CLAYTON, N.C. (WNCN) — Several brides to be in 2025 say they’re looking for a new venue after learning construction may take place close to the current venue scheduled for their big day.
An email sent on Friday to customers of Oxbow Estate says it will be under construction sometime during peak wedding season.
Kiera Lovelace, a bride scheduled to get married next August, says she paid a $5,000 deposit to the venue in September after spending months looking for the perfect venue. However, she received an email Friday stating a previous venue manager, “failed to communicate that a portion of the property would be under construction during the time of [her] wedding.”
The email says construction may start between March and May 2025. It also offers to refund deposits in full, no questions asked, if couples no longer wish to have their wedding at Oxbow Estate and offers several apologies.
“We were going to do everything,” Lovelace said. “We were going to pay the extra $30,000 to do the whole weekend to have our family stay there. [We’re] obviously devastated. I still kind of feel like this is not real.”
Lovelace wasn’t alone. Morgan Swecker, who is planning to get married in June, said, “I’m not going to say my vows in the middle of the construction zone.”
Swecker says she reached out to the man who sent the email, Joey Brehm, and he called her.
“He first apologized and said this was all the fault of a previous manager who had recently stepped down,” Swecker said. [The previous manager] wasn’t selling the property to us correctly, was supposed to be letting us know of the construction that was going to be taking place starting in March 2025. However, no one mentioned any of that to us when we signed the contract.”
Swecker also says she also asked Brehm about getting reimbursed for vendors she already booked for her wedding date in June.
“We have booked pretty much all of our vendors at this point,” she said. “Usually, they require up to a 50% deposit to hold them. I asked Joey if he was also prepared to pay for all of my other nonrefundable refundable deposits. He said no. He said that wasn’t something they would be paying for.”
According to a document called “Joey Brehm River Mews Master Plan_Revised“, dated March 10, 2023, and located on the town of Clayton’s website, it shows approximately 825 total proposed homes for the property around Oxbow Estate. Brehm is listed as a partner on Golden Hour Collective Investment’s Website, a real estate company. He is also a partner of Oxbow Estate.
A statement sent to NewsNation affiliate WNCN from Brehm says, “At Oxbow Estate, we are deeply committed to providing an exceptional experience for our clients, which is why we felt it was important to inform them about the planned development of single family homes on land adjacent to Oxbow Estate.
“While construction of the homes is not underway yet, we recently learned that a former staff member did not properly communicate to prospective wedding parties about the upcoming construction at the time they booked their events,” Brehm continued in his statement. “We understand this has led to frustration and feelings of deception among some of our clients, and for that we sincerely apologize. We are dedicated to making this right.
“To ensure we meet each client’s expectations, we made the decision to reach out to every client who has booked with us to talk through their specific event, anticipated construction activities and alternative booking options. Those conversations are ongoing. We appreciate our clients” understanding as we continue to navigate this situation.”
WNCN asked about efforts to communicate in writing to Oxbow Estate clients about planned construction prior to the email sent this past Friday.
In response, Brehm said, “There is no definitive timeline for construction at this point. With that said, we had instructed our general manager to inform new booking dates for late 2024 and beyond 2025 of the prospect of construction. As we recently found out, the GM did not inform anyone. Which is unacceptable. The GM of the venue is no longer involved in Oxbow, as of three weeks ago.”