Villa Tuscany — Attraction in Winter Park

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT - BOOK THIS VENUE WITH CONFIDENCE! Who knew we had a WORLD CLASS venue right here off of Hwy 436 and Aloma Ave!?!?!? Hidden among the hustle and bustle is this breath-taking Italian garden and ballroom, complete with fountains and greenery sprawling up trellises. Anyone looking at photos of this would swear we had travelled halfway across the world to hold out event. Michele, our coordinator and co-owner, was super patient with me and is a wealth of expertise when it comes to getting the most out of this venue. She was just so great to work with! She knew I was an over-planner, and she kept me calm and confident throughout the event, letting me run the show, but stepping in exactly when I needed it! All of our guests had nothing but WOW's and I-LOVE-IT's to give throughout the night and one of our guests even asked me for more info as her sister is getting married soon! Their price was quite reasonable based on other venues I've spoken to from this app, and I was particularly impressed with their flexible sound system and lighting options. Michele pre-programmed and handled the lighting for us, and I was actually able to 'DJ' right off of my phone with a custom-made Spotify playlist. One of the neatest values of this venue is its incredible versatility. This venue essentially provides a very beautiful 'canvas' upon which to paint your custom experience. With that, they provide the grounds, a kitchen/prep area for your caterer, the hall and tables (up to 100 guests, but can add tables/chairs for an additional fee), but you will need to provide tablecloths, place settings, centerpieces, caterer, DJ, etc. They do, however, have connections with third party vendors to which they can refer you, but just know that these services are exclusive of the venue price. Also, they do offer a few additional service packages to round out any experience, including a wet (or dry/soda) bar, a frozen dessert option, and they can even provide an attendant staff as well (all of these for additional fees of course). The silver lining is that you can choose exactly how you want your event to look, taste, feel, etc.! AND, because it's so versatile, this event can host weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, corporate events, just about any sort of gathering (our event was our high school band's annual awards banquet). Other perks include a separate landing for the caterers, chandelier and other decorative lighting throughout the hall, actual RESTrooms as well as bathrooms (e.g. the men's lavatory had a SHOWER and a sitting place with a small sofa and side table, etc.), there is a bridle suite inside the venue (though we didn't use it), and I JUST CAN'T SAY ENOUGH about the courtyard and gardens, just remarkable - the guests just loved mingling and taking pictures out there before and after the event! All-in-all, this venue is surprisingly lavish and will transport you to another time and place if you let it. Definitely worth...

My fiance and I have booked WinterClub as the venue for our wedding reception, coming up later this year. We were concerned that we wouldn't be able to find anywhere in the Winter Park area with the feel we were looking for (European, but not so upscale that it would feel intimidating or "snooty") that would also be affordable, of good quality, and handicap accessible. Thank goodness we found WinterClub.

Michelle and Mary have been very helpful throughout the planning process: quick to respond, knowledgeable, happy to have us stop by and visit, open about pricing, and flexible about design and creativity. They even provided a floor plan with the room dimensions on it to assist with layout planning. The recent re-paint of the outside of the building looks great and the improvements the're making to the garden/courtyard area should be wonderful when they're done. Michelle in particular seems to have a green thumb herself, and told us about how the updates were chosen based on scent profiles, the effects they'll have on the available shade, and the sound ambiance they'll create (ex. bamboo swaying and clacking together when there's a breeze). We expected venues to care about how they looked and how practical they were, but having a place that goes into sound and scent is above and beyond what we anticipated.

The gelato is a wonderful touch we hadn't considered before booking here, and we're excited about including it at our reception. And the built-in market lights and colored uplighting on the bar are a great thing to have included by default, no up-charge. (P.S. - I'll update this review after the event date to provide additional details and edits).

UPDATE (5/15/2020, wedding was in Oct. of 2019) Our medieval-themed wedding day was perfect! Not only did WinterClub have the right look and feel, it was a comfortable size for our 80-90 guests, and they continued providing amazing service. Everyone was polite and professional. They worked seamlessly with our vendors, the gelato was a big hit, and when we realized at the last moment that we'd forgotten to bring our cake stands they jumped into action. I didn't even know there'd been a problem until I saw the displays, realized they weren't ours, and asked where they'd come from. There was some uncertainty about when we'd be able to start decorating the space, due to another potential event scheduled the day before ours, but WinterClub was quick to provide updates as the situation continued to change and was very flexible and accomodating. We received numerous compliments from the guests, and even the vendors, throughout the day about how wonderful everything was. Some even asked, "When are we doing this again?" That wouldn't have been possible without WinterClub. My husband and I absolutely recommend...

I’m not one to write bad reviews but would hate  for anyone to fall victim to the experience we had. When I asked clarification on a cleaning fee & to address their other business (winterclub ski) staff entering our wedding indoors and enjoying our photobooth exclusively for our guest, I received a nasty voicemail stating “instead of complaining, you should write the manager a thank you card” followed by an invoice when we were denied the final walkthrough before we left the venue. All that for asking clarification. Yikes…. I highly suggest making sure articles are corrected in the contract and not go by verbal assurance so you don’t end up being gaslit. I could go further in detail but choose not to relive that.

1 star for good gelato and pretty garden. Minus 4 stars for breaking contract & putting us in last minute circumstances, yelling at my old senior dad, gaslighting us, frantically entering throughout cocktail hour and our wedding reception to freak out about plates left out & smell of pasta (mind you we’re contracted till 11pm to have that sorted out), micro managing our sweet wedding coordinator, and winterclub ski staff helping himself to our photobooth(who knows what else).

Good luck. Make sure you keep your food smells to a minimum!

*note for clarification we hired Carrabba's Italian Grill for catering. A national chain restaurant who included amazing servers and catering...