Tshipise - unhappy bride

Wedding venue experience – serious communication and accommodation issues

We recently had our wedding at this venue on 15 August 2026. While there were some wonderful people who assisted us, our overall experience was unfortunately very disappointing, mainly due to poor communication, lack of preparation and several issues with our accommodation and vendors.

I want to start with the positives. Valerie and her team were absolutely spectacular. Valerie was lovely, extremely communicative and always willing to help. Whenever a problem was brought to her attention, she dealt with it quickly and efficiently. She was honestly a dream to work with, and I would recommend her anytime. Collins also assisted us when we struggled to get our décor team into the venue.

Unfortunately, the issues started before the wedding even began.

We had arranged with the venue that our décor team would arrive on Friday at 09:00 to set up. When our coordinator arrived, he struggled to gain entrance. Eventually Collins assisted us and our décor team was able to get in.

When we arrived, we were then shocked to discover that major changes had been made to the venue without us being informed.

We had viewed the venue during our planning process, including on 26 July 2025 at 13:23 and again on 20 March 2026 at 13:31.

We have photographs from both dates showing the venue exactly as we saw it while planning our wedding. The photographs show the thatched structures, the garden area, the poles and the string-light wiring that was already in place.

When we arrived to set up for our wedding in August 2026, those structures had been removed. The garden had been demolished, the thatched structures were gone, and the poles and wiring had also been removed.

None of these major changes were communicated to us beforehand.

These were not small cosmetic changes. They completely changed the look and functionality of the area we had planned our wedding around.

Luckily, our décor team had poles with them and had to quickly install their own poles so that we could still put up the string lights we had planned. We had also arranged beforehand regarding electrical plugs, but when we arrived, the plugs we had discussed were not available, resulting in further running around and unnecessary stress while we were trying to set up.

I want to be fair and mention that when we decided to move our harvest table from the conference centre to the Lapa, the venue accommodated this change and assisted us. I did not request a refund for the conference centre because I understood that this was a change we had made ourselves.

The problems unfortunately continued on the wedding day.

Several of our vendors were stopped at the gate and were not allowed into the venue. After a struggle, we eventually managed to get them in.

Our photographers were given the wrong keys and had problems getting into their accommodation.

Our DJ had booked and paid for accommodation, yet he was told that there was no room booked for him. He was actually preparing to leave after the wedding until we found out about the issue and managed to get it sorted out.

Several guests also experienced problems with their accommodation. We received complaints about rooms being dirty, dirty or damaged bedding and rooms that were not properly prepared.

My husband's geyser was also not working, meaning he had to shower somewhere else on the morning of our wedding.

Again, these issues could have been avoided with proper communication and preparation.

The biggest disappointment – our wedding night

This is unfortunately where my experience as a bride was affected the most.

When we made our booking, we specifically discussed having our wedding until 00:00.

There was a discussion that loud music would only be allowed until 22:00. We explained that we would have loud music until 22:00 and then soft music from 22:00 until midnight. We were told that this would be fine.

There were different times reflected on different documents. Our invoice stated 23:00, and then a few days before the wedding, I received the wedding planning information which stated 22:00.

I immediately questioned this and was told that the 22:00 time was for day visitors. I accepted this explanation because I believed our arrangement for the wedding party to remain until midnight still stood.

Then, at approximately 21:45 on our wedding night, I was told that the cash bar we had arranged and paid for would be closing at 22:00.

This was incredibly disappointing.

The party had only just started. Everyone was dancing, everyone was having an amazing time and we were finally getting to enjoy the wedding we had spent so long planning.

Then we were told the bar was closing.

Once the bar closed, our guests naturally started leaving and our wedding effectively ended at 22:00.

We had paid for the venue until midnight. We had paid our DJ until midnight. Yet we were unable to use the venue or DJ for the full time we had paid for.

I completely understand that a venue can have rules and closing times. My issue is that this was not clearly communicated to us.

If we had been told from the beginning that our wedding and bar had to end at 22:00, we would have planned our wedding differently.

Instead, I genuinely believed that we had arranged and paid for our wedding to continue until midnight.

As a bride, having your wedding suddenly brought to an end while everyone is still enjoying themselves is incredibly upsetting. Unfortunately, this completely put a damper on the final part of my wedding night and is something I will always remember.

Despite all of this, we still managed to have a beautiful wedding because of our amazing vendors, décor team, family and friends, and because people stepped in and helped us whenever something went wrong.

However, a wedding should not involve this level of unnecessary stress caused by poor communication.

My advice to anyone considering booking this venue for a wedding is:

Get absolutely everything in writing. Confirm the exact closing time, bar closing time, vendor access, accommodation, electrical requirements and any changes to the venue immediately before your wedding. Do not assume that everyone has the same information.

I would also strongly recommend that management review the communication between their departments, their vendor access procedures, accommodation checks and how venue changes and closing times are communicated to wedding couples.

Valerie and her team were fantastic and deserve recognition for the way they assisted us. Unfortunately, the overall experience with the venue management and communication was not what we expected after investing so much time, money and emotion into our wedding.

We have dated photographs from July 2025 and March 2026 showing the venue as it was when we planned our wedding, compared with what we arrived to in August 2026. These photographs speak for themselves and show why the lack of communication regarding the changes was so disappointing.

We loved our wedding and will always cherish the memories we made with our family and friends. But the venue should have made the experience easier, not created additional stress and disappointment during what was already one of the biggest days of our lives.