Primary Location
Amenities
Accessibility
Wheelchair accessible entranceWheelchair accessible parking lot
I am a wedding planner based in Monterey and Carmel and Gardener Ranch is one of my favorite venues for a wedding. Not just because it is beautiful but because it is so unique and is the perfect wedding venue for a truly one-of-a-kind memorable experience. When you step foot on property at GR you are instantly removed from the outside world, there is a calm peacefulness that radiates from the venue. The property not only has well appointed and comfortable accommodations for over 35 guests to stay over night but also has so many different spaces that can be used to make your event special to you. I love that there are really no limits on how you can set up your event. There are several spaces large enough to host a ceremony or outdoor dinner for more than 200 people but there are also spaces that you could have the ceremony or a really intimate dinner for 25-20 people throughout the property. The towering oak trees make all your wedding photos look incredible. While I have planned many weddings at Gardener Ranch I can easily say none of them were the same but all were incredibly special and memorable.
We were considering Gardener Ranch for our wedding so we made a visit all the way from Japan. We had our wedding dates booked in May 2023 and had our contract ready. We were making our second visit in December 2022 again all the way from Japan to go over small details with our wedding planner and Heather from Gardener Ranch. And The worst thing happened. When our wedding planner reached out to Heather a day prior to our second visit making sure we were on their schedule, Heather responded “We are going though some changes at Gardener Ranch and we decided to pull their contact out” when she already knew that exact dates we were flying in from Japan to visit them. No other reason was given why they decided to pull us out. The most unprofessional part was that Heather did not contact our wedding planner or us about the news until our wedding planner reached out. She knew it for a while but she decided not to share the news with us.
Our visit in Carmel was purely for the wedding planning. Because of the very last minute cancellation, we had to start from square one, cancel bunch of other appointments we had such as good tasting and hair-makeup appointments.
This was very unprofessional but I also think this is more of a moral issue. I don’t know how anyone would do that someone.
There was a better way to deliver the news, which was for Heather to share the news as soon as she found out so that gave us the time to figure plan B.
We wasted so much money / time / effort to travel all the way to Carmel from Japan for this visit only to find out the day of our arrival that they were pulling our contract out.
Also Heather never reached us to apologize or explain what happened via email, even after our wedding planner told her that she should do it for us to have a closure.
I just hope they are not going to do the same thing for other couples.
And honestly with what they did to us, we do not recommend Gardener Ranch for your most memorable day of your lifetime. Not only they might cancel on you but they will add more trouble for your beautiful day.
