The Lehmann Mansion: The Wedding Venue From H-E-Double-Hockey Sticks

Thank God the Wedding is Over!

If you want to be treated with common courtesy and human decency, please do NOT choose Baurer’s Catering or the Lehmann Mansion (they’re also the ‘exclusive’ caterer of the Cuneo Mansion). If you want to be treated like a bride, put down the pen and run while you still can.

Doreen and Eddie are unconscionable. If you were thinking of choosing this venue for the all-inclusive ease of planning, aka the ‘linens, rentals, catering and food are included,’ think again. EVERYTHING and I do mean everything is an upcharge. We have over 3k in upcharges.

- DJ needs a table? Up charge.

- Oh, you want to put a table cloth on said table? Upcharge.

- You would also like the ‘included’ high top tables have table cloths? Upcharge.

More note-worthy upcharges…

They won’t allow you to arrive any earlier than 1.5 hours before guests, which wasn’t even enough time for my vendors to set up — so queue the outrageous upcharges ($350 for DJ/florist to arrive an hour earlier).

Who Poisoned the Signature Drink?

Doreen told me explicitly in email and verbally that they could do a signature drink, “no problem,” as long as they have that alcohol on the bar, no charge, no worries. I thought great, awesome! Found a drink made using only what’s on the bar.

Then the week before the wedding, she sends me the final invoice with an upcharge buried at the bottom of the contact — signature drink — $400 — an upcharge. Sneaky, very sneaky, Doreen.

When I called and asked why, she said it was because “they have to order more of the specific alcohol used in the signature drink, in case everyone wants it. OK? So, regardless it’s the same amount of people drinking the same amount of alcohol, yet now it costs $400 extra… I don’t care if you ‘run out’ of the signature drink… When I forwarded her previous email to her showing in black and white where she reassured me it would cost nothing, she shot back with a new bold face lie. Now, it’s the lemon juice and sugar that cost $400?

The intimate 200-Person Wedding Tasting for the Lucky Brides & Grooms

In April (11 months after booking the venue and less than 2 months from the wedding date), we got a lovely email blast, sent to all of the 2015 brides and grooms (not blind copied either), stating that the only chance to taste your wedding menu — for which you’re paying upwards of $100 pp is on April 19th — a Tues. and if you can’t come, too bad, you don’t get to taste the food.

Sneaking in another upcharge:

They sat us 12 to a table (same as they do for the wedding) and it was SO tight, you’re practically on top of one another. We requested to do 10 people per table instead. Naturally, that’s an upcharge…Just FYI.

So much, for the intimate bride and groom tasting — there were literally 200+ people there. Eddie led the night and he’s so incompetent that he couldn’t even speak clearly or communicate any of the dishes he was serving. Several times throughout the night, he also blasted his employees explaining how ‘this was supposed to be prepared this way, not that way’ and yelled at one waiter, “you weren’t supposed to bring that out now!,” etc. etc. and he did this on the microphone, which he didn’t even know how to work. It kept screeching loudly. Way to instill confidence in your services Eddie; you can’t even get it together for your only tasting of the year for this venue.

The food was OK, nothing special, at all. And some of the apps were down-right disgusting, crab paste stuffed pea shells? Gross… Did I mention that you are not even allowed to choose the appetizers? They’re the “chef’s choice,” aka Eddie. So, despite how disgusting I thought some of them were and how tacky some were (meatballs served with a pretzel rod shoved through the center?), we had no say.

Another upcharge moment:

Half of the appetizer menu consists of ‘upcharge appetizer options,’ which they serve at the tasting. So, don’t fall in love with them unless you want those upcharges to keep adding up.

NOTE: There is no kids menu price — it’s $95 for chicken tenders. J (I am 99.9% sure it was only $30 when we signed our contract and they changed their mind and charged us full price.)

The Cake Catastrophe

Now, let’s cover the cake. The lovely, lovely cake that is included in your package. We drove from Schaumburg to Kenosha to have our cake tasting, in August — almost a year before our wedding. Fast forward to the aforementioned menu tasting 7 months later.

It’s at the 200-person menu tasting, that Doreen informs us that we need to redo our cake order with the one woman there tonight (fighting all of the other brides for a chance to speak with her) because she no longer owns the bakery. So, without complaint, I did.

Then, 2 weeks before the wedding, Doreen lays it on me that she can’t do our wedding cake and that I need to contact someone new (told me via email).

Backstory: It was an extremely unfortunate case, and I am entirely empathetic towards the situation — my heart goes out to her and her family — she got sick, and that’s why she was unable to do the cake, which frankly was none of mine or the other 2015 bride’s business, but Doreen shared this unfortunate story every one of us…It was even more unprofessional of her to use it against me and try skirt her responsibility as the venue coordinator to line up a new cake in time for the wedding. Instead, she laid on the guilt trip and made me figure it out, working with a rude lady, who was clearly pissed at the inconvenience and unwilling to help.

I spent the weeks before the wedding scrambling and pleading with this woman and Doreen, to please make the cake in the flavor we choose because we already printed 200 menus with it listed. We went back and forth with her telling me that she can’t do it and that the design would be $190 upcharge. Go figure.

Doreen and Eddie reluctantly ate $115 of the upcharge, and let me use their cake stand. Fine. But, there was literally an entire week of not knowing whether or not I would have a wedding cake, going back and forth with the cake lady trying to beg her to please make almond buttercream, so I could still use my menus. Throughout this week and a half from hell, they were both so rude to me. Just a reminder it was during a time that is stressful on its own, 2 weeks before the wedding. But Doreen didn’t care.

Check Please!

In the midst of this cake crisis, Doreen insists that I drive from my work in Woodridge to Lake Villa to drop off the venue checks. I told her I was busy at work and wouldn’t be able to get out there, but my generous mother offered to drive from Plainfield to the Lehmann Mansion — at which time Doreen told her over the phone that we could leave the checks under the front door mat because she leaves at 4:45. We drove 2 hours to get there at 9pm — the week before my wedding.

I arrived at the pitch black mansion. The gate was locked, and we had to walk a half mile in the dark woods up to the front door to leave the checks (no street lamps).

No Fountain, No Tent Draping, Lots of Problems

That’s when I saw all of the orange construction tape, construction horses, the beautiful three tier fountain that I paid my florist $300 to arrange flowers in, was gone and the draping in the tent was missing. I emailed Doreen to let her know how we trekked through the dark to get her the checks, and she couldn’t even offer up an apology or any type of empathy for the situation.

Nope, she would have never told me about the fountain either (which is broken and won’t be returned to the property). She could care less that we drove two hours to get there the week before my wedding, during the work week, after a long day and walked a half mile in the dark. No, she was pissed because apparently she had wanted us to drop them off at the Libertyville office (which she never told my mom). Sorry to inconvenience you Doreen…

The Worst Customer Service in the Wedding Industry

She is absolutely horrendous to work with. Eddie and Mary are completely MIA; they will never speak to you. You do not get the bride and groom treatment; you get treated like a complete nuisance. I’ve never spent more money in my life, and never been treated more poorly.

It was like walking on egg shells working with Doreen, because everything was a bother to her, she literally must hate what she does because she is a miserable person set on making every brides’ engagement and wedding stressful and miserable, every step of the way. Her title is event coordinator — the only thing she coordinates is nickel and diming the bride and groom every chance she gets to upcharge, causing unnecessary stress, and being as rude as possible to anyone she comes in contact with along the way.

Literally, all of my vendors know her — and she has a reputation for this type of behavior. I love the mansion. It is beautiful but definitely could use more upkeep (filthy, grubby windows, chipped paint, etc.). Sadly, it is not worth the year of agony leading up to the most important day of your life. If I had it to do all over, I would have gone somewhere else, anywhere else. This is my warning to you and any future bride or groom. Please, please spare yourself this yearlong headache. Find another venue and whatever you do, do not use Baurer’s catering.

The Deleted Yelp and Wedding Wire Reviews

I also wanted to share with you that I am not the only one to have experienced this unfortunate behavior. I admit it; I fell in love with the venue and ignored the warning signs. It really is perfect for a 1920s-themed wedding, and when I read countless reviews about Doreen being a nightmare to work with, but the wedding ending up being nice, I took the gamble. And, it wasn’t worth it.

They must have spent a pretty penny and a lot of time getting all of those deleted. Because it’s a year later and I was only able to find three, which I’m sharing here. There were dozens at minimum. All gone now.