Gordon Country Weddings

It is a beautiful venue, and we had the perfect day in the end, but a lot happened in the lead-up to our wedding that made this review hard to write. The admin side is poorly run to the point where we wished we had booked somewhere else. It caused us a lot of stress in the lead-up to our... wedding.

The bad:
We booked Gordon Country for our wedding 16 months prior, in mid Feb 2022. In November 2022, they emailed us implementing a price increase of over $3000. While they were technically allowed to do this under their contract, the increase equated approximately to an over 20% jump on the venue cost.

We then found out from other couples that our increase was more. As our wedding was in winter, we had received the 10% winter discount (since removed from newer package brochures). When GC increased our costs, they added back on the discount amount plus added the same increase as they had with non-winter couples too. We called this out and they agreed to lower the amount to just over $2000 - the same increase as non-winter couples. We asked for confirmation in writing that there would be no further increases prior to our June 2023 wedding, and they agreed via email.

GC also increased the hire price of heaters by 50% (not included in package, we hired 6 for our winter wedding), increased the cost of hiring generators and the cold room (also not included), and the costs to add more hours for the bartenders (the only one we agreed with due to inflation). The increased costs were non-negotiable, and we had to pay them.

In early 2023, they issued a $1000 invoice for the refundable bond. We emailed back stating there was an error and could they please amend as our contract said $500. We received this via email: "The increase in Bond is due to necessity. We have had this abused, on too many occasions and, the Bond is refundable after an inspection of the Barn and cabins." We again disputed and referred to the email stating no further price increases. They eventually reissued the invoice for the bond at the $500 amount.

A 3rd occurred 4 weeks out from our wedding when we provided final numbers. We had included 3 vendors in this for vendor meals, as we were providing food for our photographer and videographers. GC emailed requesting we add 3 vendor meals for their staff working on the night. We emailed back and respectfully declined, citing that at this stage we had paid them over $20,000, including all of the accommodation hired (this does not include food - the caterers are a separate company who work closely with GC). We said that never when we had worked in hospitality previously, had we been paid by the customer to have food. This is not common practice in the wedding industry, and while vendor meals are cheaper, this cost should be worn by GC if the staff don't wish to bring their own food while on shift.

5 days out from our wedding, we sent an email with other final details, and received a call from Rose, filling in for Kate, GC's wedding coordinator, while Kate was on leave for 4 weeks. This wasn't communicated to us, and we had been working with Kate in the entire lead-up to our wedding. Communication was usually difficult and emails would often go unanswered requiring multiple follow ups.

It took multiple follow ups to receive our bond back after our wedding.

The good:
The team on our wedding weekend were phenomenal. Laura and Shane went above and beyond and everything ran smoothly. We paid for the styling package, and Laura did a beautiful job styling our reception tables.

We had a perfect day, but the planning was not stress-free or enjoyable with GC. We felt many times they knew we would have to accept their contractual changes or put our wedding date and the thousands of dollars we had already paid them, in jeopardy.

It is very unpleasant to feel that worried about one of the biggest days in your life, and I would recommend booking elsewhere unless management improve their customer service. I hope they take this feedback on board, as the venue is stunning.

We have email receipts for everything stated in this review. read more