Knotting Hill Place — Attraction in Little Elm

Up until the last month, this was hands down one of my favorite venues in DFW. What I would come to find out is the the beauty of the venue and the "pre sales" professionalism were just a facade, as their "post sales" lack of professionalism and decorum would far exceed anything they did to get us through the door.

I have worked with this venue in many capacities prior as an owner of an event design company, but it was not until my baby sister decided this would be her wedding venue, was the veil lifted and I came to see Knotting Hill Place, the owners, and staff for who they truly were. If I could sum it up, the attitude is “we book over 200 events a year, so we don’t care about your experience as people will still book us”. “We are right and you are wrong, best of luck to you and your family.” These are paraphrases from emails sent to me by the owners.

Google unfortunately does not allow me all the characters needed to sum up this terrible experience. So..

Pre-Wedding - The rep Emily all but refused to make herself available for our 30 day details meeting. The day we had scheduled 30 days out she canceled without letting us know, because she stated she needed vendor forms to meet, vendor forms she sent us the day prior and were not the focus of the meeting. What transpired was over 4 weeks of trying to get in to have the customary formal details meeting to ask questions & tie up loose ends prior to the wedding day. We all but begged if anyone could accommodate us if Emily was not available. We did not actually meet with her until June 27th, 5 days prior to my sister's wedding on July 3rd, our first outreach was on June 1st. She met us only because she was required to be at the venue that day for an open house. Instead of a formal meeting to go over timelines, missing items, etc, we stood around (not even offering our 62 year old mother a chair) while we asked questions that triggered her memory on things she had not sent to us or asked us for.

She then on June 29th, to save face, forwarded us to owner Becky who sent out an accusatory email of the few things we were missing. With no accountability some of those things had been asked of us less than 48 hours prior, we did not have the link for, or our inability to meet with her rep for a month. In-part was a mysterious $655 invoice that had populated the same day. When I asked what is was for, there was a run around about a 3% processing fee on prior card payments & I was referred to the other owner Brian. During my call with Brian he over spoke accused us of making changes to our timeline and guest count (we had not). He then yelled at me "Either pay the invoice or there will be no wedding on Sunday". Which for me was the most glaring example of the mindset of the owners. They threaten to cancel someone's wedding over being asked for a breakdown of an invoice that had just populated randomly with no explanation.

Wedding Day - Both bride & groom suits were filthy with trash from the prior wedding. Emily NEVER greeted us nor the bride or groom upon arrival to the venue. I did not even see her that day, until I had to go in the office & ask her for the glassware so the caterers could start on water service. There was another rep there that day, that had come out and warned us of potential rain while setting up the lounge area & offered help. I wish I had got her name, so I could shout her out as she was the sole person that treated us with any form of integrity that day.

The only time Emily showed herself was to yell at the catering staff and our family about the catering staff not busing & washing glasses fast enough for their bartender. After YELLING at me, she then retreated next to the security officer as a micro aggression. (There is video.)

Post wedding - I requested a meeting to discuss their lack of professionalism, the events of the wedding day, and weeks prior. I was greeted with a final spit in my face. They refused to meet with us, no apology, told my family to move on, & have resorted to full deflection in order to not take...

I will start by saying I waited several months after the wedding to write this review because I wanted it to be honest, and untainted by strong emotion. Knotting Hill Place is an undeniably stunning venue, and our wedding was absolutely beautiful. The setting and variety of rental options were great. However, our experience with Kennedy, the staff member assigned to us, left much to be desired in terms of professionalism, responsiveness, and basic courtesy.

Unfortunately, I cannot speak to the overall quality of the Knotting Hill Place staff, as Kennedy was our primary point of contact. Had we been assigned a different staff member, this review might very well be a glowing five stars, given how beautiful the venue is.

Our first major concern arose when we scheduled an in-person tour for May 5th, 2024 at 2:00 PM—a date and time we confirmed multiple times in advance. We traveled all the way from Spokane, WA, to see the venue in person and meet with vendors. Upon arrival, however, Kennedy was in the middle of giving another tour. She did not acknowledge us, greet us, or even glance in our direction for an entire hour. Thankfully, our independent wedding planner stepped in to show us around, but when Kennedy finally finished her tour, she still did not recognize or acknowledge our prearranged appointment. In fact, it wasn’t until several minutes into our conversation that she even realized who we were.

While I hesitate to assume her priorities lay more with securing new clients than fulfilling obligations to existing ones, that is certainly how it appeared. If she had simply forgotten the appointment, that would indicate a failure to document it properly despite multiple confirmations—an oversight that is difficult to excuse, especially given the effort we made to be there in person. Regardless of the cause, there was no acknowledgment or apology for the oversight, which set a disappointing precedent for our ongoing interactions.

Beyond this initial encounter, our experience with Kennedy continued to be frustrating. Throughout the year leading up to our wedding, she was consistently difficult to reach via phone or email, frequently failed to follow through on promised information, and neglected to send meeting recaps with critical follow-up tasks. When she did provide information, it was often inaccurate. For instance, our venue rental order contained multiple errors, including incorrect guest counts and unjustified charges—one being a $750 outside florist fee, despite the fact that we did not have a florist. This mistake stemmed from an assumption that a rental company we used, DFW Flower Wall, was a florist, which could have easily been verified by just asking us before adding the charge. While she corrected the issue when I pointed it out, it was frustrating to have to meticulously review every detail myself due to a lack of trust in the accuracy of her work.

On the wedding day itself, her lack of engagement was again apparent. She did not greet us, offer well wishes, or even acknowledge me despite passing by multiple times. This absence of professionalism and warmth was disheartening, especially considering the significance of the occasion.

I cannot speak to how or why Kennedy holds a managerial role—whether through connections within the company, a focus on sales over client experience, or simply a lack of honest feedback from past clients—but based on our interactions, she did not demonstrate the level of attentiveness, competence, or customer service one would expect in her position. Honestly, she didn't demonstrate the level of attentiveness, competence, or customer service one would expect from anyone in any position and in any industry.

While Knotting Hill Place remains a breathtaking venue, the experience of working with Kennedy significantly diminished what could have been a flawless wedding planning process.

P.S. they offer financial incentives for 5 star reviews so I would take them with a...

Hello all, I recently attended a wedding here and just wanted to give everyone here a 411 BEFORE you book! While I alone cannot stop you from booking this venue I do advise you all to look at the other poor reviews of this establishment and see how they respond to guests who had other opinions about their venue that are less than 5-star and take into account how they might treat you when doing business with you. Firstly, I would like to address that although this may seem like a beautiful venue from the photos when I arrived at the venue it was very unclean. I say this in terms that if the staff simply would have done a walk-through before PAYING customers arrived it would have been something they would have caught and fixed. With unswept floors in the bride and groom suite ripped couches and even a lipstick stain on a champagne glass that I assume was left by another party previous to us and couldn't even be bothered to be cleaned up. It was like NOT ONE employee cared that we were there as we were not greeted or even checked on by the staff in fact they couldn't even be bothered to leave the office door open but a crack throughout the entire day. While in the bridal suite the power consisting kept going out and we consistently had to keep asking for the electrical breaker to be reset (which I find very odd for such a pricey 'elegant top of the line' property they quote themselves on). Beyond that, the treatment from the staff was negative 1 star. "A step above the rest" that they quote themselves on should actually be " A Step BELOW the rest" because their customer service is the grade of Walmart, low budget, as you can tell by the replies the owner shares to various low reviews on here. What I witness firsthand how the Bride and her family were treated as soon as the check cleared was something that blew me away. They were ignored, gaslighted, and more so made aware that their complaints meant nothing as Knotting Hill "books over 200 events a year, so we don't care about your experience as people will still book with us" from the owner themselves. Beyond this, the owners have bullied and defamed the family for NO REASON other than the fact that the service was TERRIBLE! The lack of professionalism and excessive verbal abuse is not at all included in any of their event packages but best believe you will receive them.

FURTHER DISCLAIMER: If you are black or brown DO NOT BOOK HERE!!! It was very discriminatory and they will deliver micro-aggression every step of the way. Owners may need some sensitivity training with clients of color or other nationalities, as they used the police to intimidate part of the wedding party when there was a civil misunderstanding.

They also write their own reviews look up the staff and then look at the names of the 5-star review, they match! Very interesting for a business that claims "integrity" (maybe we should look this word up in...