Castle Farms — Attraction in Marion Township

ADDENDUM: The day of coordinator never met the bride, nor touched the dress of the bride. We never met her.

You were never ‘yelled at’, you frequently talked over me, and in an attempt to get my point across, i raised the volume of my voice. Once I did that, you threatened to pursue slander allegations against my family.

I stand by my review, and will continue to share my negative experience. We have followed up with our other vendors, who have been disappointed to hear how much you have thrown them under the bus.

If I could give 0 stars I would.

My wife and I got married in October of 2024. We had consistent issues with the castle staff while setting up our wedding. We were making installments on the cost of the wedding and at one point were short less than $100 of the total balance. The castle threatened us withholding the setup packet which was due 2 weeks before the wedding, which is a $25 per day fee for every day the packet is past due.

The castle staff was nasty when processing payments or uncovering our balance due. We mailed in checks to avoid the CC processing fee, and often times they would run late in the mail. No matter how early we mailed them.

Day of our wedding, the castle staff did not deliver to our photographer the necessary requirements within the week time frame that was promised, due to this, out photographer, whom lives in Ohio was unable to get a permit to fly her drone. Our vendor was unable to refund us the money, and because of the castle, we have no drone pictures of our big day.

Weddings were not separated day of the way the castle promised, we ran into and waited for pictures of other parties after our ceremony.

The day of, we also were changing to head to our honeymoon, and were unable to use the restroom due to the bathrooms being overflowed with toilet paper and waste. The general manager, Kristin, proceeded to blame our guests for being unruly. We did not have many children, and it would not have been an issue of too much toilet paper.

We were never delivered our wine that we were required to purchase from 1918 cellars on property. The castle, when asked, shirked responsibility to our food vendor, whom said otherwise. Our food vendor informed us it was the castle’s responsibility to get us wine as it was in the cooler.

When speaking with the general manager, we asked for money back, and were met with complete lack of accountability, responsibility or understanding. This is a business that gets your money and doesn’t much care of the end result, or how to improve. They may be the premier wedding destination in Michigan, but I would take your money to a smaller operation that cares about making the big day special, because Castle Farms does not.

For what it’s worth, the general manager accused me of Slander when i told her i was going to share our experiences and lack of accountability on the castle’s part. This is complete transparency on our end and our experience, and my God’s honest review. The Castle is beautiful, and we love our pictures, loved our day. We did not love the services rendered from the castle, and what was delivered vs what was promised.

On the day of, our day of coordinator let us know the castle was extremely difficult to get in touch with, and the castle’s contact person was difficult to lock down. We never met our day of coordinator that was provided by the castle, and am super thankful for our day of coordinator we hired outside of the castle.

Kristin was rude, did not allow us to speak, and when we got frustrated, condescendingly said we were getting unruly until she hung up on me. The only remediation she offered was delivering wine to us via mail.

I do not recommend castle farms, and will not likely return. I will be sharing my experience with others looking to book their wedding...

ADDENDUM: Castle farms has reached out regarding the issue and are working toward rectifying the problem. They have acted entirely professionally since the incident and are working through the problem which seems like more of a personnel problem with the employee in question and not a representation of the organization. Additionally, I stand corrected as there are only 4 wedding venues on site. This was apparently an unfounded rumor that we were told.

INITIAL REVIEW Disgraceful is how I would describe it. I was the best man at a wedding that took place here over the prior weekend.

Firstly, the pictures on the website are professional and meticulously selected. The "brick and mortar" portion of the event was not bad, however the event space in person will not be as grand as it appears in the pictures.

Secondly, if you are a bride, you will not feel like a princess in a castle. Both because it really isn't a castle, but more importantly because to them, you are just a customer. And on our particular day, we were customer #6 because we were one of 6 weddings on that day. The place functions very much as a wedding assembly line. So, if you are expecting to feel like the most important man or woman in the world on your special day, this is not the place for you.

Lastly. Janice, oh Janice. She was the assistant coordinator for Castle farms who stayed until the end of the night. According to the Bride and planner, the contract stated we needed to be out by 12 and clean by 1am. However, Janice started badgering our wedding planner at 9pm about things as mundane as having too many cups on tables. She then bullied our wedding planner to tears multiple times over similar things like taking photos of the "mess" as she called it between 9 and 10pm when the caterers were still present and doing their job.

At the end of the night Janice tells me that the trash is not picked up and that it was either the caterers job or ours and the caterer left. She then would not allow our shuttle bus to leave until all trash was taken to the dumpsters, all tables were cleaned and put away, all the while she was hostile and insulting the wedding party on a personal level. At one point Janice even attacked the bride herself because a caterer dropped meal on the floor. We were forced to do this on our own with no guidance about cleaning supplies. When asked where the dumpsters were she said "take the elevator down and you cant miss them." We did exactly that and arrive just outside of the gift shop. By 'cant miss them" she must mean, exit the building, take a right and walk 50 yards then take another right behind a gate. Because thats where the dumpsters actually were.

The best indicator of Janice's professionalism and character as a person was when she threatened to call 911 on us after we began taking trash out and were obviously less than happy. We told her to please call 911 and explain how you're making guests do your job for you. But she never did. This was just a ridiculous threat made by a mentally unstable person.

I could go on and on about Janice's behavior and other events of the night that were quite awful, but I can say I have never been treated like that in my entire life, let alone at my best friend's wedding.

Bottom line. I would never recommend Castle Farms. Take your...

We hired a private tour and transportation company (Northern Michigan Wine & Beer Tours) to take our group of Executives around Petoskey and Charlevoix area to visit the different wineries. Our driver, Mike, showed up with a great big warm smile and a brand new limo/van, one tall enough so that people 6 feet and taller can stand up in. it was awesome. It made for a very visible (big windows to look outside) and comfortable ride. Mike told us about the area, very knowledgeable being a resident for over 25 years here, and was just great fun to engage with during our tour. He took us to the Castle, our first stop, and what a castle! Here in Northern Michigan you would never expect to see such a thing, but it does exist and it is a must see. Jessica, the director (I think), greeted us and informed us of its history before we began our tour. The history of its beginnings and the lady who made it what it is today gave us each a lesson on what it takes to grow wealth. You need to be at the right time and the right place, you need perseverance through the difficult times, and you need a vision that even through the foggiest moments or days/weeks/months cannot be stolen from you. This was a perfect stop to begin our wine tour. It's a perfect place for gatherings, meetings and weddings as the grounds are gorgeous and meticulously kept. It's a photographer's dream also as photo opps here are terrific. The gift shop has a lot of unique things. We found a dragon's goblet to drink out of (about 12 inches tall) ornate with lots of detail, quality made. To match it, we bought a dragon's door bell chime, one you manually tap (made of metal and about 12 inches tall). Overall, very well worth the stop, we could have spent more time exploring, but had to get on our way before the vineyards closed...