Meyer's Castle — Attraction in Dyer

BUYER BEWARE! In early March, March 2nd, 2016 to be exact, my fiancé and I decided Meyer's Castle was the place to have our special day...boy were we wrong! On April 18, 2016, 46 days after booking our event with Meyer's Castle, we had to cancel our event. An honest and open conversation surrounding our cancellation is what we shared with Meyer's Castle staff but what we received and continue to receive is a SCAM and a run around of LIES. RED FLAG #1 - Prior to booking, we requested a food tasting. We were concerned with many other negative reviews, our own previous dining experience, and the constant restaurant/chef changes. We were verbally told we could dine in their restaurant and purchase the food. A tasting was not verbally mentioned or offered to us until we brought up the concerns surrounding the food as mentioned. No mention of the tasting is included in Meyer's Castle contract either, surprising for the reason that many other fees and credits are included in the detailed invoices provided by Eva and Elizabeth. When we cancelled our event, Meyer's Castle already collected our $2500 deposit and then some. They are still in procession of $2,745 of ours. Upon booking an event with them, a $2500 deposit is due and payments can be made up until a certain number of days before your event. Pretty standard protocol that works well for customer-centered, professional establishments. RED FLAG #2 & #3 - According to their contract like many others have stated, "the initial deposit(s) and subsequent deposits are non-refundable and non-transferable and will be applied to the final event bill." However, the contract my fiancé and I signed and are in procession of DOES NOT contain a Meyer's Castle representative's signature. Following this discovery, we brought our concern to the attention of their staff, Eva and Elizabeth. We were told that the managers and owners HANDLE these matters and concerns. NEVER once have I received a call-back, an e-mail response, not a peep from a "manager" or "owner." From the time of May - August my communication was weekly and NEVER ONCE have I received communication back from a "manager" or "owner". Only after Meyer's Castle received my demand letters via email and fax (both which were "broken" at one time or another per Eva) did I receive a call from Eva stating the contract was signed April 2, 2016 when our final deposit was received. Funny, I received a copy April 18, 2016 upon cancellation. At that point I felt defeated, this unprofessional establishment was keeping our hard earned money and leaving a small piece of negativity in our special day, as they have done with so many others. Perhaps Meyer's Castle and their attention to detail and professionalism is always too late or right on time when convenient. Furthermore, I strongly suggest Meyer's Castle revise their contract. Many up-to-date legal documents contain an outlined cancellation or termination clause in which only the initial deposit and a percentage of subsequent deposit(s) is non-refundable. RED FLAG #4 - In the past 2 weeks I have attempted to make something of this so-called business transaction. I requested my funds be transferred to a smaller event I'd like to host (bridal shower). Mind you, this transfer was initially recommended by Eva and Elizabeth in May. They were CERTAIN their "manager/owner" would approve such a thing although the contract states that cannot happen. During that verbal conversation, no dollar amount was disclosed and none of their kind, certain words were documented. Today, I was told $1000 of my money could be transferred. Again, this conversation was all initiated by me. I called last Monday with my request and was informed the "manager" was out for the week with the flu. What an all too familiar response. Today, I called back and only then was the GREAT news of a CREDIT shared with me. This establishment is full of flawed procedures, protocols, and communication. I will never recommend this place or these people to anyone. I hope my horrendous experience speaks to anyone...

COMPLETE DISASTER! Never have I ever experienced a more slump of an organization and place. I stood up in a wedding yesterday here and EVERYTHING about it, except for the visual aspects, was absolute trash from the very beginning. I arrived to the “bridal suite” a few hours before the ceremony to get dressed and ready for pictures while the girls got their hair/makeup done. On my way up to that sauna of a treehouse, I tripped up the stairs because the boards were loose at the top. Inside the suite was nothing short of an inferno, AC wasnt working properly AND the fan didn’t work. One of the bridesmaids had to run to the store to buy an actual box fan, out of her own pocket, to cool the place down to a reasonable temperature. They were NO signs guiding anyone anywhere after the ceremony and when guests tried to go into the reception tent they were greeted with a harsh tone of voice, by whom I assume was some management person. The cocktail hour after the ceremony was held in the “dungeon”. It may look cute on a walk through but I can assure you that your potential wedding guests aren’t gonna see ANY beauty in a dim lit crowded space. On top of the fact that they only had TWO bartenders for around 200 guests. Guests were waiting 45 minutes for one drink. They didn’t have nearly enough beer and not even halfway through, they ran out and were serving it warm. Half drank beer bottles all over the place was a major theme. Then let’s get to the reception... It looked visually great at the start! All the centerpieces and flower arrangements looked beautiful and the set up looked awesome. Guests sat down and had salads already waiting for them, unfortunately this is where the good news stops... Somewhere down the line management thought it was a good idea to have 2..yes TWO servers for over 200 guests. It took almost 45 minutes from the time guests had salads to the time the wedding table even received their food. Imagine how long it took to distribute food to the rest of the tables. Not to mention there was zero service in between due to the TWO servers trying to rush food out. I won’t even mention the temperature of quality of the food, you can use your imagination on that one. Guests had to end up getting up and grabbing dishes from the kitchen to serve the forgotten tables themselves. Now we can talk about the bar inside the reception tent. The bride/groom paid for top shelf and they were serving well. The didn’t have any ice bins for drinks and again ran out of cold beer, round two of half drink beers being everywhere ☹️

And for the MAJOR kicker. The reception tent had ZERO AC. Management said they turned it on at the beginning of the day but I’m sure that was a complete lie. Don’t get me wrong, it was a 90° day, but If you’re not gonna have proper AC to cool down the venue, at least bring in some industrial fans to blow some air through the place. For Christ sake, outside was cooler than in. Two fans for over 200 guests is completely unacceptable. The bride was distraught the entire night and the perfect wedding she dreamed of and PAID FOR (idk exact amount but it was a 20k deposit) was crumbling before her eyes and there wasn’t much she could do about it. I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS PLACE TO ANYONE FOR ANY REASON! It may look nice from the outside but don’t invest your money in this “establishment” and if you do, be prepared for everything to go wrong. This place is getting 1 star and that star of only for the flower lady and...

I wanted to share my personal experience at a wedding I attended for my niece. I had heard a lot of good things about Meyer’s Castle in the past and was excited to attend the reception there but was so very disappointed. Weddings are not cheap these days and you would think that the experience would be flawless, especially on one of the most important days for the bride and groom. My daughter had gotten married the year before at the Aberdeen and the difference was night and day. It was a hot August day and when we entered the Meyer’s Castle ballroom, I was very surprised to see this gigantic fan in the corner of the room. I noticed it right away because our table was very close to the fan. It looked very tacky and my initial thoughts were why do you need a fan when there should be air conditioning? It was very hot the entire evening and my husband had to leave early because he couldn’t take the heat. I know there were others that had to leave early because of the heat as well. My niece was told that the wedding planner indicated that there had been problems with the air conditioning but it had been fixed that day. I doubt that that was the case because there would be no huge running fan in the corner and it wouldn’t be that hot if the air was on. On top of that, we were given a pitcher of water for the entire table and no one ever stopped by to ask if we needed a refill. If you wanted water, we had to go up to the bar to get it and that was annoying the bartender as she was getting many requests just for water. I mentioned we needed water at the table and asked who could help and she indicated she would check on that. Nothing every came of our discussion. Also, the wait staff was nowhere to be seen once the food was dropped off. My thoughts were that they were short staffed as there should always be someone on the floor ensuring the guest are taken care of. There was a spill on the dance floor and I had to go into the kitchen to get someone to assist. Also, two guests at our table received their meal ten minutes before everyone else which was very odd. Lastly, I was surprised that no cake was delivered to the table. I noticed someone eating cake and asked where they got it and they indicated it was at the dessert table. We found out about the cake by word of mouth. Normally, it is delivered to the table so another reason why I believed they were short staffed. My niece actually used Meyer’s Castle for the cake and they couldn’t deliver it to the guests? To sum it up, I would think twice before having a reception here. It was not a good experience for my niece and Meyer’s Castle took no responsibility. They actually tried to say that someone actually complained it was too cold and if they could turn down the air which is laughable. Obviously, they don’t have the resources, right people… in charge to handle these ‘very expensive’ special occasions. You want to look back on this day and smile. It made the honeymoon for my niece and her new husband all the better. I gave it two stars because it has a lot of potential but would definitely not...