The Place at 534 — Attraction in Farmington Township

There are a lot of positives for this venue, but have some critiques to help this venue get to a five-star review. We had our wedding here on 9/1/23 and really felt the day-of was amazing and all of my guests gave positive feedback, but the year leading up to that perfect day was stressful and worrisome.

The positives: everything is in one place, so it makes for a very easy day with no day-of travel. The vendors we worked with were amazing! MMG Photography, Wedding in Ohio DJ, Elevate Cakes, and the caterer were all amazing communicators, detail-oriented, and had a very positive energy throughout the process. The venue itself is gorgeous and provides so much space and different areas for guests to hang out. Doug is also a great florist, and the flowers and decor was beautiful.

From the day we had the tour with Audrey I believe they over-promised. Told us we could customize everything and promised they wouldn't nickel and dime us. However, they under-delivered on that promise. When wanted to try something new or customize something we had to fight for it in our meetings. We were met with a lot of negativity when we deviated from what they typically would do.

The team is extremely lacking in technology. They use pen to paper for everything. They also would NOT share meeting recaps, so the record-keeping was weak. They also preferred calling to email, which caused a lot of he-said/she-said and repetition of details. They would frequently promise me something then in our next meeting, adamantly say that they never promised XYZ. It was a constant let-down. They would benefit greatly from planning software, better communication, and better organization.

The team would rarely make recommendations or try to provide alternatives. Since they don't have any documentation of previous work or examples to share, we resorted to Pinterest and social media for design inspiration. This led to decorations that were unknowingly out of budget. Audrey would tell us our ideas would cost thousands extra and tried to upsell us rather than providing alternatives or recommendations within budget. We were pulling teeth to try to understand what WAS within budget.

They would greatly benefit from better documentation. For example, I asked what food they serve at cocktail hour, how much food they serve, and pictures of what it looked like. These are all extremely standard questions to ask of a vendor. However, they were very taken aback by this question. Most caterers have this information on-hand for clients before they even sign a contract. I would expect a team that has been doing this for years to have a one-sheeter with all of this information that they can send to me in a PDF through an email rather than it being a huge ordeal to provide.

They would also greatly benefit from having more industry expertise and understanding trends in the industry. I felt for a team that claimed they had so much experience and expertise they would say a lot, "I've never heard of that." - when a lot of what we were asking for we have witnessed at other weddings or on social media.

The rehearsal was extremely disorganized and took an entire hour (I have been in several weddings, and have never been to a rehearsal longer than 30 minutes). My bridal party was extremely attentive, but unfortunately, The Place was not prepared. Although we had a meeting to discuss the names, order, where people were standing, etc. Audrey and Marcy were still asking me questions on all of these details or forgetting the details all together on the day-of.

For the day-of coordination, Jess is really their saving grace. She is very positive, friendly, and knows where to be and when. It seems Marcy and Audrey should be working behind the scenes, rather than customer-facing as they lack a positive attitude, are not detail-oriented, and are not good communicators.

It did take 6 weeks to get our deposit back, which they blamed on USPS. I think the team just wasn't organized and forgot to send it in a timely manner. That process should be planned ahead of time and...

From a bride that chose this venue:

The Place at 534’s venue all inclusive package was just what we were looking for. My fiancé and I chose our date and put down the security deposit. It was at that point, our entire experience with them changed. We started to not getting responses from our texts and calls. When we did finally get a response, it was to tell us that it was not our time and they would reach out to us when they were ready. But in the mean time per contract we were suppose to keep sending them money. Every time we sent them money, it was a fight to get a receipt. When my fiancé said something about it, Audreys response was “I don’t sit at a desk all day, I wish that was my job”. The receipts we did receive were wrong. They always had part of the balance due for cake and flowers. Which we were using a family members business for both. That was another issue. They do not like you using outdoor vendors and make everything extremely difficult and dodge questions they needed to make my vision happen. There were so many things that we were told would be included but we ended up getting up charged for. They always said if there was anything we wanted or needed they would take care of it but then they would turn around and say no we don’t do that. For example, they do not do a champagne toast even though we were the ones bringing in the alcohol. Mind you, this was all before COVID happened. Once the pandemic hit, things only got worse. They started out, denying that our June wedding would be effected and things would just blow over. When the state shut down Audrey flat out told us that regardless they would under no circumstance refund us our money but they said they would assign us a date later in the year. Yes, they did offer to assign us a date 6 weeks after our original date but we did not feel comfortable taking another date when things haven’t changed with the virus. We have a lot of older people that would attend and when we shared our fears of their lives being at risk, Audrey said that was our choice. If we chose to reschedule for next year it would cost us more due to lost funds for this year. She was so cold and callous and even stated “All I am worried about is keeping my business from going under”. After that conversation, they sent us a text saying that they would no longer be responding to messages at that time. We were left just hanging with no solution. All we knew was that we wanted to keep our family safe and we choose to cancel. They refused for refund us over $10,000 because per contract they could cancel all events for no reason and not have to...

Just book it, I promise you won't be disappointed!

This place is hands down phenomenal, from the venue, staff and everything that comes with it! Every single thing they do has been perfected and has been so thought out. They cover absolutely everything and are so good at what they do. The owners, Audrey and Doug are the sweetest, most genuine people you will ever meet and all they want is for your dreams to come true, and they did just that! I adore them! The main coordinator, Jess is absolutely amazing and is the perfect piece to this puzzle, she took care of every and anything needed the day of and seriously was on point for all of the planning sessions! I love her! The rest of the staff is like a well oiled machine and all work so well together, so we also have to thank them and all their hard work and how pleasant and professional they were - the great additional planning/coordinating staff, the fun bartenders, the lovely girls the day of who frequently checked in with me to make sure I was okay or if I needed anything and everyone behind the scenes. I could go on and on about this place and all the wonderful things they do.

The communication they have with you throughout the entire process is top of the line. The planning sessions are so precise and they cover it all. They listen to what you want and will do whatever they can to make your visions come to life. It takes so much stress off of you with them handling all the details, it's such a blessing! This made the wedding day flawless knowing I had nothing to worry about and we could really just enjoy our day. They are the best, most beautiful venue to have your special day at with many options and we wish we could do the entire day all over again, that's how much we loved it! They truly delivered and then some. This will forever be the best decision we ever made and the best day of our lives! Even our guests have nothing but amazing things to say about this place and our wedding!

We couldn't have asked for a better day and my sincere thanks goes out to The Place at 534, I will forever recommend them and brag any chance I get!

*I will add more photos...