We had our outdoor wedding ceremony on October 16th at the beautiful venue of Wooded Glen Conference and Retreat Center. The grounds were absolutely beautiful. Upon arrival you drive over a picturesque stream through a covered bridge with vistas of open fields and white horse fence. Everywhere you look it is as if you are in a perfect paradise. Deer, squirrels and Turkey are around very turn and the birds sing their songs. It is easy to get lost in the beauty of the grounds. The facilities are equally beautiful with a rustic stone and log lodge and walking trails and even a team building course.
Upon meeting the staff, the dream turned into a nightmare. Our first problem with the staff at Wooded Glen were false promises on part of the person who showed us around and eventually booked our wedding. We were told that outside caterers were accepted and they would have full use of their large kitchen. Upon booking our off site caterer, we were told by Wooded Glen staff that they do not allow outside catering and our booking agent flat denied having even ever told us that to begin with. We called a meeting with the property manager and his staff and after a heated discussion, the manager assured us that the woman responsible had been fired. however, they would honor her word and allow our caterer with a catch. We had to pay wooded glen 20% of our catering fee and we HAD to use their drinks. We were not happy with this but as we had already booked the caterer, we made do. He then assured us that they would do everything they could to make certain that we had a special day and that things went smoothly.... HA!!!!
We continued planning our wedding and we did not hear from our "Wedding Coordinator" who was a 22-year-old girl who had no experience in wedding planning much less customer service or hospitality until right before the event when she called to say that we had not payed in full. Our entire payment of nearly $3000 was payed months in advance. She was condescending and rude and laughed at us when we told her that she was mistaken. After straightening her out on this matter, we were told that we would not have access to the wedding site until almost noon due to them booking our site for a morning brunch. What could we do at this point? We dealt with it. The day of the event, everything was rushed. We got on site at 11:30 and began a rushed set up. We were given two rooms in the lodge for the bridal party to get dressed in. They told us that we had to be out of the rooms and have the keys turned in before the start of the ceremony. They gave us no place to store our clothes or change after the ceremony.
When our guests started arriving, they were supposed to come into the lodge and have staff direct them down stairs to the reception site so they could drop off their gifts and then proceed outside through the bottom to the ceremony site. We had elderly guests that need to use the elevator. Our Wedding coordinator, who was one of only two staff members present for our ceremony, put a sign outside the front doors with an arrow directing all our guests around the building and down a steep hill to the outside site while carrying their gifts so that she would not be disturbed while she was texting her friends behind the desk.
The ceremony was rushed due to having to have the rooms turned in. The ceremony however went well and afterword our guests entered the reception hall. They were entertained by the DJ while we had our pictures done. During our pictures, one of our bridesmaid's sisters, who was a nursing mom, went up stairs to see if there was a room where she could breast feed. The Wedding Coordinator was sitting behind the desk and told her that she could not go in one of their rooms because we had not rented them. She told her that she could go in the bathroom or outside in her car. We were appalled when we found that out.
During the meal, the one other staff member was rudely taking food off the table right out from under our guests faces while they were eating. Several of our guests were forced to go get a second plate due to them taking their first away.
We had the site booked until 11pm. At 7:30pm, our wedding coordinator informed us that we had to be out by eight O'clock. We had no idea what to do at the time. We rushed and tried to get everything out by 8pm. We still had to get our arbor and platform that was used during our ceremony. The person who was coming to get it was coming right back after dropping off the chairs. He was on his way back and was due back to get them in 5 minutes. They told us that we could not wait. We had to leave because they were locking the gate. They told us we would have to come back and pick it up on Monday morning.
We were very unhappy with the way we were treated by the staff at wooded glen. We feel that we were neglected due to not being quite as "High End" as their usual clientele. We wrote the owners a long letter and listed all of our grievances and the owners basically wrote us off with a backwards apology and refunded us only 1 hour of what we were due.
As beautiful as the property is, the staff make this place a nightmare. Maybe they are nice if you are rich but our three grand was not as respected as other peoples. They need to improve customer service or change management to make the place worth the money.
I hope this review helps anyone who may be considering this venue for their wedding.