Dancing Horse Ranch and Retreat

My wife and I had our wedding there a while ago. The place was absolutely beautiful, and the photographs are amazing. By and large, all of the guests had a great time. The owner, however, tells you one thing before you sign on, and then changes her tune once you are there.
She had told us that she lived «way up that hill» and that it would be no problem if we had music playing until the wee hours, as long as we «pointed the speakers toward the hill and away from the road.»
Then, not too long before the event, she kept mentioning that the music had to be turned down to 40 decibels by 10:00 PM. That didn’t sound too bad, but it was different from what she said initially.
Come the event, she was not living «way up that hill» but in the downstairs guest house, right underneath some of our guests. On the night of the wedding, she kept coming out to complain that the music was too loud (which kept getting turned down lower and lower). I caught her angrily scolding one of my guests about it, and had to intervene to get her to calm down and stop accosting him.
The owner generally acted begrudgingly toward the guests whenever they wanted to make use of any of the facilities, such as the hot tub. Some of my guests had rented the upstairs room, and turned on the little wall unit air conditioner and opened the windows to help clear out the hot air (the room was like an oven). The owner came up and yelled at them to shut the windows if they were going to run the air conditioner. This caused one of my guests to remark to me, «Wow, it’s almost as if we aren’t paying her hundreds of dollars to rent this guest house.»
We had called her ahead of time to clear a part of our ceremony that we wanted, which included the guests all have candles lit for a few minutes. She said it was fine as long as the candles didn’t leave the lawn. On the afternoon of the ceremony, all the guests blew out their candles immediately, and proceeded to the reception area. Apparently, some of the UNLIT candles made their way to spots around the lodge. The owner pounced on a friend of ours and started yelling at her that she had only agreed to the candle ceremony if the candles didn’t leave the lawn. Our friend pointed out that no lit candles had, and that some of the guests had just simply put them down near the lodge rather than dropping them in the grass. The owner said «what if a child were to get a hold of one???» and then made our friend go on an Easter Egg hunt for the missing candles. This place is so full of brush and twigs and moss, one would imagine that an unlit candle was the least dangerous thing a child might get their hands on.
The pricing is good, but keep in mind that the owner requires the guests to do all of the cleaning. The only thing she takes care of is the laundering of sheets and towels. She had originally told us that all trash needed to be picked up, and the grounds clean before final check out. But what that really meant was that me and my newlywed wife and a few family and friends had to stay for hours not only cleaning up incidental trash, but scouring the place for any tiny shred. Then we had to collect all of the trash bags from the cans, and carry them to the dumpster.
Overall, we felt that the three-​day wedding experience was close enough to what we hoped for for our guests and for the photos. The owner’s strange behavior was mostly limited to my in-​laws and a few friends and family that got in her path. She did mostly try to stay out of the way.
We wouldn’t tell anyone not to use this Ranch for their events. In the end, we got the wedding we really wanted out of it, and most of our guests had a great time.
The few things to keep in mind are the following:
— The owner will say one thing to get you in, and then change her tune when you are there. Make sure to get any detail that is important to you settled in the written contract, or she will have you over a barrel on that matter (music, for example). Don’t let her tell you that anything in the contract is «just a formality.»
— The price is right, cheaper at three days than anything we were able to find at six hours in Southern California. But the reason it is so cheap is that the guests are responsible for leaving the place cleaner than they found it. Imagine a hotel that was really cheap, but you couldn’t leave until you cleaned your room.
— The owner’s demeanor is less like a hotel manager or someone who runs a bed and breakfast, and more like a distant relative who has allowed you to come stay at her house for the weekend, but only so long as you follow her rules.
— If you keep this in mind, and plan ahead for all of the work, you can really make your event (be it a wedding or family reunion) as great as you want.