Castle Manor — Attraction in Hyde Park

My daughter’s wedding was June 13, 2025. We paid for the venue a year in advance, in full, to have the ceremony outside and the reception upstairs. Two months before, I arranged a meeting at the venue to go over purchasing extras and establish layouts. No one was there when we showed up. I called and emailed until someone called me back and got someone to come. We waited 45 minutes! They said they didn’t have us on the calendar! I have email proof of us making the appointment. During this appointment, we discussed all the plans and details for the day. This included choosing add ons which cost extra like an arch, bistro lights, sashes, etc. Three days before the wedding, we met again to go over the layout and make sure all was finalized and make any last minute changes. The outside fountain and the waterfall were not flowing. When we asked they told us they would work on it and make sure it would be running. On the day of the wedding, I called and was told the fountain is broken but the waterfall is flowing. (This had apparently been broken for a long time but no one had shared this with us. Ever. The front fountain was part of the beauty of the venue and it being broken SHOULD have been disclosed from the beginning!) Also, the day of the wedding, I got a call from the person setting up. She was very unprofessional, did not have any idea about what we had arranged for setup and then said they did not have the draping for the arch that we had planned. She focused on asking who I had talked to, what did she look like, etc. until she just said well I can talk to my manager. I told the manager the exact dates and times that I spoke to his employees to plan all this. He just kept going on and on about how they told me wrong. When we arrived the day of the wedding to set up our own decor, the lady setting up acted completely put out whenever asked questions or when I had to have her change the chair set up (BECAUSE SHE WAS NOT FOLLOWING WHAT WE HAD PLANNED). She huffed and puffed (literally) like we were putting her out, sighing constantly and loudly. Then, we were told, OH BY THE WAY, you need to have your guests CARRY THEIR OWN CHAIRS UPSTAIRS after the ceremony!! WHAT?!?! That was NOT what I had arranged for! I insisted they add chairs upstairs! They said, well we will have to charge you! They didn’t have the amount of tables we asked for or where we asked them to be placed upstairs. We waited several hours for more tables so we could decorate them. We paid extra for Bistro lights. We asked for them to be put all around the upstairs room AND balcony. The bistro lights on the day of were ridiculous. They were inside in one section and not at all on the balcony. The electrical cord was hanging loose from the ceiling, right in the walkway and looked so cheap and tacky! Plus the lights kept getting unplugged on accident by the guests! Also, I had been told that the staff would bring the things from the downstairs tables, upstairs to where we would be ending the night. The day of the wedding, I get told by the manager, “well you will only have two staff members so I guess they can do it but it won’t be done quickly. Usually guests help.” What?!?! At the end of the night, I noticed the two staff members, spending all their time in the office while all of our things were just sitting out on the tables downstairs still!! They never moved all the table items! All my family noticed and commented on how unprofessional the staff was...

Although our daughter's wedding was beautiful, it was beautiful because of the vendors we used NOT because of Castle Manor. I did give them 2 stars because we used the building.

However, I strongly discourage anyone from using Castle Manor. If you insist on using them, keep detailed records of emails, texts and phone calls. Record everything. Be ready for disappointment.

I will not play ugly like they did and throw petty condescending words around. I could write pages of issues we had.... But instead, I'll write about the management, their lack of integrity and dishonest practices. This "new management" we were told came in AFTER we signed the contract.

The new management does not honor their word or contract for that matter. They are rude, condescending and disrespectful. They literally escorted us out of the bridal room hours before the reception was to start and told us we "did not pay for this room" and did not have permission to use it although ALL paperwork including their own website says bridal room IS included.

Not only did they deny us the bridal room.... The new management denied doing so when we asked about it. We tried to explain we were allowed in the room but were refused reentrance.

We decided to make do with the considerably smaller grooms room they did allow us to use and decided to discuss the matter further with them the next day so it did not ruin the night or upset our daughter. The bridal party and groomsmen graciously got ready in their cars and downstairs in the main chapel so the bride could have the grooms room.

When we emailed the management the next day about our disappointment of being escorted out and denied access to the brides room, we requested a refund for the top floor since we literally did not get to use it, not even the "included bride room".

Their response was an absolutely no. No, because it was not their fault we didn't use the brides room. They said it was "unfortunate that you guys did not realize the doors locked on their own... Had you realized that, you would not have locked yourselves out".

It did not matter how many times we told them we were literally escorted out and the doors locked behind us... They have continued to deny doing so and have refused to give us the refund.

Again, this is just a VERY small part of a very disappointing situation. Suffice it to say, you would be better off choosing a different venue. The current management at Castle Manor does not and will not care about your experience. They will not honor their contract....

This place is very beautiful and the price to rent this venue is the best I found while looking for a wedding venue. HOWEVER...the owner of this place needs to hire new staff, or at least train the staff he has now on how to keep scheduled appointment times and make sure everyone is on the same page. When asking for prices to rent things from their rental place (Northwood rentals) we got different prices each time, and everybody seemed to give us a different price for what we were asking. Also, the 2 girls working there were LATE showing up the day of my wedding, there was 2 of them setting up all the tables and chairs, and once the wind started blowing we decided to move the tables inside, the 2 workers disappeared!! and my guests were bringing in all the tables. Then, after the ceremony the workers said they'd be the ones to move the chairs to the tables...this didn't happen. Again, it was my guests moving their chairs from the ceremony outside to the tables inside where we were having dinner,. They had told me from the very beginning that since we were serving alcohol, they would be ID'ng people as they arrived, and giving them wrist bands...this didn't happen either. Come 7:00pm (a HALF HOUR after alcohol service was SUPPOSED to begin) I was running around trying to track them down so that they could ID people so we could serve them alcohol. OH yes, and the night before my wedding the workers finally decided to inform me that I needed a 'alcohol guest list' of names of people who would be drinking...so I had to go home and write up a list of names!! Then, at 9:00 (I had this place until 11pm) the workers decided that was a good time to begin taking down tables and chairs...while plenty of guests were still there!!! My suggestion is if you decide to book this place, you are better off bringing in your own little staff of people to be responsible for helping set up, take down, decorate, etc. As the workers here are very unprofessional and it was pretty sad to see my guests doing what I was paying the Castle for. OH....and yes, my mother did talk to the owner about all of these issues. He didn't have much to say...which is pretty sad. because this place is so beautiful and such a good price, you would think he would have done more to work with us about all these problems. My wedding was Sat. June 21, 2014 and it was Mon. June 22 that my mother spoke with him. Pretty sad he acted like none of this was an issue. I wonder how he would feel if this was his...