Rengstorff House

Beautiful venue, but a pain to deal with

I hate leaving poor reviews, but I know I am not the only bride who feels this way. The pros first: Rengstorff House is a beautiful venue - absolutely gorgeous - with a price tag that is very budget friendly. They allow you to bring in any vendor and will also provide a list of vendors that have worked there before. There is lots of parking for guests and access to many different areas for ceremony, reception, photos, etc. You can rent essentially as many hours as you like during the day - with wedding oriented packages of 8 hour blocks. The cons: very bare bones - you only get the location in the cost (no supplies, coordination, staff, anything); things like lighting need to be brought in separately; being in a public access park, there can be interferences (people using the nearby lake or golf course, concerts at shoreline, other events, etc. but generally the space feels pretty private). The biggest issue though, is the management. Getting paperwork completed and approved was like pulling teeth, because no one could accurately tell us what exactly needed to be done. We found out about a week before our wedding that vendor insurance hadn’t been approved due to some items being missing. The house’s insurance policies changed about a month before our wedding (mind you, we had booked in full 18 months prior to our wedding date and submitted insurance paperwork 6 months before) and no one on the site management staff thought to explain what needed to happen in response to the change or even follow-up on this supposed incomplete paperwork. When we inquired about what we needed to complete, communications were minimal at best, with essentially no replies to emails or phone calls. Our wedding coordinator needed to bombard them to get any sort of reply, which often consisted of a canned response that was entirely unhelpful. We ultimately had to get a lawyer involved to explain that we did in fact have everything complete and correct with the paperwork, because the site manager doesn’t understand how to interpret insurance paperwork from different providers. On top of this mess, the venue was useless at following up on any sort of timeline, kept poor track of event details relevant to the rental (they allowed us to book starting at 11am, but told us a week out that they have public tours until 12pm and we couldn’t access the venue until then. Then emailed the MORNING OF saying that no tours had shown up, so we could have venue access early), and were difficult to nail down for a final details meeting/rehearsal time. Our vendors were so frustrated with this place that they swear to never work at this location again. I have heard from several acquaintances, as well as from our coordinator (who has worked many events here before) that this lack of organization and communication is common with the Rengstorff House - sometimes even resulting in a staff member not showing up before an event to unlock the doors and gates. I would think very carefully before booking and at the very least have many contingency plans if you do.