All in all, Willow Ridge was a good venue and I would recommend it to others. I do wish that Gregory were more organized as I think he could have provided us with things like a flo...or plan and notes on the A/V set-up when we booked instead of making us chase him for those items and could have reduced our stress and mitigated issues we knew could arise. Aspects of the venue need an update, but they are mostly the upstairs areas where guests don't go.
PROS
- Gorgeous views, outdoor ceremony and cocktail hour, indoor reception
- All-in-one location for the entire wedding
- Good value for the money
- Venue is pretty much a blank slate so you can really make your wedding feel unique and yours with minimal decorations
- Attentive venue owners
CONS:
-Multiple weddings in a single day means you have limited set-up and dance-floor time.
- Gregory is eccentric, which wasn't an issue for us, but we did hear from other people who had their weddings at Willow Ridge that he gave guests lectures on drinking before the ceremony and other sort of off things.
- He's very responsive to emails and calls you remind you about payments and rehearsals, but doesn't always answer the questions you ask and answers questions he thinks you should ask instead.
- He wasn't very prepared for our walk-through and wasn't sure if there was a wedding the night before or morning of our wedding, so I had to stay on top of details like that (thankfully, I had asked him in advance of the walk-through and was prepared).
- He called a couple of days before our wedding to tell us someone else had a wedding the night before so we couldn't do a rehearsal, which we had known for months and noted at that walk-through so that he would know we were doing the rehearsal elsewhere, which was not a big deal but just a little disorganized and a weird call to get. He is VERY protective of the venue, so no kegs are allowed, decorations have to be minimal, and he or his partner Lawrence are there at every turn telling you what you can and cannot do, which again wasn't an issue for us but does limit what you can do and felt a little oppressive on the day of when they would just be standing there watching you when we were just trying to take photos and enjoy the day.
- WRM/Gregory does not have an outdoor sound set-up,although there are outdoor speakers that he had set up when we did our walk-through by the cocktail hour area, so make sure your DJ has the right plugs and cords to ensure your laptop or ipod can plug into their (the DJ's) system for cocktail hour. Despite repeated emails to our DJ and Gregory, this question was never answered and we were just told to relax--and then no one had the cords and we couldn't play our playlist. It ended up raining and we had to move inside so it didn't matter as the DJ was able to just play his own songs, but had that not been the case and he was inside setting up during cocktail hour, our guests would have been outside in the silence because Gregory et all couldn't answer this simple question.
- The 1980s Laura Ashley getting-ready rooms and creepy piano room. With some minor updates (new curtains, get rid of that piano and make it a sitting room for older folks who want to talk and sit away from the loud dance floor) this space could be really incredible. I didn't want to take getting ready photos here because it was so tacky.
- One bathroom for guests downstairs.
- Gregory could only fax us a floorplan--this should be emailed w/contract.