This place is magical. We captured some amazing pictures here, because everywhere you look, there's a beautiful photo opp that includes scenery, landscapes, architecture, beautiful decor and even some friendly animals on occasion. Cilla and the staff worked on preparations and details for many weeks leading up to the big day, and the big day was perfect. I honestly can't imagine a better wedding experience. No stress. Just joy. All told, it was a very relaxing stay with amazing accommodations and hospitality. We will be back to enjoy our new favorite retreat.

My wife and I selected Talus Rock as the venue for our wedding. We planned a small wedding with less than 30 guests. All the attendees were family who stayed with us at Talus Rock. We spent over $12,000 dollars on the property rental alone for Thursday evening through Sunday morning. I am writing this summary because I really want to help prevent anyone else from having the experience we did.

The property is managed by a husband-and-wife team who work for the owner. The husband/wife have awful, unprofessional attitudes. They consistently make the guest feel like they are a burden.

Here is our “story”:

Upon arrival we are told that a week ago they had a lighting strike on the property and the internet is not working and they are not sure when it will be working. They were able to turn it back on late the next day. Not a big deal, but a couple of us had some business to do that we could not do.

The plan we chose for the weekend rental gave us the entire home, this included the main kitchen and its appliances, but the husband/wife had not emptied their food out of the main kitchen refrigerator, so we had to wait for them to clean it out. They knew our arrival time and takeover of the property for the weekend yet had not planned well enough to have that task completed.

The next morning, I am informed by my daughter-in-law that her bathroom sink is overflowing, she had just washed her hands and brushed her teeth, so she did not cause the sink issue and it was clear that this was a problem long before we got on property. We found my “small” things not maintained on the property this is one example that touched us.

The towels in every room were mismatched and very old, some literally were so old they felt gritty and dried out, some had tears and small holes.

The property boasts a pool and spa as well as a hot tub. The hot tub was great, the pool was dirty and the spa non-functional. No one was interested in going in the pool, the weather was fantastic, and it would have been nice to use the pool, but it was clearly not maintained.

On Friday morning the owners’ dogs were out running on the property and one of the owners followed them around. Many of my family were out in the yard as well. They all got along, and it was not an issue, but it is noted in the contract that dogs do have free run of the open land, but I paid for the whole property and also stated in the contract is “there will be no staff from Talus Rock that interferes with your stay unless you ask for staff”, but yet there they were.

About an hour before our ceremony one of my family brought to my attention that where we had put the chairs for the guests to sit in during the wedding and the aisle that my wife was going to walk down had multiple piles of dog poop. When this was brought to the husband/wife they agreed to clean it up but were clearly upset that they had to do so and made comments “under their breath” that some of my family overheard – “this is all dry and like a rock what is the big deal?”

About 15 min before the ceremony the wife came and found me and insisted that we have one of our vehicles moved because it was parked in “her” parking spot. I went into the lot and looked there were 5 other parking spots with in 30 feet or less of “her” spot that she could have parked in. She is in fine health and can easily walk, there was absolutely no need for us to move the vehicle except for the fact that SHE did not like it there! I had to find my son (who was with his mother enjoying time before the ceremony) and ask him to go out and move his vehicle.

Just before my wife was to walk down the aisle two maintenance staff who were supposed to be off property started walking into the middle of our ceremony – realizing what they had done the turned around and disappeared.

Had this not been my wedding and I was just visiting the property for a vacation; I would have packed up and left at this point. The wife – especially the wife is a mean unhappy person - who has no place dealing with customer service issues at a very expensive vacation resort!

So that was the events leading up to and during our wedding. After the wedding, later in the evening we are having drinks and such in the back yard around the fire pit when a quad motorcycle starts riding around in the outer back yard and another guy starts stand boarding in the pond, both of them talking very loudly to each other. At this point I had it! I found the maintenance guys and shared a thought or two with them – I was not kind. Then I walked around to the husband/wife apartment door – read the sign “DO NOT KNOCK – call this number …. ECT” – I knocked and yelled – not a single word from the wife who had answered the door, she just stood there, I waited a short moment still no response, so I walked away telling her to fix this. The next morning, we all packed up early (check out 11:00 AM – we left around 9:00 AM) and the family got going. My wife, son-in-law, daughter, and I stayed to finish up checking the house and doing the last-minute packing. I did not trust the husband/wife at all and photographed the ENTIRE property in detail so as not to be accused of anything.

In summary, to do it all again – NOT AT TALUS ROCK FOR SURE! I had really hoped to make this a family destination for years to come, a place where we could gather and have wonderful memories and create great new memories. But my wife and I have discussed our feelings, paying over $4000.00 per day to have a place for us to stay for the wedding was truly not worth it. The uniqueness of the home and property are dramatically shadowed by how poorly it is managed. Be careful to read all the fine print and do not get swept up in the fun of planning, ask questions and make sure if you are going to stay at the property that you know what you are getting into. I cannot recommend the property to anyone, I feel I wasted money, Sandpoint is a beautiful area bet getting all of the family and a short list of friends there was not worth the views – we had found local Boise Idaho locations that were as pretty but not nearly as unique. This is why we chose to pay and travel, but that was ruined by the husband/wife.