The Estate At Cherokee Dock — Attraction in Gallatin

We had an overall positive experience at The Estate at Cherokee Dock, though there were some challenges along the way.

The venue is truly beautiful & my wedding day was seamless. From the moment we toured the property, we were impressed—especially by Kelly, the salesperson who gave us a thorough tour & made us feel confident that most aspects of our wedding, including planning services, could be managed in-house. The best news is they allow dogs! My dog could be present all day while we were getting ready & during the ceremony—we just had to have someone take him home during the reception.

However, we had some hiccups. We were told we’d hear from a planner within 10 days, but heard nothing. After we followed up with Kelly, she took accountability & quickly had a planner reach out, which we appreciated.

It’s important to know that Cherokee Dock is owned by Infinity Hospitality Group, which offers in-house services like planning, design, & vendor coordination. Infinity charges a 20% fee on all vendors booked through them & while not every vendor is required to go through Infinity, key services like band, lighting, production, & florals are.

Unfortunately, we faced several challenges with the first planner assigned to us. Communication was slow—sometimes taking weeks. By the time she responded about our preferred band, they were already booked. She secured a different band but didn’t include all the services we’d requested, which we discovered a month before the wedding.

Within six weeks of booking the venue, we decided to hire an outside planner. The situation became tense when the in-house planner expressed frustration over us reaching out to vendors directly (due to slow responses) & even told one vendor that our outside planner was “no longer on the wedding” & to stop communicating with her. Additionally, she submitted a contract that was over $50K above our budget, leaving me overwhelmed & concerned about moving forward. It felt like our planner wasn’t listening to us & our wedding wasn’t a priority. I called my parents in tears, worried we might have to cancel & find a new venue—just 6 months before the big day.

Thankfully, my dad reached out to Infinity’s event director, Kalyn Newport. Kalyn listened to his concerns, reviewed our situation, & took over our wedding personally. From that point forward, Kalyn was a lifesaver. She helped us stay on budget while still having a beautiful wedding. Kalyn was responsive, professional, & kind, & she worked seamlessly with our outside planner to ensure everything came together smoothly. She made me feel heard & that our wedding was a priority.

On the day of the wedding, Kalyn was there to greet us at 9am sharp, walk us through the venue, & ensure everything was in place. If any issues arose, Kalyn, Annika (the on-site venue director), & my outside planner handled them quietly, keeping the day stress-free for me. Despite the challenges, I don’t regret choosing The Estate at Cherokee Dock. It was a perfect day in a stunning location.

For couples considering this venue: • If you have a $200,000+ budget, this venue is a no-brainer. The property is breathtaking, & the full weekend experience would be incredible. • If your budget is $100,000 or less, it’s still doable—just be firm and expect to need some flexibility, communicate clearly, & stay on top of communication.

Overall, we’re grateful to Kalyn & the team for making our wedding...

I can’t say enough about how great of an experience we had at the Estate. From the start of the process, Kevin was beyond helpful with everything. We came to see the venue 3 times prior to committing, and every time he was more than willing to accommodate us for a showing. After booking the venue, he was still just as a accommodating with any questions that we had (and we had a lot!).

At the time of arrival, Kevin was on site to make sure we had everything we needed. He even had some of the staff help us bring things in. We also had a guest who had a camper, and when they got there the hook ups for the electrical were not compatible for their RV. Kevin had an electrician come out at 8am the next morning to get the right connections put in. This level of service was beyond anything we’ve ever expected. As someone that’s in the customer service industry, I cannot say enough about how impressed we were with everything they did for us.

Our favorite part was the ‘Wedding Weekend’ experience. It was my now wife, Sonia’s, dream to have a destination wedding and COVID put that whole thought to rest. Finding this incredible venue, and just 10mins from our home, made for that same experience. It was extremely enjoyable being able to relax with our guest for an afternoon BBQ on Friday especially after so much our family had to fly into town. It’s amazing how fast the whole weekend goes and relaxing with everyone that Friday was one of the highlights from the weekend.

We also were able to spend a few nights with our immediate family and close friends at the Estate which was so fun, especially after not seeing them in a while. The whole experience was topped off with being able to get married on the water, at an INCREDIBLY beautiful Estate, with all our friends and family, AND in our now home town!

With all of the stress of planning for a wedding, the one thing that was never stressful was the venue. Sonia and myself would very highly recommend Cherokee Estates if you’re looking for a great venue for a very memorable wedding experience! And we also feel like you can get married almost anywhere for the day, but the weekend is really what sets this venue apart from the rest. The beauty of the location, the staff and the entire experience is five star! (Keep in mind this last comment is coming directly from a Jersey girl with VERY high expectations)

Happy Wedding Planning!

Pete &...

Part of what I do for a living is writing descriptions of to what extent and how things work. So I’ll do my best to separate the emotions out and do that here so people know just how amazing this place is:

Our experience

My wife and I got married at Cherokee Dock on 9/5/2020. I note the time because much of our planning, basically when we should have been all set from a detail perspective, included replanning things that had been set and a ton of uncertainty. The team at Cherokee was incredible at this time. We changed things all the way up until the day before our wedding and they were flexible, understanding, supportive, and basically a low-stress part of a high stress time. As for our event, we worked primarily with Kevin after checking in, and he calmly and collectively worked with any request or question we had all weekend. A time that jumps out was the checkout process, in which he was available for questions and debrief early in the morning, and helped us get our party checked out with no hassle or stress, and was just an awesome part of a day I thought would be miserable but turned out awesome. A quick rundown of Cherokee things we loved:

-you get to stay with your entire wedding party in a mansion for your big day -it’s beautiful and has multiple spots both for rehearsal dinners and ceremonies -their reception hall is AWESOME and can handle large weddings easily (we had 162 abiding by COVID regulations. You can easily do up to 250 when the world is normal -because everything, including pictures, is in one place, guests can relax and enjoy the whole time and you get so much more out of your vendors -they have suggestions for many vendors, and will work with new ones (we brought our own alcohol and cupcakes which saved a ton of $$)

I could go on, but honestly if you’re looking at a destination or specifically a Nashville wedding, or if you’re like us and have friends all over, look at Cherokee. We asked and had friends ask others (to get honest feedback) and couldn’t find anyone who was less than blown away. The only I’ll say heads up we found was that some vendors needed a bit more insurance than they normally did, but this wasn’t a big deal in the end. At the end of the day, we stayed with our best friends and family in a mansion for a weekend and got married in a way we’ll cherish forever. Thank you to Kevin, Kelly, and the whole...