Columbia Woodlands — Hotel in Dover

My husband & I got married here December 2022 Let me start by sharing the positives of this venue: IT IS GORGEOUS. Our photos were beautiful and we were able to mostly get the wedding we envisioned. The wait staff the day of our wedding was amazing. They set aside cocktail hour food for my husband and I, they constantly asked us if we needed a drink and they helped us set up and pack things up at the end of the night. The food was amazing. We had so many compliments on the food served. We did beef short ribs, tuscan chicken, risotto, green beans and glazed carrots. I couldn't be happier with the food. The service to the bridal suite was also great. We had quite the handful of struggles with this venue. It took me a while to even consider writing a review, but I do feel as much money goes into the venue, you should be aware of what may happen, or at least what happened to us. To be transparent, we spent $27,000 on the venue alone. Not including outside vendors. To begin, I had been in contact with their wedding coordinator to do a tour. We showed up on our tour to find out our coordinator we had been in contact with quit that day. We were showed around by this sweet lady who worked at the office and she truly did her best to answer questions. We met the bar manager and chef, they both did great at answering questions. We came back a second time because we fell in love with the venue and were greeted with a new coordinator. We did a majority of our planning with her, and she was amazing!! To my surprise, closer to our wedding, she quit. The venue never said anything to the brides about this. I found out from another CW bride who was getting married soon. Around the same time, I had found out the bar manager and chef we originally met quit or were fired also. We had already signed our deposit so this worried us. Our third coordinator with the venue, Brittany did the absolute best she could give the new weddings she was thrown into. She truly did the best she could. We did a tasting with a new chef (second we had met), and had our menu mostly figured out. Shortly after, she was fired/quit. We were months away from our wedding and now had our THIRD coordinator, THIRD chef and a SECOND bar manager. We had roughly 16 months from when we signed out contract to when we got married. Now we are on our third chef, and a new menu planning. He was amazing and gave us such a relief for the stressors the venue was causing us, and his food was a huge highlight of our wedding. We chose to have the venue buy our alcohol rather than a full bar. When we signed our contract, the full bar option was $65/pp putting us at $13,000 for a full bar. Our second coordinator told us having the venue order the alcohol would be cheaper, so we did that instead. Our third coordinator had the bar manager do our purchasing numbers for alcohol, making it more affordable around $5,000. After we completely paid the venue off a month prior to the wedding, I get a phone call stating we bought wayyyy to much alcohol. With all of the numbers given to us BY THE BAR MANAGER. This was CW ordering the alcohol we needed, and then us reimbursing. After complaining we ordered what they told us, they said there was no option for us, no refund, no taking the alcohol at the end of the night. Overall, our wedding was beautiful. But if I were to do it again, it would NOT be at this venue. The hassle we went through for the $27,000 we spent, was unprofessional and...

My husband and I got married at Columbia Woodlands this past weekend and it was seriously the weekend of our dreams. We booked the venue in March of 2020, and we had quite a few bumps in the road as there were management changes as well as a few wedding coordinators coming and going. We had really started to lose faith in the venue until about a month prior to our wedding when their newest coordinator, Amber, had contacted me to introduce herself and get up to speed. The previous coordinators hadn’t left her much information to go off of, but after a meeting with us she had honored everything the venue previously promised us, and went out of her way to accommodate new requests we had. Her responsiveness was always impressive whether it was via text, call or email from the time we met until the wedding was over. From the time we arrived on Friday to start setting up the venue, until the Tuesday following our wedding she was consistently there to help us with anything we needed. We actually lost our wedding rings and my car keys and her and the staff never gave up on looking for them until we had them back in our possession. We opted for the all inclusive package and our family and friends were enamored by the beauty of the property, attention to detail, helpfulness from the staff and overall convenience of having everything wedding related in one location for the weekend. The food was amazing - from rehearsal dinner through Sunday brunch. The bar options were extensive and the bartender, Ducky, was so knowledgeable and seemed to really enjoy interacting with our guests. The entire staff seemed to really love their jobs. Neither my husband or I have a single bad thing to say about Columbia Woodlands since Amber took over. We will absolutely be back for an anniversary stay. We opted to go with On The Mic Entertainment (DJ), and Seifert’s Flower Mill and they were both very familiar with Columbia Woodlands and had both mentioned the ease they experienced working with them during our event and in the past. We just can’t say enough good things. The weekend exceeded what we dreamed about and pictured...

My wife and I got married here 8/25/18 and did the all inclusive package with Megan as our coordinator. To start, Megan was fantastic, she responded promptly to all of our questions and needs and was a very down to earth person and maintained professionalism. She was great, and we are both very grateful for her. We also interacted with Brittany some in the booking side of things for the cabins on the property and she was prompt with response and great to deal with as well. All of the other staff at CW was also very nice when seeing them on the grounds and when they were helping with a wedding. DJ Dave Frazee was really cool and professional and he even helped my wife put together a mash up of songs so her and her father could do a father daughter dance like you would see on Youtube! His format online was easy to work with when setting up our song list and he even met with us to make sure he had everything perfect and ready for our day. He kept the reception moving perfectly and smoothly and even drew an awesome dance crowd and it was "lit". Dave also had a nice sound system and lighting system for the dancing and also helped us do a question game with our shoes that turned out hilarious and entertaining. Dave was one of the bar tenders along with his twin brother who i did not catch his name, but they were both great. They had a specialty drink for the bride and groom and delivered on all of our requests. Natalie was the chef there and cooked an amazing arrangement of foods for us. We had multiple people tell us it was the best food they've had for a while, let alone at a wedding, and the best wedding they've been to period. She even arranged 2 special plates for the vegetarians in the family. Natalie went to Twisted Olive to try the Brussel Sprouts we wanted because my wife and I liked the style of them, and she replicated them for our wedding at our request. Lastly, the grounds at this place were beautiful and the cabins you get were nothing but quality. Our friends had a blast staying in them for the weekend and said they would...