The Windmill Winery — Attraction in Florence

If I could give no stars I would!!

My daughter’s wedding was just last weekend. It was planned for over a year. I’m not even sure where to start on the lack of professionalism from this establishment. I am extremely disappointed, especially with such a beautiful location and venue. Don’t let the pictures fool you besides the caterer and DJ the rest of the staff was horrible, rude and just despicable. Knowing that a wedding is a special occasion for the bride and groom along with their guest, you would think they would know how to handle anything and make it that special day. This was far from the truth with this place.

The lack of responses and numerous attempts to contact the coordinator from signing to days before the event was atrocious and uncalled for. Rest assure if you missed a payment they got ahold of you.

Again as I mentioned I am the father of the bride. During the rehearsal the coordinator ask my daughter while I’m standing next to her, “ since you are walking down the isle alone and no one is giving you away”. At that point I stopped her and explained who I was. But seriously are you kidding me.... from day one the venue knew who I was. Strike ONE

Upon arrival my daughter and her soon to be husband were detained to look over papers and sign which delayed the event, causing them money and time with the photographer. Not to mention delayed the whole event. Keep in mind we pay for a set time from start to end. Strike TWO

Due to guest who showed up as a surprise too my daughter; they were over head count. The coordinator and owner decided to interupt the photo shoot in the bridal bungalow to talk about money and how they would make sure they are paid. Seriously. Strike Three

It was explained to the coordinator that we would need another table, that’s it, no table cloth, decorations etc. Her response “That’s not my job” ( All this took place again during photo shoot of my daughter getting ready in the bridal bungalow ). Needless to say the brides maid had some words, and called the main number. Further more the coordinator continued to have attitude. Strike Four

We had numerous guest tell us that the staff and coordinator were extremely rude during the event. In one example we had snacks out before the dinner. A guest went to get some noticing they were being cleaned up and ask if they could have some before it was put away. Staffs response “No, dinner will be served soon” and took it away. Are we children ruining our appetite? Strike FIVE

Since there was an over head count and me being the father, the one who put the deposit down on my credit card. I was hunted down to pay the tab. No biggie but they cornered me coming out of the bathroom, stopped me on the dance floor, again from the bathroom and also while I was talking to other guest. How embarrassing, not to mention we still had 2 hours remaining in the event. Tell me one time, the coordinator and night manager hunted me down. Strike SIX

That was really not the worse, and I feel like we are playing baseball with all these strikes. :) The night manager was driving around on his golf cart yelling to the guest that they have to leave and get off premises. This happens minutes after 10pm. The staffed rushed every guest out and forced people to grab what wasn’t the venues and remove it. Strike SEVEN

Part of the event, they were suppose to get the classic car for four hours. Guess what didn’t happen! Yup you guessed right no car. Excuse: we forgot to tell them and it was to late. WOW Great job coordinator! Strike EIGHT

I called two days after the event to express my concerns, I barely got an apology, but was told the staff is trained to make sure they got paid. How many strikes so far?

Some items had to be left behind and we were told to pick em up between 10-1pm. When we arrived the items were no where to be found, no one knew where they were. Searching for these items we found them in an old shed thrown in the corner.

Needless to say please read other reviews as it seems our issues are not the first time something like...

The Venue: 10/10 everything about our day was perfect! I was a little worried about there possibly being another wedding going on the same day and how that would affect ours. Because they have two wedding sites the barn and the lake house. We were married at the lake house and I never saw any other guests except our own and didn't hear anything coming from the barn venue. The lake house is absolutely perfect, everything we dreamed of. I love that so much is included in the cost. Like the hanging lights on the deck, the love marquee sign, wine barrels, the arch…just to name a few. My coordinator was Daleen who was very helpful. The only complaint, on the wedding day she came up to us and told us she was leaving right after the ceremony. Luckily the owner was there and she stepped in to take her place and I honestly didn’t know the difference, she did a wonderful job !

Food: 9/10 We used Kiss The Chef. Seriously the best food we have ever eaten. I want to contact them to make some food for our one year anniversary. We had chicken with this white creamy cheese sauce. They were also very accommodating in making some sides for my vegetarian guests that served as their main course. Only complaint, as soon as everyone was done being served dinner they packed up and were gone. I kinda rushed through my dinner because we were called to do other things and I turned around later in the evening to get a second helping and they were gone. It would have been nice if they could have left some food for anyone else wanting seconds later in the evening. But besides that the food was absolutely delicious and all our guests commented the following week how this was the best meal they ever had at a wedding! They also loved the appetizers served during cocktail hour which were these mini gourmet burgers.

Cake: 8/10 We used Lesley’s cakes. She was the only vendor option for cakes. There was another vendor there that offered a dessert table with lots of yummy desserts but not a wedding cake. I had dreamed of having a beautiful wedding cake on my wedding day and didn’t want to give that up. So the Cake itself, very good! My favorite was the Almond Cake with Cannoli filling. Also she was able to copy a design I saw on Pinterest exactly like the picture! I was disappointed to find out that we wouldn’t have the traditional cake tasting like you see in movies and tv. I hoped that my fiancé and I could go into the shop with Lesley 1:1 and sample all the cake flavors. This is not how she does it. She does an open house monthly at her shop in Gilbert and also at the Windmill Winery. You have to go to this open house and sample what they have that day. Usually they have 3 or 4 cake flavors to try. But you are at this open house with several other people. The only other thing I wish she could do differently was send pictures of the cake when she was done just to make sure it was what I wanted. But instead you just have to trust she is going to do what you have shown her with pictures and see it the day of your wedding. This caused me some anxiety. I also wish she would get someone else to handle all her correspondence. I felt like I was bothering her anytime I emailed her.

DJ: 10/10 We used Ellagant Entertainment and had Joel as our DJ. I think this was the highlight of our wedding! He made sure everyone was having a good time. He surprised us with a couple games. He stuck to music we requested. He even got out and danced with our guest. Several people asked us for his info after the wedding so they could use his services at...

We got married in Feb 2023. The venue was perfect. We paid for the platinum package and used M’s Avenue & Lesley’s Creative Cakes. Both vendors were phenomenal. We had a snack bar, the donut wall and paid for an open bar. They let us in the day before, for rehearsal and a little bit earlier than promised to decorate the barn/reception area. Took a little arm twisting but “the planner” managed to get there sooner to let us in. (There isn’t really a wedding planner. Just a timeline manager, is what I would call her. They’re also there to answer questions before and during the wedding. Do not expect them to remind you of important details. As they do not work that closely with you. HINT: You may want to hire an actual planner and create a checklist.) The day of the wedding the venue decided to do an Open House that morning. Because of the open house, the Bride/Bridesmaids were unable to leave the dresses in the bridal suite the day before. This was an inconvenience to my wife, because they had to drag the dresses with them on the transportation bus to the venue. We stayed at the Gold Canyon Golf Resort, so dragging the dresses out, the morning of the wedding made things less enjoyable for everyone. The DJ was decent. My wife chose to ride in on the carriage after the bridal party. The music they played for their entrance was a violin cover of 1000 years. The song ended before she rolled up and there was just silence and some chattering. The DJ could have started the song over. (That's not what got them the 4 stars, btw) After the ceremony, we did more photos and we started the reception. I went into the barn to see if everything was setup and if we could start letting guests into the barn. That's when I noticed one of the staff (short haired blonde chick) leaving the bar area with a large box of what I later presumed to be all the top shelf liquor. That bottle of Grey Goose was sticking out like a sore thumb. I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it, since I wasn't there to get hammered. But my guests that ordered drinks all said the whiskey and the tequila was the worst alcohol they had ever tasted. We brought 180 bottles of water and 240 cans of soda. We did this, so that our $1000 budget for drinks would be specifically for alcohol. About an hour or two into the reception, we were told that we were about to go over our budget. We paid another $1000 to keep the drinks flowing. Thats when I started asking everyone how the drinks were and everyone that ordered a spirit drink made the same comment. They all said, they couldn't even drink their drink because it tasted so horrible. Like worse than bottom shelf stuff. The point is that they had good alcohol and decided to put it away and serve us the low-end products. Even though we paid top shelf prices. And my instincts tell me, my guests didn't even drink $1K worth of alcohol that night and they charged us $2K. It's all good. I had a great time, I'll never forget our wedding and at the end of the day we stayed positive so that it didn’t ruin the experience. (As I go back and read this review, it sounds like I’m being petty. But it is supposed to be a special day and if you want everything to be perfect, just remember that details matter. So, ask lots of questions and set expectations for your venue provider, caterers, bridal party...