Dromana Estate Winery — Restaurant in Melbourne

Future Brides and Grooms on the hunt for a wedding venue after 31st June 2024, please read!!

I just wanted to write a review and put my experience with Dromana Estate Winery out there for future Brides and Grooms to see and be able to make informed decisions about booking in what should be an incredibly special day!

Myself and my partner viewed Dromana Estate Weddings back at the end of last year and were instantly sold on the venue, not just because of the beautiful space but mainly for the team involved. We felt at ease and trusted them instantly with our big day in their hands and have heard nothing but positivity from not just previous couples but vendors and suppliers too. This is why, when we found out the original team at Dromana Estate Weddings would no longer be associated with Dromana Estate, we were absolutely devastated.

We received communication from the new management shortly after this was announced letting us know who would be stepping in and taking over. I asked my questions I had and was reassured nothing was changing at all except for management. I have since then, spoken to and heard the stories of many other future Brides and Grooms going through terrible experiences with the new management. Things such as double bookings of weddings dates, misleading information about staffing, and other couples being completely ignored and blocked. These are not my stories to tell so I will not go into detail about these.

Since all of these negative experiences have come to my attention and their complete lack of experience with weddings have left me with no faith in them being able to give me the day I imagined, I made the decision to cancel my wedding with Dromana Estate Winery and request my deposit back. After multiple attempts at contacting management and no luck, I am extremely frustrated with the whole situation. Given I paid my deposit to Dromana Estate Weddings and signed my contract with them under a completely different ABN, I technically have no contract with this new management and believe I am entitled to my deposit being refunded as I did not pay this to them and these circumstances are completely beyond my control.

I am now having to seek other avenues to escalate this further and get my money back. I booked my wedding towards the end of 2023 for early 2025 as I wanted to give myself a really good amount of time and make the process of planning my wedding be a smooth and enjoyable as possible. This was not at all something I was expecting to have to deal with and is causing a lot of stress and anxiety. All I want to do is plan a perfect day to celebrate with my future Husband and all of our friends and family and this is not how I anticipated this process going.

Severely disappointed...

I wanted to tell of my partner and I’s experience with Dromana Estate recently in the hopes it warns future couples considering this venue for their wedding.

When my partner and I were notified that Amy and Adrian (Dromana Estate Weddings & Events) will no longer be associated with weddings held at Dromana Estate as of the 30th June 2024, we were heart broken. We originally booked our wedding at the venue as we were so happy with the experience with Amy and Adrian, however we have since cancelled our wedding at Dromana Estate due to the horrible experience we have had with this winery taking over.

Once we made our decision, we made sure to notify Samantha (the new weddings manager) in writing, while also asking for our deposit back. This was based off the fact that we paid our deposit to a seperate entity and ABN entirely to who is now managing the weddings. We attempted to get in contact regarding our deposit for two weeks - we tried calling and emailing, however nothing worked. All we received in this time were copied and pasted emails of the first ‘welcome to Dromana Estate winery’ email we received when we were notified of the change. No matter how many times we asked about our deposit, nothing worked. We were nothing but nice at the start, as we were simply asking for a refund of our deposit, and to cancel our wedding.

The only time we managed to speak to Samantha was when we rung the winery itself, and this took about 5 different calls. However, the winery has now blocked my partners mobile number, as he was the one calling trying to get a hold of her. They will not reply to any calls or emails at this point in time.

We made the decision to contact Consumer Affairs regarding the whole situation, who advised us on the next steps. However, even after notifying them of our choice to take our complaint further, we have heard nothing. At this point in time, we have booked our wedding elsewhere. However, we will continue to fight for our deposit.

My partner and I wanted other couples to be aware of how they are treating couples like us - it’s a polar opposite experience to what we have had with Amy and Adrian, and shouldn’t be something that we have to experience when planning what should be the happiest day...

I'm normally not a customer who gives bad reviews since I know how it is like to work in the hospitality industry. Mistakes do happen but I've noticed that there are bad reviews for this venue after the management change over. I was going to book my wedding at Dromana and after exchanging so many emails, calls and text messages the person who was in contact with me just went AWOL. I still haven't heard from her ever since . When I tried to contact the estate, they mentioned that she was on leave due to a family emergency which I totally understand because things do happen in our personal lives that we cannot neglect. I waited for two weeks for her reply and still thought maybe she had a family emergency as I was trying to be more understanding. Afterwards, I tried calling to different numbers but none of them picked up and at last I was able to get in contact with one of the staff at Dromana estate. My last email was replied by another staff member mentioning that the venue (Museum space) I chose to have the wedding was booked out for a family function and they offered to host my wedding at the garden. One of the main reasons I chose to have my wedding in Dromana was because of the beauty of the Museum space. I was told that the venue was available in the beginning and it was just a waste of time for me (this went on for a month) and I was so dissapointed because I was back to square one without a venue. I got a reasonable quote and was very happy with their initial service and this happened when I was going to book my wedding. I still haven't even had an apology message from the person I've been in contact with yet or atleast haven't acknowledged my last few messages. I really hope this doesn't happen to any future couples who are getting married after July 2024 at Dromana and please be careful when...