Château de Malliac

We were due to have our wedding here in 2020 - of course the pandemic hit and caused a few issues! The venue itself is great, the rooms are unique and quirky and the space is fantastic, no denying it. It's certainly not as polished as other venues, and the area within the house which is closed off for the owners is a little odd but it's fine. We were so excited to hold our wedding here and the original woman, Pilar, who ran the business for the owner, was absolutely lovely, warm and engaging and we enjoyed working with her on our plans. The real issues began during Covid when we were looking to change our date. The chap who owns the property is very old and his daughter came into the business to run it - I don't know if she ended Pilar's contract / came in thinking she could run it better herself, but that was an enormous loss and shame. She was difficult, not remotely conscientious and generally obstructive. We fully understood that Covid caused many individuals, and businesses, issues and were prepared to be flexible, but she didn't get in touch with us at all throughout the process, we had to reach out to her, and when we were in touch, she was totally inflexible and lacking in any compassion. She prioritised new business rather than helping out those who had existing (and paid for!) wedding bookings at Malliac. Her approach was not what we expected or felt was appropriate when dealing with wedding planning. We are a very reasonable couple (no bridezilla here!) but found the process demoralising and arduous dealing with her. In the end we managed to get some money back via our insurance but that was extremely lucky and thanks in zero part to the new management who didn't help us at all. To be honest, it was as if she just disregarded the fact that it was a wedding and not just a one dimensional business transaction - weddings are expensive, emotionally-significant and have a lot of pressure associated, even if, like us, you're trying to keep it relaxed and low-key. This didn't matter to her at all in the process and whilst she was happy to keep our money, she gave no consideration to our feelings throughout. A real shame - we would strongly advise against planning a wedding at Malliac - there are thousands of other fantastic venues throughout France (check out Rigaud / Lartigolle / Castelnau des Fieumarcon if you are interested!).