Vista West Ranch

We held my daughter’s wedding at Vista West Ranch last weekend. The venue is absolutely beautiful; we received many compliments from guests about how perfect it was. We did a lot of research on venues and selected Vista West Ranch as a perfect fit for the wedding «personality» my daughter and her fiancé wanted. Other than the setting, one other major reason we selected them is that they offer a list of recommended vendors, but do not require you to use them. I rated it a 4 out of 5 stars for the following reasons:
1) The day of coordinator did not provided much value add. I had to request that she start the cake cutting, to which she responded, «We can do that now if you like.» as if we didn’t have a timeline to go by. Other than ensuring that people walked down the aisle at the proper time, she seemed to be waiting to be asked to do things instead of proactively taking charge. As a result, I spent the reception ensuring things went according to the schedule instead of enjoying the time with friends and family.
2) We were told a couple of times that it was important that we have the kegs onsite 24 hours in advance, but when we showed up on Friday with the kegs and wine, we were initially told by our coordinator that «We don’t have room for them» because of the wedding Friday night. During the time we were brainstorming about what we could do, our coordinator told us «I’ am working the wedding tonight and could try to keep an eye on them.» We ended up making room in the cooler and labeling everything with our names. Since the venue regularly has 2 – 3 weddings per weekend, this couldn’t possibly be the first time this happened.
3) One big regret is that while cleaning up, our friends and family put all the floral/​table decorations on a big table to the side as instructed by the coordinator. Because I was busy taking care of other details, we failed to bring home my daughter’s bouquet. While we never asked her to remind us to take them, I feel that as the experienced person, she should have known to at least ask if we wanted the flowers.
4) Overage charge for over 150 guests. I’m not sure why this is necessary because having more than 150 doesn’t require any additional effort on their part as far as I can tell.
Would I select this venue again, definitely I would just go in with the correct expectations.

Vista West Ranch was one of literally dozens of venues we looked at in the greater Austin area; even after our initial tour, I could not stop thinking about this venue. The packaged experience (with day of coordinator, DJ, bartenders, tables/​chairs/​linens) made my life SO much easier while navigating the 1.5 years we spent planning our big day! It is a beautiful venue with tons of great photo ops ranging from the reception barn to the biergarten to two old rusty vehicles that fit right in with our Texas Hill Country wedding vision. The whole VWR team was so responsive to emails, phone calls, etc. We received numerous compliments from friends and family over how unique the venue was. We opted to stay on site afterwards to continue the celebration with our closest friends and I can honestly say the whole experience will be one I will never forget. Thank you again!

Great place for a wedding! Many scenic and memorable places on this property make it a win win! The bunk house which is reserved mainly for the guys is a great place to relax! Be sure to get a picture next to the old jalopy. I was at my sister-law’s wedding and I filmed the whole thing.

Got married here 12÷27÷15. BEST decision of my life. Everything was perfect and I was able to focus on what is important instead of minute details. Absolutely love this place.

This past weekend I was in a wedding here and really enjoyed most things about this venue.
Yes it is a little bit out from civilization but that was actually great, it allowed us to focus on the occasion at hand and not the hustle and bustle of life around us. Really enjoyed that we (the bridesmaids and bride) could all stay on the grounds the night before in the bunk house, it was our final slumber party with our bride and that made it so special. Only downside is there was NO cell service whatsoever in the bunk house but luckily as soon as you stepped out of it you quickly regained service.
The hotel near by has a shuttle to accommodate guests. Plenty of parking on site, so many beautiful areas for pictures. A grand slam in my opinion when it comes to venues.

I can’t say enough good things about Vista West Ranch. While I originally thought it might be too far out from Austin to consider, as soon as I saw it I knew it was going to be the venue for our day. Joe was fantastic to work with from day one as were all the vendor partners. Since I was planning from out of state (I’m a temporarily displaced Texan) having the DJ, coordinator and bar staff all very familiar with the venue and packaged together was a huge help. Great responsiveness and service and the perfect setting for us!

This venue is beautiful, fell in love with it the moment I saw it! They were very responsive and had great relationships with both their in house vendors and the ones from around town we used which made for stress free planning and a very smooth wedding weekend!
I recommend staying overnight if you want to hang out and relax afterwards!
They include a lot of things in the package price, so while it was more than we budgeted for a venue it worked with our overall budget and how easy they made everything was well worth it!

Thank you to the Vista West Ranch team for a perfect venue for our wedding. All of our guests enjoyed the setting.

Beautiful wedding venue in the Texas Hill Country. Lovely outdoor setting and rustic feel in the barn. Casual elegance at its finest. Charming!

Wonderful Venue! Can’t go wrong. Joe and Stacey and super friendly and the whole staff will take great care of you. Can be dressed up classy or toned down country. We love photographing there.

I felt major anxiety planning our 200 guest wedding. My worries were completely eased after meeting Joe and touring Vista West Ranch. I immediately fell in love with the venue and also appreciated Joe’s laid back, yet professional, attitude. Joe took his time answering questions and concerns, gave our family a second tour, and always made you feel that your day was his top concern. Vista West Ranch offers a remarkable bridal suite, a gorgeous outdoor ceremony site under live oak trees, a cocktail hour in their lovely biergarten, and a beautiful reception space. The VWR package includes linens, tables, chairs, day of wedding coordinator, bartenders, and DJ. While the package may seem like a shot in the dark, I couldn’t have asked for any better-​all were equally amazing! There are also accommodations for your wedding party and a honeymoon cottage at reasonable prices. I cannot thank Joe and his team enough for the flawless and fabulous work and for allowing me to enjoy the happiest day of my life.

It’s about an hour away from Austin plan accordingly!
The wedding here was beautiful! The staff was great as well if you are looking to have a hill country feeling wedding this is the place to do it at. It is a little far if most of your peeps are coming from Austin but worth the drive.

I just got married here on September 21. It is the most beautiful place to get married at. Not only that, Joe and Stacey, who run this venue are some of the nicest people I have ever met.
We rented the housing that is available on the property and it is all so wonderfully decorated, it feels like home.
Joe an Stacey are so accommodating, they start to feel like family. My husband and I wanted to move in the next morning. It was hard to leave!
You should definitely look at this place if you are planning on getting married in Texas!

My husband & I live in New York, so trying to find our venue was nerve wracking, especially knowing we wouldn’t be able to see the space before making the final decision. VWR was the first venue I saw when we began searching for the perfect place to say «I do.» I knew instantly this was the one.
While we were waiting for a dispensation from the Catholic church, Joe was incredibly helpful & accommodating. Our communications through e-​mail were clear, timely & extremely friendly! My father took over communications with Joe early on to help with delegating, & the two of them hit it off right away! Joe was wonderful & gave us a special tour of the venue when we were down for the holidays & all his information was clear & very helpful. Afterward, if there was any question I had, I knew I only needed to send Joe a quick e-​mail & he would answer almost immediately. From my personal experience as a bride, good communication was one of the main things that helped ease my mind with all of my vendors. VWR delivers that with flying colors!
The venue offers several sleeping accommodations, which were wonderful for large families & wedding parties. Definitely take advantage of the bunk house & the family house located on the property! And of course the honeymoon cottage! They also work very closely with several other services: bartending, chair set up & tear down, florist, wedding coordinator, DJ, & much more! They have great packages, & wonderful suggestions of other vendors.
When we’re asked «How was everything?» we can’t say anything other than «perfect.» We felt so taken care of & it felt like family. Our flowers were beautiful, the venue is gorgeous all on it’s own, & the flexibility of everyone made the day feel as stress-​free as it possibly could have been. We received so much feedback from friends & family saying the venue was beautiful and that it was the best wedding they had ever been to! Thank you for making our special day even more amazing!

I discovered Vista West Ranch from photos that I saw on Pinterest! Since I was doing a destination wedding in Austin, I had to rely on photos and reviews to pick my wedding venue. I loved the vintage-​chic feel that venue portrayed in all of the photos that I saw. When I researched the venue further, I found that their pricing included a location for the ceremony, cocktail hour & reception, chairs, tables, linens, DJ services, a Day-​Of Coordinator, bartending services and getting ready rooms for both the bride and groom and their bridal parties. Since I was planning our wedding from California, I found this to be incredibly helpful. I highly recommend using vendors off of their preferred vendor list if you want to make it easy for yourself. It was so nice having all of my vendors familiar with the location and accustomed to working with each other.
After booking the venue, I decided to attend one of their open house events to finish finding my vendors and to see the property in person. Vista West Ranch far exceeded my already high expectations. The location is even more beautiful in person that it is in photos. The rustic barn, vintage cars and beautiful grounds are so picturesque that you don’t have to spend a lot on additional décor. Joe was great to work with and always answered all of my emails in a timely manner. We had family and friends traveling from all over the world, so it was a wonderful feeling when they arrived at the venue and could not stop raving about how incredibly beautiful the location is.
Important things to know when making your decision: You can bring in your own alcohol which saves a lot of money (well, at least in California it does). Served Bartending has a great liquor store they will put you in contact with to purchase alcohol and they offer an incredible discount through Served. Another thing to know, Vista West Ranch is located about 40 minutes outside of Austin. This didn’t bother me at all but you need to know so you can plan accordingly for your guests. We really wanted to stay in Austin so we hired a shuttle bus to drive the guests and bridal party back and forth but they do have closer hotel options in Dripping Springs; listed on their preferred vendor list. Another thing to know, since Texas weather is so unpredictable, VWR has a very easy rain plan if needed. On the day of our rehearsal it was raining off and on all day so we discussed the backup plan just in case. The weather turned out to be beautiful and we were able to have our ceremony outside, but this is just nice to know that you don’t have to rent tents or switch anything major if it rains.
If you are looking for a vintage-​chic style wedding for an incredible price where your photos will be breathtaking and your vendors are easy to work with then Vista West Ranch is the place for you! Thank you VWR, Joe & Stacey for helping make our wedding day perfect!

Dear Brian and Cindy (Stacey and Joe, too!),
We met you in April of 2011. Kayla, our daughter, said she wanted a «Texas, Hill Country, barn wedding.» Since Kayla lives in Memphis, she had found you on-​line, but being native Texans ourselves, we understood her desire. Well, we were at your unique property within 18 hours! After we had some sweeeet conversation, wine and cheese, it became clear to us this WAS the place our daughter was to be married! We booked on the spot, without the bride even seeing the property. Six months later when Kayla was able to visit and see her venue in person, her first remark was, «This is exactly what I envisioned!» Every promise you gave us was kept. There was never any quibbling about a single thing. You became our friends, and for that we are forever grateful!
With love,
James and Janeil McCrury

Let me start by saying Vista West Ranch is a gorgeous venue that has a lot to offer but I would agree that everything needs to be in writing. The venue was sold in the middle of our planning and they started adding and changing contracts so there was a lot of confusion about what was and was not included in our contract. Like basic lighting… Not included! I’m just saying…
Would we pick vista west again? Yes because we loved our wedding and the venue was perfect for what we wanted but for the amount of money you pay for the venue I feel more customer service is needed.

I did finally hear back from VWR (right after I wrote my original post). My husband and I were informed that we would not be getting any portion of our deposit back for 4 various reason the owner’s husband stated in an e-​mail. I can personally say that 3 of the reasons he used were completely false and unsubstantiated. The fourth reason (candle wax on linens) I can neither confirm, nor deny, as I wasn’t there during the clean up.
I’ll just repeat what I said in my previous review — make sure that you get EVERYTHING in writing. The family which owns VWR is very nice, and we took their word for a lot of things during our planning. It seems to me that they will tell you what you want to hear up front, but then pretend like they have no recollection of that conversation later. I would not recommend VWR to any of my friends who are getting married… and I think that says it all.

I just got married at Vista West Ranch and it was a dream. Everything was so lovely. Down to the super green grass in the ceremony area to the cute secret bridal loft. Cindy an her husband were amazing, super helpful and supportive. I received so many compliments in how this was an absolute perfect place to get married. They really thought of everything here at Vista to awesome photo ops (2 old cars!) to a charming chandeliers hanging in the trees. My wedding was nothing short of perfect and i can’t wait to see my pictures. Plus it was supposed to rain on the day of my wedding but Cindy said it never rains for her weddings and she was right! It didn’t yay!

I’m getting married on September 24, 2011. Swoon.
Vista West is dreamy, southern, beautiful — all of the characterists I’ve dreamed of since I was a little girl.
Since I haven’t gotten married, yet, this review is more about the customer service. Cindy, the owner, is nothing short of fabulous. She is quick to respond by email, full of answers and to top it off, her family exudes wedding family — one of her daughters owns and operates the famous Petal Pushers and her other daughter, a bartending company called Served.
More soon. Check out their beautiful website in the interim.