25th September 2012 We had a great holiday here. Superb location and stunning property within easy walking distance of two top vineyard restaurants and Oneroa Village
Breakfast served in our suite was a terrific start to the day. We will return.
Hosts are very knowledgable and helpful with local activities and booked several for us.
Katie and Andre
25th September 2012 We had a great holiday here. Superb location and stunning property within easy walking distance of two top vineyard restaurants and Oneroa Village
Breakfast served in our suite was a terrific start to the day. We will return.
Hosts are very knowledgable and helpful with local activities and booked several for us.
Katie and Andre
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sjb_red
27th May 2011 Based in London our parents-in-law identified The Estate as an ideal, no hassle, upmarket venue for our wedding. We were so confident in the website write up and initial engagement.
Once we paid our deposit we soon realised we had a problem. Communicaiton with the owners was abrupt, rude and dismissive. Initial costings were soon being blown out of the water and it was quite obvious this was not going to be the one-stop shop they had marketed themselves as.
Within two weeks I cancelled and started looking for another venue ...loosing our desposit in full. A small price to pay. We landed up at Mudbrick. Only saw the venue the night before my wedding and whilst I appreciate its very much a 'wedding factory' as Julian from The Estate referred to it ...I can assure you that I was made to feel very unique, very individual and very special on my day. The price for the entire event came well within budget and we had zero hassles dealing with them remotely.
We have since relocated to New Zealand and I have been so dissapointed to hear that a number of people have had similar experiences. At the time there were no websites offering reviews of the venue but another disgruntled person I encountered today prompted me to make a little effort. I've submitted The Estate for entry to Tripadvisor in the hope that I can deter other happy couples away. Your wedding is the most important day of your life and the start of your marriage.
Don't start at The Estate.
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JoeD
23rd February 2009 Part 2 continues . . .
When my mother realised how upset my sister had become she started to take Julian and his wife to task about their earlier assurance there would only be one wedding per weekend. They refused to acknowledge they had done anything wrong because the wedding on Saturday was so small. Eventually everyone calmed down.The day of the wedding went very smooth, the only little hiccup was a few of the guests being rudely chastised by Julian's wife for wondering into a part of the house where they weren't supposed to be. Now, remember how you were supposed to have exclusive use on the day of your wedding? Well they tried to get around this by having some guests arrive at 1am the day after. not long after their arrival one of these guests, in a drunken stupor tried unsuccesfully to climb into the window above my sister's bed, this was around 2:30 am. Eventually everyone got to their own room but the event woke everyone up.
The next morning my sister was understandably upset at the previous nights events, especially considering the promises made re exclusivity. When it cam time to pay the final bill she refused to pay for the last nights accommodation (aprox $500) out of a $10,000 bill. Julian became irate at this point and started threatening her with legal and police action. He even claimed that he had called the police and that they would be waiting to pick her up when she tried to get on the ferry back to Auckland (Shortly after the florist who was also there at the time reassured her that her husband was the only cop on the island and he wouldn't be waiting at the ferry for her.) Don't believe them when they say you have exclusive use of the property on the day of your wedding. Be very wary.
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JoeD
20th February 2009 The Estate is a great location for a wedding, the views are incredible and the building is well presented. It’s a pity then that the owners seem to have chosen the wrong business to be in. I'm writing this review in relation to my sister’s wedding in which I had a bit to do with organising and I was the MC on the day. Her initial dealings with the owner Julian seemed fine and the venue was stunning so she and her soon to be husband had no hesitation in booking the venue. At the time of booking Julian explained that they only did one wedding per weekend and that she would have exclusive use of the venue on the day of her wedding (remember this point for later). She was surprised then when she got an email telling her there would be a small wedding at the venue on Saturday afternoon (hers was on the Sunday). So we organise to show up on Saturday evening (after the 2nd wedding was due to finish) in order to do a small rehearsal and also because she was and her bridesmaids were to be staying there the night before the wedding. When we arrived for the rehearsal we pulled up at an appropriate looking spot and got out of the cars and started to explore, we all thought it looked great, right up until we were greeted rather rudely and were told to leave the area as there were other guests there and we had to respect their privacy. (remember this point for later as well) Our explanation that we were here for a pre arranged wedding rehearsal (and my sisters check in) were met with blank stares and abrupt rudeness. Eventually everyone was in the right place for the rehearsal but it seemed our hosts wanted to be a part of it giving unwanted advice and generally getting in the way. Unusual advice ranged from how my sister should walk to child psychology. Weddings can understandably be a tense, emotional and stressful time. Our hosts didn't seem to understand that.
(Reviews can only be so long so I'll finish the story in the next review)
We had a great holiday here. Superb location and stunning property within easy walking distance of two top vineyard restaurants and Oneroa Village
Breakfast served in our suite was a terrific start to the day. We will return.
Hosts are very knowledgable and helpful with local activities and booked several for us.
Katie and Andre