This is a Destination Wedding Buyer Beware/Venue Story to hopefully give some meaningful tips to navigate through the ins and outs of venue hunting for an out-of-town wedding. So many people head to the North Georgia Mountains for their wedding because it is magical and beautiful. But, it can be rough to find the perfect venue that’s actually affordable in this area. I looked for months and YES, I was too trusting and made many mistakes along the way. I never thought I’d actually have one of those “Bridal Nightamre Stories”, but I certainly do! A short back-story, I am a 44 year old first time bride working in Internet Marketing and News Broadcast. My Fiance has also never been married and serves in the Military- oh- and he is 10 years younger. Point being, we’re educated people, never considered ourselves to be taken for fools, however, we were certainly taken! And if you are wondering if I’m still angry and bitter, hell yes I am!
This is a warning for all- This is a story about where NOT to plan your event and especially your wedding. I never thought I would be one of those brides with a “Bridal Nightmare Story” to tell, but I was wrong. Hopefully our extremely disappointing and stressful ordeal with Cartecay Vineyards (insert your own sketchy venue here) in Ellijay, GA will save others from having a similar experience. Looking back at everything that went wrong, we believe we were baited into having our wedding ceremony there by the promises and guarantees of having a dream-day we couldn’t refuse. We already knew they were looking to attract and entice more couples into having their weddings at the vineyard (I was told this by their staff), so we felt they would be accomodating. We had looked for a long time and had issues with most of the places we saw. They were either insanely over-priced, were closed the weekend of our wedding, were very unattractive, wanted to charge us the same price for a 30 person wedding as a 300 person wedding, too small, too big…then we came across a Vineyard willing to work with us and had our date available. We thought, Hey- we may have a winner here!
We were communicating with them via email before touring, so they were well aware of exactly what we were wanting, planning and how our day would play out. They wanted us to come up and see for ourselves how “beautiful” the vineyards are and they would do everything possible to help us make our wedding day perfect and special. On our first tour of the Vineyards, we were intrigued and asked a lot of questions to confirm what we had discussed in our original email conversations. We were pleased by the answers we received and the venue tour. They guaranteed that everything on our “want” list would and could be done and they would even do it at a discounted price! After 2 days of touring venues with our Wedding Planner, how could we say no? We did have a unique ceremony time as far as a Vineyard is concerned, meaning we would serve our guests drinks, wine and appetizers before hand while they would still be open to the public and there would be a band playing (which we were told by the staff that could even work to our advantage by having a band play at our ceremony) and our wedding would take place 30 minutes before or we could do it at closing time. We were flexible to update and revise our times to make sure everything would run smoothly.
We were guaranteed an exclusive and private part of the vineyard for our guests to gather before the ceremony. We were told we could tent up the chimney patio area for our ceremony, we could serve liquor, bring in our own caterers and so on. After our tour and meeting with their event planner, I remember sitting at lunch with our Wedding Planner and saying, “Oh my gosh, they are giving us everything we are asking for and more!” That’s where we decided to book it. Our Wedding Planner confirmed with them that it was a done deal and we were in! We were told a contract would be drawn up immediately, so we started making all of the plans since we had been convinced everything was set to go on their behalf. We started scheduling the vendors, the invitations, the website all based on this Vineyard and the times that were agreed upon in person and through email. A month went by, and even with our Wedding Planner demanding a contract, there were excuses after excuses on why we didn’t have it yet. However, we felt comfortable after our meeting and emails that everything was all still good to go. Why would we be given any reason otherwise?
Without a contract, we couldn’t wait any longer and had to go ahead and order invitations since this was a destination wedding and we had to let our guests know earlier than normal so they could make travel plans. Six weeks before the wedding, after the invitations and website had gone out, we finally received a contract (one month after our initial meeting). It was a corrupted file! Then when we finally were able to get one we could open- it was just a generic template. Then a new email comes in with a few contract addendum’s and WOW! Everything we discussed, were guaranteed, were told, were promised were now a No-Go! We were in shock and thought there must be a mistake. Were they thinking of another couple’s wedding date? Was there some sort of an oversight on their behalf? We had no idea what had happened. We sent many emails and tried calling, however all of a sudden, they were certainly not as friendly, accommodating or nice as they were in the beginning of this journey. They made us feel like more of a burden at this point. They were distancing themselves, but we had no idea why. Now, we knew we were in trouble. We re-grouped with our Wedding Planner, got in touch with upper management and were told that everything we were guaranteed could not be done. They could not guarantee we would have an exclusive area to entertain our guests and the band would take precedence over our wedding if there was bad weather. They told us we could not tent up the patio area and in fact, they could not guarantee we would have a space to get married. SHOCKED is all I can say. The owner got involved and he did attempt to re-negotiate the contract, however, it went completely against everything that had already been planned, scheduled and guaranteed by his own staff. Obviously, they do not communicate.
It’s clear the Event Planner for Cartecay had no idea or clue, misspoke and lied – and I have no idea if it was knowingly or not. Dealing with this complete mis-management and misinformation put us in a deep and desperate hole! I really felt like I was having a nervous breakdown while scrambling to find another venue last minute, secure that venue, send out new invitations and website along with everything else that goes along with planning a wedding. We lost our trust, lost money and lost a lot of planning time based on our experience with Cartecay. Anyone planning a wedding knows what I’m talking about. This is the last scenario you want to happen right before your ceremony. Now, if you get stuck in a really bad contract negotation with them, you may just get lucky and offered the over-flow parking lot to have your ceremony- Real Generous and Romantic eh’?!?
There is a silver lining- I have learned a lot. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you don’t receive a contract within a week, make alternative plans and cut your losses. If you get a gut feeling the venue’s staff and event planner is a little flaky or desperate, you’re probably right and move on! The good news is that I was lucky enough to find another Vineyard in the same area that had our date available and could still work within our timeline and plans for the day. It is a much nicer venue, competitive pricing (same as Cartecay actually!), clean, updated and modern, architecturally appealing, beautiful vineards and most important- a wonderful and caring Owner who’s extremely involved in his Vineyards and loves what he does and an Event Planner and Tasting Room Manager who have gone above and beyond to assure us they will make sure we have the perfect day. They knew what we had been through and took extra care in working with us to make sure we were comfortable in our decision with choosing their location.
This is a Buyer Beware story and sorry it is so long. I could write a book about our experience, but I tried to stick to the main points. I certainly get angry and very upset even thinking about it and everything that took place. I have to remind myself of the positive outcome from it all. I would have never found Engelheim Vineyards if we had not had such a horrible experience. I would hope no one would have to go through what we did and if you do decide on Cartecay, I certainly hope you are able to make it work and have a wonderful, special and beautiful day. Bottom Line- If you do not have a contract within a week- walk away! However, I still highly suggest #stayawayfromcartecay!