Keeley M.
Yelp
Let me start by saying that this place is gorgeous and we would have absolutely loved to get married there.
That being said, we had our wedding scheduled for 9/18/20, which we had hoped would happen but COVID continues to be ever present and getting worse. We first reached out to discuss options on 7/9/20. After many emails back and forth, them taking quite a long time in-between to respond and requiring multiple follow-up attempts, we were told we would have to pay the full amount of the original day we are not using and then rebook at a 25% discount...
Now, to add to this story, we are postponing because the majority of our guest list is from out of town, primarily AZ and CA, which are both COVID "hot spots". About 3/4 of our guests are not comfortable traveling, understandably, and we have many family members who are "high-risk" according to the CDC. In addition, I am pregnant, which added another level of hesitance as pregnant women are considered "high-risk" and more likely to be hospitalized due to immunological changes and the effects on a newborn are not completely known. I expressed these concerns to The Barn at Sycamore staff, but there was no budging, even with a note from my OB doctor stating it is unsafe for me to be around groups larger than 10 people. I also sent studies from the CDC supporting these claims.
The staff at Barn at Sycamore Farms continues to say that they are open and willing to have the event, since restrictions aren't as present in Williamson County. I pushed that even if there are not local restrictions, there are federal and state guidelines that we should be following and that many of our guests are coming from "hot spots". Still nothing, no empathy or compassion.
We said we are completely open to compromising, but they are not, as we have heard of multiple venues charging couples $1,000 to move their date (even in Murfreesboro), or not charging at all. That means we would be paying close to $13K in total to postpone and have our wedding here, when the original total would have been $7,500 (including prop package). Not to mention, I lost one of my two jobs during the pandemic (also offered to send over this paperwork to them). We weren't asking for charity, we were asking them to be human, to meet us in the middle.
I am so incredibly disappointed in this business. I had hoped for a really beautiful wedding there and was so excited, but we cannot afford to pay for basically two weddings at this venue and cannot in good conscience hold a large wedding during this uncertain time, for the safety of my unborn baby and for the safety of our loved ones.
I would recommend any couples looking to book this venue to steer clear, as they have shown their true colors during this global pandemic.
P.S. You'll find other reviews that have similar stories with this venue. It appears they gave couples with weddings affected by COVID and opportunity to postpone to another weekend within 2020, we didn't even get that option.