Braselton-Stover House

My son and daughter in law were married at the Braselton Stover House. She loves the charm of a historical southern estate. The evening wedding was so elegant. The chandeliers glistening over the first dance of the bride and goom will always be etched in my mind. Trumps Catering, Athens, GA did a wonderful job with making the serving table just as elegant and the food was delicious. The photos of the wedding party on the wrap around porch are spectacular. Marvin and Mary were a hugh help! Mary is such a knowledgable wedding planner, but allows a bride to add their special touches. Listening to Marvin and Mary give their history with the house, how they restored the house and added the ballroom, made it even more special, personal. Although the facility is elegant at night, I would love to see it at a day wedding with the beautiful gardens. We were just bubbly with exitment all evening! It could not have been any better!

I absolutely would recommend this venue. Mary and Marvin Stover played a huge part in making our daughter's wedding more perfect than we ever imagined it could be. From their help and guidance that was provided to my husband and I and to our daughter (down to every last detail) to their cooperation with our vendors, we couldn't have done it all without them. The beauty of the garden and reception hall added an elegance that was breathtaking. Our guests had a wonderful time and the compiments have been overwhelming-the most common of which has been that it was the most beautiful wedding they have ever attended. Beautiful setting, very affordable and wonderful staff!!!!

I just want to say how please my husband and I are for choosing the Braselton-Stover House for our wedding and reception. Mary and Marvin went above and beyond to help us with everything. The wedding was absolutely beautiful. Not only is the place gorgeous, Mary is so helpful with the planning. You pay for a venue, but you get Mary to help you with the planning. She has been in the business for a long time, and knows the best way to get things done, and if you have a budget to work with, she can also help with this. It may not always be what you want to hear, but that is part of planning a wedding. Dont expect her to do everything, that is your job, since it is your wedding. I had everything i wanted decoration wise, and gave it to her at the rehearsal. She had everything arranged perfectly. The place is a little pricey for just a venue (I also rented linens from them), but you save a TON of money by the ability to choose your own caterers, cake, florist, and mostly BYOB! You will not be disappointed. I had my out-of-town guests stay at Chateau Elon and used Georgia Trolley Services for transportation. It was just a memorable day, and all my guests cant stop talking about what an amazing wedding and party we had. Thank you Mary and Marvin!

It gives me great pleasure to recommend The Braselton-Stover House for your wedding venue considerations. From the very beginning, my wife and I felt at ease in dealing with Mary and Marvin Stover knowing that their professionalism and expertise would make our daughter's day as special as it turned out. The grounds are amazing, the grand home is impecable, and the Reception Hall, you could not ask for a finer place to have a party. Not to big but certainly not to small and the classic eligence of the Home and Reception Hall was beyond expectation. Incredible owners, Mary and Marvin's attention to detail is unsurpassed. Thanks for helping to make our Daughter's day so special, with your guidance and support made it that much more special. Bill and Sandy

Mary and Marvin were wonderful!! My husband and I feel in love with them the first time we meet them. Mary has been in the industry for a long time and really knows what she is talking about which helped the process run much more smoothly. We love the house and the grounds - we received so many compliments on how beautiful everything was. We had so much fun at our wedding!! Thank you Mary and Marvin for everything that you did to make that day just perfect for us!

We were so excited to get married at this beautiful home. In the beginning, Mary Stover was extremely nice and helpful. Towards the end, before the big day, she seemed to have an attitude and everything was about money. At the rehearsal, she was rude to family members and she didn't explain important things about the ceremony. My brother (a groomsmen) walked down my husband's grandmother instead of our own grandmother. An usher walked my grandmothers down. When they tried telling Mary that they were about to walk down the wrong grandmothers, she yelled at them and told them to "go on!"It was a mess...although I had no idea until after the wedding. The chair ties we ordered were the wrong color. They did refund us for that, but Mary wasn't apologetic at all. When we were suppose to light the unity candle, there were no lighters or matches so we had to pretend...which really sucked. She told us through all of our planning and meetings with her, that she had everything under control. I feel let down and was dissapointed with Mary Stover right before the wedding and the day of the wedding. The wedding to my husband and I, was perfect. To family members and my parents who paid for mostly everything, it was irritating how she treated us.

As the father of the groom, I don't usually think of doing much more than being responsible for the rehearsal dinner, right? However, this wedding was different. My wife and I met with the kids at Braselton-Stover House after they had informed us of their wish to have the ceremony and reception there. It came highly recommended to them. When we drove up, Martin met us at the door with a warm and genuine smile and handshake. I liked him immediately because he was real.

Walking into the hall and seeing the ballroom my first reaction was "wow" it's huge. Surrounded by antiques and stories of how it all came to be, one knows "this is going to be something out of a fairy tale". The next question that came to mind was can I afford this? The kids had wanted all along to pay for the wedding themselves but I knew I was going to "help". That fact was put on hold for the time being as I saw the details of the prep work unfold.

The tour took us through the facility and around every corner was a mixture of unbelievable beauty and a sense of peace. Every detail was addressed. Every question was answered and the warmth and family feel was evident. We were able to have our desires discussed at length and incorporated without being "pushed" into a standard cookie-cutter process. We were able to bring in our own caterer and set up a music mix with ours and the house's with a first class music system and even had Martin do the DJ work. Way to go Sir!

Getting to the day, all I can say is, no way I could have imagined the splendor and amazing setting to have my youngest son marry his bride in the garden setting on that April morning with cool breezees and bright blue sky. I still have tears when I think of how proud I was of he and his new bride as they turned together at their introduction as man and wife! Perfection!

The reception was a party and way beyond the guest's expectation. I can't tell you how many times I heard directly and indirectly how fantastic and beautiful everything was. Was the food awesome? You bet. But to see the buffet laid out on that huge wooden table with the lace and linen and silver and punch flowing from an endless fountain, it made everything more desirable even before you took the first bite. And for that day to be etched into the history books of everyone's memory; all I can say is, it was worth any price.

Speaking of price... let's just say we are modest folks but we were able to give the kids more than just a wedding. Marvin and Mary made us feel like millionaires by treating us as such. The kids were able to enjoy the day knowing most of the guests would never know just how affordable a day in a fairy tale wedding can be at the Braselton-Stover House.

This is a excellent venue. Mary has been in this business for a very long time and really knows what she is doing. They are not one of those venues where you have to use their vendors. They give you a list of prefered vendors that you can use but you can pull in anyone else you know of. The biggest challenge is sharing the venue with another wedding that day (one in the morning and one in the evening) but the way Mary has it organized scrubbing works out very well.

We can't even begin to say enough about Mary and Marvin Stover! They were beyond wonderful to work with, and they did many things to help make our day so very special! Mary personally worked with us on countless occasions, ironing out all kinds of details (major and minor) to make our day exactly like we hoped it would be. She personally went over each and every step of the wedding with us at the rehearsal, and walked us through it all on our Wedding Day, making it both memorable and perfect! The Braselton-Stover House is beautiful, and a wonderful venue for an outdoor or indoor wedding, and it is also perfect for the reception as well. The Banquet Hall had room for all of our guests to sit down comfortably for dinner, a perfect set-up for a buffet, and a great place for the DJ to set-up his station near the dance floor. Our guests have continued to talk about the wonderful time they had at the wedding and Mary and Marvin played a major role in helping to make our day what it was!

Amazing!!! I got married there last night, and I could not have asked for anything better. Mary was such a help!!! She even helped bussle my dress!!!
The facility is beautiful!! I cannot wait to get pictures. The bridal room is what I have Always imagined getting ready in with my bridesmaids.
Amazing experience there !! What I've always invisioned !!

I recently got married at the Stover House and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a conveniently located venue to get married. The grounds itself are perfect for an outdoor wedding like I had. The couple Mary and Marvin were wonderful to work with and they know their stuff they were able to open up my mind to other options and I enjoyed their input!! The reception hall is beautiful and a perfect place for your perfect day!!!

I TOTALLY agree with the previous review (bcofer). I had a horrible experience. I had met with Mary and Marvin almost 1 year before the wedding date and they told me mulitple things such as; we have chairs for you to use outside, you need to get your table clothes, decor, we could come earlier to the venue on the day of if nothing else was going on. I was really excited to know i would have to worry about anything. I had called mary waaay in advance to book a time for the rehersal (which she told me she had already booked for the fri before.. "ive got your rehersal for the friday before" is what she told me) come to find out she must have forgotten in her little calender that there was a reunion going on that night and that she had to move our rehersal to an earlier time. Well come the day of the rehersal We showed up to find the place completly empty, no chairs set up... NOTHING! no body was even there, lights were off and EVERYTHING! Marvin walks in to find us sitting around waiting for our bridal party to show up and said "can i help you?" i was like "ughh yeaa our rehearsal is tonight!!" anyways, the entire time was soo stressful b/c mary was standing behind me the entire time checking her watch ("youve got 36 min", "youve got 31 min", youve got "3 min", ....down to the min!!) ohh not to mention the night of the rehearsal we found out they dont set up the chairs for us, we have to do it ourselves or we could pay them a little extra to do it for us! i was BAAAAWLING b/c they have all of a sudden told us all this stuff that was the COMPLETE opposite from what they originally said.

I was soo stressed the day of the wedding b.c MARY was standing over everyone, tellign us to close the door, dont do this dont do that! SERIOUSLY im paying you so i can use this place, if your that picky dont rent your house out to people!!!

so anyway.. read bcofers review, it explains EXACTLY what happend to me and will probably happen to you!

The only thing this venue has to offer is the natural beauty. It is a pretty venue and has a nice set up and sound system. They have an awesome tree near the house which makes for great pictures. One of the most important things, which happens to be what this venue lacks, is professional and courteous owners. I will explain.

It was going to rain on our wedding day. We knew that beforehand (of course we were watching the weather reports all week). Since we knew it was going to rain, we decided to have the ceremony indoors. I did not want to risk the wedding party and guests getting drenched so we made this decision the day before the wedding, at the rehearsal. When we went to the rehearsal, the banquet hall was partially set up for the reception. The tables and chairs were out but only half of the chairs were completed with the covers and ties, and only half of the tables had the table cloths on them. None of the table cloths were ironed (still had the folds from the packaging). We asked them to change the set up to look like a ceremony by lining the chairs up in rows (of course we want it to look like a ceremony, not like we're crashing someone else's reception). Instead of saying, "I understand your concern and your wishes. We will get it changed. We will move the tables and have the chairs set up for the ceremony," Marvin waited until I was about to break down crying before being willing to make the necessary changes. I actually had to say "You know what? Fine. Set up OUR wedding the way YOU want it to be." That is something a bride should never be forced to say. After my parents pulled the owners to the side for a little chat, the response I got from Marvin was "Well, we like to see just how important it really is to the bride before we will make any changes." Really? Because I thought we were paying you...

Also, after the wedding I received complaints from everyone in my entire wedding party and some guests about how insanely rude Mary was to all of them. To any request or question her response was "That's not my job." One example, one of my bridesmaids asked, "Mary, do you know where the cheese table is at?" (part of the appetizer set up from the caterer) Her response: "That's not my job." Really? Because I thought we were paying you...

If our wedding party and our other vendors were not as awesome as they were, Marvin and Mary would have ensured that our wedding would have been the worst production ever. I guess everyone in the wedding party could tell at the rehearsal that we might have a difficult time with them, so they took the necessary steps to ensure that we didn't see or know about the trouble they had until afterwards. I know that I appreciate them telling me so that I can tell you. If you decide to risk it with this venue, please do yourself a favor and hire your own separate planner/coordinator who has a big mouth, a heavy foot, and knows what you want. Also bring your own trash bags and assemble a team to assist you with anything that might possibly come up such as changing the set up from ceremony to reception (we had to get some guests to help), allowing guests back into the banquet hall (owners/stand-in-coordinator was M.I.A. for this, so my mother had to do it), and clean up (which we also paid for).

I was highly disappointed with the owners of this venue, and unfortunately there was no one else to work with. We were told about this absolutely fabulous day-of coordinator we would be working with, but we never met her, she never showed up, and we never received an apology or explanation. I think Marvin and Mark got a little ahead of themselves when they opened this place 2 years ago. A bride and groom should never have to go through what we went through, especially with the venue. Good luck, if you dare to take the risk.

Choosing the venue site was the most difficult part of my whole wedding experience. I looked all over the area and just could not find something that I loved and that fit in my budget. I actually booked at another venue when my parents stumbled onto the beautiful Braselton-Stover House. My parents suggested we schedule an appointment to view it and at the time I was not wanting to look at another place. I am so happy that we did! The moment we pulled into the drive I knew we had found the perfect location. The venue is breathtaking! We met with Mary and she made the decision to change even easier. She was an absolute pleasure to work with and made the whole process fun and easy. Her attention to detail and the high level of class that she brings to the table set her and her magnificent home out from everything else in the area! Our guest were so impressed with the venue that they are still talking about it! "Top notch" was the description given by our guests and that is exactly what we felt too. There is so much about this venue that makes it stand out from everything else we viewed....the Grand ballroom, the bridal suite, two gardens...these are just a few! I would most certainly recommend The Braselton-Stover House! I do not think that there is any other venue that can hold a candle to it. Mrs. Mary and her husband Marvin were such a pleasure to work with. They never minded us stopping by unscheduled and they always welcomed us with open arms!

If you are looking for the perfect place to hold your event, you must book The Braselton-Stover House! I guarantee you will not be disappointed and it will most certianly be the best day of your life!

Thank you Mary for making my wedding day the best day it could possible be!