Vadnais Heights Commons

Reviews 3

JU

Julie Lam

I don’t even know where to begin with my terrible experience working with the coordinator at this venue, Lorah Palmer. First, I will start off by saying this is an absolutely beautiful venue, and I wish that my experience had gone a lot more smoothly. It probably would have, had I gone with another coordinator. When we first met with Lorah, we loved her energy, and thought we were going to have a wonderful time working with her. Throughout our planning process, she was great to work with, until we got closer to the day of. She mixed up my rehearsal date, and when I corrected her, she would always come up with an excuse such as she had scheduled something else for us that day (when we had never discussed anything else). A few days before my wedding, she told me to decide if we were going to have an indoor or outdoor ceremony because there was rain in the forecast. But I had been checking all week and there was no rain in sight. I had to make sure she had the right date set for our wedding after all of these mix ups. Fast forward to our wedding day. I paid for early access at 9am. We arrived on time, and unloaded everything, and were only able to get into the building because our decorator was already there, she wasn’t. She asked me many details which we had already gone over during our final meeting a couple weeks prior. I felt extremely overwhelmed and upset that I had to deal with all of these questions on top of getting myself ready for the wedding day. She also told me her only responsibilities that morning were to set up our place cards, and picture frames in the shadow boxes. But we hired her to be there for 3 hours. I’ve worked on a lot of weddings myself. Most coordinators will do whatever they can to help out and help ease any stress. She complained about anything else she helped me with in addition to the place cards and pictures. My bridesmaids had to step in and help with a lot of details because we had such a tough time tracking her down all morning. After our wedding, I sent her an email expressing how disappointed I was with the way things went on our wedding day, hoping she would take ownership for these mistakes, apologize, and learn from it. But instead, she listed every single thing that went wrong on my wedding day and blamed me and my bridesmaids for all of it. She even claimed that I copied her daughter’s wedding design, and that my wedding was 100% her vision. In her words exactly, she claimed I mimicked her daughter’s wedding design except she used higher end linens, better floral design, an up-scaled photo booth. She also told me that her “daughter’s wedding would be impossible for someone to “mimic exactly” however it was the impetus of [my] wedding design.” I was shocked by her response. Lorah and I never discussed any design details together, and I had created my wedding design with our decorator, Michele. I even created a PDF that I sent all of our vendors so that they could be on the same page. None of them included ideas from her. I was simply trying to let her know why I was disappointed with her services on our wedding day, and instead of apologizing for her mistakes, she attacked me, and I saw how truly unprofessional and petty she could be. Again, this venue is beautiful. Our decorator, florist, and all of our other vendors were fabulous. But do yourself a favor, find another coordinator who will actually help out on your wedding day instead of causing unnecessary stress.

KA

Kaylee Thomsen

Vadnais Heights Commons is hands down the BEST VALUE for a wedding venue in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area. Trust me, I did all the research and this place was phenomenal. I got so many compliments on the venue; people were absolutely floored by the facility. My fiancé and I really wanted a venue that was private, had outdoor space and was naturally beautiful. We also didnt want to have to worry about capacity issues with our fluctuating guest list, and I knew with this place we wouldnt have to deal with the stress of bumping up against maximum capacity issues (its incredibly spacious). They also have vendor recommendations that they have fully vetted that are all fantastic (and economical!). This takes a lot of work out of finding, vetting and securing high quality vendors (caterer, DJ, decorator, etc.). And as if the venue wasnt amazing enough on its own (it is), Lorah Palmer - your main point of contact - is outstanding. I cannot stress this enough, but if you have not planned a wedding before (the norm), you need someone on your team who knows what they are doing. Lorah is that person and then some; she is an absolute pro with countless years of experience. I know other reviews rave about Lorah, but let me tell you this: the fact that she is included in the venue cost is simply PRICELESS. I would have happily paid twice as much as we paid for the experience of working with Lorah (and we were on a tight budget). Everything from meeting with us throughout the wedding planning process as many times as we wanted to working with our cake vendor who happened to have "no record of our cake order" (Lorah had a beautiful cake there within an hour and had the company issue us a gift card that more than covered the cake), Lorahs involvement in our wedding planning and big day helped both the groom and I fully enjoy our engagement and bid day stress free. I always knew everything was in good hands, and, as I said before, that was absolutely priceless. Book VHC for your big day, and I can assure you, you will not be disappointed.

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Annemarie Lewis

Honestly, booking at Vadnis Heights Commons was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding day. The space is stunning and filled with light. One of the best things about it is that it is so beautiful, decorations dont have to be over the top to make a big impact. We had both our ceremony and reception at The Commons and the flip was seamless and executed perfectly. All communication was speedy and the price was unbeatable. There were so many places to take pictures around the commons in nature, and it is a short drive from St Paul to take more city pictures. Everyone was so accommodating and I loved how the space could be personalized with minimal "stuff" coming in, because after the wedding, the last thing you will want to do is take down and find places for the million things you "need" for the day! Honestly though, the best investment we made towards our day was hiring Lorah as our wedding coordinator. Before the wedding she walked us through every detail, bringing up things I hadnt even thought of. She was available constantly, I honestly cant think of a time it took her more than an hour to respond to an email or phone call. She bent over backwards to make the day smooth and stress-free, and if there was anything that didnt go the way it was supposed to on the day, I dont know about it! A couple days before the wedding, I had an issue arise with a decoration that I was bringing in, and I was so worried about it and how I was going to get it into the space on time. Lorah took care of it for me, even though she didnt have to, and six weeks after the wedding I am still so grateful and relieved. I loved our experience with her, and if you do decide to book this space, HIRE HER. It is so worth it.

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