SIMPLY ELEGANCE WEDDINGS AKA SIMPLY EVERYTHING GETTING MARRIED IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE BEST DAY IN LIFE... not here with this venue.  QUINLAN Texas

First of all.. i have been in a wedding here, had MY weddng here and attended 2 others. These people went above and beyond on all counts and i have never heard of any other negative feedback other than the one stated above.  TO the first above "non refunded" deposit... that's exactly what DEPOSITS are for.. lol   they are to make a "commitment" for stated venue to hold the date. And as to her "precious" lawn.. that's what you paid for.. that's why you CHOSE that place because its' not a run down piece of crap venue.. lol this is a nice absolutely beautiful and breathtaking place of business that is also their HOME.. that is why it is stated in the CONTRACT who is allowed and not allowed in the home!!! As for your wedding planner.. maybe she wasnt' doing her job correctly? And probably overly sensative if 6 months pregnant.   That woman at simple elegance doesnt' have a rude bone in her body.. i have met her on several occasions, as stated above ive attended plenty of weddings.  She wants nothing but the best for her clients and customers... and by the looks of it by their home did not "need" your business.. she does it for the sheer pleasure of making someone's wedding day.  Im sorry if your experience was bad.. but i have refferedd her ten times over to all of my friends.. and plan on attending a party there this summer.  For you to have gone this far to ruin the rep of an absolutely amazing company shows your class... and especially the reasonings behind your complains are hilarious.  when you rent a venue there are rules and regulations. you have to behave and respect others property sir.  that is something aparently you did not do.. and in turn where shown that it wasnt' ok.  maybe you should have chosen a lesser quality venue?? with mediocre expectations on there clients??

During my initial meeting with the bride, she had her young son in the car on a hot day and I could tell she was not focused on what we were discussing. We did manage to set a budget and she signed a contract for Simple Elegance to plan the entire wedding. After our meeting, I spent several hours planning and organizing the wedding, and scheduling vendors for the event. She then informed me that  our agreed amount was too much and she had decided to use somebody else for her planning. I knew she was on a tight budget, and trying to be helpful, I amended the contract and let her do her own planning though this is not our usual procedure. I discounted the amount she owed me for the time I spent planning the event, only charging her for 1 hour. Our venue is a personal residence that allows outdoor events, we allow the bridal party inside the home for a dressing area. Her planner and staff showed up 1 hour before the agreed time and began to set up before our normal opening time. Shortly after they began their set up, they entered our private kitchen area, and were searching for supplies that they had forgot to bring, supplies that we had to later replace. During the wedding, they used our ice that was intended for a later event since they forgot to bring ice, again, the agreement was for "venue only" which means they must bring all supplies, and are responsible for all set up and break down, since they had parked many cars in areas that were marked "handicapped parking only" and had crowded many vehicles behind these as well, this caused the guest that left to go get more ice to drive across our very nice St, Augustine lawn putting ruts across it that must be repaired. We have a large parking area that allows for easy "coming and going" which is designated by signs which many of their guest chose to ignore. The additional charges were to cover the cost of our staff to return tables and chairs to the proper location for storage, and to put all trash in the location which was stated in the contract, again, this was their responsibility since the rental was for "venue only".

In response to the formal complaint and letter from the wedding planner: The charge for the missing lighter and the deduct for ice would have never been applied if not for the frustration we experienced and the lack of respect for our personal property. In the 7 years of hosting weddings at our venue, we have NEVER held back any amount of a client’s damage deposit, but we have also never experienced such neglect for policies that protect our home and property, such as driving on the lawn, consuming beer and liquor in the bedrooms/dressing area, this is posted with a sign that they intentionally turned backwards, leaving trash, bottles everywhere, disregarding our signs that certain doors remain locked for security reasons, searching personal property for items they forgot, allowing unattended children to run freely thru the house. We have NEVER had a client cancel due to being “uncooperative” we have only had 2 cancellations in 7 years, one being because the bride and groom separated, and yes after being unable to rebook that date to other clients that had requested the same date, we rightfully did not refund the deposit, the 2^nd cancellation rescheduled for a later date. I was NEVER asked to leave the house, this is a false statement. As far as “chastising guest at the back door”, our staff member asked a guest if she was a member of the bridal party, since she was not, he reminded her that we limited the inside of the house to “bridal party only” as stated in the contract as well as being posted on the back door, she replied in a friendly matter and was allowed upstairs to join her daughter who was a bridesmaid. In response to “not allowing anything on our precious lawn”, yes I agree, our lawn is precious, and is part of the reason that this is “a beautiful place to get married” that is a quote from the groom, if we allowed vehicles to drive on the lawn week after week to set up decorations, tables, etc. this would no longer be a beautiful place, we have used the same procedure for years with no complaints or problems. In response to “not allowing the groom to use the front door”, I did ask the groom to not go thru the front door, the event takes place at the rear of the house and there is no way we can monitor the front door and allow guest to enter the home freely, this is to protect our personal property as well as the belongings of the bridal party, this statement took place after having witnessing cars parking in handicapped only spots, some cars parked on the grass, and several cars driving across the yard, it was for this reason I did use an improper tone and spoke rather rudely to the groom for which I apologize. It is just a short walk around one end of the house to get to the event area. In response to the clients statement of “having 5 people clean everything spic and span”, none of the tables or chairs were returned to storage as agreed to in the contract, none of the trash was placed in the area that was agreed to for this purpose, they had 1 1/2 truckloads of trash that we had to remove from the property, and we spent hours cleaning cake off the back porch. In response to the complaint of deducting false claims from the deposit, as stated before, the charges for the lighter and ice were applied due to frustration, the wedding planner admitted to taking the lighter, and the ice was there, and then it was gone, therefore these claims cannot be false, the charges for cleanup are legitimate as well since we paid our staff member to put up tables and chairs that were never returned to storage, and pick up trash, there was no “customer service” agreed to, the rental was for venue only, we did provide a staff member to help with any situation that came up, there was no “verbal abuse” or “threats”, as stated before, I was frustrated and very angry with the lack of respect for our property and did respond in a harsh manner, again for which I regret and apologize. There is nothing we can do to change the events of this day, we hope that anybody concerned would read our previous reviews on weddingwire.com to see that this complaint is out of the ordinary.