Honey Lake Plantation cancels wedding contracts

Several brides and grooms are scrambling to find new venues after learning Honey Lake Plantation Resort canceled wedding contracts.

Since Tuesday, Shiloh Farms owner Susanne Miller said she’s had to accommodate four or five tearful brides frantically searching for a venue amid a saturated wedding season.

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“I am doing my very best to hold these girls’ hand when they call me,” she said. “I’m getting calls constantly.”

Honey Lake has long been a scenic backdrop for private events and weddings in a secluded oasis enhanced by the 80-acre, spring-fed Honey Lake in Greenville. Owner Bob Williamson is putting the 4,552-acre property on the market for $22.24 million and devoting full-time attention to his Christian ministry.

Word of the property’s sale and unknown future created angst among employees, making it difficult for Honey Lake to staff events. Miller said she called Honey Lake’s general manager Jeff Clough to help ease the firestorm forming in local event planning circles.

“It’s a beautiful exclusive place but this is unfortunate,” said Miller, whose property has a 200-year-old chapel, a tea room for rehearsal dinners and 65 acres.

Clough didn’t return numerous calls from the Tallahassee Democrat. It’s not known how many contracts were canceled.

In an May 8 Democrat article, brokers and marketing professionals working with Honey Lake said existing contracts would be honored and some dates were still available for booking. However, hours of operations were drastically reduced to only accommodate private events on Friday and the weekend.

“We are as shocked as anyone that they canceled bookings far earlier than they said. In fact, I found out through an acquaintance who had an event in July booked,” wrote Erica Hanway, marketing director for Jon Kohler & Associates, in a Thursday email to the Democrat.

Eric Godin and fiancee Tracy Taylor are getting married on Sept. 6, and they entered a contract on Jan. 27 with Honey Lake for use of the chapel main gathering room.

By Wednesday, without notice, the couple received a call stating their contract was being canceled due to a lack of staff, Godin said. They preferred an indoor wedding but outdoor nuptials may be their new reluctant plan.

Godin said they reserved the Honey Lake property for $7,500 plus food expenses, and Honey Lake’s management has promised to cut a check for a returned deposit. He was told Honey Lake didn’t have enough people to keep the venue open.

“We have a back-up venue. We’re pretty upset for a number of reasons,” Godin said.

Rebekah Kuczwanski, owner of RK Event Design in Tallahassee, said Honey Lake’s sudden decision has created stress-filled ripple effects and “it’s the most traumatic thing I’ve every had to watch a bride go through in my 12 years.”

One client booked in February for an Aug. 8 wedding. In early May, Kuczwanski said the client switched a reserved room for another, and there was no inkling of a contract cancellation.

On Tuesday, six days after the contract was amended, her client was told the wedding contract was canceled.

“They are devastated. We literally have to plan the entire wedding in two and half months,” Kuczwanski said. “It’s supposed to be a happy time and this is awful. Just awful.”

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