The Lodge at Grace

Be careful, keep receipts & triple check contract

The Lodge at Grace is a beautiful venue but I wouldn’t recommend anyone get married here. If you’re considering, PLEASE READ THIS FIRST. The management here how they run things as a business and church seems very sketchy to me. I’m not entirely sure they’re doing things “by the book”. They’re very nice in the beginning & were very responsive, however that quickly changed once we paid our deposit & balance in full. During our tour, there were numerous things they told us would be possible but when we went back after paying, those things were all of a sudden different and according to them, never said otherwise. Their staff were drinking while serving guests, eating/taking leftover plates & desserts and using our photobooth. I didn’t have issues with this until I spoke with the manager, Rob, a few weeks later & he said the staff complained they weren’t tipped enough, in addition to trying to charge me 200 for a rug & curtain that had mud on them. I felt that since the staff utilized our food, drinks, desserts & photobooth, they were compensated enough. However, Rob told me it was in our contract for us to provide meals for the staff. I didn’t recall the conversation or ruling whatsoever & immediately pulled up the contract to find his statement was NOT TRUE (it’s a pretty big deal since that affects your catering order so I’m shocked they tried to say it was in the contract). When I asked why they were charging 150 for a small rug and 50 for a curtain, Rob responded with “the church buys what the church buys”. He also changed his story, first saying he rented a carpet cleaner from a store for 150, then saying he hired a carpet cleaner person who quoted him the 150. As for the curtains, their reasoning behind 50 was that they needed to have a matching set & couldn’t just buy one. Additionally, they asked if they could keep their Christmas decorations up inside the venue because they didn’t want to bother taking everything down. And on the day of, there were multiple teenagers on-site the entire time, I think to help set up & take down but neither of these things felt appropriate for a large scale expensive wedding. There was a lot I left out from my phone conversation with Rob due to time but just know, he has no problem saying something inappropriate or manipulative just because you’ve upset him or won’t give into what he’s saying (our last call ended with him hanging up on me). This type of attitude & mentality leaves no room for genuinely solid customer service. I didn’t feel as though I mattered to the Lodge at Grace, only my money did. Which is crazy to think about because they charge 7,000 for ONE weekend wedding, yet they’re still running as a church so I’m not sure if they’re paying taxes on all that money or not.