Cottage Winery and Vineyard

Reviews 6

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Adam Smith

This is a tough place to review. It has some great pros, but there are some major, major cons that need to be known before you consider booking a wedding here. First off, I will say that the Cottage is beautiful and one of the most unique wedding venues in western Wisconsin. While planning our wedding, we fell in love with that aspect of the place and figured that the price would end up being worth it. We couldnt have been more wrong. For over 6,000 dollars, one would think that they wouldnt be nickel and dimed for 8 straight months trying to get their wedding set up. You get absolutely no help from the manager. She does a great job of selling the place on tours and then proceeding to hang you upside down until your pockets are empty. Be forewarned, if you dont have thousands of dollars cash laying around and want to pay with a credit card, she will charge you about 3% more for that convenience! There is no assistance with setting up decorations or even cleaning, which absolutely shocked many of our friends who paid a fraction of what we did and didnt have to lift a hand. We had to pay extra just to decorate the reception hall the night before. On top of that, our families had to spend the entire dance cleaning up tables and getting everything ready to take home rather than enjoying the festivities. Speaking of the dance, there is some random city ordinance stating that all music has to stop by 11pm. We knew this in advance and agreed to it, but figured we could make the most out of it anyways. What became worse was the staff at the venue repeatedly asking us to turn the music down so as to not annoy the neighbors. Seriously? Our wedding party was yelled at as they were lining up to walk into the ceremony because they were too close to Teresas tasting room. The bridesmaids and bride were allowed to use a room for changing and getting ready, but had to get everything out of it before the ceremony started...and they only found this out on the day of the event minutes before they were to walk down the aisle. We also werent allowed to take pictures outside until about an hour before our ceremony started because they were running another ceremony that day. We were promised two bars for the reception/dance, yet at the last minute Teresa (the manager) wanted to change it to one. It wasnt a big deal in and of itself, but it still technically was a breach of contract on her part. We wanted to buy some of their delicious wine for our wedding party to have for toasts and the meal, but found out that there is a 20% service fee for each bottle purchased if they are going to be drank on site. Hardly worth it. If you want to know what kind of place this is just look at the reviews - the manager herself left a 5 star review right here on Google to try and inflate their score! The list goes on and on. The amount of headaches this place caused for my wife and I (and even our families) was simply not worth the exorbitant cost you pay. Sure, its beautiful and most of your guests will enjoy it, but the twisted policies and greedy manager mean that if youre thinking about making this place your wedding venue, you should probably think again.

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David Dicks

The site itself is beautiful and worth seeing and tasting some wine. HOWEVER... The issue was in having the place as the site for our wedding and reception a week ago. The owner went back on original agreements at the time of booking the date and signing of the contract, to which we had many arguments about what she has said was allowed, and going to be taken care of, and setup. It was all settled upon showing her the original contract that we had kept. She did still argue points even beyond that though. The day of the wedding, nothing was set up as she had promised would be-they werent ready for it at all. Tables werent out or set up, areas werent cleared for the caterers (food, cake, flowers). They were still cutting the grass an hour before the ceremony-causing allergies of any guests to act up. The coordinator, Teressa, wasnt even around until after the ceremony had taken place, and even after that she was only seen a couple different occasions (going through the cake line-multiple times, as well as the food line-multiple times, and at the bar to fill her drink-multiple times) all of which she soon after left the area and wasnt around to help as she was supposed to be with directing guests, the curtains, running the bar (was left unattended much of the time and guests had to take care of themselves). The only time Teressa made an extended appearance was the end of the night in which she started setting up for another event while our reception was still going, and then hurrying us along to clean up and get out when we were done. I feel very sorry (and extremely grateful for them at the same time) the remainder of the staff did all they could and helped us as much as they could and were extremely friendly with the entire situation-they handled everything the best they could, and it certainly wasnt their fault...They need better management. Again...great place to see and visit to taste some wine and see the view, but I highly recommend to look elsewhere for a wedding site.

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Jennifer Madsen

This place is absolutely lovely! Charming and very well decorated, plus the wine is fantastic. Good selection of wines (both those made with their grapes and others)- and they do a wonderful job of educating you about wine without being condescending. My friend and I felt so welcome. Will definitely be back!

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A Private User

Great little place. Very polite and knowledgeable staff. Beautiful scenery and great atmosphere. Interesting selection of wines for such a young winery. Would definitely go back.

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Teresa Jorgensen

Please view more positive reviews on their facebook page, Cottage Winery and Vineyard Such a great place!

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Mário Fagundes

This place is unique. You think that you are inside to a romantic book. I will totally come back there.

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