Allenbrooke Farms Wedding & Event Venue — Attraction in Spring Hill

Unimpressed wedding guest. If you are trying to find a location for your dream wedding keep looking. Having seen a majority of wedding venues in and around Nashville as part of my previous job this one leaves a lot to be desired. For a summer evening ceremony the guests are forced to stare into the setting sun with no shade on a sweltering lawn. The simplest fix would be to arrange the chairs differently but obviously the staff wants to show off their mediocre view rather than make guests comfortable. Since the road is less than 150 feet away you can guarantee there will be a passing truck or motorcycle spoiling the atmosphere. Though the website claims the covered porch is climate controlled it absolutely is not. When I was there the outside temperature was over 90 degrees and there was no attempt to keep the porch cool beyond shade and fans. The porch is also not large enough to accommodate a group comfortably without people having to spill out onto the grass. Lastly it probably goes without saying but this is not at all convenient for people who are coming from Nashville. It is a long way to get there and feels even longer going home. Weekend traffic in Spring Hill is often atrocious so unless you are keeping everything entirely local (meaning you and your guests live or are staying in Spring Hill and want nothing to do with Nashville) it is not convenient. Overall this place is just OK which is surprising since it was custom built for the purpose of entertaining.

**Response to the response from the owner. A bit thin skinned? You should accept not everybody is going to fall in love with your venue. What is provided is derivative, not unique. The fad of “barn weddings” can be experienced at a more than a dozen locations in and around Nashville and thousands nationwide. While this place was built from scratch it was not conscientiously designed. It feels like it was plunked down without any regard to the site. Example: the barn sits at the highest point on the property but has no windows facing the best view.

Regardless of what the owner says the main points of my review remain valid. The road is close and you will hear traffic during any event on the lawn. It is a long way from Nashville which may not apply to all clients but is relevant. Also Spring Hill traffic sucks since the town has grown. I never implied Allenbrooke Farm could not accommodate “any event at any season”, but it is entirely disingenuous to say it can, since there are some obvious limitations including those set by the fire marshal. The truth is, summer weddings held outdoors here will be hot and you should expect to sweat and the audience will need sunglasses and sunscreen. There is no way to mitigate the sun during an afternoon or evening wedding on the lawn. The suggested “market umbrellas” can’t be considered a viable option for such a scenario. The porch is not what I consider climate controlled. Nobody else should consider it climate controlled. It will be the same temperature as the outside air unless, in hot weather you rent portable air conditioners and seal it with plastic or in cold weather use inefficient propane heaters. There are ceiling fans but they can't compete with Tennessee heat.

If you read the owner’s response closely you will realize they shift blame to the bride and groom, subtly suggesting the couple made poor decisions by not choosing certain options or upgrades which affected their guests comfort. Not cool. Obviously the owners are not in a position to “force” anyone to do anything and I am reviewing a place not my friends. Ultimately my review is quite fair since I expect potential clients would like to know how invited guests find the facility. This feedback is impartial and intended to help people make a decision on where to host their event. I have no axe to grind. I also find it amusing the owners are so upset about my nom de plume. I guess they have no comprehension of online privacy, which is why I and millions of other people don’t use their real name when interacting with products...

First I want to start by saying I am embarrassed it has taken me over 8 months to write this well deserved review. I am not one to write reviews although I should be considering I myself work in an industry where the power of internet opinions can impact a business greatly one way or another. It’s important to share the good as much as possible as most are so quick to only share the bad which is not fair to the hard working people of the business.

So here it goes- Allenbrooke Farms is a special place in my heart because we chose the farm as our wedding venue last September. When we decided to tie the knot, we immediately started searching for a place that felt like “ us”. Completely blind to planning a wedding and doing it all completely on our own, I started researching and setting appointments to various venues. We looked at or into almost two dozen venues in Nashville and surrounding areas that somewhat seemed within our budgeted parameters.

Fun fact, Allenbrooke was the very first venue we toured and could not get it out of our heads. The stunning views and landscape, small town feeling and friendly down to earth staff made our decision easy. We chose a lot of our vendors base on “ feeling” as it was important our wedding day felt as comfortable and enjoyable as possible by surrounding ourselves not just with friends and family but carefully selected vendors that helped make a memorable but very stressful day much easier and enjoyable. We knew starting with booking Allenbrooke Farms was 100% the right decision because right off the bat, we were greeted and toured the venue by Farmer Dan himself, you could really see the pride he takes in his land. Everyone we dealt with throughout the process was warm and friendly. What sealed the deal once receiving a hand written card in the mail thanking us for even touring. I have this saved in our wedding box today. I’m a sucker for a hand written note as that is so rare today. Nothing about Allenbrooke made us feel stuffy or like a corporate cookie cutter wedding, picking out of a catalog vibes. The entire process felt as though we were planning a party with our friends. I’m spending so much time explaining the booking process because I never realized how important that first step can be to planning a wedding and how choosing the wrong venue can make or break the rest of the process when doing it all on your own.

I won’t go into all the details of how everything turned out and spare you all your time because I could go on and on. My husband and I often say we wish we could relive that day on repeat. * insert teary eyes lol. Shout out to Amber and Becca for all your help with the wedding of our dreams!

Lastly, we have visited the farm frequently for other reasons other than our wedding. The farm store, upick flowers, night market- what Dan and Emily have created is truly amazing. My husband and I look up to them for their entrepreneurial skills, passion, creativity, and most importantly what they do for the community and neighbors. We find ourselves thinking “ what will they do next” it’s truly amazing how hard working and dedicated they are to their farm.

We are not Tennessee natives, my husband from MN and myself from FL made the move from Los Angeles to TN almost 3 years ago. If anyone understands the ungrateful and selfish mentality that can come from people in other parts of the country it is us. We hope to show that there are really grateful and respectful people like us that move to this beautiful state and appreciate places and people like Allenbrooke Farms and team. Thank you for all you do and we will always and forever have you...

Where to even begin the praises for the amazing people at Allenbrooke?? My now husband and I got engaged in November of 2017 and began the hunt for our wedding venue shortly after. We knew we wanted a winter wedding so finding a nice indoor venue was important. While my fiancé and I met in Tennessee, neither of us were raised in the South so the typical “rustic barn” was not what we envisioned. I had been following Allenbrooke Farms on Instagram even before we were engaged and put it on the short list of venues we wanted to see. Around the holidays we took our parents to check out Allenbrooke where Farmer Dan showed us around the venue. Our parents were very impressed with all their attention to detail and options for our big day - we booked it that night for January 19th, 2019! Once it came time for planning, Allenbrooke was right on it with providing a list for their favorite vendors. We went with a number of their recommendations and brought a few of our own. The ladies of Allenbrooke (Stephanie, Amber, and Becca) were in constant communication with us to ensure everything was on track and were very prompt to respond to any questions we had. We added an extra hurdle to the planning and preparation stages as we moved across the country to Seattle three months before our big day. But that did not stop the ladies from making sure everything was set to be perfect! The week of the wedding everything was set to go but it was pretty obvious we would be enduring storms on our wedding day. I had a slight break down via email but Stephanie called me immediately and talked me through all the contingencies they had in place in the event of less than ideal weather - I can’t wait to see the cute umbrella pictures. Finally the big day was here!! My bridesmaids and I showed up to the gorgeous and roomy bridal suite to begin the preparation. I had 5 bridesmaids, 2 moms, and 1 officiant getting hair and make up done and everything went smoothly. Becca was there with us that morning and had laid out a breakfast spread complete with coffee and champagne. Once the groomsmen and my groom arrived Amber and Becca did an excellent job making sure we did not see each other before it was time. They paired perfectly with my photographer, John Myers, to ensure photos were taken of all the little details we had planned and coordinating photo shoots between the rain storms. The ceremony and reception went off without any major issues that we were aware of, despite the weather being absolutely crazy. It poured off and on, stopped during the ceremony where the sun came out - complete with rainbow, and at the end of the night it snowed! We got so many compliments on the wedding and none of it would have worked as smoothly if it weren’t for the hard work and strict attention to detail of the amazing people at Allenbrooke. The Drapers would like to thank Stephanie, Farmer Dan (the donut wall was amaze balls), Amber, Becca and all other Allenbrooke staff from the bottom of our very happy little hearts for making our wedding day the...