The Estate at New Albany — Attraction in Plain Township

Attended a wedding here in NewAlbany, and not only did the guests as a whole have a poor experience, the bride and groom were dragged through a number of heartless interactions with the staff throughout the entire planning process.

We were not allowed to enter the venue at all or get seated prior to a certain time. I understand that a time needs agreed upon so that staff can prepare and have food ready, however, when we were finally allowed in, our food was already at the table, dry and refrigerator cold. We were not allowed to have buffet style food, which is understandable during a pandemic, but the solution to this was to pile a helping of all random entree choices all together on one plate.

The bride and groom requested more tables to keep their guests socially distanced and feeling comfortable. While the venue HAD the items on hand, the couple would have been charged more for additional seating. The venue prides itself on being all about the bride and doing above and beyond to make couples happy, yet a bride and groom who have already had their entire wedding process ruined by COVID-19 are going to be charged extra for trying to make accommodations? Ridiculous. Heartless. It’s TABLES. That were ALREADY THERE. You all are sick.

The DJ refused to play the couple’s wedding playlist because “some of the songs might inspire people to dance.” Would not even play the MUSIC despite the fact that NO ONE was dancing. No one was even up. I can understand stepping in and shutting things down and changing the music if we WERE dancing, but no.

The bar was a joke. The bartenders refused to serve any drink that the groom asked to have made despite the fact that bar packages with specific desired drinks were agreed upon in a contract prior to the reception. Although the contract states that no alcohol is to be served thirty minutes prior to the event ending, the bartenders cleaned up early, turned the lights off, and walked away EARLY. A bridal party guest wanted a coffee at the end of the night and one of the wait staff had to hunt someone down to get it. The bartender then proceeded to rudely sit at the dark, shut down bar and glare at us the rest of the night while sitting on her phone. I SINCERELY hope she wasn’t paid to sit and judge the party that she was supposed to be serving. Horrible.

Lastly - Governor Dewine made his new orders mere WEEKS before the reception was meant to take place. Naturally, over half of the guests backed out at the last minute. The bride and groom were left with low party numbers in day’s leading up to their celebration, and The Estate staff CHARGED THEM for not meeting minimum guest requirements. DURING A PANDEMIC. When THE GOVERNOR ORDERED Ohioans to stay home and out of staters to stay away. Are you KIDDING ME? Do you think they WANTED low numbers? You’re really going to preach that you’re all about following state guidelines, but when the bride and groom follow suit in doing so, you take advantage and rip them off for their money? Your business is beyond atrocious.

Brides - if you’re looking to have anything you actually want and don’t want to be treated like a nuisance, avoid this place. Don’t...

Don’t get me wrong the location is gorgeous and we had a beautiful wedding but if we had the choice to do it over, we would’ve gone somewhere else. Right off the bat, the (I assume) owner was rude (we almost didn’t go with this venue because of her tone with us) she essentially told my husband it was my decision and not his and that if we didn’t book with them that day, we wouldn’t be finding anything else. After we booked there was so much back and forth/miscommunication with the coordinators on things I had already thoroughly detailed for them. They ruined several decor items (wrote on our expensive hand-calligraphy name tags and spray painted my wedding signage stands without permission). There was so much ambiguity within the “day of schedule”, so they called me 6 days before the wedding and let me know the schedule was wrong and it was a $600 mistake. They ended up honoring their mistake but finding it 6 days before the event and blaming me for it is not acceptable considering I had all the receipts to prove I did my due diligence. The process was a headache, to say the least. And come the day of the wedding, I had a completely different coordinator that I had never worked with. Our previous coordinator stopped contact with me altogether, and when I’d send an email, I’d get a text reply from someone else speaking on her behalf.

Also, if you upgrade your meal package for a champagne toast, make sure you get one because about half of our guests got champagne and the other half didn’t….including the bride and groom which is ridiculous. We even upgraded to nicer champagne coupes just for the toast, and we’re so disappointed.

And like other reviews point out, if you think this is an “all-inclusive venue” that just covers the bare minimum. We thought we’d be spending around 15k but once the ball got rolling with florals and linens and everything else that we thought would be included, we were closer to 20k in just venue costs.

Some of those upgrades were personal choices that we fully understand but some were so outlandish. Like paying tax through Fiori but then the venue hitting you with a floral tax as well. Or paying for furniture rentals that showed up but never got put out on the day of the wedding.

The in-house DJ, Catering, and Florists were fantastic, however. They really made the wedding beautiful. Not sure why there’s a service charge for them though considering I found out they don’t receive tips for their hard work. I ended up tipping everyone that night when I found out and afterward, I couldn’t get a clear answer on what the service charge (over 3k) was for. We so badly wanted to love this experience but it definitely fell short...

The Venue is wonderful. Lovely building, lovely interior and exterior setup. My wife and I visited a plethora of wedding venues. What initially set this venue apart from the others was the "All Inclusive" package this venue offered. Rather going shopping for different vendors such as: Cake, Table Linens, Music, Flowers etc; this venue provides it all. HOWEVER the all inclusive package is a basic bare minimum package. The venue provides the basic necessities but you will definitely be hit with up charges on everything! ( This was not articulated thoroughly nor conveyed during the initial sales meeting) Communication was not the best. Regarding these up charges, again we were sold on everything being included with our wedding package yet when we attended our Floral appointment (for example) we are that the told only items included are centerpieces. Bouquets, ceremonial floral arrangements, reception arrangements etc were extra $$$. Every vendor appointment, expect an upcharge. The sales rep did not do a great job explaining all the details regarding these services. Hindsight, the sales rep definitely seemed like a used car salesman using the "dates are filling up quick tactic" "hey we are all inclusive, all in house vendors 1 stop shop sales pitch. Sounds nice but you do not get what you imagine unless you are willing to pay well above your budget. Lastly on the communication, the representatives were not very accommodating. They were really "matter of fact" about everything "it is what it is" mentality and didn't really cater to our needs and requests to make the day blissful. This is not the professionalism you expect for a monumental moment in your life and for the amount of money you are spending. If it wasn't for us bringing our own DJ, this experience would of been horrible.

The accommodation from the staff, again was unprofessional. Our wedding time was 6pm. We could not get inside the venue, to decorate, setup, get dressed, take photos until 430p sharp!! You are telling me that I only have 1 hr and 30 minutes to set the entire wedding up and prepare an for event of our lives!!!! Totally unacceptable.

Again great venue, but the service and accommodations are not worth the 10s of thousands...