Twin Gables Event Center — Attraction in Nottawa Township

Never book this venue! My wife and I scheduled the venue for Sept 30th 2023, the owner constantly inferred it was our date, stated that we did not have to give her the money, or our contract right away, that we had "a few weeks or at our convenience" to get the money to her. We have the emails to prove it. A few weeks later, my wife and had to move our elderly parents close to us due to her father's dementia, then a few days later, at their new house, her mother broke her back, followed by encephalitis of the brain and almost died. My wife became caretaker of her father, then her mother for months until Feb of 2023. In Mar and Apr of 2023, she emailed the owner and inquired about table arrangements and the owner emailed back how everything would be arranged, inferring that we still had our date. On June 13, 2023, my wife had contacted the owner that wanted to see the venue one last time and realized she had not given her the contact or money, and the owner, Deb, said, "Didn't you cancel? I cancelled your date in July of 2022 (JUST SHORT OF A YEAR AGO WITHOUT INFORMING US) and gave it to someone else" My wife said emphatically "NO! The owner, Deb, acted confused and shaken and ask my wife three separate times if she was three different clients who cancelled or did not have the money. This was proof she was unorganized and scrambled. She then checked the date again and said to my wife "the other party cancelled, you can have the date! My wife, who was sobbing, gasping and in disbelief, responded "I hope so, I don't want to get a lawyer" The owner was instantly offended by that, but replied angrily "the date is yours, you can come her right now!" We drove up with the money and the contract and met her and her husband. He showed compassion and accepted our apologizies for the situation (even though we should not have had to) becoming uncomfortable, but she would not budge, have any compassion for my visibly distraught wife, or for our situation. She acted vindictive and stated "she has never been threatened by a lawer" Any mom who received news her daughter's venue was re-scheduled a year ago and three months before her daughter's wedding without being informed and the wedding plans crashing all around her and having to tell her daughter would be very upset and under duress say things to save it. The owner, Deb refused to be humane and just think of our daughter's special day or give my wife leeway and still give us the date. She even made my wife suffer and say "I have to sleep on it and decide whether I will let you have the venue" She is dispicable, mean and seemed to want my wife feel all her wrath for just mentioning a lawyer in her distraught, which we are not the type to sue anyone, rather we like to offer olive branches and solve issues with fairness and care of the other party's feelings. She obviously was confused handling us, disorganized and at the end would not be accountable. She is even trying to backpeddle from her accountability by saying on Google "she wasn't confused and did not have a signed contract or money to hold the date." She never informed us she cancelled us a year ago, while thinking we were someone else and even stated "is it my responsibilty to make sure you deliver the contract and money?!!" Every event center we spoke with now stated they would ALWAYS CONTACT A CLIENT AND GIVE THEM THE CHANCE TO BRING THE MONEY AND SIGNED CONTRACT BEFORE GIVING THE DATE TO SOMEON ELSE. I will shout to the world do not use this venue, it is pretty, but the owner is the worst and mean and not humane. Don't trust her response, she is not taking accountability and saying she wasn't confused and did not have a signed contract to hold the date. She is dishonest and doesn't not have the guts to admit what she did. She should not be doing this at all! Read the lower reviews and you will know why I am posting this. This is not the first wedding she has absolutely ruined. I also question if the positive ones are...

Twin Gables is beautiful, but if I could do my wedding over, I would go someplace else. As an organized and detail oriented person, the lack of definitive rules and communication from the owners was extremely difficult to deal with.

We chose this venue bc there weren’t preferred vendors and bc their bar policies were relaxed. 6 weeks before my wedding this changed. We were told we needed to use a particular vendor for the bar. That vendor quoted us a bottom dollar price of $6,000. This meant we had to come up with the cash in 40 days. Our only other option was to get additional licensing and insurance for the bartender we’d already hired.

Thankfully, our bartender was willing to do additional courses and purchase the extra insurance. I truly don’t know what we would’ve done if she’d refused. It was totally unfair for the owners to institute new rules and require we follow them when they were not outlined in our contract.

Further, I was informed days before our wedding that no candles were allowed. However, on Instagram, other brides were allowed to use candles, sparklers, and even fireworks. When I emailed the owner to beg to use the candles I’d already purchased (I even offered to buy glass to enclose the flame) she responded “it’s an insurance thing”. This really upset me, as other brides were given privileges I wasn’t, even though we paid for the same venue.

The owners also up-charge you for practically everything. For example, the venue does not allow you to bring your own wine barrels. This is an obvious way for them to make more money off of you, since you then have to rent their barrels at an additional cost. The same goes for baskets for bread, the fireplace outside, and the air conditioning. We had to pay an additional $500.00 for AC, though the duct work hadn’t been run. The owners told us if it didn’t work well, we’d get a partial refund. We didn’t. The same goes for the arch’s drapery. You have to rent the cloth and hang it yourself the day of. This took over an hour and was a bit dangerous. Imo, if you have to pay to rent the cloth, it should be hung for you.

Since I’m a huge planner, I read our contract numerous times, and even took a copy to the event center the day i set up for the wedding. The cake, gift, and favor tables were not set up for us. I had specifically requested for them to be set up in an email AND in person on a final walk through of the venue I scheduled with the owners a week before our big day. Also, none of the plates or silverware were out on the tables. I eventually called the owners to find out why and was informed that we have to put out our own table settings and roll the silverware. THIS IS NOWHERE in the contract. I even re-read it on the spot to be sure.

My DJ and bartender both reported that the owners also hassled them about numerous things the day of the event. We also had issues storing ice for drinks and our cupcakes/cake, as there isn’t ample freezer space.

Little things like this do add up and become exhausting. Planning a wedding and the actual day is stressful enough and the lack of clear communication and organization and willingness to help from these owners was really hard. I honestly look back at my day with a lot of regret and disappointment, and truly wish I would’ve went someplace different.

I do not think the owners are terrible people as some people have said, as that was not my experience, and I want to acknowledge that the venue is absolutely beautiful. However, pretty photos do not make up for all of the additional stress that was unnecessarily added, or replace the fact that I walked away feeling like I should’ve walked away much happier.

If you’re able to roll with change easily and can handle stressful situations well, I think this venue will work out fine. But if you want everything to go as it was promised, renting this venue will be an incredibly disappointing experience, and one I do...

Although this is a stunning venue, I would NEVER recommend using it. They tend to "nickel and dime" you for everything! One being the $250 liability insurance you are required to pay for the day of your event. Insurance is not uncommon, however, you could find a policy for a fraction of that amount, however, you are obligated to use the policy custom made for their venue. It is often (& should be) built into the cost of renting the venue. Another being the $1,000 additional charge for just 4 hours of time to hold any sort of rehearsal or set up prior to your contracted day. The only other option is to come on one of her monthly open house days and rehearse with about 50 other people around looking at the venue. If you want air conditioning, that's another $350.00. The list goes on and on. Their contract has so many unusual items that they seem to count on people not reading it, so they can say "did you read your contract" when they spring something unusual on you. If this had been our first child to get married, I may have thought this was the norm, however, it's our third wedding and I can promise you, their contract is NOT the norm.

During the event, they (Mark & Debi) are watching you like a hawk, just waiting to pounce on any minor thing you may do that's against their policies. Like rolling one of their coolers, that is on wheels, out of the kitchen! They claim it could scratch their floor, yet their trash cans and dish collection carts are being wheeled all over the place! Speaking of their dish collection, we had to ask their staff multiple times to stop clanking dishes and silverware while they cleared the tables (being extremely noisy) to please quiet down while speeches were being made! Each time was met with annoyance and rude behavior, not apologetic whatsoever! They are over the top on protecting their precious floor, I'm surprised they don't ask guests to remove their shoes before entering! And don't even get me started on their precious grass! During the ceremony, Debi sat on the ground, just beside the bridal doors that open to the walk down the aisle, dressed completely inappropriate for the occasion, filming on her phone. I get that she wants to have video, but please wear black or at least something occasion appropriate! Their staff was generally rude and audacious, which isn't surprising, considering who they work for. At the end of the night, during the sparkler send-off, one of their staff was so worried about used sparklers being tossed into one of their garbage containers (even though we had someone with a metal bucket collecting them) that they blocked the photographers view of the bride and groom's exit! The final cherry on top is the $1,000 security deposit, in cash, that you are required to present them either before, or on the day of, your event. They seemed to love having this leverage to hold over you for the day, making you feel like you had to walk on eggshells to ensure that you were going to get your full deposit back! Then they hold it for two weeks, claiming they want to watch video surveillance from the day to ensure no rules were broken before refunding your money. It was absolutely ridiculous!! There are other venues just as nice as this one, so my recommendation is to save yourself the headache and book with...