Merribee House

Read carefully before booking Merribee as your wedding venue. I really wish I could give a different review for Merribee. The venue and grounds are lovely, the staff work hard to keep them beautiful. But for as long as the operations are handled by the current venue manager Emma, I would be very cautious about having your wedding here. 
 1. Emma will try to privately upsell you on her own wedding planning services - by lying about what the venue does and doesn’t support. It is very difficult to get a clear answer on what is or isn’t covered by the venue fee from someone who is trying to make money on the side for her own business. 
 2. We didn’t engage her services, and felt punished as a consequence. Emails would go unanswered for months. She didn’t show up to our site inspection 3 days before our wedding due to a “clash” despite it being booked months in advance. Calls would get screened and not returned. We asked for an alternate point of contact and none was provided. We actually had very little need to get in touch, but the things we required were really important in terms of organising vendors and suppliers - and not being able to get anyone from Merribee to answer an email or take a call was incredibly frustrating given you’re paying ~$20,000.
 3. After the wedding we were accused of stealing a pair of sunglasses. These had been found the day before by the celebrant, which we passed around our guests and handed in to staff once we couldn’t find the owner. Emma put these in the kitchen, misplaced them, and then told us someone had taken them and we needed to return them. 
 4. Merribee is supposed to return your bond in full within 4 weeks. We have had it confirmed multiple times that our bond will be returned in full - but are still waiting after months of follow up, multiple emails, calls etc. No communication about thousands of dollars that they owe us and Emma can’t be found. Again, it is a bizarre system - with a single point of failure in someone who simply does not do the bare minimum when it comes to responding to enquiries or requests. Weddings are a lot of work, and a lot of money. Merribee is a beautiful venue that is being let down by the unprofessionalism of it’s venue manager. It either needs to hire more customer support staff, change management, or prevent it’s staff from trying to operate side businesses by scaring guests into paying more for the exact services they’ve already been paid for.

Fell in love with Merribee at first sight. Had my wedding here at the end of October — incredible venue and garden!

Beautiful ornamental gardens, amazing topiary. A fantastic venue for a wedding ceremony or wedding photos or weekend visit for a cup of coffee in world class gardens. Discount entry for locals!

Great place to have a wedding. Lovely garden options. Great spaces. The barn is a wonderful place for a reception with an outdoor covered dance floor in a lovely courtyard. The staff were very helpful. Nice to visit just for the gardens too. The lavender festival sounds great.