessert table.

Monica did refer us to Sarah, the wedding day coordinator. Sarah was wonderful and definitely one of the highlights of our wedding. I am so happy that we had our own wedding coordinator and also Sarah for the day of the wedding and also had a wedding committee of 5 of our family members to insure that everything went smoothly.

The wedding was beautiful, but the credit for that all goes to our hired coordinators and our family members. If we had left it in Monica's hands, it would have been a disaster.

I would like to reiterate that the property is beautiful and most of the staff that we worked with were extremely helpful and courteous. It's sad that one person was such a negative part of the...

I'm going to try to be as detailed and honest as possible without making it incredibly long (we'll see because there's a lot). My husband and I chose this place for two main reasons: the venue itself is the most beautiful, serene garden setting & the all inclusive was convenient and made the wedding a bit more affordable. Things we loved: The venue was beautiful on the day of The staff were all amazing, kind, and hardworking The DJ (who they no longer work with I believe) The food turned out amazing (we specifically requested Chef Scott and he was great) but it depends on the assigned chef

Things we hated and made us wish we had partially gone with a different venue: Immediately after giving the initial deposit, communication changed drastically. I had to email 2 or 3 times AND call before being able to get ahold of anyone or receive an answer Our day of manager or Soire representative or whatever the role is (essentially our point of contact) changed 3 different times throughout the course of the year we had the venue. The first person we spoke to left about 3 to 4 months before our wedding and we were never told by the venue. In fact, this person held a bulk of the "all inclusive" decor and we were never told directly. We were eventually informed by our planners (who do not work directly for the vendors). We then had a different point of contact who was okay but then we are told at the rehearsal, the DAY before the wedding, that she would also be unavailable and a third person would be taking over our wedding coordination. This woman was there for 5 minutes of the rehearsal (she confused us with another coupe and didn't know our names?), and I don't remember seeing her on the day of the wedding at all.

All in all, I'm sorry for the essay but do want future brides and grooms to have all information to make an informed decision. I wouldn't change a single thing about our special day, but I think that's mainly due to our outside planners (Dare to dream) and the amazing staff at this establishment. Management communication and the incredibly high turnover rate for management needs a lot of work. Book at your own risk, but I won't take away that the workers here are GREAT and made the hell planning process we had...

We absolutely LOVED our venue! From the second we laid eyes on it, we knew it was for us. The landscaping and natural beauty really take your breath away and it shows in all our pictures and videos from the day. The venue has so much potential for a variety of wedding styles, you can really make it what you want. The planning process was great with Monica by our side. She took over in her position about halfway through our planning timeline and since she stepped in we felt supported and heard, and she really made our vision come to life! She was organized, responsive, and helpful. The only negatives we came across is that in this “all inclusive” venue, you have to pay for the DJ if you want more than 4 hours, extra for cake from Publix if you need more than 100 servings, and you can’t rely on their decor, because it’s really whatever is available the day of your wedding. We found that the energy and beauty of this venue were worth navigating through these barriers along the way. We are so happy with our choice and our guests could not stop talking about this hidden gem right here in north Tampa.

The location was great for us, living in New Port Richey, but with many out of town guests we used the hotels at the suncoast and 54 for our room blocks, had a welcome gathering at The Hub at Bexley, and our after party at International Beer Garden, all very close to the venue! The Hilton Garden Inn at the Suncoast is the preferred hotel for the venue, and they offer a shuttle service and complimentary bridal suite when you reach a certain number of rooms booked in your block. We used the hotel suite for the bridal party to...