From a newlywed bride to a future bride:
If you are looking to have your dream wedding with all of your close family and friends, great company, great music, and great vibes, DO NOT BOOK with Villa Riposo. It is a beautiful property and it fit my husband and I’s wedding style (tuscan villa with lush florals and vineyards) but the owner is very unpleasant to work with. If you do work with her, it will be push and shove and very unnatural. You won’t feel like your wedding is in her best interests, she just wants to protect herself.
WHY?
My husband and I had to cancel our first venue due to COVID-19 restrictions and we luckily found Villa Riposo on Airbnb. The Airbnb rooms were beautifully decorated and they were perfect for bridal suite photos. There is also a barrel room on-site where the groomsmen can take photos. The property has a ceremony lawn, barrel room for cocktail hour or catering, with a built-in bar and pool/jacuzzi.
Working with a licensed restaurant and unlicensed private property owner had its pros and cons. Delyse’s contract was initially one-sided to protect her from any liability and we had to make several adjustments to the contract to ensure it benefited both parties. She is technically not licensed to run weddings here. If you truly want to rent her space, it is only good for quiet, boring, and intimate dinner parties, but nothing of loud nature. Shoot, a bluetooth speaker is not technically allowed either.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS LENGTHY TERRIBLE REVIEW?
I had my wedding on 5/29/21 and I’ve experienced tremendous emotional distress and PTSD from having my wedding here. I have lost sleep and had to consult in therapy sessions due to her presence at my wedding.
My bridal party and guests did an amazing job with making this about MY big day and they really helped distract me from what was actually happening at the venue.
Delyse bent the rules on her contract and throughout the process, she couldn’t remember what she had agreed to.
Our contract stated we were allowed a DJ to play from 4PM-9PM and to comply with county ordinance laws (which is 90 decibels) and that Santa Clara County quiet hours is 10PM-7AM. Yet at our final walkthrough, she couldn’t remember that she agreed to our contract to have a DJ. During the wedding, she came out and harassed our DJ at least a dozen times to lower his voice and lower the speakers throughout the whole day. Even though our DJ was playing at 90 decibels, it was still too loud for her. At first I wondered why the DJ was speaking so low and timid, but now it made sense why when I kept seeing Delyse come out at all times of the day (BEFORE 9PM) to talk to the DJ.
My guests barely heard any of the toasts, barely heard our first dance, and barely danced because the music was at “dentist office background noise”.
On top of that, our contract stated that we were allowed a bluetooth speaker from 9PM-10PM. One of my guests played music yet Delyse told him to turn off the music at around 9:40PM. This is all before County Ordinance hours went into effect.
This was a total buzzkill. Our wedding guests may have “appeared” to have a good time, they only did it knowing this was MY day and had to make It fun for me. Our guests all noticed how often she was coming out and harassing our DJ and it put everyone in a funk.
Another thing - there was insufficient lighting at her ceremony lawn bathroom so one of my guests fell and sprained her ankle.
She is the type of owner who likes to be unbothered but has control issues because it’s “her contract and her property. She can do whatever she wants”. We needed access to the barrel room and access to turn on the lighting in the pergola. As a “venue owner”, these instructions should be presented to us. We shouldn’t have to text her and bother her with all these minor requests.
She has accused our guests of cussing at her when she was the one who initially cussed at our guests for calling her out on her flawed contract.
I do not support this victimization because we are the victims of this terrible venue experience. Save your time, stress, and energy with your big day and please go with a licensed venue.