Horrendous Staff and Management!
I attended a family wedding at this venue and was also supporting with logistics and catering on behalf of the bride’s family. Unfortunately, while the venue itself is lovely, the experience with the events team and management was extremely disappointing.
In the morning, the wedding coordinator was initially pleasant and we agreed how we would coordinate certain things throughout the day. She took my number specifically so we could stay in contact.
One example was the buttonhole flowers for the bride and groom’s guests. We agreed that she would let me know before moving and distributing them so we could coordinate both sides of the family. Instead, she moved them without telling me and, after several unanswered calls, eventually told me she had already started handing them out. At this point, none of the bride’s side had received their flowers or even knew where they were. We then had to scramble around ourselves to make sure everyone had one.
We had also agreed beforehand that drinks could be stored in the fridge. The coordinator specifically told me to let her know when we needed them and that she would arrange for staff to bring them out. This later became part of a completely different account given to management, suggesting we had been asking venue staff to work for us. This simply was not the case. The only assistance requested was bringing out the drinks because that was the arrangement the coordinator herself had made with us.
Another disappointing part of the day was how the bride’s immediate family were treated. The first event started at 1pm, yet the bride’s parents were not given access to their room. They were told to clear the dressing room and were left moving suitcases themselves, downstairs and then back upstairs to the bride’s room, with no venue staff or coordinator around to assist. This included the bride’s parents, brother, sister-in-law and a seven-month-old baby.
On somebody’s wedding day, I would expect the venue team to be doing everything possible to reduce stress for the immediate family, not adding to it.
Things became significantly worse during the canapé reception.
One of my uncles cannot drink spirits for medical reasons but occasionally has a glass of red wine\. I asked the bar for a glass and even offered to pay for it, but was told no\. The coordinator said she would need to ask the bride\. Rather than have the bride disturbed over something so small on her wedding day, I called her myself, explained the situation and she was completely happy for him to have the wine\.
For whatever reason, the coordinator appeared unhappy that I had spoken directly to the bride and subsequently went to management\.
What happened next was by far the most unacceptable part of the entire experience\.
A member of management asked me to come outside to speak to him\. What followed was not a professional conversation, a discussion or even an attempt to understand what had happened\. He immediately became extremely aggressive towards me, raising his voice and shouting at me in a manner that I can only describe as intimidating and verbally abusive\.
He had made absolutely no attempt to establish the facts or hear my side before confronting me\. Instead, I was taken outside and subjected to an aggressive verbal confrontation based entirely on what he had apparently been told by the coordinator\.
I was genuinely shocked by the way I was being spoken to\. I was a guest at a family wedding, a close member of the bride’s family and someone who had been helping with logistics throughout the day\. Yet I was being shouted at and spoken to aggressively by a member of the venue’s management as though this behaviour towards a guest was somehow acceptable\.
It was not\.
Even if management believed there had been an issue, there is a professional way to deal with it\. You speak to someone calmly, establish what has happened and try to resolve the situation\. You do not take a wedding guest outside and aggressively shout at them without first establishing the facts\.
What made this even more frustrating was that the accusations being made were simply not accurate\. I was accused of expecting venue staff to work for us because the external catering team was apparently short\-staffed\. This did not happen\. The only time venue staff were asked to bring something out was when the drinks were needed, and that was because the event coordinator herself had previously told me they would be stored away and that her staff would bring them out when required\.
For management to behave so aggressively towards a guest without even checking whether what they had been told was accurate was, in my view, completely unacceptable\.
I have spent around 20 years working in and leading events and have dealt with venues, suppliers, clients and high\-pressure situations throughout my career\. I have never experienced a member of venue management speak to a guest in this manner at a wedding\.
There is a significant difference between poor customer service and a member of management behaving aggressively and intimidatingly towards a guest\. This crossed that line\.
No guest should ever be treated this way, let alone at a wedding where the venue is supposed to be creating a safe, welcoming and enjoyable experience for the couple, their families and their guests\.
The venue itself is beautiful, although I found the bedrooms quite dated\. Unfortunately, the service and management experience completely overshadowed the setting\.
If you are considering this venue for your wedding because of how beautiful it looks, I would strongly recommend thinking carefully about who will actually be responsible for managing your day\. A wedding should be an occasion where the couple and their families feel supported and looked after, with the venue team taking stress away rather than creating more of it\.
Based on our experience, that was sadly not the case here.