Hawkesbury Country Retreat

The wait staff were brilliant but I had the following issues with the owner and the venue:
1. Tablecloths and Serviettes - none were ironed or pressed. This was disappointing as we expected that as part of the use of your linen. On the wedding day, the mother of the bride and I had to try... and iron out the best serviettes with our hands taking dog hair and fluff off them in the process to use on the bridal table. To see dirt, black ingrained spots, hand patched hole on the bridal table was disgusting. The skirting was wrinkled, messed up and unironed.
2. Spider Webs - there were numerous spider webs inside and outside of the reception area and on the entrance walls to the toilets. Attention to detail may not mean anything to you but to me it does.
3. Mirror in Female Toilets - the large mirror in the female toilets above the sink was filthy and obviously not cleaned in a few days, irrespective of the wedding the day before this should have been cleaned considering you charge $300 for cleaning of venue after each wedding.
4. Dogs - I think it was inappropriate and unhygienic to have your 3 dogs (great dane and two smaller dogs) roaming through the entire venue with the kitchen doors wide open to meander through. The great dane tried to eat the food I had brought in for the bride's party off the table. No wonder there were dog hairs on the linen in the reception area.
5. Rudeness - When we met on the wedding day you were quite rude and grumpy and complained about the late night you had because of the wedding guests who wouldn't leave the night before. Seriously? I expected you to at least say hello with a smile and welcome us to this beautiful and momentous occasion. This was our first child's wedding in the family. Your attitude was noticed by some guests too. Rudeness does not make clients happy nor endears them to recommend your services. What happened to the happy Anna we met at the open night?
6. Bride's Dressing Room - to arrive and open the door to the area which we had paid for and find a man sleeping in one of the beds was disgraceful. I asked him to leave and about 10 minutes later he left. All you said to the bride was that it was one of your workers. No apology was given or the reason why he slept there. .
7. Dressing Room for Groom and Groomsmen - You had physically shown me the Mums and Bubs room where Luke and his bridal party were to change at the open night we attended. When we walked in there all the beds were unmade and other people's luggage was there. You said you had other people staying there. Once again, we had paid for the entire venue not for you to allow others to use part of the venue for an overnight stay. My poor son and his friends had to strip in the open area of the bar in the reception area (definitely a hygiene issue) in front of myself and the photographer. I have never felt so embarrassed and humiliated for them, the female photographer and I.
8. Lolly Buffet - You showed me the set up for the lolly bar with lolly jars and tongs at the open night and said we would have these and that the only thing we needed to provide were the lollies. When we arrived on Friday 9th February, Jo, the florist said no we had to provide everything including the tongs. She said she had some bowls we could use which I thanked her for. Using foresight, I bought lolly jars with lids and tongs on the Saturday morning, just in case. When I arrived on Sunday and saw the mixture of unattractive open bowls which flies could easily access, I used mine instead. What vendor says they will provide jars and tongs and doesn't follow through with it? We paid for your business to provide these items.
9. Missing Lollies - We were well aware that you wanted everything delivered on the Friday. I left at the venue which you saw are bringing them in, a large 56 litre container filled with seal bags of 1 kilogram lollies for the lolly bar. When I arrived on the Sunday I found that approximately 2 kgs of lollies were eaten and another bag split and lollies missing but were unable to number how much due to the spillage. When I mentioned to you what had happened, you said that it had rained and the previous night's guests (400 in total) had to come from the rain and blamed them. Later on, I mentioned this to Jo and she admitted she had taken a few snakes and lolles as she wasn't feeling well. I was quite ok with that because she admitted to it and was honest. As I passed you as you overeard our conversation, you admitted to eating the lollies with someone else at 2am with a big smirk on your face. Who steals from their client? We paid you thousands of dollars and you thought it was fun to steal $20 worth of lollies. Denying you did it and then smugly admitting to it was deporable. Once again, you did not even apologise and showed utter contempt doing this. My items should have been locked away until the wedding day.
10. Signage - in the contract you were required to provide 2 x welcome signs for the wedding. One was there. Jo said on Friday that it as up to us to provide welcome signs. She said she had one we could use and adjusted the flowers in it to suit our wedding colours. Had I known this prior, I would have had a beautiful one made.
11. Uninvited Guest - around mid morning there was an elderly lady drinking what looked like alcohol in the area and also wandering around the venue. Who was she? I suspect that she was a relative but we had paid for the entire facility from 7am and did not expect to see someone who was not part of your working team and certainly not part of our celebration to come and go as she pleased.
12. Kitchen Facilities - I had to go into the industrial kitchen to retrieve the cold food wraps for the bridal party for lunch time. I do not know when you last cleaned those fridges but they were disgusting. Another breach of health and hygiene, let alone the dogs being able to run through it as they pleased.
13. Messages - On several occasions, I messaged you asking about different aspects of the wedding and you did not reply to any of them. In fact, I was told I was not allowed to attend any meetings you had with Luke and Krissy even though I was paying the entire bill.
14. Arbor - In the contract and even on the open night you showed us pictures of different arbours they could use with flowers on them. In the contract it said you would provide faux flowers for the arbor. When Krissy had her final meeting two weeks out from the wedding with you and Jo, she was told flowers were not included. So, we were blindsided and forced to pay an extra $720 for faux flowers for the arbour. This is a total misrepresentation of you and your business.
15. Table Seating Plan and Table Numbers - A table seating plan and table numbers were to be provided for by you and you even showed us physically ones done on the open night. On the Sunday, you came and asked me who had the seating plan and I said Krissy. No table plan or table numbers were provided for on the day. Once again, not fulfilling another one of your responsibilities.
16. Table Arrangements - to have one table smack bang with a huge wooden beam in the middle was not appropriate. I said to you that people cannot see the bridal table and you replied that you're only sitting for an hour. Note well, we sat for approximately 2 hours. How would you like it if it was your son's wedding, which you paid for and not being able to see him and the bride. Before you say, you could have swapped tables, there were reasons we needed to separate certain individuals on the night. You should have offered to reconfigure differently but you said that you were too busy thinking about Saturday's wedding and left so that really didn't give us any option but to accept it as is. Your attitude truly was offensive, rude and made me feel like now you had our money and the wedding was only two days away, too bad for us.
17. Ceremony Area - to find bright coloured orange and white dead rose petals strewn all around from the previous day's wedding was not professional. It should have been swept up. We even had to wipe them off the seats before we sat down. It's all these small attention to details that turn a venue from great to just ordinary.
18. End Time - In the contract it states we could have the venue until 12.00am, then you changed it to 11pm and then 10.30pm. You can't do that, was it because you knew you had a large wedding the day before? A contract is a contract. We paid until midnight and that's how it should have been. Was this because you had a very large wedding the night before and didn't want a late night? That is how it appears to me.
19. Airconditioning - One of the specific requirements we had was that your facility had airconditioning. When we went to turn on the aircconditioner when the boys were dressing, it didn't work. I rang you and you said it doesn't work. I believe you told the bride that a rodent had eaten the wires the week before. Why did you not get this fixed for the comfort of your guests during this hot Summer? On that alone, we would not have used your venue, as we had elderly relatives attending and knew they needed airconditioning. You did provide two large industrial fans which helped but had we been informed even the day before it wasn't working we could have supplied portable ones for our guests. Once again, not fulfilling your responsibilities.
20. Cash Payment to Staff - We were quoted that it would cost approximately $1050 for the bar staff, waiters and dishwasher on the day. Why did we have to pay cash? In the end, I handed over $1160 (plus $40 tip) to your staff. Why suddenly was an extra $110 added to the bill, there was no explanation for this? I have yet to receive a receipt for this payment. This is truly a susupicious way of doing business and being a retired business owner myself, it concerns me that you are not paying tax or providing superannuation etc for your employees.
21. Security Deposit - one month prior to the wedding we were required to pay an additional $1000 as a security deposit which is fair enough. Why is it in the contract that it may take between 2 and 4 weeks to return deposit less damages? Especially when we checked the entire venue (I have video evidence) and know that nothing was damaged at all, not even a broken glass. Usually deposits are returned within a week. I am still waiting for the return of the deposit on 20 Mar 24 after several texts and a phone message left on your mobile to return deposit. You have broken your contract with us yet again. Finally after leaving a telephone message payment was made in full at 4.39pm. Why did you not pay within the contracted period. Your excuse of moving homes in the city and not having access to a computer is ridiculous. Your husband could have done it.
22. Open Night - Jo told me you were holding an open night on the Friday evening, so our setting up of the tables were used for your advantage. It would have been nice if you had asked us if it was okay to showcase the room. I assumed the room would be locked until the day of the wedding on the Sunday. We also had someone hide coasters for the table that we had to hunt for on the wedding day which also caused me stress. Fortunately they were found. I think it was an invasion of privacy that people we do not know saw all the names and the token wedding gifts for our guests. Once again, I thought this room was to be closed off until the wedding day. You are very fortunate that nothing was stolen.
23, Bar - I had to go behind the bar area to place something on the sink and was disgusted with the filthiness of the area and this was not from just the previous day's wedding. Prior to the wedding ceremony, I was told no one was to have alcohol except the bridal party from you. When the barman was not there everyone thought it was fair game and helped themselves to alcohol prior to the ceremony. I tried to stop them but to no avail. Thank goodness we had bought extra alcohol because many drinks were consumed prior to the ceremony. Isn't that against RSA policy?
24. Plates and Cheese Knife - My glass plate, butterfly plate and cheese knife used for bridal party food disappeared and has not been returned to me. read more