Gretnaweddings Reviews 20

We booked a wedding package for just us and our 2 miniature dachshunds staying in one of the cottages, the cottages sounded lovely and perfect for our 2 night stay.
What a disappointment, the wallpaper was hanging off the wall, the carpet was absolutely disgusting with patches of dirt and stains all over it and the furniture was a disgrace, the tv cabinet was falling to bits and incidentally the tv didn’t work, after looking around I went straight back to reception to complain, they sent the housekeeper to look and he told me that he was aware of the wallpaper hanging off the wall which was caused by the air con leaking, he had reported it but it hadn’t been sorted, as for the carpet! He said if we took the dogs out for a walk he would try and wash the carpet, I pointed out that the carpet needed replacing and there’s absolutely no way he could clean it while we were out walking our dogs so off he went, 5 mins later a young lady arrived with an ice bucket, 2 glasses and a bottle of fiz,she said it was sent with the hotels compliments, I said it’s going to take more than a bottle of fiz to fix this so she said she would get someone to come asap, 5 mins later another person arrived, he came into the cottage, looked around and said, I am so sorry, your complaint is valid but we are full and there’s nowhere to move us to, perhaps we can move you tomorrow so he said he would come and see us in the morning, off he went leaving us speechless in the grotty place, the next day we got married, the lovely private wedding that we had planned was ruined leaving us just wanting to get out of the place, incidentally we had no visit or phone call from the guy who had come the night before!
When we checked out I complained once again and spoke with a lady who said it was the first she had heard about it, she said she would look into it and contact me.
We paid £1365 for a 2 night stay in the cottage, this included a meal after the wedding at a cost of £180 and 2 breakfasts in the main Hotel, we also paid the fee of £540 to the registry office to conduct the official part of the marriage
I received an email last night saying they were giving us a £50 refund! This insult feels like a slap in the face and I will not be leaving it at that.
They did offer us a free overnight stay in the hotel which I turned down because why would I want to re live Gretna Green and it took us over 4 hours to drive there.
I am attaching photos for you to see for yourself!
I was hoping to upload photos but I carnt find how to do it!

Everything was well organised and staff were expertly helpful. We married at the blacksmith's shop with no guests and a couple of staff as witnesses. It was ideal and we would thoroughly recommend Gretna Green Weddings!

Me and my wife were married using gretna wedding bureau and they were brilliant. Everything was sorted out leaving us to just enjoy our day, can't recommend them enough.

We had our wedding day yesterday 4th January 2025. Our special day was even more memorable with thanks to our registrar Stuart (whom put us both at ease and gave us the story of Gretna’s ceremonial history) and Bill Black, our photographer (whom was very experienced and able to direct us and our guests so that nothing was missed). We were married in the Gretna Hall Coach House where I was able to walk down the aisle which was very emotional for everyone involved. I think we would have struggled to make our day any more perfect as everything just fell into place.
We stayed in the Bensmore Suites along with our two dogs, which made our day all the more magical.

Our experience was amazing and I highly recommend. We stayed at the Gretna Hall Hotel and married at the Famous Backsmiths shop. We wanted something small and different and we couldn’t fault anything. If you’re thinking of marrying at Gretna Green - DO IT!! 😀 Beautiful place and lovely people. Wish I could turn back the clock to our wedding day! so that we could do it all over again. Will definately renew our vows back here in the future.

We didn't meet with any wedding planner at any time on our 2 day stay.
I had to ask the receptionist all my questions, to get answers. (December 2023)
The room very dark and in need of redecoration, A light fitting was loose, shower curtain so high that floor got wet. Rooms need updating badly.
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The photographer was scruffy and didnt seem to be very interested,and our photos were poor, (eyes shut on one photo) so disappointing.

But on a plus note, our
Wedding was excellent in the original marriage room with a nice registrar and 2 staff witnesses
Gretna Green get your act together, this was our and other couples special day.
Strange how we haven't received a notice too review our stay at Smiths Hotel, and the photographer.

How anyone can sleep at night taking £700 off you I will never know. Wanted to charge me £100 to downgrade. (My wedding was 2 years in the future so they hadn’t done ANYTHING yet and still wanted to charge extra.
Wasn’t happy for a while with a few different bits.
Go somewhere else xx

Booked my wedding here this summer and can’t say a bad word.
The staff were excellent.
The venue was unreal.
The registrar was first class, put us at ease and was a top bloke to boot.

We booked our wedding quite last minute, about five weeks before we got married. Lesley was our contact for the booking which was so so simple. We got married in the blacksmith shop by a minister booked by Lesley who was perfect too. After booking, you have to fill in a form and send your certificates to the registrars office, Lesley helps with all this too. The ceremony was full of love and laughter and the room was so so pretty with 0% tack. I’ve never been to Gretna before, but having read the reviews I didn’t have high expectations. But I was so wrong, the people were so friendly, the place was beautiful. Everything ran so so smoothly. I didn’t expect the included photographer to produce pictures as beautiful of the ones that arrived through the post at home in a gorgeous album four days later! After the ceremony we moved outside for photographs. Yes there were visitors around us but they stayed behind our invited group of guests. They clapped and cheered and wished us congratulations. We then walked over to place a padlock on the LOVE wall. This was followed by afternoon tea at Smiths Hotel. Yet again, this surpassed expectations the food was excellent. The staff were so attentive and being just 100 yards away from the blacksmith shop. It was perfectly located for us all to park and meet. I couldn’t recommend that you get married at Gretna Green any more . I want to do it all over again 🤣 and even some of my guests have said they plan on coming back to renew their wedding there. Thank you so much to all of you who might read this who made our day so perfect.

Booked our wedding at the coach house and stayed in gretna hall hotel, our deluxe double wedding bedroom turned out to be 2 single beds pushed together with 2 separate single mattresses that you fell down the middle, we went to speak to reception and the lady at the desk smugly told is that 23 was one of their best rooms, i said to her the room is dirty with food over the floor and the bedding on the made up bed was all stained brown, we told them that this was our wedding night and totally unacceptable to sleep on the 2 single beds, they eventually changed us to a different room, although smaller at least their was a real double bed and i didn't have to fear losing my new husband down the crack, gretna hall ruined my wedding day i was so upset with everything, i would definitely tell people to avoid, only solace i can take from it is that one day I'll renew my vows far far away from gretna hall.

I’d like say something bad about the Bureau, Gretna Green’s most experienced wedding planners NOT!!! but, the truth is I can’t, they are so incredibly unprofessional that the service they provide is off the scale. Rebooked our hotel without consulting us first then when we had problems simply chose to ignore us stating they cannot get involved!! They also apparently never update any records of any new contact numbers you provide as again not policy. In truth our wedding day was perfect but only because of the love we shared with friends in the day. I can share emails of the abuse I received from them when I dared to question anything, had to chase up photos as they sent everything to me wrong address! Ask the DVD service they provide isn’t actually a DVD as they boast. I’ve just received a memory stick in post that I obviously can’t play on a DVD player. Took to a friends house to use on his computer only to discover the stick won’t play due to formatting issues. Will you undoubtedly be my fault again.
Trust me if I had my time again I would invest my time in travelling there to interview the people who own business type service I’d want I.e hotel, photographer etc as all you ever hear is the bureau have no control over external companies. If that is the case how can they book them initially, change them to suit themselves yet can’t answer any questions……. Pathetic

What a fantastic wedding company from start to finish, our day was amazing. The Hotel was good, nice room, lovely staff, great food, nice area. My wife had hair and makeup as part of the package, the two ladies from beauty matters were fantastic, my wife looked beautiful and was singing there praises. Auchen Castle well this place is magical. The limo driver Ian was superb, on-time, so kind, a gorgeous stretched white jaguar was spotless with gorgeous ribbons attached made us feel so special. The bagpipe player Callum Watson was amazing, he played to us as we arrived and down the isle, then to celebrate our marriage. Mark the pastor gave a beautiful service and also allowed us to add in our own vows. The photographer was fantastic, so professional, he took many photos for us all showing off the beautiful venue and that was lovely. The staff so friendly and thoughtful. Upon driving onto the grounds you see beautiful trees either side. Water running beneath, a bridge over an old railway. Then as the castle comes into view it takes your breath away, with gorgeous rolling hills surrounding. Will definitely come and stay for our anniversary. A place to remember. A real gem. Gretnaweddings.co.uk we want to say thank you for delivering our special day as much as we had hoped for ❤️. John & Carley

Just a heads up, do not for the love of God go to the gretna wedding bureau! I have never I'm my life been spoken to on a phone like that! She bashed the photographers mentioning that they're rubbish and that they're unprofessional and they're just bad business because they have no mark up on their photos. Genuinely in a state of shock and upset here because all I wanted was to have a photographer on the day that wasn't associated with the company. She repeated that in her 50 years of owning her business there's never been one person to request to have a different photographer. Yet 2 hours prior on the phone she said I could quite happily have the photography package off! The general manner the way she spoke to me was abhorrent. So much so I got off the phone call and cried. Sorry to say she's just lost 2k worth of business. Suppose it's her that's running a bad business. So if you decide to go with them and you don't want something prepare to be spoken to like dog muck.

As others have reiterated when things don't go to plan I.E. expecting us to go ahead with 5 people for our wedding, they are little to no help they will ignore emails and phone calls are pointless because the manager never seemed to be in when we called.

When we did get through to the manager she explained the deposit had already been spent and that business's are struggling at the minute all to justify the amount of deposit they took. However she wouldn't explain what it was spent on or show us any receipts on request.

Our wedding had changed from 20+ to 5 at short notice which is essentially the Groom, bride and a witness. When we couldn't do that nor change to a later date (which would include a change of date fee) they refunded us all but £1000 in the end which they took for a deposit for a wedding they couldn't even provide and effectively cancelled themselves because the inital contract was for 20 people so a major breach of terms, rendering the contract pointless!

Don't take information as gospel truth because other members of staff initially told us the amount we had to forfeit as a deposit was less than half of what they took in the end.

Emails afterwards are ignored. I have been advised that this is a major breach of contract and continuing to seek legal advice, citizens advice have already notified trading standards.

Horrible company should be ashamed of themselves putting me through all this in my heartbroken state all the lies and delay never needed to be like that a contribution to my fiance's charity I would of excepted .Thinking that they was going to profit from my fiance's death and claim on insurance made me so angry and upset Never use this company NO HEART!!!

If I were being absolutely honest this company would not be getting one star!
I am writing this review on behalf of my sister, who very sadly and tragically lost her beloved fiance on Christmas day 2020. They had booked their wedding package through the Gretna Wedding Bureau in the spring of 2019 and had paid in full. With the pandemic hitting us in 2020 they were contacted to postpone or cancel their wedding for May 2020 and chose the keep the date and wait a year. 2020 ended tragically with my future brother in law collapsing and passing away on Christmas morning, with my sister grieving and heartbroken. I took on the task of cancelling their planned wedding.

On the 28th December I called up and spoke to Irene who was helpful but insisted I penned an email and sent in outlining what had happened and to officially cancel the booking, some 2 weeks had passed and no response from the company, so I decided to call as I wanted the cancellation and refund dealt with prior to my brother in laws funeral. I spoke with Jackie the first and only time I had spoken over the phone, she informed me they needed a copy of the death certificate to enable them to claim any losses through their insurance company, I duly sent a copy over that afternoon and when the refund came in it was £400 short? £300 deposit and £100 for the sort notice!!! This is where my emails and waiting began, I was not prepared to let them keep £400 nor allow them to claim losses by using my brother in laws death certificate!

£100 was refunded as Jackie had made an error, but they were adamant that the £300 was non refundable, they would not even consider donating it to a charity in my brother in laws memory. So I preserved with email after email, firstly requesting a breakdown of their costs lost, too which they could not provide, so Jackie made up the costs, it was then we got in touch with that provider and low an behold after 4 months a cheque landed on my sisters doormat, no I'm sorry for your loss, not a word!!

I have now taken the liberty of reporting them to Trading standards Scotland not only for their business practices but also by asking for a death certificate to enable them to make false claims.

My advice is too not give up thats what they want you too do, persevere with polite emails and do your research, we got every penny back eventually and you will too.

So during the covid 19 crisis you would expect any decent company to do the right thing for their customers, but let me tell you how this rolled.
Nieces wedding planned for 9 May 2020, postponed, can’t be helped, agreed however found out on face book whilst on her hen weekend. Imagine how that landed!
Called auchen castle for a refund of £635 pounds for refund of the rooms I had booked. Told couldn’t have cash as wedding date would move, bearing in mind the wedding day has moved a year now and they want to keep my cash for that long. Explained i may not be able to attend next date so would like a refund as not happy them keeping my cash for well over a year, al re book. I was told they would need to check with the owners and call me back. No call returned.
Several emails later and several excuses from them we agreed on a bank transfer, over a week later i am still waiting!
Now I understand that we have a crisis on and staff working from home, this is a leisure facility but also I need you to understand I have a family member also booked and asked for a refund and he got completely different excuses as to why they can’t refund.
If you are going to lie to customers them keep it consistent across the board. Absolute deceit on their part and absolutely terrible service. Would i be bothered if it was £50, prob not and now for me it’s the principle. Many folk are struggling through this crisis and could do with a return of their funds to see them through...
Disgusted at the service from these people and I have now emailed again for a response as to what’s happening, I don’t expect a reply or a refund due the way they are conducting their business so next step to claim back through my card company.
If your planning your special day or attending as a guest then be very careful how you lay your cash out to these guys. My suggestion would be give it a very wide berth.
Obviously my own opinion on current circumstances.

Awful experience with Gretna Wedding Bureau so far!! As my fiance was saying above, the treatment has been appalling since we've tried to cancel...we tried cancelling over a year in advance. There has been absolutely no service provided so far yet they refuse to refund even half of the money they've received. After reading the lady's comment above I'm so glad we didn't pay them anymore of our hard earned money and been left dissapointed with photos. Have asked to speak to the owner of the company and have been told "no he's terminally ill".....I would advise anyone to make absolutely sure you want to book with this company first and do your homework before any money is put down because you won't get money back and you are just cast aside like a nuisance. Family and friends are disgusted. The bureau is located on the main street in Gretna Green...honestly just keep walking by.

We had booked our wedding package with Gretna Weddings in February 2017 we hadn't decided which package to go for so opted for the runaway package. Although when we had decided Jackie(the sales woman kept asking if we were going with the more expensive package. We paid our deposit of £300 and left.

We upgraded our package a few weeks later and I paid £500 towards the balance of the wedding. In August we went back to Gretna to change our date which was an additional £100 and we downgraded our package again at the same time. So in total we had paid £900 to them which then mean our balance was almost paid.

Due to personal circumstances we decided to cancel our wedding and we went in to speak to them to explain and get our money back, we said the we wanted to cancel and were ushered up the back of the shop out of the way. Jackie then told us we would only be due back £100 as we had paid a £700 non refundable deposit and £100 to change the date.
Dumb struck we left both of us breaking down later in the car.
We later sent an email and called disputing this fact with her and all we get in response is read your terms and conditions on the letters sent. I have done, in the first letter it states that all deposits are non refundable which we don't dispute we paid £300 deposit and aren't looking to get that back or the state change money either we are looking for the £500 additional payment that they claim is another deposit although it doesn't say that on their invoice letter for the payment!.
We are still out of pocket £500 and wanted to speak with the owner to see if could come to an agreement but we have been stone walled. He is sick we have been told.

We will be consulting a lawyer and recommending to everyone we know never to use both of his companies (which are two doors apart)!

I have to share because I don't want anyone else's wedding photographer to be as bad as mine.

The Gretna Wedding Bureau sent a photographer who turned up late, had no time to talk to us. We went into the ceremony but he did not come in till half way through, took a few dismal photos and left. He met us outside, took some more disappointing photos and left, his total time with us was 15 mins max.

He gave us no direction and didn't wait until we were in position to take photos. It was windy but he would not wait for the wind to die down, or let me sort my dress out, before taking a few snaps. I asked him to take lots of photos as we were paying an extra £150 for a cd of the pics, he did not.

We collected them the next day from the Wedding Bureau Shop where it was obvious someone had been smoking in there all morning. This was not acceptable.

In total we paid £335 for 50 naff photos. The lady told us our photographer had picked the best 16 for our album. He had picked the worst! The very first photo at the front of the album was the worst anyone had taken of us! He clearly has no experience.

If I was doing it again I would book a local photographer who would spend the whole day with us for £335, and would take pride in his work.

0/10 Gretna Wedding Bureau, very disappointed :'(