Albert River Wines — Restaurant in Queensland

I have delayed writing a revue for Albert River Wines after my wedding at the venue on 10 November 2013 to allow the management time to resolve our grievances created on the day due to lack of professionalism and poor management. I also encouraged my guests not to do so in the interim to allow ARW to resolve the issues. However, I see my son has posted his feelings already and since then a photographer has extolled the virtues of the staff, although the fact that it appears he has only worked there and never been a guest doesn’t really give any credence to his 5 star rating. In any event, ARW has ignored my complaints which are in line with their proven lack of professional abilities.

Right from the start the wedding coordinator/manager (Kris) gave utmost assurances that they know what they are doing and everything will be perfect on the day. Her favourite saying was “leave it all to us, we know what we are doing”. Well, that was our first mistake and the one that lead to a wedding nothing short of a disaster. My wife had wanted some particular decorations which we supplied and spent some time explaining to Kris and her assistant how and where they were to go. Kris said she ‘knows exactly what is required and the staff will set it all up for her’. But, on a meeting at the venue 4 days before the event, Kris made a quick comment to my wife that was missed at the time and she later thought about suddenly realizing that Kris is expecting her to set up the venue. My wife asked my opinion and then we spoke with Kris and sure enough, as they had a cancellation of the wedding the day before ours, she was expecting us to set up the venue. My wife didn’t want me to take ARW to task and said she will get her family to help.

There was an ongoing medley of unacceptable errors including no drinks for toasting on the bridal table throughout the speeches and closing us down over 1 hour before the event was due to finish. I could be writing here all day if I had to list them all.

Obviously a wedding is a special day and one accepts that there can always be little things that go wrong. However, when major things go wrong which are all due to a total lack of experience and professional commitment on the part of the people you are paying to do a job, then it is unacceptable. Our wedding day has been scarred and will remain memorable for all the wrong reasons – and it is all the fault of the ARW people who take your money and have no idea how to run a successful wedding. It still hurts when our family and friends mention the day saying how they feel sorry for us.

ARW is a setting we liked and we have no complaints about the food. But, if you are still thinking about a wedding there, just hire the hall and get a private contractor to do everything else, otherwise, you will end up having to do most of it yourself anyway and still be...

Where do we even start,

From our very first phone call, Kylie, you were nothing short of amazing. You were warm, welcoming, and incredibly helpful right from the start and that never changed.

With just two months to go before our wedding, our original venue unfortunately fell through. We were devastated, but then our wonderful celebrant Celebrate with Lucy recommended Albert River Wines, and from the moment we drove up the driveway, we just knew this was the place.

We were greeted by Kylie, who gave us a tour of the venue and immediately made us feel at ease. The venue itself is absolutely stunning and offers so many incredible options for ceremony and reception locations. Each time we met with Kylie, she went above and beyond to make sure every detail was perfect and exactly how we envisioned it.

The communication from the entire Albert River Wines team was seamless and reassuring throughout the whole process. The day before our wedding, Crystal was an absolute superstar. She helped us with everything we needed (and more!) and nothing was too hard — she had everything under control and was a calming presence when we needed it most.

Then came the big day... and wow. We were completely speechless. Every single detail was perfect. The team went above and beyond to ensure the day ran smoothly and beautifully. The food was incredible , we’ve had so many compliments from our guests, not just about the meals, but also about the venue and the amazing staff.

We were even surprised with table service for drinks! something we didn’t even know was included! The staff truly exceeded all expectations.

And to top it off, the next day during pack-up, two lovely gentlemen helped us load everything into the car without hesitation. It was just another example of how thoughtful and supportive the entire team is.

We are SO incredibly thankful to have found this gem of a venue. Thank you to Kylie, Crystal, and the whole team at Albert River Wines for making our day unforgettable.

With love, Mr &...

My partner and I visited Albert River Wines yesterday for a wine tasting. We both felt like we were in the way of bar service while waiting to taste wines and also felt like it was more of a hassle than anything for the staff member who served us. The first sparkling wine we tasted was hot but that didn’t bother us as we could still tell how the wine tasted (what was disturbing was when a full glass of the same hot sparkling wine was served to another customer, how could they even drink that?) When my partner and I asked to try different reds we were both given the same red (maybe if the girl serving us wasn’t so busy serving Coronas she would have heard that we wanted to try different wines) We taste our 7 wines and chose the wines we would like to buy and we end up buying 5 bottles of wine (usually we’d buy a lot more from a winery but after the poor service I was a bit put off, we even had to ask for a glass of water after the wine tasting) paid for the wine and the girl went back to serving drinks like we were never there, no thanks come again, nothing. So we drive back home to Brisbane, go to put the sparkling wines in the fridge and lo and behold, the girl who served us didn’t listen to a word we said and gave us 3 bottles of the Sparkling White when what we asked to buy was 1 bottle Sparkling Red, 1 bottle Sparkling White and 1 bottle of the 2001 Grand Masters Sparkling Semillon. All up I’d say the worst experience we’ve ever had at a winery and will most likely...