Tuolumne River Lodge

Getting married is a very big experience. Finding where, how, & when to get married adds to the stress. Not to mention coming up with the large lump some of money that it takes to pull off an event like this. My wife ultimately is who chose this and would communicate with Bridgette B Gee directly. Long story short, we had to cancel in order to place bigger financial burdens up front. We booked early 2019 around march. Scheduled for late 2020. Due to obvious unforeseen circumstances due to COVID, dates had to change. Events had to be rescheduled. We all as humans were affected. We understood. We chose to move on with our goals and continued to achieve them. 1 big one getting pregnant. We ultimately in 2021 decided to cancel. We started the cancellation process, and this is where everything went down hill. We had contracted Bridgette for everything. Setting up. Cleanup, decorating, everything. So ultimately a lot of the money was handled and given to Bridgette directly for her services. The lodge refunded us the money "after" they took a cancellation percentage. No biggie. Bridgette on the other hand, began taking us on a long awaited roller coaster. Due to me working in ag, I worked 80 hour weeks 7 days a week, so I had left my wife in charge of the cancellation. Because we had received nothing but a few 100$ from February to September 2021 that's when my wife suggested we'd go to small claims court. To which Bridgette scoffed at claiming she'd no longer communicate with my wife as I was who's name was on the contract. She explained she was waiting on a lawsuit to one of the vendors. However, upon that February meeting in 2021 she mentioned she had 10k in credit for floral arrangements. And due to her also having bills she'd split the cash as every event she booked a percentage would go to us until the debt was paid. Surprise. We received nothing. She stopped answering my calls. Stopped wanting to meet in person. Claimed she got COVID idk how many times and that she was going through life changing events. No refund. No checks. No status updates. No real documentation to prove anything. Mind you were going on 2 years. I more than anyone understand and was affected by COVID in a huge way. Fast forward this year she claimed august she'd receive a check and we'd be paid the remaining balance. Today is October 7th and nothing. Today after 1 week of calling, sending messages, she finally responded. Why you may ask? Because I said I'd be stopping by in person. Guess what? She has an event going on, and claimed, you guessed it. More life changing events that happened that kept her from communicating to me at all. Yet events are being booked. Events are being coordinated & executed. & me and my family of 6 is left on the back burner. We are pursuing this through small claims court. This has been extremely stressful. With the run around, with the lies, with false hope. We are thankful that although we experienced COVID as everyone else did, I was fortunate enough to attain a new job that paid more and has given me more time off than I am used to. Because of this I am thankful that God blessed us financially to be stable and not struggle without the remaining thousands Bridgette owed us. Otherwise that may very well could have caused us to lose both vehicles, & even our home. All due to false hope of money Bridgette claimed was on the way, but at this point I feel like it never was. We went on this journey for 2 years. I advice you to not do business. I rarely ever air out anyone's dirty laundry, but if this can save anyone some heart and headache, I hope this is your sign. A sign to NOT do business with Bridgette Gee.

This picturesque place is amazing. I have attended quite a few events at the lodge. The wedding ceremony was breathe taking down on the lower lawn under the trees. Made for good shade in the late summer, the grounds were kept up and made photos amazing as there were no bad angles for back drop behind guests. They have an annual crab feed which is delicious, well planned and held indoors and always have room for a silent auction and they keep it toasty with the big fireplace. Another private event that was held inside was a birthday party which offered a section to play (sun room area over looking the lower lawn) and the eating/ presents area. If you need a space whether it's indoor or outdoor be sure you connect with the lodge. They have ample parking and are very accommodating to events.

I originally had this spot booked for my wedding which was on July 18th, 2020, keeping this short my folks and I were happy with what we had seen, and I don't put ANY of this on Fran, she was really nice and sweet, unfortunately she had a lot going on and had to turn everything over to Bridget, now this is where a runaround would begin. When the pandemic hit, we did everything possible to comply with CDC and WHO standards and guidelines(both organizations are a joke in my opinion). We knew there would be plenty for spacing so we had hoped to do almost everything outdoors given the venue has a beautiful garden type area, but once Bridget got the board of directors involved, they decided to cancel our event and take our deposit as collateral; keep in mind if I had cancelled they would've taken it, all $500. Of course this meant having to take them to small claims court and getting the victory, as well as finding a new spot with only 4 days left until the big event, and the people who let us have it were VERY helpful and understanding, I owe it all to them and a close friend for telling us about them. All in all I got my money back thanks to the copy of the contract I had which didn't state pandemics being part of the no-refund policy, so be wary if you plan to go to this venue, and hold onto your wallet tightly. They do have a beautiful setup but all else can be deceiving.

I was at an event there last week. The area inside was outstanding. There is a full commercial kitchen and my favorate a bar. The bar is in an attached room that can be closed off if not needed. There is a separate lower room with bathrooms and small kitchen greate for small meetings or dressing room.

We have been to several of the events that the Tuolumne River Lodge puts on throughout the years! Every time I go everyone seems to be having a great time and it seems like a very nice place for the community to gather. We even booked our 2023 Christmas party there and everything went smoothly! No issues what-so-ever!

DO NOT BOOK THIS VENUE!!!!!!!! (Tuolumne river lodge) save yourself a heartache. Worst experience ever. 1st red flag... I called the venue to see availability for my event and to set a date and time to see it i was abruptly interrupted and was asked, "Do you want to know how much it is to rent first?" I was kind of confused by her tone to say the least. Made it seem like i couldn't afford to book their venue. I decided to ignore it as we all have bad days and decided to go check it out. My friend and i were greeted by a very nice lady named Bridgette who showed us around. I liked the venue and it was a + they had a little lawn area i could use which was what i was looking for as well. I advised Bridgette that i was looking to rent a kiddie ferris wheel to be in the lawn area. Her response was "yes absolutely". I asked if there was a fee she said "no". I decided to book the venue right away and made a deposit. 1 month before the event i went to turn in event liability insurance (which i paid myself) per their request, and copy of ferris wheel insurance. While turning all the paperwork they requested, Bridgette decides to tell me there is a 250.00 fee to use the lawn area. I raised an eyebrow and told them they never told me there was going to be an additional fee for the lawn. Response i got "sry i talked to my boss Fran and i forgot there is a fee". Again i decided to just pay the 250.00 and leave before they asked for more paperwork or money. Keep in mind this place will ask for a lot!! Long story short.... we were unable to use the ferris wheel on the lawn because it would not fit where the venue boss FRAN was allowing it. I asked for my money back and Bridgette said "oh absolutely". Two weeks passed and received my deposit however not the 250.00 for the lawn area that i didn't end up using. I have been trying to contact them since and they keep giving me the run around. Bridgette knows nothing about the money she says and shes not in charge of "finances". She failed to have her boss call me back until today 8-16-19 i contacted the famous "Fran" and she played it off saying she knew nothing about this. Very rude and no customer service. Her response, "It's not my fault you didn't get to use the ferris wheel"?????????? I Told her i just wanted to be done with this since the whole experience with them was horrible. She made excuses not to refund my money back until i advised her i would handle it with someone above her she said "You know what i will see and cut you a check bye". Talk about no customer service! Rude and not hold herself or her staff accountable. I will wait for my 250.00 refund and will keep you posted when it is returned. If not i will be handling this at court. By the way you have to have their security guards they don't like when you bring in your own security guards. They made a big ordeal about this to me. Since they didn't get it their way they waited for our security guards the day of the event and took them to the side to advise them of "their rules" which i was furious about. I come to find out after my event from the security guards that they were told a lot like make sure the music is low!!!!????? Has to be bad when the own security guards tell you that the people in charge of the venue are lucrative. If you don't mind having your guests getting kicked out then this venue is for you! They will pressure you to get your guests out early to clean otherwise they threaten to charge you for every hour after. Decorations??? Forget it. They are extremely picky and won't allow hardly anything. Talk about miscommunication between all of the staff here and false pretenses. Sad that they have to blame each other for their mistakes. Fran blames Bridgette, Bridgette blames Fran.... etc... Please please save yourself all the trouble. Worst experience ever. It's a shame this was suppose to be a fun party for my 2 yr old daughter's baptism.