The Aerie at Eagle Landing — Attraction in Happy Valley

We had our wedding in the Cave. This review is intended for future couples who are considering this place as a location, and some things that will hopefully be helpful. Overall, we and our guests generally had a positive experience, but there were some drawbacks as well. For reference, we had about 45 guests, which seemed like a good size for the Cave. I'll list out both what went right and what went awry.

What went right: The cave itself is a nice location, with some good photo locations and generally pleasant. Our guests were very happy with the location and mostly happy with the overall experience.

The venue has a good, organized system. The staff and catering team did well about setting things up and made life a lot easier. They worked well with the day-of coordinator and we didn't have to do much work on decorations on the day of. It would have been nice to be able to drop off some decorations the day before, but we managed alright.

The on-site representative (Keiko) was very easy to work with and very organized, so we could get through a lot of the details quickly and efficiently. She was also responsive to our questions and worked very smoothly with our day-of coordinator.

The day-of coordinator booked via the venue was really good.

Everyone received food and beverages. No one was left out or overlooked.

What went wrong: Communication from the venue seemed designed to be confusing. I'm not sure whether we ended up double-charged for a number of things (notably drinks) or not. They made it unclear what we had already paid for, and then charged us later. This occurred throughout the process and really seemed like a deliberate approach to nickle and dime us. It's possible everything was exactly as they described, but there could have been a lot more clarity.

Regarding drinks, for example, we had initially believed that we had a fairly large amount of money prepaid at the bar. On the day of, we found out that it was less than we had previously believed. Although the planning document itself had a line for this, it would have been nice to hear directly from the representative and ask ahead of time what we wanted to do if guests exceeded the amount. It also turned out that apparently this amount wasn't pre-paid, but was the amount that would get us to the catering minimum after food etc. and would be paid after. We had the impression that we had already pre-paid to the catering minimum, so a sudden extra payment after the event was a surprise.

Some important information didn't seem to get communicated to the catering team. For instance, the bride was a non-drinker, but they tried to bring her champagne. Although easily solved, it seemed like something was overlooked.

The food was somewhat disappointing. We opted for the salmon and filet mignon combo (necessary to meet the really high catering minimum). The salmon was fairly decent, but several of the guests complained about the filet mignon as being overcooked and flavorless. We had one vegan guest who, for the same $70 as the salmon and filet mignon dishes, received just the side vegetables that went with those dishes. There wasn't anything set up to do a nice vegan meal.

We never got the s'mores that were promised; kids in the wedding were quite disappointed by this.

If you use the cave, there isn't anywhere attached to it where the bride and party can prepare. If you're lucky the other location isn't in use at the time and you can rent the ready rooms there... for $350/hour.

The bathroom facilities attached to the cave could use some improvement. It's a marginal upgrade from a portapotty: it's about the size of an airplane lavatory, lacks mirrors (a curious choice for wedding guests who are going to want to check their appearance on the way back out), and isn't set up for multiple people in any way. As we chose to not have the First Look before the ceremony, the only place for the bride to hide was behind the bathroom where the septic system was - she spent many minutes surrounded...

My fiancé and I saw this place and right away we thought, “this is going to be it”. We were so excited to get married here it was hard to imagine that we were going to have such a negative experience. While none of us ever thought we were going to get hit with a pandemic at the time, it’s been truly disappointing how they have handled the situation compared to other venues and what’s even more scary is that they are hosting weddings right now when COIVD-19 cases are at an all time high in Oregon. They keep insisting that they will be able to host our big wedding with out of town guests in September and refuse to cancel it so they aren’t in a breach of contact therefore having to return our deposit. They are willing to put everyone at risk so they can make some money! We won’t put the health of our guests in jeopardy which means we lose all of our deposit money. We’ve tried explaining this to them multiple times but they just reply with the same copy and paste email. If they answer your email that is. We were referred to speak with the owner who never get returned our emails or calls.

Had we known that the owner of this venue donated $100k to support an anti-LGBT rights bill or that they were willing to risk lives for the sake of profit, we would’ve never given them a deposit.

We have been in contact with other couples having a similar experience with this venue which confirms that our experience isn’t unique and likely to happen again.

EDIT: I think the response given is a perfect example of just out of touch they are with their clients. The offered to answer questions even though there were no questions in my review. They even offered to meet in person however the response in Google is the only communication we get. They don’t return calls or emails so setting up an in person meeting...

When we started wedding planning, a few things were super important to me and my fiancé. We wanted a venue space that was mainly outdoors and was very naturally beautiful and we wanted amazing food. When we toured The Aerie, it was almost an immediate YES for us because of how stunning the space was. The courtyard was incredible, the tented area with views of rolling green hills were stunning, and we fell in love with the idea of having catering and beverage service done in house because that meant we wouldn't have to deal with at least two extra vendors. Turns out, The Aerie was the best decision we could have possibly made. The chef, Kristin, is incredible. She worked with us to create a semi-custom menu and was always open to our ideas and suggestions. Our event manager, Keiko, was a dream to work with. She helped us navigate planning such a huge day with ease, was always available to answer our questions, and made sure we knew we were taken care of. The rest of the staff, including the food and beverage manager, the servers and bartender, and the office staff were all incredibly friendly, helpful, and focused on making our day feel like the most important thing happening in the world. Overall, we got the sense that every single person we worked with really cared about making our day go exactly how we envisioned. Thank you so much to The Aerie. Lance and I will forever be grateful for the wedding day of our dreams that you all helped...