The following is a letter my husband sent to the owner of The Barn at Serra Valley after my we held our wedding ceremony and reception there. I have not received a response for this letter (sent over two months ago); in fact, The Barn has recently asked me to follow them on FaceBook. If you are thinking about holding your wedding here, please read this letter first, as it is probably not worth the risk:
April 30th, 2014
The Barns at Serra Valley Farms
5601 Ridge Road
Mt. Airy, MD 22655
Dear Lou,
Jennifer and I are extremely grateful for the gorgeous venue at The Barns at Serra Valley. On our wedding day, we could not have asked for better weather, and from what we have seen from our photographer, the pictures are stunning. Throughout the day, we received numerous compliments from guests about our venue selection, which served as the perfect backdrop for our ceremony.
That being said, we are also extremely disappointed in the coordination of the day. Considering we had gone out of our way to travel to the venue multiple times to assess our needs and confirm our wedding time, it is completely unacceptable that the time we selected over a year ago (10:30 a.m.) was mixed up with a different time (5:30 p.m.). The following is a list of hassles that ensued because of this mix-up, most of which I am sure you are aware of, but perhaps do not know the extent of the impact it had on our day.
• When we first arrived around 8:00 a.m., per our contract, the sign out front had not yet been changed from “CONGRATS JESSICA AND MARCO” to “CONGRATS ADAM AND JENNIFER.” Almost all of the bridal party arrived late because they continued to drive past the venue when they saw the incorrect names. All of their GPS units took them to a different location, which they would not have gone to had the proper names been displayed. Normally, this would not be an issue, but we desperately needed them to help set up the venue, as The Barns at Serra Valley had failed to do so according to our requests.
• The venue itself was a mess when we arrived, both in the interior and the exterior. Outside, broken beer bottles scattered the gravel, some of which I drove over (luckily, my tires were not damaged) and some of which was in the chapel area. The table arrangements (which we had pored over and spent a few hours designing) had not been arranged accordingly. Because of this, all of my groomsmen, plus Jennifer’s parents, had to arrange the tables and chairs to the best of my knowledge, as none of the workers at Serra Valley had the plans. While we did the heavy lifting, they swept the floors alongside us. Because the bridal party had to pick up the slack that Serra Valley had left us with, we did not get to enjoy the time spent with each other that morning, which is time we will never be able to get back.
• The decorations from the day before, which did not match our theme, remained in place for the entire reception. Lou, when you arrived, I did not ask for much, mainly because the bridal party had already stepped up to the plate, but I did ask to have these decorations taken down. I understand that this probably would have been time-consuming; however, a perfect time to do so would have been during the ceremony when no one was inside the barn. Our reception pictures now have these decorations in the shots.
• I did not meet our wedding coordinator, Erin, until the guests started to eat, which was around 12:00 p.m., a full hour and a half after the ceremony began. Because I was so flustered that morning, a microphone had not been set up, as per our original request, inside the barn. I wheeled the amplifier/microphone combination to the reception hall myself, a task that could have been easily delegated to our wedding coordinator, had she known the correct time of the wedding.
• Even though you checked for toilet paper and paper towels prior to the ceremony, we quickly ran out. This was brought to my attention by a guest who had embarrassingly ran out of toilet paper after she used the restroom.
Some of these hassles probably seem trivial; however, a binding contract was signed for this wedding. All stipulations on our end were fulfilled, from arrival time to departure time. Jennifer and I made sure we our threw trash away, including anything that had fallen on the ground, something Jessica and Marco’s party had failed to do the night before. (After departing, we realized we might have left a few decorative bottles inside the chapel. You may keep these for future weddings). We dumped all leftover ice and water and carried all garbage bags out back, as per Erin’s request. Considering the hassles we endured prior to the ceremony, one would think it would be common sense for the staff at The Barns at Serra Valley to at least offer us help in cleaning up after our reception, but I realize that these duties were part of the binding contract we signed, which we felt a responsibility to fulfill, even if the Barns failed to maintain their end of the contract.
Perhaps all of this occurred because we received a promotional fee of $1,000 for the day’s rental. While I do not believe that The Barns at Serra Valley would do something like this, many of our family members who knew about the amount we paid questioned The Barns at Serra Valley’s integrity when they were informed about the frustrations of our morning.
It pains me to write this letter, as I sincerely thought we had found the perfect venue for our wedding, and from an exterior standpoint we had. If we had to do this over again, though, knowing the experience we ending up stuck with, I would not think twice about finding a different venue. Many of the reviews we have read online have stated a much different experience, and I hope those types of experiences continue to flourish for your future customers, despite the review we will be publishing via internet. I believe it goes without saying that we will not recommend this venue to anybody interested in a ceremony/reception location.
I also hope you do not feel this letter is me being passive aggressive. I was ready to voice these concerns at the end of the day after our guests had cleared out, but there was no one at the venue to voice them to, with the exception of Erin, who was quite busy with her studies. If you have any questions for me, please feel free to call me at NUMBER DELETED or e-mail me at E-MAIL DELETED.
Best of luck with your future endeavors. I believe the situations that transpired on April 27th have taught The Barns at Serra Valley and myself a valuable lesson, but it is one I cannot apply to a future date, as I only plan on marrying once. For Serra Valley, perhaps this can suggest a better way of keeping organized with its customer base.
Sincerely,
Adam Howells