The Waters — Attraction in Oshkosh

The venue is beyond gorgeous. We got compliments the entire night of our wedding. If this review was based just on venue, it would get a 5! When we first booked, we were treated great and everyone was very accommodating. We worked mainly with Lindsey at that point. We also had to change our wedding date a month after booking due to a huge event in Oshkosh and they waived the $500 fee for changing date. However, when we met to go over the day of our wedding, I felt as if they were trying to get more money from me. Do not allow guests to show up early to your cocktail hour, as they will charge you for that extra time. If I would not have asked about it, and guests showed up even half an hour early, they would have sent me a bill. Luckily I asked what would happen if guests arrive prior to cocktail hour. Then they tried to get us to pay for additional time that day. I was told specifically that we could order wine by the case, not by the glass, and when I mentioned that, I got sort of a snotty response. They informed us they needed to know our wine selection right away to ensure the cases would be there by wedding. That next day I sent an email listing what we wanted, and I received a response. We stated we wanted a third bartender and they stated they would send an invoice. I had to email them 3 times asking for invoice. It was a week before our wedding when my fiance called to ask about the invoice. With that phone call conversation, they stated they misplaced our wine order....so I'm not sure how they told us they needed over a month to order wine, but we were not even contacted the week of our wedding to be told they lost our wine order. If my fiance never called, would our wine have been there? That was a bit frustrating. Also, we had a very large wedding party (14 total). They told us two eight food tables would be enough room, plus a sweetheart table for my fiance and I. My mom called twice asking if there was any way to add another banquet table on the stage as 14 people is a lot. Nobody every returned my moms call. Throughout this process, I wish we had better customer service. When we had questions or concerns, I did not feel "well"...

The Waters is the only venue my husband and I toured for our September 2018 wedding because the second we walked in we fell completely in love! We knew it would be the perfect place for our ceremony and reception. The building and surrounding area have so many unique charms, which partially made up for some of the inconveniences we ran into while planning our wedding with them. We felt like every time we contacted them about our wedding, whether via email or phone, they were slow to respond and we weren't sure who we would be talking to. They often didn't know who we were or had to try to touch base with someone else to get us an answer. This was frustrating at times when trying to plan our wedding and needing to figure out answers for the other vendors. It was frustrating to us when we arrived for our scheduled walk through prior to our wedding day to find the front door locked. When we finally got a hold of someone, they had to call someone else in to meet us. When she arrived she was confused why we were at the venue that day even though we had an appointment. For how much we paid for one (partial) day of use, we were surprised how much was not included and how much we felt like we were just money to them. Everything is extra when using this venue - having a ceremony on site, only 5 hours are included in the building rental so you have to pay for additional time, buying alcohol by the barrel in advance, there is an additional cost to use a tv or microphone from the venue, you pay more for caterers if they aren't on the preferred caterer list...We were disappointed by the service we received, especially considering how much we paid for our event. However, the venue was absolutely beautiful (even on a cloudy day!) and everything went smoothly on the wedding day - except for the printed sign they made welcoming guests to our wedding where they spelled our last name wrong. We were not disappointed with our choice in venue, but we were disappointed by how difficult it was to work with the team to plan and finalize all the details for our...

When it comes to The Waters as a venue, it is absolutely gorgeous. It was super easy to decorate, because of the design of the building. However, there are flaws to having your wedding here. When it came to planning, you will pay extra for everything. We knew this going into it, but it ended up adding up fast. My biggest complaint is that we did not get what we paid for. We paid to have our ceremony outside on the harbor, if weather (and lake flies) permitted. Come rehearsal, Lindsey informed us that even if the lake flies were not bad the next day, we would have to have it inside because they just poured fresh concrete in the back. We had no warning or apologies. This was a major bummer because the lake flies ended up not being terrible and weather was perfect. Another thing is that they are not flexible at all. Do not have guests or vendors arrive early or stay late. You will get charged and they make it known. Our entire wedding planning felt like it was us vs. them. They were not on our team and not there for us; we were just...