Stonehaven Hall at The Milestone

edding day was worth the headaches that my sister, the bride, had to face when communicating with the venue in the planning stage. Unfortunately, the wedding was no better than our experiences with the venue the months leading to her big day. One of the key attractions to the venue is the promise of a day of the wedding coordinator that is said to be included in the price. Like everything else the venue offers, it was NOT included in the price. It was an extra $3000 for this coordinator. She did not help set up any of the small items the bride brought to the venue, so the bride and her family had to do so, and then ran out of time to take pictures before the church ceremony, and were 30 minutes behind schedule. The whole day was extremely rushed. Also, the coordinator was not around most of the time, as she was also involved in the other wedding we could easily hear when walking outside. The grooms cake was never set out or cut, and the small desserts were put out too early, which could be from the fact that the coordinator switched shifts with another coordinator before the night was over! People were saying there were not enough seats, but the coordinator said that wasn’t true, and instead people were choosing not to sit next to other people. When the groom asked to add a few more chairs, she said “that will cost you $100 per person.” That leads me to my next grievance. This venue is completely OVERPRICED. There are hidden fees, and taxes that they never tell you about until you see the bill. Things that were not discussed when they booked the venue was the fact that you must purchase a certain amount of their vendors to use the venue and each of them have their own fees. The venue’s vendors are each overpriced, and you have to work with them on a limited schedule. The flower vendor made you sign their contract before you could even have a consolation to see the prices. For the sake of time, I will only explain the worst of the all vendors which was the food supplier. The bride and groom went to an open house offered to sample taste the food. The food was terrible! They didn’t have the food options that the bride and groom were planning on choosing at the tasting, so they asked if they could taste other options, hoping it would be better, and they were informed it would be $500 a person to try it. They decided it wasn’t worth that much to try, so they just hoped the fajitas and rice they chose wouldn’t be so bad. Sadly, they were wrong. The food was not even worth finishing. DO NOT USE THIS VENUE. They are difficult to communicate with and care very little about the bride and groom. There is no personal touch, just business. The bride and groom should simply be deciding which venue to use, not being forced to use the venues options on flowers, stationary, food, and schedule based on their rules. What is most upsetting is that many couples these days are not getting married because of how much it cost to have a wedding. However, I assured my sister that there was a way to have a nice reception without having to take out a loan. And when my sister met with the representative of this venue they made it seem like it would only cost $5000 for the use of their venue for the reception. Unknown to them they would end up spending over $25,000 more.