Lex Willcocks
3/5
The Trust is undeniably a beautiful venue!
We'd like to thank Katie, Liv & Gigi who turned our dream wedding into a stressful and infuriating ordeal.
For the love of god do not book anything more than just the venue. Working with Nudo & their multiple subsidiaries [The Goodsmiths & Anatomy of Flowers] left a bitter taste in our mouth - which should have been full of cake!
What was initially promised as a personalised and stress-free experience quickly devolved into a series of disappointments. Their ideas were generic, bland, sparse & the rigidity of the process was disheartening. I feel that the lacklustre styling outcomes presented may have been due to the questionable profit which was not so hidden in the quotes. Nothing like 50% of a budget being tied up, leaving the bare minimum available for actual styling. This forced us to take on the bulk of the creative work ourselves, sourcing our own suppliers and purchasing our own styling elements due to their inflated quotes (100% mark-up compared to their own 'preferred suppliers' websites).
Then a refusal to work with vendors because they have their own 'preferred' ones - lest we pay an additional 'admin fee'. Until I pushed back as the vendors I had sourced were actually their preferred vendors I had found through instagram tags & the vendors confirming in writing that they worked with Nudo often & recently.
Nudo's lack of care was perhaps hidden in the beginning. But then food were allergies forgotten for our tasting. More meetings were postponed. And sure, life happens - but given we were not able to alter costs within 12 weeks of the wedding, it felt a bit underhanded.
We did call this out, had them agree to adjust that part of the contract to be 6 weeks - given they had delayed our timeline almost 2 months.
Their lack of organisation and professionalism had already created a chaotic planning process that should have been a joyous time.
Nudo's questionable business practices were the most egregious aspect of our experience.
When we attempted to exercise our right to alter our contract within the agreed-upon timeframe, Nudo reneged on their word and tried to enforce the original 12-week terms, but when I reminded them that they had agreed to the amendments in writing - they claimed the contract was merely a "framework" and not legally binding. This blatant disregard for their own agreements and our financial well-being left us feeling trapped and exploited - with deposits already paid to other suppliers we couldn't cancel. Adding insult to injury, 6 weeks before the wedding - having delayed our floristry meeting, they revealed a previously unmentioned minimum spend requirement for floristry. We were ultimately forced to pay a significant sum for services we did not receive, simply to escape their clutches and secure a reputable florist who could deliver the quality we deserved (& thank god we did).
On the day itself, dietary requirements were confused & meals were served to the wrong guests, they freely poured the wine we brought ourselves for VIPs, to all guests, and basic amenities were missing. The venue was dirty, leaving my wedding dress dirtier than it had been when taking photos in the middle of the street in the peak of winter.
The day-of coordinators, Jacquie and Pri, were pleasant and tried their best to salvage the situation which was created from 12 months of underhanded & lazy client relations, but the damage had already been done. It was too late to rectify the multitude of problems. Which had been, in our opinion, caused by the planning team's apparent negligence and dishonesty.
We would strongly advise any couple considering Nudo to think twice. Our opinion is that this is a cautionary tale of incompetence, deceit, and financial exploitation. Don't let the allure of a beautiful venue blind you to the potential nightmare that awaits you with Nudo's services.
P.s. We also had no classic wedding cake feeding moment - what kind of 'award winning' wedding venue forgets to put out plates & forks for the wedding cake cutting?
