New Jersey

Perona Farms Review

I had my wedding at one of The Knot's Editors' Pick for Best Wedding 2011, Perona Farms, this month and there were some real great points but also disappointments and devastation. The menu was customizable and had a wide variety to pick from with delicious options made from locally grown product. The food was excellent and the majority of the wait staff was very friendly. Jonathan was extremely helpful but limited in what he could and could not approve. He described himself as the ultimate middle man. I did have the misfortune of dealing with one of the owners, Wade, directly during the final planning stage and strongly recommend avoiding any contact with him. Wade made us feel like he did not care about our wedding, it was not a priority at all but another day at the job.  We planned a beautiful outdoor garden ceremony and patio cocktail hour but unfortunately on the wedding day it was raining, and the ceremony and cocktail hour were moved indoors. The original ceremony site might have been beautiful but the replacement room was very unimpressive. We would have loved to have used the beautiful staircase but there was another wedding ending at the same time mine was beginning and the staircase was blocked. Perona had three weddings booked on the same day which made pictures around the facility very difficult.  Another problem with the overlapping weddings was that most of my guest used the entrance closest to the parking lot, which lead them to the wedding that was ending, instead of my wedding. I assumed that Perona would have a doorman or greeter to direct guest to the proper wedding but they did not, and the signage directing guest in the right direction was inadequate. I mentioned my concern to Jonathan and he said he would handle it, but I still had guests who were lost and missed portions of the ceremony. The cocktail hour was amazing except the much anticipated alcohol infused fruit was delicious but only one tray was sent out, and it didn’t make it past the entrance of the room. My wife had to ask if they were even served, and had a second tray brought out for her to at least try. Why wouldn’t the servers make it a point to offer everything to the bride and groom. The maître de was very sweet but seemed unable to run the room and not prepared for the trouble to come during dinner. Again the cuisine during dinner was exceptional but the heavy rain caused the roof to leak so badly that wet ceiling tiles came crashing down; one landed on a guest during dinner and the staff removed the remainder of another broken ceiling tile and would have dropped insulation on the flower girl, if not for another guest pulling her out of the way. The carpet was soaking wet, with no effort from the staff to soak up the water most of the women left their shoes on all night (these are the fun wedding stories that I was told by several guest).  As soon as I realized what was going on I found the maître de and she seemed very out of her element. I asked her if Wade and/or Jonathan were aware of trouble, she respond “No but Marc is aware.”, and she would make sure Wade and Jonathan were made aware in the morning. I had not met Marc so I had to ask who he was. Marc was another owner but neither Marc nor any other owner came to see if my guest was ok, even after I made clear to the maître de that one of my guests was hit by the falling ceiling tile.  The maître de seemed more concerned with making sure everything ran on her schedule.  She did this job too well because the event seemed to end shortly after ten instead of shortly before eleven, which is when it was supposed to end.   It has now been almost two weeks from wedding and I have yet to be contact by Marc, Wade, or Jonathan. The only contact that I have had with Perona was a standardized letter of thank you that came yesterday; it did not mention any of the troubles from the wedding night and was signed by yet another owner, Tracy. Overall the food was out of this world, but not worth all the other problems. Perona Farms seems to be the ideal venue with its in-door and out-door facilities, but the places runs more like a wedding mill, booking as many weddings in one day as possible. When planning, I thought Perona was perfect because if it was to rain on the wedding day we would be prepared but the leaky ceiling and falling ceiling tiles were unimaginable.  One leak would have been tolerable but the multitude of leaks and the severity of damage shows that there is poor to no up keep of this beautiful facility.  I would strongly recommend NOT scheduling your event there.  

Re: Perona Farms Review

  • edited December 2011
    WOW! Very sorry to hear that! Thank you for sharing...Im going to back-off referring friends here based on this. Very unfortunate :/
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  • edited December 2011
    Wow sorry to hear that terrible review my cousin got married there 2 years ago and it was great.  We are going to a wedding there in June hopefully it does not rain!!!
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  • StefaniBelStefaniBel member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Sorry to hear about what happened.  Perona farms was one of the two places we were considering for our wedding.  We end up picking another place because of the location.
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  • edited December 2011
    I've been to a few weddings there and only had positive experiences.  They can certainly pack them in and juggle multiple weddings at the same time.  But I can see how that might come undone with rain.  It must be pretty chaotic to unexpectedly move one wedding inside; I can't imagine the logistics of moving three at the same time.
  • edited December 2011
    Wow.  :( So sorry to hear about your experience. 
  • cindyn9178cindyn9178 member
    5 Love Its First Comment
    edited December 2011

    I have to say, some of the things you are complaining about are things that you should've known ahead of time.
    For example, if you were planning an outdoor ceremony, you should've asked about the indoor location in case it rained (and should've seen it as well). So you shouldn't have been surprised as to what it looked like later on.. Unless you were shown a different location than what you ended up using?
    Also, you complain that there were other weddings going on at the same time as yours, but again, you should've known this, as they hold multiple events at the same time all the time - and you could've/should've asked about the times of those events beforehand. You also could've asked if there was going to be someone to direct your guests where they needed to go (or a sign), instead of worrying about it during the wedding.. again, had they told you there would be a sign or a person, and there wasn't, then that is a little different.

    As for the rain and the ceiling tiles falling down - I don't really see how that is their fault.. it could happen at any venue, at any time, and while it is unfortunate and nobody would want that to happen at their wedding, you can't blame them for rain or rain damange. If the ceilng was so awful, you should've seen that damage when you looked at the room in the beginning, and you would've known the condition of the ceiling.. however I'm sure you still would've booked the place and not based your decision on one or two bad ceiling tiles, would you?  I don't see why you didn't just ask someone to clean up the wet floor if it was an issue, or ask someone else (one of your parents maybe?) to handle the issue and make sure it got taken care of..
    I've never even been to Perona Farms and have no experience with them...but just wanted to point out that many of your complaints are a little excessive. It is unfortunate that this happened to you, but it is important to take some responsibility yourself as well.

  • edited December 2011
    I'd have to agree with Cindy on that one. Having a ceiling tile fall down could happen at any venue.
    And the whole point to having a place with a beautiful outdoor ceremony location is to also have a beautiful indoor ceremony location for a plan b. What bride/groom doesn't think of a plan b in case of bad weather?
    I was in a wedding at Perona not too long ago. The bride was telling us that since she had the bigger room, she controls the staircase during her wedding. If she doesn't want the other bride to take pictures on it than that's how it goes.
    And I'm not quite sure on how she made your reception end early? Did she tell her dj/band to stop playing? Normally receptions end on the hour or on the half hour. It's a set four hours. I wouldn't say that it's a wedding mill. Just doing booming business. They have 2 rooms available so people know there's a possibility of another wedding going on during yours. And almost every venue I know of does a morning and an evening wedding. What's the problem in that? If the previous wedding was cleaned up and flipped by your contracted time, I don't understand how that's their fault?
  • edited December 2011
    I actually have to disagree with the two previous posts.  If you really read the original post, he wasn't so much complaining about the leaky roof or the multiple weddings (in fact, he praised the food and other elements of the venue)... he was complaining about the staff's poor methods of handling those situations and others and he's also upset that management didn't even attempt to contact him following the wedding to extend their apologies.  I'd be miffed, too.
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