To anyone that is even considering Maple Lodge Wanaka as a wedding venue, think again! I would hate for someone to have to go through what this place put us through. There are so many other venues that would allow someone's wedding day to be all that they dreamed of, and Maple Lodge defiantly is not one of these venues!
We used Maple lodge as our wedding venue, we loved the look of the venue and it was just what we had wanted for our wedding, however after having secured the venue by paying our deposit to Paul and Bernie everything nice about Maple Lodge changed. They continued to make promises they would not keep and deny that things were even discussed. From changing the time of our wedding a week before the wedding, not allowing our guests to arrive until only 15minutes before the wedding ceremony, too not even allowing our 14 guest's (who were staying in the lodge) to get into their rooms until after the wedding ceremony, with no negotiation of the guests to even be able to have one room before the wedding to get ready in (all these guests had travelled to be in Wanaka for our wedding). We were even given a voucher for a free case of bubbly wine when we booked the venue however they also denied any knowledge of this and were reluctant to provide what they had offered, luckily I had kept the voucher! On the wedding weekend, Paul and Bernie spent all of the day's wandering/storming/eagle eyeing (in shorts and sandals) our guest's and taking photos of everything and everyone without permission. Sadly, they ended up being in all of our professional photos! They continued to storm around during the wedding telling guests what they could and could not do and even asked my father (father of the bride) and MC to leave the venue on the day of the wedding because they didn't like their attitude! This was because the MC had asked if the only one toilet for all 120 guests could be cleaned. We paid around $1,000 extra to have a marquee set up for the wedding weekend, however during the BBQ the day after the wedding this marque was pulled down in front of everyone meaning that during a hot Wanaka day no one was able to enjoy what we had paid for! Before the wedding day the continuous changes were too stressful for me to deal with, there was no negotiation with Paul or Bernie and they continued to change everything to suit themselves with no consideration of us or our guests, it got to the point that I asked someone else to deal with them as it was just to much and all I wanted was our wedding day to be perfect. There were so many more things that happened however I think the above is enough to give you a clear picture. read more
