My dream day, turned upside down!!

<p>Good Day ,</p> <p>Before I start with my review, I just want to say thank you to Tarryn, the owner’s daughter who went out of her way to turn this whole uncomfortable situation around.</p> <p> </p> <p>I am writing this review to warn future brides against this venue. To not make the same mistake I made, falling for their charm as you first go and visit the venue. PLEASE check every aspect of the venue out and make sure that you are happy with the accommodation. Please write everything down or record it whenever you have a conversation with them regarding your wedding.</p> <p> </p> <p>I’m going to start off with the fact that their administration for the accommodation is non-existent, my guests had to email the proof of payments more than once. We were told to pay a deposit of R5000 to reserve the accommodation at the venue for my guests only – needless to say, random people were booked in, in the place of my guests who needed accommodation. Why did we pay the deposit then? She kept on saying some of the people haven’t paid, who paid 5 months ago etc. She also had an attitude when she was confronted with facts. </p> <p> </p> <p>The accommodation is definitely not up to scratch, the honeymoon suite looks the worst, no extra effort was put in making the honeymoon suite look like the dreamy honeymoon suite they brag about on their website. The bed had faded turquoise bedding on, with jik marks, one pillow per person, bad curtains not even hanging neatly and NO private stoep. There wasn’t even a little table where we could sit, white ugly old chairs was the only chairs available. </p> <p> </p> <p>At 2 o’clock the day of the wedding, there was no water for the guests to shower or bath and get ready for the wedding. If you know you are fully booked and paid – you make sure that there is water. You can’’t tell me you have a water problem, then you can’t accept guests!</p> <p> </p> <p>I had to run around between rooms to get ready, the rooms and the so called “stoep”, were looking so bad that the photographers couldn’t even take any bridal portraits in or close to the rooms. I had to get dressed in front of the chapel as that was the closest proper place to take bridal portraits. Needless to say my dress was already dirty when I walked down the aisle. And I will just mention the fact that I had to duck and dive my groom the whole day to ensure that he doesn’t see me. This was the worst experience ever. </p> <p> </p> <p>We had organised a spitbraai with the venue for the Friday night for about 48 guests, who each paid R120 for this. We were told there would be a sheep on the spit, veggies, chicken, salad etc and then a baked pudding… When we asked where the pudding was, a container of ice cream was fetched out of the freezer. No baked pudding and no chicken and some of my guests had to drive back to Pretoria to go and get food, because there wasn’t enough food. How does an established venue operate like this? How is this even acceptable?</p> <p> </p> <p>With every venue visit I had to repeat everything I said with the previous visit as if they have never heard it – and they still followed their own heads. I asked for a breakfast for me, my mom and the brides****s at the honeymoon suite where we were supposed to get ready, that wasn’t done because of some supposed wind. We didn’t receive any snacks or drinks while getting ready, nor did the groom and groomsmen. On their website they mention that the couple gets a warm served breakfast on the stoep of their dreamy honeymoon suite, that didn’t happen. The quality of the bed in the honeymoon suite is of the worst that I have come across in my life. Never mind having your first honeymoon night here, you can’t even sleep on the bed. </p> <p> </p> <p>When we did the venue visits we particularly asked about the gardens, whether that is tidied before a wedding, the answer was yes, the result was no. They didn’t even try watering the grass a little bit to have it green, because of water restrictions. I just feel they could’ve at least tried to do something. </p> <p> </p> <p>The week before the wedding we tried to get a hold of the owner to make the final payment – for 4 days, no one phoned back as we phoned every day to make the payment and get the final amount. I then wrote them an email, asking how does this work - how don’t you have time to phone your existing clients back who wants to make a payment of an enormous amount. </p> <p> </p> <p>Some guests were booked twice and at the end received a room with 3 single beds for a family of 4.</p> <p>Their kids were taken back to Pretoria both nights</p> <p> </p> <p>An established wedding venue like they claim to be, didn’t even have plain cream tablecloths, which resulted in us having to hire tablecloths and napkins in. This was so badly stained; I couldn’t believe any supplier would be happy giving that to their clients. DISGUSTING! </p> <p> </p> <p>We paid R45 corkage per bottle of wine, when we walked into the venue and made our entrance there weren’t ONE bottle of wine on the tables, not white, not red, no champagne on the tables. My dad started running around, handing out the wine to every table. Our guests didn’t even know we had wine for the tables. It is not for the venue to decide whether our guests are allowed to take wine, we bought it for our guests to enjoy, not to hide behind the bar. This was ridiculous. </p> <p> </p> <p>We chose Menu B, which includes a plated starter, 2 meats, 2 starches, 2 veggies, salad and pudding. Our guests didn’t get potatoes like we discussed, nor salad. So what happened with that? Did we then pay extra for nothing? The pudding was hid around a corner, no one even knew pudding was served, so much pudding stayed over?</p> <p> </p> <p>We organised to go to the boma at 12 after the wedding, there were no lights on, we couldn’t really see anything. We were also told that there would be someone taking the alcohol down to the boma for us with a wheelbarrow, needless to say that also didn’t happen. </p> <p> </p> <p>On the morning of the wedding, the owner of this so called established venue and its good reputation walked passed me more than once without even greeting me or lifting a hand to wave. This was the worst day of my life and I wouldn’t want any bride to experience this on her one and only special day.</p> <p> </p> <p>Although the snacks were very good – the flies were a problem as well as the small plates, some guests couldn’t eat of the wedding cake because there were not enough plates and no forks.</p> <p> </p> <p>Please make sure about your decision to use this venue. </p>