Blake Simpson

Review of The Holden Arboretum

Beautiful complex and resource, and the "1 star" i...

Beautiful complex and resource, and the "1 star" is solely based on their practices as a wedding reception venue. Long story short, (1) the $1,000 deposit is paid by my daughter and her fiance, (2) the only "tent vendor" they allow you to use subsequently submitted a jaw-dropping $48,000 quote to accommodate ~180 guests. To be clear, this is tent, tables, & chairs only. After push back, they trimmed to 'bare bones' down to $20,000, but the highest we'd ever heard for comparable arrangement on original scope was $3-$4,000 range. (At first, we literally thought the $48,000 was a one order of magnitude typo.) Finally, (3) even though less than 3 business days had passed since deposit, and the date was one year out, they lost the deposit. Yes, that followed the contract but is in no way "fair". Because the required vendor is on the extremely high side of any reasonable expectation, I think the Holden event coordinator should provide a ballpark estimate of tent cost in advance of accepting deposit.