Complaint Review: Ironclad Inn

Had the honor of having our dream wedding at the Kenmore Inn / Ironclad Inn on May 11th. It turned out to be an absolutely beautiful wedding and made for some amazing memories. That being said, our experience with the new owners, was less than desirable. For some backstory, our venue contract (use of the entire Inn) was gifted to us by the general manager and former owner of the Kenmore Inn prior to the sale of the Inn. 

During the time leading up to the sale of the Inn, wedding planning had ensued and plans were made, paid for, etc. to various vendors with the impression that we would have use of the entire inn, as per our contract. At the changing of hands, we were assured that since the new owners had purchased the Inn, our contract was included, and our wedding would proceed as scheduled in accordance with the contract. However, every step of the way leading up to the wedding, the new owners made the wedding process a nightmare, more of a wedding planning headache than necessary. Of course, we knew with new ownership came changes and modifications to the venue and we would have to roll with the punches. We watched as the new owners brought in large amounts of furniture into what would be the ceremony / dance floor space,  a full merchandise and seating area in what was going to be the photo-booth area, etc. all major stressors in the late stages of wedding planning. With much back and forth, the owners finally agreed to move the furniture out for the wedding, but it would not be scheduled to be moved out until the morning of the wedding, fine.

Fast forward to the morning of the wedding, the furniture movers had arrived and we were able to breathe thinking that everything was going to be cleared out for the wedding, we were wrong. Come 12:30 pm, we noticed people that were NOT part of/ guests of our wedding entering the downstairs of the Inn. Turns out, the owners had decided to open the Tasting room downstairs, despite the fact that the general manager had requested against it as it would affect set up for the wedding and we were told everything including the merchandise would be out by 10am that morning. Our day of coordinator, went down around 2:15pm to determine when they would be closing and clearing out so that we could set up and was told by one of the bar staff that the owner was out to lunch but they were scheduled to be open until 4pm (the ceremony was set to start at 4:30 pm). We were livid. The coordinator again went down and waited to speak with the owner who rudely stated that she was simply doing my now husband a favor (letting us have our wedding there) and that they would be closing soon and to give them another 20 minutes or so. After 20 minutes, the coordinator again went downstairs where people had just gotten served another round and it seemed that last call had not yet been given, to which the owner again said it’ll be another 20 minutes. At this point we were told the photo-booth vendor had arrived and was unable to set up as the tasting room was occupying the space needed. I was furious and my father and bridesmaid decided to go downstairs and talk to the owner, who once again was rude and made it a point to say that it was all just a favor to my husband (despite us having a contract) and that it would still be a few more minutes. Finally around ~3:15pm all of the tasting room guests were out and the vendors scrambled to get merchandise and furniture moved and stuff set up for the wedding. There was no way that it would have all been done in time had they closed at 4pm as was originally intended.

Finally, the wedding! Yay! - the ceremony went smoothly, cocktail hour was great, bridal party got photos done with a few interruptions by various Ironclad guests asking if the tasting room was open or closed. Reception went well. A few of our guests made comments to us that the owner had been glaring at our guests during the party time and made them uncomfortable. 

Overall, the actual wedding was better than we could have ever imagined thanks to the amazing family, friends, and vendors that we selected to help us celebrate our big day. The Kenmore Inn will always hold a special place in our heart and we appreciate all that the Inn staff did to make our day go as smooth as possible. But after everything, the Kenmore Inn (under the new ownership) would not be my recommendation to another bride. I’m not sure if it was just that our contract was a gift that made the owners treat our wedding as less important or what; but it definitely made us lose respect for the new owners and their company.

Updates as of June 1, 2024:

- my husband was contacted via text message by the new owners while out of state on our honeymoon, demanding that I remove my review

- refusal resulted in text threats by the owner for charges of "defamation" and being called ungrateful 

- standing by our word, my husband that worked on and off for 10 years for the Inn was fired via text message by the owner 

- texts were exchanged between the co-owner to other staff ADMITTING and taking responsibility for all actions and ruining our wedding