Vendor review: The Country Abbey

www.thecountryabbey.com

I knew that I wanted an all-in-one wedding venue where we could have both the ceremony and reception. Jason's sister got married at a place like this last summer, and I saw how much easier it was compared to other weddings I'd been to where you go one place for the ceremony and then have to travel elsewhere for the reception. I think by keeping it in one location it really unifies the ceremony and the reception into one grand event instead of two separate ones.

The first thing we did after getting engaged was make a rough guest list. This way we could know when talking to venues what size room we would need. We only visited a handful of places, because there really aren't that many all-in-ones around here (more on that later) and we narrowed it down to a few. In the end, The Country Abbey won out because of a combination of staff, services and pricing.

I can not say enough about how wonderful the Abbey staff is. I worked mostly with Elaine and Naomi, who is the owner. The phone number for the Abbey is Naomi's cell phone, so even if she wasn't at the Abbey when I called, she would still answer the phone. The best part about the Abbey is that we got to hire all of our own vendors. Some people might find this to be too much work to take on having to meet, hire and keep track of so many vendors. To this I say it really wasn't that bad. We were able to find the vendors that worked best for the vision we had for the wedding, at the prices we were comfortable paying. It turned out to be only five vendors - the catering, the cakes, the DJ, the flowers, and the officiant. We got to choose exactly what foods we wanted, exactly how we wanted our cake to look, what kind of musical vibe we were going for, the flowers that we liked, and the person who got to marry us.

Oftentimes, venues partner with certain vendors and require their brides to use them. For example, Danielle's venue, The Mediterranean Villa, required the use of their in-house catering. That meant all the food, bar and cake decisions were made based on what the Villa already offered. Be careful about venues that require you to use a vendor, because it can really limit your wedding to the talents already on staff. I've heard stories of other brides loving a venue, but being eh about the food or the bakers to choose from. Some venues offer you only one choice, usually an in-house company that works exclusively for that venue. Others give you a list of vendors to choose from, which could wind up only being a handful of each type (usually the venue is getting a kick back for referring you so that's why they force you to use their lists.) If you do come across a venue that has a vendor list, you should be free to see the list and talk to the vendors before making any type of a decision. Jason and I went to one place who wouldn't let you contact the vendors until you'd put down a deposit for their venue. Needless to say, that was the last time we've spoked to that venue!

The Country Abbey wound up being exactly what we wanted. At first, I was a little nervous about the size of the guest list, but in the end it was perfect. We were free to decorate how we wanted. We were able to use some of their decorations free of charge. For brides who need a little more help, they also offer coordinator services as well as different decorating packages. Naomi is always available by phone or by email. She's very helpful, and very knowledgeable about the wedding industry and how to really help brides out. She's creative, but she'll let you do your own thing if you have something in mind.

I give The Country Abbey a solid A. [The only reason I took off the + is because there was a scheduling issue that came to light two weeks before the wedding. Luckily, we were able to resolve it, and Naomi threw in extra time free of charge to make up for it. Everything worked out, but it was unnecessary added stress. I'm just glad we were flexible enough to work around the issue or it might have been a lot worse.]