Truthfully, I would give them a 0 star review if possible. I hosted my wedding with Ecklin in May 2024 and it quickly became the worst decision my husband and I made for our wedding.

TLDR: They screwed us over, were described by multiple vendors of ours as “the most unprofessional vendor they had ever worked with,” and then failed to even turn on the AC in their venue on the hottest day of May ahead of 240 people coming to a wedding reception leading to insane heat during our reception and people passing out from heat exhaustion.

We originally toured the Stevens Ballroom and I fell in love with the aesthetics, but there were a few big issues for us: 1. It’s not truly ADA accessible, even though there is an elevator it requires going up 10 ish steps to get there (not their fault its an old building we get it), 2. The venue is above residential apartments and therefore their sound rules are truly crazy with a requirement for keeping any music under 70 dB which frankly is impossible in a venue space meant for up to 300 people, something my audio engineer husband and I expressed, being as 70dB is less than 300 people gathered in a room speaking with no music, 3. The space has no ability to “flip” between ceremony and reception, unless you drape the room in half and then it is no longer capable of holding more than maybe 100-120 people comfortably on either side. Anyway, we expressed those concerns and were told “oh well we have a venue opening in August of 2023 (9 months prior to our wedding date) that will alleviate all these concerns, its larger, in downtown in its own building therefore no sound restrictions, and ADA accessible. We went to go tour this new venue, which would become Trust 46 and fell in love. We were told it would be open in August and there was already a large event scheduled for early December and they have renovated numerous properties in the area and therefore are “experts” in navigating the renovation game. Okay sweet, lets get a contract signed. Here is where red flag one came up, and I am still kicking myself not for bailing here. They give me numerous excuses as to why they cant get me a contract, but ASSURE me there is not going to be an issue, even going so far as giving both verbal and written assurance from the event coordinator and her boss that we were set and could go forward in booking other vendors in the area, most importantly our wedding block at the nearby hotel which included a nonrefundable significant monetary deposit. We spend about 2 months trying to get a contract, at which point red flag number 2 comes up where we realize this company is extremely unresponsive and unprofessional in their communication. It’s now early July 2023 and I have been left on read for a few weeks regarding this contract AGAIN, when I check the Ecklin events website, as I had become accustomed to doing to make sure there weren’t any updates on the construction I was missing since the employees were so unresponsive to my emails or my wedding planners emails. At this point I see that the opening now says November instead of August 2024. I obviously freak out and set up a call with the staff, who ASSURE me they just hit a snag with some permits for the HVAC and it won’t be an issue, they’re still on for their December event. Flash forward to November, at this point my wedding planner had been emailing with Ecklin nearly weekly (and very frequently not get a response for a few weeks). She called me to tell me Ecklin had just called her and informed her that the venue would not be opening in time for our wedding, but they could guarantee the Stevens Ball room for us that day. Mind you our wedding was Memorial Day weekend, a notoriously busy wedding weekend and finding another venue this late was frankly impossible, believe me I tried. SO we were left with no real choice. We scheduled a call with the event coordination staff and their superiors as well as myself and my husband and our wedding planner to express all of our frustrations and concerns and to get clarity on the situation. Not once during this call did anyone on their staff apologize or even express their understanding of how frustrating this was for us, they simply said they were very disappointed not to be opening the venue on time. When we discussed that the Stevens Ballroom had many serious concerns for us, namely the sound restrictions given we had already booked at 10 piece band and paid a nonrefundable deposit, their only response was “yeah, no you won’t be able to have a 10 piece band, we might be able to make an acceptation for a smaller band, but definitely not a 10 piece.” Luckily, our band was amazing and had also had multiple bad experiences with Ecklin screwing over their brides and grooms in the past, they switched us to their smaller band with no fee to accommodate. My wedding planner asked if they would be giving us a discount on the venue given the hell they had put us through and that it was not our first choice venue that they had now pigeon-holed us into, the staff agreed and said they would need to discuss what that looked like. Flash forward to getting our contract for the ballroom, and it is now significantly more expensive then when we originally toured (new 2024 pricing had been implemented) so that even the with the 10% discount they offered us the venue would be costing a good few thousand dollars more than originally anticipated. When my planner brought up that we should be given the old pricing since it is their fault we didn’t sign this contract 6-8 months earlier at those prices, they said that was not possible end of story. We now go to tour the venue, and immediately my planner and our caterer say, there is no way you can host a 200-250 person event in this room with both a reception and a ceremony safely. The space is just not big enough. So their staff replies with “many couples chose to do their ceremony at the Conestoga Gardens then come here for the reception.” Oh goody, now we’re going to be charged for 2 venues AND have to pay for transportation for our guests between the two, totaling an additional 8-10k increase to our budget. Ecklin doesn’t seem to care, as usual. But again we have no other choice, invites have already gone out to 260 guests and our vendors are booked so here were are. Throughout the next few months leading up to the wedding we now have numerous vendors expressing independently to us that they are not able to get responses from Ecklin when they reach out to finalize things and that frankly the Ecklin event coordination staff are the least professional vendors they have ever worked with. However, the worst part is the day of the wedding. We have a gorgeous ceremony at the gardens, our other vendors truly knocked it out of the park, and you cannot argue that the venue itself is gorgeous. But it is the hottest day in may >90 degrees, part of the reason I never wanted an outdoor wedding ceremony, but its fine were going indoors for the party. We arrive to the Stevens ballroom, where they knew we would be having 240-250 people for a wedding reception with dancing, and it is hotter inside than it was outside. My wedding planner informs me that when she got there just ahead of the guests the Ecklin staff had not yet turned the AC on, since guests were not there yet. She asked them to turn the AC on immediately as it is impossible to cool a room that size down while there are actively 240-50 people inside, thats just basic physics. Needless to say it was hot as all hell for the entirety of our reception. My father had to physically open the windows to the ballroom to get some air flow, my sister in law as well as another guest passed out due to heat exhaustion, my husband was sitting with moist towelettes on his neck and face to try not to pass out, and I had to change out of my wedding dress into my afterparty dress after our first dance so as not to pass out from heat exhaustion, something I was devastated to be doing. Was my wedding wonderful and did we make the most of it? Yes. Would I ever recommend anyone to work with this organization or host an event at any of their venues? NEVER. Our wedding was beautiful and special DESPITE Ecklin and thanks to all of our other wonderful vendors, family and friends. And now they have the audacity to use our photos on their website and instagram to promote their venue, ABSOLUTELY NOT. If you are a bride, DO NOT WORK WITH ECKLIN!!! I know their venues are pretty, they truly are, but it is not worth it for the most special day of your life to work with such unprofessional people who truthfully don’t care about you or your wedding experience.