6/10 would recommend. Our wedding day and marriage was absolutely perfect due to very meticulous planning and a team of friends willing to help execute our vision. We truly do not ...wish to focus on a single negative aspect of the day because the positives far outweigh their importance; however as a bride, there are a few of the things I would have like to have known before booking with the lodges.
Be prepared for many upcharges, and when Beth says "gratuity will be included" she means 20% on your package, plus 20% on your bar tab, and they will still put out a tip jar, even after they were requested not to for being tipped prior to services rendered.
We asked Beth if there was any need for "wedding insurance" she laughed it off and told me that was a silly question. Yet, the power happened to go out during our reception for about 10 minutes, and there was no generator or backup plan.
A few very sentimental items were lost and thrown away by staff that day. Just LABEL everything and keep close tabs. My veil was mistaken for tulle by a staff member and thrown away, along with the serving utensils for our cake cutting and a few others.
When my mom noticed a family heirloom missing off the table during clean up, a few family members began searching high and low. Only to be met with resistance from the day of coordinator, who responded in a very unprofessional manner to one of my cousins, using the "F word" in response to them looking through the garbages, themselves, in the kitchen. I still have no words for level of unprofessionalism she demonstrated.
I was highly disappointed in this, especially considering they regard themselves so highly in professionalism, that they are willing to serve themselves a 20% gratuity, before services are rendered, instead of trusting that their skills are worth the tip in the end, at the discretion of the one footing the bill.
We would have liked to have heard back from Beth and asked how our event was and an opportunity to give her this feedback, but we've heard nothing from her, other than answering an email of a question I asked.
Considering they view every minute as a dollar sign, we thought they may have offered some compensation for the minutes and the items we lost: power going out, the staff disposing of items (veil alone being $350) the bar service also ending earlier than promised, all in all, probably $1500 in lost value.
If you go into this "financial relationship" with them, just go in knowing you are simply a client, you are a dollar sign to them, and I don't think you will be disappointed. For a $30,000 invoice, I had very high expectations of professional service that should have EXCEEDED my
expectations from beginning to end.
This is not to say our wedding was not excellent, but as someone who works in the guest service industry, and two families that run bars and restaurants, we found them to fall short in a few areas and have be provided this same feedback to them, so they can make appropriate adjustments if they desire, however The Lodges has refused to respond, even after generously waiting 2 months for a response.