Black Forest by Wedgewood Weddings — Attraction in Gleneagle

I had my wedding here on 9/22. I originally chose this venue because of the outside ceremony site. I really enjoyed having an all-inclusive venue as the planning process was pretty stress free, and the staff was always available to help anytime I had questions. With that being said, I ended up having several issues that left us bitter about our day. When we brought all of our décor on rehearsal day, we brought a ceremony sign with us. It was previously discussed that this sign should be set outside at the ceremony space (hence, being a ceremony sign). This sign ended up in a dark area near my wedding cake table. I’m not sure what the reasoning was for that? What sucked about this is that I had paid over $200 to have such a cute sign made, and nobody ever saw it. During my appointments leading up to our wedding day, we went over day-of things several times. I had mentioned that one of my biggest pet peeves at weddings is when people have creased linens. Come wedding day, my reception linens were super creased, especially on the dessert table. The dessert table was not set up as requested. I had a cake, cannoli’s, and vegan cupcakes. I brought 2 gold plates and asked that some cannoli’s be on one plate, and the cupcakes on the other. All of the cannoli’s were on the plates, and the cupcakes were left in a cheap plastic container like you’d find at a grocery store … not a good look for a wedding. My cake icing was also the wrong flavor, but this is more on the bakery rather than the venue. Another preferred vendor we had an issue with was Prive, who does flower arrangements. My flowers were fine, minus my bouquet. I had paid $300 for my upgraded bridal bouquet, and it was way smaller than described. My bouquet was described as being “an XL watermelon Sized Bouquet”, but was only a tad bit smaller than my bridesmaids’ bouquets. I paid $200 for a large arch floral, and it was 4x bigger than my bouquet. The price difference there had me confused, but the arch floral was pretty so it was fine. Now on to the bigger issues. I had sensed some issues regarding food/drinks during our reception, but set it aside so we could enjoy the evening.I purchased the “Elite” package through Wedgewood, which includes an open bar with top shelf liquor. Several guests let me know that their liquor preferences were unavailable (not that this liquor was not something they had, but that they had run out of). It was also mentioned that my liquor shipment did not come in, which caused the issue. This is something I paid an additional fee for, and I had mentioned several times that one of the most important things was having an open bar with top shelf options. I know of at least 4 liquors that were unavailable to my guests. Again, I paid for an upgraded package to have this, and it was not delivered. The part that upsets me most is that the staff did not make me aware of this until it was too late. If they knew something was out, or that a shipment wasn’t in, someone should have run to the liquor store for anything that was missing prior to the wedding starting, and let me know as well. My guests also reported that during cocktail hour, the staff did not get around to everyone, hung out mostly at one table chatting with a specific guest, and that food wasn’t served in a timely manner. I feel like having several staff members deliver the hot appetizers would’ve been more effective. I had my guests waiting on me, hungry, for over an hour while I took photos. This was not only disappointing, but embarrassing to hear. Before my last appointment (3 days prior), I gave my final guest count to the venue so I had the correct amount for certified funds. The amount they emailed me was more than what was charged day-of. This is unfortunate because obviously, you cannot get money back when it is certified funds. I had over paid by over $100. If you end up booking here, I would make sure to be extremely detailed, as well as have a bridal party/family member walk around and check that everything is set up as it should be and that there...

TLDR: Please book this venue for your event. It’s SO gorgeous, everyone is so wonderful and helpful, and you will have a great time for an affordable price. All my guests commented on how amazing our wedding was and I wish I could relive it all over again. We would recommend Black Forest by Wedgewood Weddings to literally anyone, and we already have recommended it to plenty of our friends. Even my maids all talked about getting married there someday, and I hope they do so I can help! I had such an amazing planning experience with Brittany, Kayla, Nicole, and Lindsey. All of them were so insanely helpful, always answered my million questions promptly and they were so flexible and amazing. I sincerely wish I could plan another wedding at this venue because the ladies were just so wonderful. I had different experiences with each of the planning experts; I believe Brittany was the one we were in contact with first and she did our consultation – she was wonderful and helpful and awesome. I had LOTS of contact with Nicole and Kayla as well, mostly them answering all my questions a million times through email. Now, Lindsey… I honestly want Lindsey to be my new best friend. Lindsey was our assigned coordinator and she was just so lovely and sweet and kind and wonderful the entire event and throughout the planning process. She made sure everything ran smoothly, was always there asking if we needed anything, and she was sincerely like an old friend. She set up everything to perfection and the event was way too beautiful, everyone kept commenting on it. As probably most brides are, I was super stressed the entire time but trying to keep it together, and every time Lindsey walked in to ask if I needed anything or to let me know what was going on, it was literally like a breath of fresh air and I knew everything would be totally fine. She was just so supportive and kind. My new husband and I both love her dearly and I heard afterwards that she even stayed past her time just to make sure everything was going well. I also kept hearing after the wedding about special moments she had with my two maids of honor and other guests! Seriously above and beyond the call of duty. I didn’t want her to leave us! Katrina was our banquet captain and was equally wonderful! She also was so great about checking in with us consistently to make sure we were good. She even posted about us on Twitter because of our first dance song, and the artist liked her tweet! So exciting!!! She was great about getting all of our stuff packed up so we could load the cars efficiently, and I don’t think anything was left there! Plus, we got to take home some leftovers (which were dearly needed), a bottle of champagne we’re saving for our 1-year anniversary, and some of the donuts from our donut wall. Tyler was our DJ, who we were also assigned through Wedgewood, and he was so great too! The music choices were perfect and everyone had a wonderful time for each portion of our event. My new husband and I especially had such a great time dancing toward the end, and tons of guests were on the dance floor with us. He was very flexible with any last-minute changes and was just a very kind, all-around great person and killer DJ. Again, we really did love everyone we worked with at this venue, but Lindsey and Katrina especially were just too great, I don’t have enough kind words to say about them and I want them to...

We started our wedding plan and had our first meeting with them in April of 2020. During our meeting our first and foremost concern was COVID and any effect it could have on our date. They assured us that we could move our date one time without any penalty. With that assurance we put our deposit down which was thousands of dollars. After the deposit was put down communication was very slow. Fast forward to November of 2020 we had our very first meeting and COVID was spiking and the county was considering increasing restrictions which they did. We then expressed to our advisor that we would like to move the date back. She told us that was fine but we needed to hold off picking a specific as she was currently rescheduling other weddings that were earlier than ours. They made it sound like it was no big deal. We said ok no worries assumed we could look at dates when they got back to us. We then received a call in January the very next day right after the county was lowered from a red status that we could move forward with our wedding. That was no longer going to work as we held off months of sending invites as they continually told us they would help us move the date. We have out of state guests who need time in advance to plan time off, travel, and hotel stay for our wedding. As soon as we called out our advisor about the date move she said she couldn't approve that and passed us along to the manager. We sent the manager all of our emails telling us we could move due to a COVID delay, she then told us she would have to go to her boss to get approval which took several more business days. The manager told us only if we legally could not hold the wedding could we then actually move the date without forfeiting our $3,000 deposit. They then wanted us to put another $3,000 deposit down to reserve another date and would keep our previous deposit and not apply ANY of the $3,000 to our new date. IF you choose to meet with them please keep this in mind, they will tell you pretty much anything to get you to put your money down and they will work with you. Numerous times we were told our wedding and helping us getting married was their number one goal. That clearly isn't true, they just want your money. We didn't want a refund only for the money we already put to be transferred to another date and not lose the thousands we had invested to start from scratch. That was too much for them to do for their clients during a pandemic. Our $3,000 has been stolen by Wedgewood and we have already met with other venues. I urge you to consider this and search other venues. Any hiccups whatsoever they will take your money with a smile on their face. We found a real LOCALLY owned venue were we are being treated like actual people not just another number in their bottom line they can take money from. I never write reviews nor rant on the internet but after being robbed of thousands I felt compelled to help other couples who are struggling in this pandemic to hopefully learn from...