The Skylands Manor — Local services in Ringwood

my actual wedding day was extremely upsetting throughout the day. I had a separate wedding planner which they told me I didn't need and that they do this all the time and everything runs so smoothly and that I would have a wedding coordinator and a maitre d who was changed day of and barely to be found on that day. when I arrived at 8:30 in the morning ,there was glass everywhere, filthy disgusting bathrooms with garbage overfilled and the windows were left open in the library that was freezing that I was forced to use because they wouldn't let the previous wedding from the night before know that I was coming for 9:00 a.m, which was already late for a bride to start for any wedding to get ready Even though when we booked we were told no one was staying over the night before. I didn't get up to my bridal suite till 11:30 everyone had to move everything and change everything over The other room so I was not ready for my photographer or videographer which than made me run late for my pictures, my ceremony and everything that followed. The wedding coordinator and the maitre d was nowhere was to be found at 8:30 when I arrived. no one to clean up. we had to go find someone to help clean, my mother almost stepped on broken glass. it was a horrible experience I then find a giant white tent outside which my wedding planner explains is going to end up in my pictures and my video, she was told by The maitre d it was in my contract that it would be up the entire season and that there's nothing I can do about it. but yet if it was to rain I wasn't allowed to go into it with my wedding party they wouldn't take it down. so now I'm stuck with that images forever. The tent will already put up if you're having a spring, fall or summer wedding no matter what. then they had 30 park visitors allowed walking around throughout the venue and grounds of my wedding, this is supposed to be my wedding day, a private event that they said they wouldn't have public people walking around. random people walking around throughout my wedding day. people outside taking pictures, other photo shoots, other people stopping and watching them set up my wedding. the entire staff would not help with making my wedding happen or getting rid of these people. I was so behind with the timing issue in the morning and being forced into the library and being forced upstairs late that I miss my own cocktail hour which my husband and I will regret the rest of our life. we wanted to be part of that experience and the coordinator knew and that, but couldn't be because we had to take our photos which was not planned at that time and then my private wedding planner and her assistant had to physically move 10 ft tall arches by themselves because the staff refused to help and the catering service said that that's not part of their job. now this is all going on mostly behind the scenes but I have to live with that for the rest of my life that these people I entrusted to give me the most special day of my life failed me. the venue itself is very beautiful but it is not kept very clean or neat overall. also, my guests said that there was no direction during the cocktail hour which was terrible because a lot of them missed food indifferent parts of the Manor since it is spread out through five room they basically all just said they had no direction throughout the whole wedding. I had a special whiskey tasting in my ceremony that was approved and my family and my husband's family never got the whiskey shots and it was not passed out properly. there was just no coordination for things I had requested in advance. with the cake I have two different flavors and they made the executive decision which I did not want to pass out the right side of the room, one flavor in the left side of the room the other flavor and I had so many people complain to me that oh it would have been nice if they mixed them up on the table so that people can try different ones or offered an option even which one they wanted and that's what I wanted and that never happened either. overall a...

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!!!! I arrived to the castle to check-in and receive my keys to my room to find out, there is no heat. The actual room set up is very nice. The room is very spacious and the bathroom is very spacious with high ceilings. BUT NOOO HEAT?! Only a little plug-in heater!! Seems to be only ONE person attending to the entire castle. NOOO GOOD!! The continental breakfast was no good. The silverwear was DIRTY!!! I literally pulled out 5 knives before I found one which looked clean enough, and I dont mean water spots, I'm seeing OLD FOOD on the silverware. The glasses, I had to go to the back kitchen and wash again myself. The dining room set-up is beautiful, with gold plated 'silverwear', nice glasses, but if they are not clean I'd rather use paper cups, plates, etc. The Food was NOT fresh, with HARD bagels, old muffins and the jelly was like cement, I couldnt use it. Although the attendant was pleasant and apologetic, he was unreachable. I had to walk the castle to find him to complain about the no heat situation. He told me he was going to turn it on so I decided to go out for dinner. Upon my return I find there is still no heat so I look for him again and he comes to the room and he adjust some settings on the actual radiators. I still slept that night with no heat. The next morning I complain again to the two ladies in the front office about the heat. They were sympathetic and empathetic because they realize that it was cold themselves. They told me it's an old building and to give it some time, which I did, so I went out for breakfast that morning and upon my arriving back still NOOO heat. So I then asked if I can change rooms because of the no heat situation. So instead of changing rooms, I was given another heater. So now I have two little heaters for this huge room and it is actually still cold, but I dealt with it. That night I wake up early in the morning about 3 or 4 a.m. to Noo electricity!!! I HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOIN ON!! I called over and over again to the attendant and the front desk, no one answered. I didn't know if I was being set up to be robbed or killed! I couldn't sleep anymore, thinking someone could come in at any moment and I couldn't see them because the building is PITCH BLACK, and that the main door downstairs always stays open. With no house phones in the room, I became more nervous and afraid to where I had to stand by the window and call the police (bad signal). And I called them twice because I didn't know what was going on in this building. I wanted to leave but I couldn't leave. If I could see, I would have been out of there. But there was nowhere for me to go in the dark. The police finally come to the building and they were able to find my room and were able to call someone to find out what was going on still no explanation was given. I FELT UNSAFE!!! No parking at the castle, I was told I can't  park by the castle or else I wud be ticketed or towed, so I have to park in an un-lit parking lot, and then walk to the castle at night. Absolutely NOOOO light in the parking lot. People or animals can come out of nowhere. THIS PLACE IS IN THE WOODS. I had to use my phone flash light to walk from the parking lot to the  castle. Tooo many bugs in the room and hot water took tooo long to come out. I HAVE TAKEN PICS AND VIDEO, PLUS PHONE CONVERSATIONS OF ALLLL OF THIS, AS PROOF THIS IS NOT EXAGGERATED OR MADE UP. Being is the room is nice, but this place lacks activities. Places to go eat and have fun are afar off. I was not happy, the advertisment painted a beautiful, peaceful place, which I  did not get. Then after requesting a refund, they deny the request. Absolutely absurd!! They could have obliged the request for the one night of misery. If any one of those ladies were in my position, THEY WOULD  WANT THEIR MONEY BACK TOO FOR THAT NIGHT. Absolutely unacceptable! And unfair to your guest who spend money there for a few...

WARNING! These people are fraudulent! They also delete their negative reviews on major wedding sites! They are the rudest most heartless, defensive narcissists I have ever met! They lied to my husband and I about all the promises they made, and the wife of the owner, Lisa called me just to yell at me! On 11/7/21 I got married at The Skylands Manor. Firstly, we were told that signs would be put up to prevent tourists from interfering with our ceremony and reception. There were no signs! We had random tourists sitting in our ceremony chairs and in our photos! My guests had to tell them to leave! Random people were drinking the cider we paid for, and no staff was there to stop them! Lastly, two random women that were NOT my guests asked me what time my wedding started AS I WAS ABOUT TO WALK DOWN THE ISLE! I could not believe the lack of respect the staff has for the couples who pay for weddings here! Second, we got ROBBED at our own wedding! I found out that the venue hires a third party for their wait staff, so they don’t know these “kids”. Someone from the staff went into the UNLOCKED groomsmen room and opened my husband’s and all his groomsmen duffle bags and ripped open envelopes! I asked the Maître d' why they did not lock the doors and she said it is not their “policy” to lock the bridal party doors. They were both left wide open the entire time with guests wandering around everywhere even when I had asked them to lock them! Unreal! I never heard of that “policy”! If you check on Yelp, there are multiple reviews regarding theft! And the owners rudely get defensive! Lisa, the mother of the Maître d' Michelle, called me the following day after I had texted Michelle if I can get the video footage to see who did it. She yelled at me violently and told me that I was calling her daughter a thief! I never said that! All I had texted Michelle was that I would like to see the video footage because I felt it was her staff that did this! Mind you, I still tipped the wait staff because I thought it would help me get the video footage! I wasn’t rude to anyone that day because being rude doesn’t get any situation resolved. Another issue I had, since the door was unlocked in the bridesmaid room… someone went in there and ate all my cocktail hour food. I mentioned this to the Maître d' Michelle, and she didn’t even ask her staff to get my husband and I extra plates of food! When her mother Lisa called me the next day, I explained to her the situation, and she yelled at me saying “Michelle is not your servant!”. I was so confused because they are serving food… if something is wrong with the food, isn’t the wait staff responsible to fix the issue? I was not even rude to Michelle. I could not believe that I spent 60K on this wedding and they couldn’t even get me an extra plate of food! 3 weeks later, I met again with the owner’s wife Lisa. She allowed me to view the video which showed nothing because their cameras are conveniently only in certain areas of the mansion… I recorded the entire conversation and I kept catching Lisa in lies as she verbally abused me. She proceeded to tell me that I was being knit picky and making a big deal out of “nothing”. She would not even give me a partial refund either. These people are ruthless and heartless human beings. Make sure you check on non-wedding sites as well. I missed to see the terrible reviews on Trip Advisor and Yelp for this venue. I even later found that they have a claim on the Better Business Bureau that was ignored and...