The Falls at Blue Ridge | Venue — Attraction in Talking Rock

I had my wedding here on October 18th, 2024, and while the venue itself is undeniably beautiful, the management of this location is a nightmare. If it hadn’t been for our amazing wedding planner, Darcha, acting as a buffer between us and the FBR staff, my husband and I might have canceled our wedding there altogether. Unfortunately, we later discovered that many other couples have had similar experiences, walking away due to the staff’s apparent greed, lack of professionalism, and staff's high turnover rate.

Let me start from the beginning. Touring wedding venues is supposed to be one of the most exciting parts of planning a wedding, and for us, it initially was. My now-husband and I fell in love with this venue during our tour in August 2023. We were captivated by the charm and elegance of the space and were certain it was "the one." After the tour, we reached out to the venue coordinator at the time, Sari, for a quote. That’s when the red flags began.

It took weeks of relentless calls, emails, and texts before we finally received a response. When the quote arrived, it was significantly higher than what we had initially been told. The total cost for the venue, food, and bar came to roughly $80,000. It felt as though we had been sold a dream during the tour, one the staff had no intention of delivering. Their lack of responsiveness during this crucial planning phase was incredibly frustrating.

Long story short(er), after more exhaustive emails, calls, and texts, we managed to secure a revised quote that was more reasonable; however, due to internal miscommunication and a lack of responsiveness, they sold our desired date of October 19th to another couple even though we were told it was on hold. This was heartbreaking because we had been planning for this date since August, and it was now November. Yet, management still couldn’t get their act together.

Sari eventually appeased the situation, and we rescheduled for October 18th. Things were smooth for a while, but in the final four months leading up to the wedding, the venue changed management for like the fourth time. That’s when Russell entered the picture. Russell was a Godsend—kind, organized, and incredibly communicative. He made us feel valued and genuinely turned our experience around. If it weren’t for Russell, this venue wouldn’t even merit one star. Losing him was likely one of the worst things that could happen to this business. What a shame.

Fast forward to our wedding weekend. During the rehearsal, Marilola and Javier seemed warm and eager to help bring our vision to life. However, this quickly changed after the wedding. My husband and I had paid an additional $1,200 for an extra night in the Bowling Cottage so we could relax after our big day. According to the original contract we had, we weren’t scheduled to check out until 11 a.m. on October 19th.

Instead, we were rudely awakened at 5 a.m. the morning after our wedding and told we needed to vacate immediately so the cleaning crew could prepare for the next event. Stunned, we tried contacting Javier and Marilola for an explanation. Instead of addressing our concerns, as we clearly paid for an extra night, they berated us over the phone for over an hour. Their dismissive and combative tone made it impossible to reach any resolution. It felt like talking to a brick wall. Imagine being woken up at dawn, forced out of your room after paying $1,200 for the night, just hours after your wedding. This was supposed to be a moment of peace after an emotional and expensive day, but instead, it turned into a nightmare.

In the end, while the venue’s beauty is undeniable, the mismanagement, unprofessionalism, and blatant disregard for their clients’ experience completely overshadowed everything else. They should honestly be ashamed of themselves, but I doubt they are as it is apparent that they lack basic human decency. I hope this review helps other couples make an informed decision because no one should have to endure this kind of stress—especially on what should be the happiest day of...

Let me start by saying that my son’s wedding this past weekend at The Falls was AMAZING!!! The venue is gorgeous and the weather was perfect!! However, the amazing day was ONLY amazing because of our wonderful wedding planner, Kaley @ borrowedandbluega and The Falls coordinator, Russell Wendell, and the awesome vendors!!! I had NO idea until a few days after the wedding, that the day of the wedding was TOTAL CHAOS behind the scenes. It’s very difficult for the vendors to set up. They aren’t allowed to drive down to the entrance of the venue for fear of messing up the pavers, so the vendors are lugging EVERYTHING from the street. As the dance floor was being laid down, the owner arrived and said we weren’t allowed to have a dance floor (which is NO WHERE in the contract) because they didn’t want it to scratch up their floor. But people dancing on their floor and spilling drinks won’t ruin it?! We ran out of shrimp and was told we couldn’t have more because there were more people that attended than the guest count we gave them. Not true. We told them 180 guests - we had 178 attend. We also wanted a bar outside during cocktail hour, but were told it had to stay inside because it was custom built and couldn’t get wet. There was ZERO percent chance of rain and the bluest sky I have ever seen!! We were told by several of the vendors, that they were treated rudely by the owner and that they will never do an event at The Falls again. The parking is an absolute nightmare. You can’t park at the venue. You park in a strip mall and take a shuttle (that you pay extra for) from the parking lot to the venue. The strip center address is different than the address for The Falls, so if someone uses Google/Waze, you end up at a locked gate with no access to the venue. We paid $200 for someone to stand at that gate and direct people to the strip center (in case they used the wrong address), but he couldn’t even tell those guests how to get to the strip center to park. I should have gone with my gut after signing the contract back in December 2023. As soon as they got our deposit, the communication became almost non-existent. Phone calls, emails, texts would all go unanswered. The turnover at The Falls is ridiculous. They went through 4 coordinators from the time we paid our deposit (December 2023) until May/June 2024 when Russell started. And let me tell you……Russell is the BEST thing ever that could have happened to The Falls. He knows the business, he knows how things should run, and is so kind and caring. He needs to be able to run the events without his hands being tied because he knows how to run an event! I can honestly say that without Kaley and Russell, this wedding would have NEVER happened!! I am deeply saddened to think that Kaley, Russell, and ALL of the wonderful vendors took the heat to make the wedding the most magical day. If you are thinking of having your wedding at The Falls, I would seriously look somewhere else. At this price point, you should expect better service. It’s truly a shame because it is one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever seen and I was hoping, by now, they would have their kinks worked out. Thank you Russell, Kaley, and all of the vendors for all of your “behind the scenes” hard work and for making it a...

The venue is beautiful, but if you're coming here for dinner, prepare to be massively disappointed. Let's get the #s out of the way. 4 adults, 5 drinks; $125 dollars. Total bill of the dining experience after tip; $500, even after being comped on 1 meal (more on that later). We ordered salads for appetizers. My salad was a pile of croutons on arugula and chunks of tomatoes and canned olives with dressing poured all over it. Nothing exotic, but otherwise just OK. I ordered salmon, which I didn't pay attention enough when ordering, and it was exactly the same mediocre salad from the appetizer with an overcooked hunk of salmon thrown on top. Peak culinary laziness. So I spent 20 minutes macerating tough salmon and large chunks of bagged croutons, while trying to avoid the deluge of salad dressing. ($36 dollar for this). 2 others at the table ordered the $110 "special" which were both overcooked gristley filets wrapped in scallops, and basically nothing else on the plate. No broccolini, no asparagus, no couscous, nothing substantial but you did get some sort of drizzle of slop. The 4th person got a filet, medium. When it came, it was just a dry chunk, and about as solid as my well worn wallet. I could tell from across the table that it was not medium, but I urged her to cut into the center. After she sawed through it, I saw the center was about as grey as the aliens in the Mel Gibson movie "Signs". I let out an audible laugh. The server came over after a few minutes of us all discovering our meals and asked how everything looked. I said "Well done!" and she replied "Great!" and left. After about 5 minutes I finally waved her down and said, "No really, it's well done." After some talking, they took the filet back. While us remaining 3 picked, sawed, and ate our food, the 4th waited for over half an hour for a missing steak. Finally the manager came over and apologized, while rubbing on grandma's shoulder, and asking her if she still wanted it? Oh well, they were so generous and comped the steak. It came out in a bag 15 more minutes later. Finally, the desert comes out, which I'm pretty sure were just microwaved apple pie fritters, but ironically the best part of the meal. After all of this, the bill comes for $411! I've had better meals at Applebee's and DisneyWorld. This is one of the worst dining experiences I've had in over a decade. I've lived and traveled all over the world, and this place has carved out a memory for me. I would quite literally never come back here. If ZERO stars was an option, it'd be here. You are paying a 500% mark up to look at a 30 foot water fall while...