Johnathan K.
4/5
Beautiful venue and everything worked out well, would have our wedding here again. Gretchen was great to work with and super nice and helpful! Only complaints were that one of the other staff was a little difficult to work with and not flexible at all. They have a whole downstairs area dedicated to the bridal party to get ready. The contract does state (to be fair) that we could not use it until 9 am, but because our ceremony was earlier than normal the girls needed to start getting ready at 7 am. Despite no one else being there or needing the area (we had already setup the night before, it was a Friday wedding because that was the best available) this guy was unwilling to let them in a little early. It would have been extremely easy to do and changed nothing for anyone, but we had to make some pretty major adjustments and put added stress (driving across town, limited time) on the bridal party, mothers, and other vendors (photo and video). Luckily the other vendors were very flexible and made up for it as Brookside was the only vendor that gave no flexibility. Other complaint is that by booking Brookside you have to use their bar option, which is a little pricier and also very inflexible (they say you can swap out one cocktail for another, and we asked for one very simple swap from one common cocktail to another and they said no). We would have spent a third of the cost on alcohol at the other venue we were considering that allowed us to bring our own alcohol.
Despite these complaints I wanted to make others aware of, the overall experience was good. In addition to my own wedding I have been to another wedding here, and it is an amazing venue. It is perfectly set up for weddings of 100-175 people and is both very rustic feeling but also clean, cozy, and classy. Lots of great spots on the premises for photos as well (photographer Brittaney Brandt is very familiar with the venue and we highly recommend her).