Burntshirt Vineyards Reviews

From the moment my now husband and I was looking at wedding venues, we felt extremely welcomed and “at home” with our experience. Michele was the absolute best. She was always available to me as a bride with any questions I had or concerns. For the day off, Michele, Marden, Juanita, and Aris were professional & prompt. They even danced with us at our reception to celebrate us. Highly recommend looking at Burntshirt Vineyards for your special day!

We had our wedding at Burntshirt and it was highly memorable. Michelle was very responsive, informative, and all around excited to help in any way. The landscape and grounds themselves are absolutely beautiful. This venue provided an extraordinary setting and unforgettable experience. Michelle and the restaurant staff helped make our experience more delightful. We had dinner at Vintner’s Table. Vintner’s table was elegant. We are so happy we chose Burntshirt and would highly recommend the venue.

After multiple venues either not responding once they found out it would be a LGBT wedding or was outrageously priced we knew we wanted something simple yet rustic and have flexibility to cut down on our budget that was already not enough. We reached out to Michelle the event coordinator at Burntshirt vineyard thinking no way we would this vineyard be within our small budget but we was very wrong Michelle reached out immediately and was very patient to answer my millions of questions it was meant to be!! Her and her staff was so amazing and helpful to easy as much stress as possible setting up the day of our wedding if you’re looking for a vineyard wedding be sure to check them out.

Burntshirt Vineyards was a fabulous place to have our wedding ceremony and reception! We had a small wedding of less than 90 people and we decided to have the ceremony outside on the patio and the reception inside the Summit event center. Deborah, the event manager, was awesome about helping us plan the wedding and answering questions about decorations, furniture, set-up, etc. We used their recommended vendors for several parts of the wedding--the Hendersonville tent rental & the caterer Luella's bbq, were especially fabulous. The wine is exceptionally good--we chose the 3400 red and the estate white blend. We really felt at home here on the vineyard. They have a lovely cottage you can rent as a "getting ready bridal party" area. I'm so happy we got married at Burntshirt Vineyard.

So we had our wedding in January, which is in the off season. We booked two nights in the Vitner Cottage and the terrace/event hall for our venue. I'll start with the positives, first and foremost it is an absolutely gorgeous spot. We had a small, under 60 people wedding and everyone fit with plenty of space on the terrace for the ceremony. The indoor part if the venue is spacious, yet cozy and has a beautiful wooden wine bar. The staff was attentive and friendly. Everything went fairly smoothly on the day off. I do, however, have a few complaints. Our rehearsal was canceled due to inclimate weather on the day of, and the only available solution was to either do it outside without help getting in or to go elsewhere. We ended up having it at our dinner location. The bridesmaids had planned on staying the night in the cottage before the wedding and were not given clear instructions on how to get on to the property. We spent an hour before finding the hidden gate, and had no way of getting in contact with anyone to instruct us in the right direction. The cottage is cute, however, there was not any hand soap, shower soap, or extra toilet paper. The beds are fairly comfortable though and it has a working kitchen. These are all pretty minor things that could probably be dealt with if I had communicated better. My biggest advice would be to splurge on a caterer though, as the one that is provided with the venue was pretty terrible. I've never seen so many unfinished plates at a wedding, and we were never offered a tasting. Our guests definitely enjoyed the wine, though! All in all, I would definitely recommend Burntshirt if you are looking for an intimate venue in the Blue Ridge Mountains on a lower budget. It was the most magical evening of my life thus far.

Out of town bride- I’ll make this at short but detailed at possible. I got married at Burntshirt June 2024 with 65 guests- we booked Burntshirt July of 2023. We met with Taylor, who was the event manager at the time. Husband and I discussed that we would come back to the venue in November for a food tasting and to discuss further details. September rolled around and we hadn’t heard from anyone. I reached out to Taylor (a few times before a response) only for her to say she’s not working there anymore. I got in touch with the restaurant and we set up a tasting. There was confusion as if they’d never done a tasting before. I had to be a little forward and show them the options and prices we were given. They did honor the original prices and options. There was still no event manager at this time, no real point of contact. The food tasting was great! The food was so good and I raved about it. We decided on Cajun chicken with a pepper and sausage cream, salmon with dill sauce, roasted potatoes and risotto. We asked the chef if we needed to find out what guests wanted for food. He said it would be no problem at all with the small guests count we had (later at the actual wedding my parents were told we were the biggest event they’ve had there soooo that is contradictory).
After a few months there was finally an event manager again (yes months of no one I could contact). Communication was spotty but things were fine. I did have to reach out multiple times with the same question before getting answers. Most of the time the answers were “I’ll look into that and get back with you” for things that as a wedding venue, should already be known. Two of the larger issues with communication were that: a planner was required which I was never notified about (I thankfully had a day of) and getting married in the vineyard was an additional $900 when I was originally told everything was included.
The cottage is included with the wedding venue for the night before and the night of the wedding. We were not able to view the inside, and I asked the event manager if she could give me any info. She mentioned I should receive an email the day before with info on getting in. We did not stay in the night before and I finally realized on Friday that we had not received any information. I reached out and an email came that was not readable (the format was weird and it was just symbols). I was texted the code to get inside, but I was not told the main gate was locked. So the morning of my wedding we went from gate to gate to get in. Took an extra 20 minutes, annoying but okay.
We were able to get in the day before and set up (all they had to do was ice beer and set out tables and chairs). While setting up we took a look at the alcohol and realized they shorted us. It was so uncomfortable but my husband went to the restaurant and had the manager come over. They apologized and said they would get us the correct amount and promised some extra alcohol for free because of the issue. We didn’t get the extra free alcohol, but they at least gave us what we paid for. Thank goodness we checked.
As for the wedding timeline I was adamant for a short 30 minute cocktail hour and then for food to be immediately served. My husband and I were then going to make our grand entrance, go right into our first dance, and then go immediately into reception music since everyone would be gathered outside on the dance floor. The food was over an hour late. We held off as long as we could and then ultimately had to make our entrance INSIDE and dance while people were eating. Even worse…. The food was bad. The risotto was over blasted and so so so bland, and the potatoes were not done. It was so bad we almost ordered pizza for the guests. Because the food was late this meant the dj had to extend cocktail hour with songs I didn’t approve/weren’t the vibe, our timeline was messed up and took away an hour of our reception time. I didn’t hear from anyone after the wedding, so I reached out after 4 weeks only for the event manager to say she’s no longer working there and would forward the information. It’s a beautiful place….. but they are not equipped to hold weddings.

I had a horrible experience. Throughout planning my wedding with them I had 3-4 different event managers due to people quitting or being let go. I was never informed of the new event managers when they were changed. I only found out because it would take weeks to months for a response from emails and calls and finally someone would reach out with the same excuse ‘sorry we have a new event manager’. It seemed as if EVERYTHING was a ‘miscommunication’ with the most recent event manager. Things were not done that were promised to be done on multiple occasions. She’s not personable or willing to go above and beyond. I had booked the vintners cottage for the night of the wedding and was told it would be open at 10am on my wedding day so everyone could get ready together. My hair stylist was there at 10am to get started, however, we could not get in the property. When I called Burntshirt they informed me they no longer own it and it will take some time for them to find the code to let us in. We finally got in at 11am. (So this put my hair/makeup stylist an hour behind schedule) It seems the company just wanted their money while putting in minimal effort on their end and didn’t care about the feelings I had. I was VERY disappointed in my experience working with them. I would highly recommend looking for a better vineyard if a vineyard wedding is your dream.

After looking at numerous venues in Western North Carolina, we booked with Burntshirt Vineyards for our reception and catering. This was about 10 months before our wedding. It should be noted that the venue we chose was the one in Chimney Rock, but that this venue is owned and run by the same people and the catering for the venue was to be provided from the kitchen in the Hendersonville location as the Chimney Rock location apparently did not provide catering. We chose this venue because of the gorgeous building and views. We signed the contract and paid our deposit immediately.

Several months before our wedding date, our wedding planner reached out to the venue and said that she could not get anyone to respond or to return her repeated calls and emails. She told us that she's been doing this for over a decade and a half or so and that a venue not responding was incredibly unusual. This went on for a couple of months. She ended up resorting to driving to the venue to find someone in person.

Fortunately, she was finally able to make contact with Burntshirt Vineyards shortly before the mandatory food and wine tasting that was to occur 30 days before our wedding. We made an appointment for our food and wine tasting and when we arrived, nobody had any idea who we were or was aware we were coming. No food was available to taste and we were offered a seat at the bar to try the wine along with everyone else. We were informed by the manager on duty that the employee who was initially responsible for our wedding reception had quit and that none of the information had been relayed to anyone else. We expressed our concern that our wedding was now only 3 weeks away and that we needed to work to make arrangements at the venue as soon as possible. Our wedding planner scrambled to make arrangements with the venue and after less than 24 hours, she told us that not only was Burntshirt going to provide catering, but that they were so sorry about the hassle and confusion that they were going to allow us to reserve the entire venue on our wedding night and dedicate the entire staff to our event. We were so relieved... Until less than 24 hours later.

With less than 3 weeks until our wedding day, we received a phone call from a lawyer from Burntshirt Vineyards stating that our reception and catering were CANCELLED. He explained to us that, because we had not paid for our invoice within 30 days of the wedding, we had technically breached the contract. We were shocked to say the least. We explained that the venue would not send us a bill without us first completing a food and wine tasting and choosing our menu and that we couldn't do this because the venue forgot about us. We explained that this occurred despite our best efforts to contact the venue for several months. This was news to the lawyer, who apparently hadn't heard these details from the owners.

A couple of days later, we heard back from the lawyer, who said that the venue was offering to create a new contract and to start all over from scratch. They offered no apologies and added that this contract would not include any of the benefits the venue had originally agreed to in order to make up for what they'd done.

Fortunately, a miracle happened. Our wedding planner reached out to Rumbling Bald, another venue in the Chimney Rock area that was our second choice and that we were kicking ourselves for not making our first. They had a church group that had reserved the venue that night, but they said they would see what they could do. They told the pastor our story and apparently, he told them that after everything we were being put through with Burntshirt Vineyards, that he would be happy to move his event to another location in the resort so that we could have our reception there. We moved not only our reception, but our wedding there as well. The staff was incredibly accommodating and said that with everything we'd been through, they were going to work hard to make sure we pull this off. The difference was night and day. People were reaching out to us and coordinating with us. The staff was friendly and responsive and accommodating. We were able to complete the food and drink tasting within just a couple of days. We told our wedding planner about how thrilled we were, and she said, "This is how a wedding venue is supposed to be!".

Like a miracle, just a couple of weeks later we had a beautiful and perfect wedding. Most of our guests only knew the venue had changed, but had no idea all the craziness we had to go through to make it work.

So ultimately we got very lucky and we are incredibly blessed for all the help and support we received from our wedding planner, friends, family, strangers, and the new venue we booked. But we did feel that it was important to make mention of what happened to us as a word of caution as this experience was terrifying and caused many tears, much stress, and a few sleepless nights.


Tl;dr

We booked with Burntshirt for our wedding reception venue. Our wedding planner couldn’t get ahold of them for months. We went to our scheduled/ mandatory wine/ food tasting and the staff didn’t know who we were or why we were there. The person responsible for our event had quit and nobody knew what was going on. The staff members were apologetic and attempted to accommodate us. Then, the Burntshirt owners had their lawyer call us just 3 weeks before our wedding date and try to get out of the contract on a technicality that was their fault and that we had no control over. We scrambled for the next 3 weeks and with the help of a different venue and some amazing people, we made it work anyway and we had a great wedding/ reception at the other venue. However, it was incredibly stressful, and we think it’s worth warning people about Burntshirt and their lack of empathy/ morals as a company.

Choosing Burntshirt as our reception was the worst mistake we've ever made. What is the worst thing that can happen before your wedding day? The venue cancelling 3 weeks before the big day, We were expecting guest from different states and countries that had booked their flights and stays. I was so emotional/stressed on finding a new venue or thinking of moving date so close to the wedding! We also had set dates with our vendors! My husband left heavy details of what occurred in another review. We wanted to share our story not just because we were so damaged from our experience, but because we wanted other couples to be aware and know what kind of company Burntshirt is and we did not want someone else to through what we did! We were so lucky and blessed that our wedding planner was able to manage to find a completely different venue just in time for our big day!