Hillwood at Davies Manor

It's been 2 years now, but I decided to finally review. Everything was actually pretty great before the wedding. Of course, the manager or whoever the person who shows you around was a little intense, but we just looked over it. There's TONS of rules, so be prepared to follow those. We got along with the manager despite her constantly saying "no," and us doing what she told us to. We were told that we would be contacted about our security deposit. I called and called. My mom called. I spoke to multiple people. I left messages. They told me I should have received a letter telling me if we would get the deposit back and why/why not. Well, it's been since December 28, 2018 (yes, 2018), and nothing. If they would just add the $1000/$1500 (I can't remember exactly how much) to the total I would rather have that than being lied to.

My friend had her wedding her last night. The venue is generally an overall nice looking place. Davies Plantation did well adding a reception hall for weddings and events. Though I do not know much about pricing and those matters, my friend did tell me that it was reasonably priced for a lower budgeted wedding. It assumingly accommodates up to 150-200 people. Her wedding in particular only had 114 and there was plenty of room to spare. Plus the location is nice.Settled in the middle of the old Davies Plantation, you are able to take some really nice wedding photos around the grounds. Ample opportunities especially since they preserved the old 'servant houses' and barns and what not. Well preserved and all still in tact. If I was still living in Memphis, I would consider this a top contender away from the typical Botanical Gardens or downtown.

I just toured this property yesterday. I am looking for an event venue for a military function in a few months. The lady working in the office give me a thorough tour of the place, as well as some of the history of the Davies plantation home itself. I thought the place was beautiful, yet rustic. It has a rustic barn feel but the white lights everywhere and the beautiful arch as you walk in really make it elegant. There is a nice bride and groom room that you can utilize pretty much in anyway, a full-size kitchen, bathrooms, a bar, a fireplace, and a baby grand piano. They have a long list of approved caterers that you can use. They also offer you 250 folding chairs and plenty of tables round and rectangle. No extra charge to use their tables and chairs (unlike some of their competitors). She went over some of the rules and regulations and gave me paperwork and her business card in case we decided to use this venue. She also informed me that when you have your event you are allowed to take pictures all throughout the property including in front of the Davies plantation home . I was very impressed and definitely have this at the top of my list!

Venue is very pretty. Customer service is horrible. They have refused to give us a refund of our deposit for a wedding we could not have due to corona virus restrictions. We decided that having a wedding during the middle of a pandemic would not be safe for our friends or family, so we decided to cancel our event and elope. We gave the venue plenty of notice and they refunded most of our money but refused to give back the deposit. This is crazy to me because the venue was not even allowed to be open on our wedding date so we couldn't have had a wedding either way. They gave us plenty of options to reschedule to a Thursday or Friday in the winter, or next year, but we decided to just elope. I would have thought that management would have had a little compassion for a bride that had to cancel her dream wedding and refund the deposit out of curtesy. All of our other vendors gave us full refunds with no questions asked, not because they had to but because they knew it was the right thing to do, but not Hillwood. Keep this in mind when you are considering this venue.

I had a short engagement of only 5 months, so finding a venue that fit into that time frame was proving to be difficult. That was, until I found Hillwood at Davies Manor. Not only was it one of the most affordable venues, it also came with chairs and tables at no additional cost. The staff was very helpful and returned our security deposit in a timely fashion.

I have attended many functions at Hillwood, and enjoyed them all. It has a very rustic and casual feel for Halloween festivals, birthday parties, etc. But it can be "dressed up" nicely for weddings and other special events, too. Whenever I think of Hillwood, it's with a smile on my face.

They kept part of our security deposit for a "clean up" fee. This is completely ridiculous! We were told there were two bags of trash including beer bottles and cans. We had a keg with plastic cups. How did neither us nor the caterer notice two bags worth of trash. No one came to set the alarm or lock the gate. My family and friends were there until 1 am cleaning up. Why were we not notified that there was trash? We had to call several times to see about getting our deposit back and each time we were told it was in the mail. No one said anything about the fact that we were not getting it all back. It wasn't until we received the check that we even knew something was wrong. I do not appreciate the way this was handled. The woman my husband spoke to was very rude and this is not the first time someone with Hillwood has conducted themselves this way. I would strongly advise against having your special day there! They could not give me a time when somebody came out to set the alarm or lock the gate (if any). There is no evidence of pictures of what she "picked up", no video if it ever happened. My family and friends stayed till 1am and it was spotless!! I called May 3rd and they said it was in the mail, I received the check on the 22nd. The check wasn't made out till May 7th and the note saying we left trash wasn't dated til May 18th. When my wife called the 18th they said it was mailed the 17th. All lies and thieves, I do not appreciate being hounded and treated the way we were. Why weren't we notified of the the trash the next day or the two days we called asking where our full check was. For all anyone knows it could've been teenagers/whomever came in but we get stuck with the bill. They don't deserve the one star we had to give.

This place was awful! I had my wedding there about a month ago and it was probably the worst experience besides David's Bridal! They hound you for a vendors list which clearly states that it should be turned in ten days prior. I had not finalized all my plans so I put the vendors I planned on using. They called every single one of them that day. I had already signed contract with most of them but how embarrassing for the ones I didn't. They also kept half of our security deposit because they said there were two bags worth of beer bottles and cans. We had keg beer served in plastic cups. We even called the caterer to ask because we did not want to complain if by some chance we were in the wrong and he was completely on our side. If there was any trash he would have seen it. Our family and friends even stayed two hours to clean up and make sure the place was spotless. Then I had to call and ask them to send the check for the deposit back and they did not mention anything about keeping part of it. We had no idea until we received the check in the mail which took about a month. Please save yourself the hassle. There are plenty of places that are just as pretty with much nicer and trustworthy people!

This venue was horrible!! Nacy who runs the place is only out to get our money and is no help. She pre-approved decorations for my wedding and the vender we were using then tells me a month before my wedding that he had a change in heart. Also they decided to change their contract after I already signed one and would not stop hassling me to sign the knew contract. I agreed to the original terms if they want to change policies they have the right to do so but I don't have to agree to anything new. We are still fighting with them about our deposit. It has been 3 weeks since my wedding an they told me they have 30 days to check the sight and mail the check. My contract says 10 days and why didnt they check the sight right after my event? I'm not responsible for anything done after my event. All in all they have been hell to deal with. I have used woodland hills for event and they are wonderful. I will never use Hillwood again. Hillwood is beautiful but the staff is horrible. Hillwood was the only vender I had issues with during my wedding. I would highly recommend looking at another venue.