Chapel At The Park — Attraction in Gatlinburg

So let me start off by saying that Emily is nothing short of amazing! From start to finish Emily was there to answer all of my questions and was just overall extremely helpful. However……… I had read so many reviews about feeling rushed during the ceremony but was certain that wouldn’t be the case with me. Well it was. I didn’t feel super rushed but I had some issues with getting my dress buttoned and the photographer kept knocking on the door to start pictures which was very frustrating. They played the wrong song for me to walk out to. I’m not sure how considering I sent an email with which songs I wanted playing and when. It was a song my husband and I like so we let it go. Our pictures came out very mediocre. We literally took better pictures at the reception venue with our iPhones 😕 our pastor was amazing as well (their staff is overall amazing) but when we received our wedding video (two months after our wedding) it looked terrible! My entire bridal party’s heads are cut off on the video 😞 it’s not worth even showing to anyone! And boy we had so many issues with the reception venue (we chose The Park Vista) we chose our menu very last because I am a very picky eater so I was indecisive. Well when we finally picked our menu we were told that it was changed so majority of the items weren’t available so we had to pick a completely different menu. When we arrived at the reception venue it was breathtakingly beautiful! But there was no direction whatsoever. You had to find the room on your own. Staff was not helpful at all. We asked the dj to play a song when we walked in but he did not. He did not play not a single song we selected. It was like he just made his own playlist and that’s the music that he played. 😒 The bar was upstairs from us but it was about a 5 minute walk from our reception room so our guests who wanted drinks missed majority of our reception. The room was not decorated whatsoever. Just white table cloths, nothing else. The food was okay. The package only comes with water and UNSWEETENED tea. Which I was totally unaware of. I was under the impression we would receive soda as well but that wasn’t the case. They provided plenty of food and we had a lot left over BUT when our reception was over I (the fcking bride) was pulled to the side by one of the servers and was told that my package came with 25 people and we had 31 so we had to pay an additional $250….. it’s a buffet! Does it really matter if we have 25 people vs 31 people? They didn’t have to do ANYTHING extra! No extra chairs, no extra set up, no extra food, NOTHING! It’s a buffet so everyone served themselves! That was insane to me and extremely rude and overwhelming! Here I am trying to enjoy my wedding and they pull this sit! My family told them they were crazy if they thought we were paying for anything when our bill had been paid IN FULL with chapel at the park so we left and did not pay anything. I am happy I got married but overall this was a terrible experience for both my husband and myself. I never wanted to renew vowels or anything of the sort but after the disaster we had, it’s only right we renew our vowels one year and make everything right. Like I said their staff is amazing but the was they run things and the quality of things you receive is horrendous! You pay so much money to have everything your way in your special day only for it to be wasted. I will be sharing my review with the BBB in hopes to receive some apology or something because I’m so upset and unsatisfied 😞 (First photo is their photo, the second one is at our reception venue with our...

Chapel was very pretty and the Attendant, Minister and Photographer were all SUPER helpful and friendly. One gripe I did have was that my salon appointment was scheduled way too close to my chapel arrival time which caused me to be about 15 minutes late and stressed beyond belief (Thank God for the calm attendant, she was awesome) Then the floral place didnt send over the grooms boutonnier (Thank God for Amanda and some leftover flowers, they were able to make him a nice one on the spot) but Overall we were very happy with the experience. They lost a star for me because of their lack of communication between manager and staff. Our package included formal wear rental of gown, veil, shoes, jewelry etc for the bride. I brought my own gown (a gift from my mother before I even planned my wedding) and when I told this to my coordinator I was informed that they would reimburse us $75. I reiterated that I would still need veil, shoes, jewelry etc. and was told (by more than one person) that would be fine...[which it should have been considering we dropped more than $2000 on this elopement]. When I told the manager/director (she knows who she is) about this additional cost to us, she was a little pissed off that I would even have the nerve to ask and told me "We shouldn't have credited you back the $75 if you still needed accessories." (Note that renting the accessories would be far less than $75) "You'd be better off just renting from them [Fantasy Bridal] directly. No one has EVER brought their own gown". Basically, sorry your wedding is in less than 2 days and no one told you this beforehand but Oh Well and How Dare You is how it was perceived. Eat the additional cost if you want accessories. So instead of spending our first day sightseeing as planned, we spent it rushing around Pigeon Forge shops searching for jewelry and shoes and I ended up renting the veil from Fantasy bridal for $30. Had everyone else involved not been SO helpful and eager to please I would've given 3 stars, but literally EVERYone else that we dealt with was absolutely wonderful and accomodating. I didn't want to base my overall experience on one bitchface. Also be aware that the "one bedroom cabin" can also mean a Studio Cabin and may not necessarily mean that you get a "bedroom". The cabin was cute and clean though so we were...

I’m going to rate my entire experience… First I’d like to point out that if you’re coming from out of town like we did (Ohio) and want an all together great location to get married then this is the venue to do so, with that said I’m a business woman and understand time constraints that maybe some of the other brides didn’t grasp as that’s the last thing on our minds when trying to make sure our dress is “perfect” for our special day.

1. NANCY was AMAZING and very informative, she walked the grounds with us and her being from Ohio was a nice connection… we originally picked to be married in the gazebo but once we saw the arbor.. she gladly changed our location. She alone gets 5 ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

2. The Location was perfect, easy to get to and the way the property is set up was genius! Another 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3. The Officiant was very nice but I wasn’t expecting to be announced as Mr. Dan and Mrs. Terra… we are still laughing about it only because my husband still says I sometimes say it wrong. Our last name is Larimer. For the funny memory and Joining us together as husband and wife 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4. Photographer 🤔 As I mentioned earlier, I’m a business woman, so in my world it’s hard work, dedication, and obviously making money from clients who put their trust in me to get the job done is what keeps my family fed. This is the part where I needed a moment to relax my mind and not give an emotionally ramped up horrid review of our overall experience due to photography. I think it’s smart to have photography added to packages and photographers trained in taking the “same poses different couple” pictures… brilliant really! But my bride self was very disappointed after getting our pictures back and seeing how just a handful were acceptable to me. One I liked really well, my husbands eyes were closed while everyone else had their eyes open… poor lighting in some pictures, our officiant facial expressions (no fault to him he was reading) our package included 32 pictures to choose from and we had a hard time trying to find ones we were comfortable settling with, it’s not like we can go back and retake pictures. The photographer was respectful and kind…so for that 2 ⭐️⭐️

Dan and I were married...