Wine & Roses Country Estate — Attraction in Covington

We recently celebrated our marriage at Wine & Roses. Overall, the venue was picturesque and clean. To anyone planning their wedding, I would strongly advise hiring a wedding planner as they would be well worth the extra money in dealing with this venue specifically (along with the rest of your vendors).

Pros: great for photos, clean, staff was generally responsive and experienced, venue is very flexible on caterers, accessible for older and/or differently abled wedding guests, base price was pretty affordable, they handle the setup which is a huge deal.

Cons: communication, communication, communication. There were a few questions that went unanswered throughout the final weeks of planning (who gets ice, as an example). Answers we did receive were often incomplete or unhelpful, so we had to keep following up for clarity. Coordinators weren’t proactive in making recommendations on amenities we should include (again, why a planner would have helped). While the base price was flexible, the venue has required additional services that cost extra, and the way it was communicated felt like nickel and dime-y. I’d recommend communicating everything up front so couples have the option to just pay for the all up package initially. Our DJ was not great (more on that on his own business page), and he came at the recommendation of the venue. We only had two options for DJs, so no flexibility there. The bartender also seemed unfriendly/unhappy to be there (venue choice), which obviously isn’t ideal. Everything shuts down at 9pm. It’s a super abrupt ending, with staff immediately tearing down. This was as advertised, but we assumed the ending would be more gradual given that the absolute cutoff was supposed to be at 10pm. The venue isn’t easy to get to if you are coming from Seattle, and there isn’t much around in the way of lodging for guests or things to do for out of towners.

In retrospect, we should have forced the issue a bit more with our questions (yet again, something a planner would have likely done). We expected better communication, and that would have made it a better experience.

Wedding planning is no joke! If you and your partner are working full time, just hire a planner. Otherwise, expect to work a second job in the last few months leading to...

Since day one this venue has been stressful. I booked a viewing of the venue, confirmed the appointment, drove 4 hours from Bellingham from college to view it and my parents and I showed up and the gate was locked and no one was there. I contacted the “coordinator” and she didn’t respond so I contacted the owner who initially asked if we can reschedule after scheduling out of my busy schedule to drive 4 hours and then said her sister lives near by and can let us in. We viewed the sight and liked it for the most part so we booked it. We scheduled an appointment after that to pick out table clothes and linens and Melissa was hard to reach. She wouldn’t respond to email and then finally did and we showed up for this appointment and were told we were there for a viewing which we already did...the lady that was there that day was nice and figured out a few things for us to see colors and start filling out a questionnaire which later would be sent to me by Melissa. I never got the questionnaire and I had to email about it and still never got it. Melissa ignores her email for months. I contacted the owner who finally got back to me a month later and gave excuses for Melissa. Melissa told the owner that I never confirmed the initial appointment but I have the emails as proof. I decided not to argue with them and I found a better venue for half the price and cancelled this one. There are some other issues that arose with not contacting and miscommunication on Melissa's end but this is the gist of it. Melissa is clearly a family friend of the owners or something because she defended her multiple times when she’s flat out a horrible coordinator. I’m a pretty easy going bride and I don’t expect emails back the same day or even same week but when it’s weeks to months there’s a problem when you’re planning out your wedding. It’s a beautiful lawn but honestly they make you pay for so much more than just the venue, they require parking attendants, require you to take all the trash at the end of the night, require you to set up all the chairs and everything, the lost goes on. So many extra fees and expenses that are hidden. Don’t be stressed on your wedding day, just go with...

Location was stunning and leading up to the actual day ended up being great. Sadly, the venue owner made the mother of the bride cry on, what was supposed to be a day filled with the happiest of memories. Johanna (sp?) was stressed out and kept confusing the crew (the family who was there to help) because she kept trying to be chief when the bride's family had appointed someone to oversee the set up. Things were in hand but, because she couldn't see the vision and had a different style of executing, she kept trying to "help". What ended up happening is she made an already stressful day even more so because she wouldn't back down and literally kept arguing with the family and interjecting her unsolicited advice and coordination which simply made the communication channel between the family and the venue staff clogged up while the clock was ticking to get things done ...unintentionally I'm sure, she added exponential stress to the set up process.

Recommendation? Johanna (my apologies if I'm not spelling her name correctly)should focus her efforts in the planning phase (she did a great job with this) but when it comes to the actual day of the wedding stay off the property and delegate to her already competent crew. They know what they're doing, she needs to trust her team b/c they will get the job done and did a great job. I hate to say this but had she not been there this wedding would have been perfect all the way around. I hope, for the sake of her business and for future clients, she listens to this feedback. Again, stunning location ...just needs to have a big kink worked out to get a...