7 Vines Vineyard and Winery — Attraction in Dellwood

A warning to those considering 7 Vines for a private event:

My husband and I just had our wedding at 7 Vines. If I could go back, I absolutely would NOT book with them.

7 Vines is run by sisters Lynn and Lorah. Our initial impression was that they were normal, professional, and willing to work with us to help bring our vision of our wedding come to life. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Leading up to our wedding day we had multiple interactions with Lorah that left a bad impression (see below), but the most egregious behavior by the 7vines staff took place on our actual wedding day. Our wedding party arrived early that day to finish getting ready and take photos before our ceremony. We were told by Lynn and Lorah we could keep our belongings in the bridal room downstairs, where they could lock the door to keep our belongings safe. Our ceremony went smoothly, and I went back to the bridal room to have my dress bustled and freshen up for the reception. At that point, I discovered my bag was missing from the room. This occurred despite the door being locked, and while all the guests were at the ceremony. Anxious about my missing belongings, I notified my bridesmaids and proceeded to great/thank our guests. It turns out Lynn took my bag without my permission and then didn’t tell anyone. Lorah claims it was because they found “outside alcohol and didn’t want us to get in trouble with the bar, and felt the bag would be more safe in their office”. This was after 1) we had paid for an open bar 2) the bag was already supposed to be in a “safe” locked room 3) the entire wedding party was acting appropriately, and 4) suggests they waited for everyone to be busy at the ceremony before snooping through our belongings.

Later, during first dances, our friends went to put their jackets in their car. They saw Lorah and the security staff peering into my husband’s car with flashlights. Lorah and the security staff scurried away once they noticed our friends approaching. We have no idea what they were doing/looking for or what they were planning to accomplish.

When all of this came out the following day, I was LIVID. I have never witnessed such unprofessional behavior. It makes my skin crawl to think they felt entitled to violate our trust, rifle through our property, take something that didn’t belong to them, and not tell anyone. They treated us like we were misbehaving children despite everyone acting appropriately and treating the venue with respect. Lorah has not returned by phone calls to offer an explanation or an apology. Despite 7 Vines staffs’ best efforts to taint our wedding day, we still had a wonderful time thanks to our family, friends, and other excellent vendors. It is a shame to have such a beautiful venue mismanaged by incompetent, disrespectful staff. I would not recommend 7 Vines to anyone. I am very unhappy about our experience with Lorah and Lynn.

Other, smaller details worth sharing:

More than one of our vendors warned us about Lorah in particular, noting she has a reputation for being difficult to work with. Unfortunately we had already paid our deposit by then.

Lorah is a poor communicator. She often sends long, redundant emails with little punctuation. She sent emails in the middle of the night, sometimes multiple emails in a row. She also does this via text.

Strict no drinks on the dancefloor rules

Lorah recommended a DJ to us: he ghosted us one week before...

Look no further…7 Vines is your dream wedding venue! I had both my ceremony and reception here on 10/10/2021 after postponing in 2020 due to the pandemic. 7 Vines is just a class act all around.

I knew the moment that I visited 7 Vines in the summer of 2018 with a friend to, “check out this winery that was built in our hometown!” that it was going to be my wedding venue. I remember telling my (now) husband that same day that if he was going to marry me, I wanted it to be there. He made me check out two other venues just to be sure, which I did, but they didn’t even hold a candle to what 7 Vines has. It is just this amazing place and easily the most gorgeous winery in MN. Everywhere you turn your head at 7 Vines, you just see beauty all around you. Especially if you get married here in the fall, when the leaves are changing colors and the weather is nice and cool.

Lorah Palmer, the Event Coordinator, has chosen the best of the best wedding vendors on her Preferred Vendors List. For my wedding, I chose the following: Riverside Hitmen live band: literally incredible . The best wedding band I have ever heard. They brought the house down and all of my guests were dancing the night away. Kyle Tennis the manager is very friendly and easy to correspond with. Elegance by Design Floral: the freshest, most gorgeous flowers and reasonably priced. My bouquet, the bridesmaid bouquets, and boutineers were stunning. Tara the florist listened to my requests for the flowers types and colors, and hit it out of the park!! Donatelli’s Catering: my guests raved about the food and the expediency in which they were served through the buffet line. Top-notch customer service. James Ramsay photography: James is so fun and easy-going while getting incredible photos and shots. You feel like you’re getting your picture taken by an old friend. Thirsty Whale Bakery: they made the tastiest, out-of-this-world gorgeous tiered geode wedding cake. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the cake: simply stunning. All the guests could not stop talking about it and how delicious it was, too!

The only area where 7 Vines may cause some difficulty is if you have a large bridal party and you all want to get completely ready on-site. The Bridal Suite, while lovely and functional, felt a little tight with myself, bridal attendant, 3 bridesmaids, and 2 flower girls in there at once. There also is not a Groom’s Suite. These two concerns are quite minor and do not detract from how amazing 7 Vines is, however I just thought I should mention it as a heads-up.

In summation: I would not have chosen any other venue in Minnesota to have my wedding at. 7 Vines Vineyard is nestled on an incredible tract of land with rows of lush vines, has a beautiful pond, and is surrounded by huge mature trees. The winery itself was modeled off the wineries of Napa Valley and is just gorgeous. The staff at the winery are all best in class and will make sure you have the wedding of...

Updated** 6/20/18 We just got married at 7 Vines on 6/16/18 and it was absolutely AMAZING! The venue is breathtaking and every time I visit they make it even more beautiful. Working with Lorah, the staff & vendors there for the past 9 months has been so enjoyable. A litle bit sad that it is all over but over joyed that we can always go back and visit with a glass of wine and relive the day all over again. We had so many compliments from our guests on how wonderful the space was, how great the staff and vendors were and our guests can't wait to come back and visit as well.

Lorah is a complete rockstar, she is lighting fast at responding to calls & emails. Meeting with her to talk about wedding things was so fun. Our day went off with out a hitch because of her, she nailed it!

7 Vines did not skimp on a single detail - it truly is magical and feels like you are out in a California Vineyard but its right in your backyard. We can 't wait to continue to visit.

Happened to stumble across 7 Vines during the Grand Opening Party in October. Also happened to just get engaged the week before. When I walked up, I knew this had to be the place for our wedding.

They nailed it out of the park. Beautiful grounds, beautiful interiors and delicious wine!

I immediately walked up to the wedding coordinators to ask them for some info and was greeted by Lorah. She took the time during the busy open house to give me some information on the venue and even took the time to ask roughly how many people we were going to have and punched all the numbers into a spreadsheet. She also gave my friends and I a little tour and introduced us to the Owner and wine maker.

I then emailed Lorah later the next week to set up a time for my fiancé to come tour the space to which she responded almost instantly. She greeted us and gave my fiancé and I another tour and sat down with us and walked through all the costs, spaces, etc. with us so we could make a decision on a venue.

The over all experience so far at 7 Vines has been great. We can’t wait to have our weddding here in June and continuing to work with the amazing...