{Venue Nightmare} Radonich Ranch and Vignette Events

When I first found Radonich Ranch, I brought it up to a friend of mine who had actually gone to see the place but decided against booking because of the early curfew and the fact that she couldn't deal with the coordinator of the venue, Marky Carr. I should have been thoroughly warned at that point.

I called Marky, the owner of Vignette Events and the contact for Radonich Ranch,  on a Thursday and received a call back on Sunday. We talked again on Tuesday (after  trying to get a hold of her)  and set up an appointment. She knew how interested I was, what I wanted to do with the place, and that I was ready to book.  I asked about the fire-pits (didn't want that to be a problem) and she said she would check with the owners and find out in a few days. No problems  there right? Wrong. A few days turned into a week, and after realizing that I hadn't heard back, I called her and left a message. And then another, and another, and another. After 6 voice-mails and a lot of phone calls over the next several days, she finally called me back saying that the owners take a long time to respond but finally they said yes to the firepits. I gotta say, it was driving me crazy, I mean 2 weeks of no communication to a potential client?? Ummmm heeellllo!

We arrived to the venue and the feeling I got after meeting her was that she a) didn't care that much about my wedding (or weddings for that matter) and b) she certainly didn't care if I was going to book. Everything she was showing us was done a certain way, she uses this thing for this and that thing for that. She has the protocol to her cookie cutter wedding that she hosts and that's the end of the story. Bye Bye creativity.

During the tour there was a point when I guess she thought we were no longer interested so  she got up and said "good luck on finding a venue" and walked inside to grab her purse and belongings to go home! Yep, fully left us stranded mid-tour! I was absolutely appalled.

Before leaving, I decided to bring up the points that I worried about in an effort to iron everything out. I brought up the care-factor, customer service issue and phone issue. I understand not wanting to hear those things about yourself, but at some point you have to step up and take some damn responsibility for your actions. Instead, she became defensive saying she was busy with other weddings, the owners don't respond fast, I was being rude, etc. Never once did she take responsibility for anything nor did she apologize!

She called me not too long after to tell me that she was shaken up and upset about it all.  Umm-who calls a potential client and complains about how shaken up they are?? She continued to attack me for how I was being rude. WOW. Guess what I did?? I effing took it all and I fully apologized like 1,000 times!!! I even meant it. I didn't want this to come between us due to the wedding I was dying to have there. It was part of my "dealing with her being crazy and having an amazing wedding anyways" plan.

The next morning I e-mailed her letting her know we loved the place and decided upon it. I again apologized a bunch  and said I hoped we could just get through it all. And what was her response:

...after further thought and discussion with the owners we feel that neither the ranch or my services will work for you wedding.  I am sure that you will find a venue that will better fit the day that you envisioned...

By the way: the owners she is referring to are the ones who a) have never met me so have no idea if the ranch will work for the wedding and b) are the ones that Marky continuously blamed the not -calling-me-back on because apparently they were busy and it took a while for them to get back to her. These owners are the ones that she somehow discussed everything with between 4:00pm on Sunday and 8:00am on Monday. I wrote an e-mail back apologizing 100 more times and just tried to make it all work out. To which she responded:

...It was a mutual decision and we reserve that right. I really feel that with your creativity and ingenuity you will find a place better suited for your day..

This is when it really hit me, she's right, my "creativity" and "ingenuity" were too much for her to handle because she doesn't have a burning passion to make each wedding unique, amazing, creative and gorgeous. Weddings aren't her passion, they are her 9-5. All of us that pour over the blogs, get butterflies when finding amazing inspiration and are constantly in search of the best and most creative ways to showcase our big day understand the importance of creativity, but she doesn't seem to care for it at all. She likes when people follow the protocol she has laid out and never question it once because it makes her job easier.

I was very upset and appalled at the professionalism and responsibility level at which she handled everything. I felt like it set a very poor example of her way of doing business and that I, as the potential client, should never be attacked. She didn't handle anything appropriately and had many many opportunities to apologize and make things right. Valuing clients and being able to work with them is a great quality and one in which she does not display.

She's been doing it for 20 years so she knows best and she knows it all. But, the wedding industry has become a place where creativity rules and no one is on top for long if they can't stay customer service oriented and original! As far as new-age weddings, I knew far more than she did about the industry as a whole, and I think she took it as more of a challenge as opposed to an amazing opportunity to collaborate on something amazing.

BRIDES: Would you stand for this for a venue you love or is this behavior absolutely ridiculous??

VENDORS: What do you think? Am I being too harsh as a bride???

PS: If you think for even a second that I wanted it to happen like this, you're so wrong. I know how amazing it all would have been and everything the venue and the coordinator could have to offer. It actually breaks my heart more than anything. I tried to apologize a million times and handle everything so that we could still work together and Marky refused that.

{Our Wedding} Finding The Venue

UPDATE: As much as I LOVED this venue for our wedding, everything took a sour turn and the venue ended up turning into a nightmare.....Read about the Radonich Ranch venue nightmare here. Holy Moly this has been quite the morning! I haven't been able to sit down and write a blog post as I have been busy talking to the coordinator of the venue I love :) I always have a good reason!

Yep, you read it right. Going to book, like in real life, like that point of the wedding planning I never thought I would get to. Yep, I'm there! And boy has it been a journey.

Source: 100 Layer Cake

When I first started all of this, I told myself (and all of you) to hold out for the perfect venue with the perfect price, not to settle for something less, and even if it takes forever, don't give up. Well, I just barely followed my own advice! I was looking for so long at so many places. I almost settled on some amazing and totally over budget venues many times. Each time I knew I wouldn't be happy feeling ripped off, but that there seemed to be no other solution. The idea of looking on herecomestheguide.com one more time made me want to die. I gave up many times, and came back to it many times. I have created some tips to venue searching in case it helps any of you that are going through hell finding the venue.

Google It: Whenever I find a venue that I like, I search google images to get more photos of the space, inspiration from other weddings held there, and an overall reality on the feel of the space. When I found Vignette Vintage Ranch I did that and found some really great weddings, so I had an idea of how it all went and what the feel of the space was going to be.

Talk It Over: Right before going to see the space, I prepped myself for it. A few of my BM's and I talked about different ideas I wanted to add to the wedding and how (or if) those would fit in. Turns out that all the various ideas I wanted for my wedding would fit perfectly with this space. I also realized that the runner-up venues, weren't the right style for the ideas I had. This made me mentally prepared to picture everything in the space when we went to see it.

Prioritize: No venue is going to have every single thing you ever want, especially if you are in a budget. You sort of have to prioritize whats important and what isn't. I actually didn't have to do that too much. Because of the price, I was able to keep my whole guest list and the one thing I really wanted, fire pits, I was able to negotiate and get them. Yay for that.

Get Inspired: If you have a vision of your wedding and a style you are going for, it makes it a lot easier to picture yourself and your wedding in that space. Get inspired with ideas for your wedding so you know what you want. Vineyard, Rustic, Barn, etc. This can definitely be rather hard, especially if you are taking items from so many different styles, but once you get the vision together, I swear it will make it so much easier.

Don't Give Up: I'll be the first to say it, easier said than done! I totally know! You want to settle and you want to go over budget just to get it over with. But in reality you probably won't be very happy in the end. Going over budget either means more stress and cutting out people or ideas you really wanted and neither of those are really fun. I literally waited for 8 months of constant searching and feeling like nothing would ever pop up. I felt like I had seen every venue again and again. If you just wait it out, you will find something.

You'll Be Surprised: When you find the venue, you will definitely be surprised about it all, and it will feel amazing! I talked to the coordinator of our venue and it turns out she does the centerpiece flowers, supplies mason jars, old boxes, milk jars, apothecary jars, antique old linens, etc. SCORE! That is going to save me a lot of money right there! On top of all that, the price is far. See, it somehow all worked out and everything fell into place, though I pretty much assumed it never would.

Overall, this place is perfect for me. It won't stretch my budget to an ungodly amount and I will still be able to have everyone there that I want to be there. (Except Bear sad face) I get to incorporate all the ideas I have into this space, and best of all, it will all turn out perfectly! I never really knew that this is what I was envisioning this whole time, but it totally is!

Anyone else have really good suggestions for those in venue turmoil??? It's such a hard process.

Hey, check out the journey I have taken to finding a venue from the original Aptos dilemma, to the back yard wedding pros and cons, including the actual backyard I would have it in! Also, there was the time I was going to pay a ridiculous amount in site fees. Down to the time where I just sent a plea for help on the blog! And finally, pictures of the actual wedding venue!

How am I planning on decorating this amazing venue?? Check out a few of my favorite things I plan to incorporate, S'more favors, my actual wedding favors pies,  and some really cool centerpieces that I love!

Venue: CHECK?

UPDATE: Radonich Ranch and Vignette Events turned into a nightmare of a situation and I ended up not booking my wedding there. Read more about that here: {Venue Nightmare} Radonich Ranch and Vignette Events. I went to see the Vignette Vintage Ranch this weekend! It was definitely the majority pick from all of you on Friday. I was thinking that it would be very hard to incorporate my vision and style into this space, but after talking with a few of my bridesmaids, I realized that everything I have been talking about from the keys and the pie favors, to fire-pits and the burlap inspiration are all things that would be perfect in this venue! I guess I never really knew what my inspiration and vision really was!

So, now to take you through the venue :) I will warn you in advance though, there is definitely some good news and some bad news. (PS-these are iPhone pics, so they are not all that good.)

This tree is in the middle right when you walk in. I know that Ian would love to have horseshoes at the wedding as we just got them in our backyard and they are all obsessed! We could use this tree for a bunch of signs pointing all different directions, which would be super cute!

This is the ceremony spot. The backdrop is great, rolling mountains as far as you can see. The spot in front is all grass, which I don't hate and isn't a deal-breaker, but I don't love all that much. I think I could make this alter pretty cute, but it's definitely my least favorite part of the spot.

This is just a picture to give an idea of the amount of space, greenery, picture spots, etc. The ceremony spot is on the left.

You can kind of see the ceremony spot to the right, and this is the bar area. They have really vintage coke freezers, which we could definitely incorporate! Kind of a cute little area over there.

This is the ranch area! Super rustic, but I will tell you that it looks sooo much better in person! This would be the cocktail area. There is an indoor bar, an old vintage furnace, and benches lining the walls! Super cute little area.

Standing on the ranch veranda, you look out on the barn. I love the barn! I was thinking that we could use the space between the ranch and the barn for the fire-pits, s'mores, cigars, etc. At night we can open the barn doors (on the left) and dancing could take place inside while the fire-pits are going outside.  That way everyone is together even if not everyone wants to do the same thing!

This is the inside of the barn. It is just super simple and could offer SO many really amazing decor plans. Literally an empty slate!

So there you have it! The place was quiet and serene and overall amazing! I could see every aspect of the wedding fitting in perfectly here, and I could really picture it all. I could picture the people, the set-up, the decor, everything!

Now for the downside of it all. I was so excited and ready to book. The venue coordinator called me and I told her I was ready to pick a date and send her the deposit immediately. Can you believe it??? I had decided on a venue! I was beyond excited. So what changed? I asked her about fire-pits, and guess what, that's a no. They don't allow fire because of the mountains and greenery. She did say that she would check since she heard how upset I was about that one aspect. So, there is still the possibility especially if I do it in April as there is more rain so the dryness isn't an issue. So, hopefully I'll find out soon!

Otherwise, I have to make the decision if I need the fire-pits that much to find a whole new venue, or if I should just figure out something that would be just as awesome. Any suggestions??

PS: I love that someone agrees with me on the name Brooklyn...and I totally agree about the backyard thing. Thanks for the letter :) I really do totally feel like I totally understand. <3