Surrey House & Gardens Reception Center

Okay, a preface to my review before you hear about my experience. This place is a historic home in historic downtown McKinney. It’s absolutely beautiful, and makes amazing pictures for your wedding day. Nothing that I have to say is about how beautiful the location is, or any crazy hidden surprises (okay, maybe one) about the house. Please, look at the photos I posted from my own wedding to see how incredible this place looks and how well it photographs.
Now, on to why it got three stars. When we first went (a year before our target wedding date) we were told that there were only 2 weekends left in the month of October and that it would cost x amount of dollars more (I can’t remember the exact number) if we wanted an evening wedding because it was «in such high demand». We really loved the place, some friends of ours had been married there, so we swallowed the pill and moved on. Looking back, I really doubt it was that crowded seeing how easily they got us in for a rehearsal practice, I think we got ripped off.
During the many many months up to the wedding they were so hard to get a hold of. They never answered their phone and sometimes it took two or three urgent voicemails before they would call us back. The woman who owns it convinced us we would need the extra hour added on to our package and when we didn’t even remotely use it (finished earlier than the original time anyway) they wouldn’t refund us even though THEY got to go home early because of it.
Several things the actual week/​day of the wedding. At our rehearsal we noticed that a strand of lights on the gazebo was out, we asked them to fix it and they didn’t. The owner’s mother is a florist and when we refused to use her because her prices were OUTRAGEOUS they retaliated (or so we believe) by leaving this horribly ugly bright orange/​palm leaf floral arrangement on the top of the gazebo. Our colors were brown and blue, and she knew we were getting married later and left it up. It’s now in all of our wedding pictures (see the example I posted) and honestly made putting our wedding album together a $@&!# because it was in EVERYTHING. We had to do a bunch of black and white photos because of it. I am still angry about it.
As far as the weird surprise goes, their «bride’s suite» is behind their laundry room and not very well appointed. We had to rent a hotel room so my party and I could get dressed because honestly, there is no where to sit down in there. Also, laundry room. Also, scary as hell doll-​filled room right next to it. Like seriously, this is a lost scene from that weird 80’s movie where dolls kill everyone.
Also, the food we sampled at the tasting we went to was not what the food tasted like the night of my wedding. They cater their own weddings and the food at the tasting was pretty good, the night of it was disgusting. I really think they used left-​over food from the wedding before because it was luke-​warm like it had been under a heat lamp and flavorless. Luckily my cake was incredible and made up for it.
They really made my wedding difficult to enjoy. They were not there to help us at all, and the women we hired to be «day of wedding helpers» were the only reason my party and I even got down the aisle. They were way overpriced for the terrible level of service they provided, and the terrible catering. Their only saving grace is the beauty of the house and the picturesque aspects of historic downtown McKinney.