The Carolina Inn

Service: We had an amazing experience holding our ceremony and receptions at the Carolina Inn. The sales manager, catering manager and hotel staff were accomodating and helpful. All of our emails were responded to within a day.
Value: We venue shopped for a year. The Inn was honestly the best value. I appreciated their per guest pricing structure and there were absolutely no hidden costs.
Flexibility: The Inn was able to accommodate special requests and last minute changes.
I highly recommend the Inn for your wedding or event.

Melissa is awesome as is the whole staff at the Carolina Inn! Melissa became our wedding planner after we had already booked our wedding at the Inn. After meeting with us once, she knew exactly what we were looking for and what type of wedding we were planning. She helped us coordinate a happy hour the night before the wedding, the ceremony and wedding as well as brunch the next day! Everything went smoothly and was everything we could have ever hoped for and more. Almost all of our guests were from out of town and they all continue to rave about how friendly, helpful, and accomodating everyone at the Inn was. The food was amazing, the Chancellors Ballroom was set up perfectly and looked gorgeous! This is a perfect venue for a wedding and has so much to offer! I loved that Melissa was able to help us with all of our needs. She definitely went above and beyond her duties! Thank you Melissa and everyone at the Carolina Inn!

We had my daughter's rehearsal dinner, reception and wedding breakfast at the Carolina Inn. The Inn's staff is the epitome of professionalism, responsiveness and excellence. I cannot find enough superlatives to talk about their performance! ALL staff (parking valet, front desk staff, wait staff, bellmen, housekeeping, EVERYBODY!) were helpful and friendly. The food and service at all of our events was wonderful. We had planned for all guests to stay at the Inn but because of room renovations, there weren't enough rooms available. The CI wedding coordinators arranged for guests to stay the other UNC property, The Rizzo. The CI staff provided seamless coordination of this, including transportation from The Rizzo, to the church, to the CI for the reception and back to The Rizzo. I can't imagine another reception venue doing this.

My highest praise goes to the CI Wedding Coordinator that we worked with for the last month, Melissa Sayre. A month before our wedding, Melissa stepped in to replace our original coordinator, Devon. (Devon took at new job at the Charlotte Ritz.) Melissa knew we may be nervous about working with a new coordinator at the last minute, so she went out of her way to reassure us. She probably contacted us everyday during the month of December, providing us updated information, suggestions and kind words. She made our wedding 100% stress-free. Any request we had, she went to the ends of the earth to get it accomplished. Melissa is the best.
The Carolina Inn does over 150 wedding per year...and their experience is evident in every aspect needed for a perfect wedding. All CI staff involved in our wedding were consummate professionals. The CI calendar fills quickly, but if you are lucky enough to book a date, know that your Carolina Inn wedding/reception/rehearsal dinner will be perfect!

I can't say enough good things about the Carolina Inn and especially Heidi. We got the reception of our dreams (and bridal luncheon and rehearsal dinner) because of the hard work from the event staff at the Carolina Inn. It's worth the money to get exceptional people working for you. They were all friendly and provided exceptional service. I always felt like they genuinely wanted to make sure we were 100% satisfied—no... more than satisfied! I have been slowly convincing my best friend to book her wedding at the Inn so I can relive it all over again!

Our wedding reception was in the Old Well Room on a Saturday afternoon on the hottest day of the year. It was beautiful and so easy! Everyone had a great time. They have weddings down to a science. We just told them what we wanted and they did it. Fantastic. I definitely recommend the Carolina Inn to everyone, especially if you are planning your wedding from another state. Also, the Inn is beautiful. Everyone who stayed in the hotel loved their rooms. I wanted to move into ours.

What a perfect location for my daughter's wedding reception ! We had several out-of-town guests who also stayed at the Inn and were blown away by the "Southern hospitality" that they experienced. The food was exceptional and the staff were always friendly and helpful. The rooms were very comfortable and clean. We worked with Devon to plan the reception. She went "above and beyond" to make the reception exceptional ! The Carolina Inn was our "home away from home" that weekend; we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We will absolutely frequent the Inn in the future on every opportunity we get. If you're looking for an elegant, but not stuffy, setting for your wedding reception, you must try the Inn !

The Carolina Inn will always hold a special place in my heart- i had my 16th birthday party there, and then went on to work in banquets during college, so it was a no brainer that i'd have my wedding there. Tracey and the staff at the hotel were great, very accomodating and even helped put all my centerpieces together the day of the wedding!

Since our wedding was a destination wedding for a large number of our guests, my husband and I wanted to have it be a big weekend celebration for everyone who came to visit. The Carolina Inn provided the perfect venue and location to allow for that to happen. Not only is the Inn a top notch amazing place to stay with everything you'd ever need to make a special weekend even more special, but it's location (walkable to the rehearsal dinner and welcome drinks on Franklin St) was the icing on the wedding cake.

Working with Heidi Werner and the rest of the catering and event staff, we knew we were in great hands. The team does an amazing job of balancing professionalism and a vast knowledge of how weddings should work with the realization that while they have done tons of weddings, this is most likely the first and only one for you. So the balance of making you feel well cared for as well as special and calm is really appreciated.

Favorite memory: My husband and I got engaged in New Orleans and wanted to incorporate some of the NoLa vibe into the day. We had an idea to do a "second line" with a four piece band leading all the guests from the ceremony through the main lobby of the hotel to the cocktail hour. We weren't sure if they'd go for it, since it would probably be pretty disruptive. But they were totally game and were right there dancing along with us :)

I have to say, I'm not one to embrace the "princess" part of being a bride, but The Carolina Inn was so very attentive and thoughtful and just took care of so very many things that we didn't even have time to think of ... well, that's something a gal could get used to (especially on the most fun yet stressful weekend of her life) :)

We absolutely loved having our wedding at the Carolina Inn! They were amazing to work with in planning the wedding. They pulled off a flawless day, and all our guests thought everything was just perfect. They are considered expensive, but you get what you pay for. Their attention to detail and responsiveness to special requests is unparalleled. We worked mainly with Heidi, who is fantastic.

Working with Devon Schwartz and The Carolina Inn was truly incredible. What a phenomenal experience from beginning to end. The Inn is not just incredibly beautiful and the perfect place for any wedding, but the food and hospitality are truly excellent. You just can't go wrong by choosing this vendor. Everyone here will do whatever they can to make your wedding day everything you dreamed it to be!

Honestly, in my wildest dreams I didn't know a wedding could be so beautiful and fun. The staff just did everything exactly as we wanted it and no one was ever in the way. It was like having invisible elves carrying out your every wish. Our guests couldn't say enough about how wonderful every last detail was- the food was unbelievably delicious and everything was set up just as I requested. It was honestly like I was still envisioning it, only it actually happened... too fast! We were ALL sad to leave. Such a perfect weekend.

We had both our ceremony and reception at the Carolina Inn (in the Chancellor's Ballroom and Old Well Room, respectively). We worked with Tracey for the planning process and Patrick also on the weekend of our wedding, and they were both fabulous! The inn is beautiful and right in the middle of Chapel Hill, giving your guests plenty to do in their down time.

The Carolina Inn is on the pricey side, but it is SO worth every penny. They also have tiered pricing, so if you are willing to have your wedding in a less popular month, the price is lower. Finally, they figure the price per person based on the package you choose, and the price is inclusive- meaning that there are no last minute fees and surprises in the final bill. We went to several venues and the Carolina Inn was the only one that we found that had this price structure. We didn't feel like they were trying to nickel and dime us and this is one of the major reasons that we chose them to be our venue.

Everyone at the inn was welcoming and responsive to us and our guests on the weekend of our wedding. They worked seamlessly with all of our vendors to make sure that we didn't have to worry about a thing! The food was amazing, and we had lots of compliments from our guests on how delicious everything was. They also upgraded my husband and I to a suite for our wedding night, and let us and our guests stay an extra hour in the ballroom because everyone was having so much fun that they didn't want to leave!

I have heard from so many of our guests that ours was the best wedding that they have ever been to, and the number one reason this is true is because we chose to have it at the...

I love Carolina Inn! It was my dream to have my wedding there and they did everything they can to make that a reality.

When you have your wedding at the Carolina Inn, everything from A-Z will be taken care of. You just have to show up and enjoy your wedding.

The only con is packing. There was two others wedding beside mine so a lot of my guests has to find an alternate parking...

The Carolina Inn was a great place to hold our wedding. They were the only venue that packaged all that we were looking for and the pricing was within our budget. The grounds are beautiful and went very well with the theme of our wedding.

I absolutely loved having my wedding at the Carolina Inn! It was beautiful and perfect for my husband and I as we met in Chapel Hill our freshman year of college. It was so easy for all of our guests to stay at the hotel so we didn't have to worry about transportation to and from the ceremony/reception (we did both at The Carolina Inn).

The best thing about the planning experience was when we met with the catering manager the day before (I wish I could remember his name!). He was SO professional and helpful and responsive to ALL of our requests. During the ceremony, he was constantly checking on us and making sure we had food and everything else we could need. He also kept up with our schedule and assisted with the coordination each part!

We did have a bit of trouble getting up with Devon, our liaison with The Carolina Inn, during the months leading up to the date and we had a couple of misunderstandings about when decisions, signatures, or checks were due. However, in the few weeks leading up to the date she was extremely helpful and responsive so I attribute most of our communication issues as being related to the fact that they are SO busy!

Overall, I would recommend this venue to every...

We had our ceremony outdoors in the Bryan Courtyard and our reception in the Hill Ballroom of The Carolina Inn. We loved everything about the venue! We looked at dozens of venues online and went in person to at least 10 different venues, both around the Raleigh/Chapel Hill area as well as in the Asheville area. We are so glad we ended up going with The Carolina Inn and would highly recommend it to other couples planning their wedding. It is such a beautiful location, and the service can not be beat.

The Carolina Inn is known for being a popular wedding spot, well now I know why. First, the hotel and grounds are gorgeous. You will have no trouble getting beautiful photos and video here. Second, the staff and event planners are wonderful to work with. Every single detail was taken care of and I didn’t have to worry about a thing. I planned my wedding by myself, but felt like I had the benefit of having a wedding planner when working with Devon at the Inn. I enjoyed every experience, from the menu tasting, January wedding show, and details meeting, to the entire wedding weekend. My ceremony was held in the Bryan Courtyard and it was a romantic, intimate setting. The reception was in the Old Well Room, which is a gorgeous, elegant room. You will get a lot of value at the Inn, but it can be pricey during peak season and Saturdays. By having my wedding on a Sunday, I found the price very reasonable and I can’t compliment the Inn enough on its customer service, attention to detail, beautiful accommodations and delicious food.

The Carolina Inn facilitated the wedding of our dreams. In the beginning, we had serious problems with responsiveness, but the woman we had trouble reaching left the Inn a couple months before our wedding. We worked with Heidi, who was wonderful, although I understand that while Heidi is still there, she does not directly oversee weddings.

The Carolina Inn is expensive, but we found it a much less expensive than other, comparable venues, and we definitely did not feel nickled and dimed, as I'd feared with other places. The prices were all clear in the brochures, and there were no surprise add ons.

Our guests adored the Inn, which was decorated for the holidays beautifully, as always. The honeymoon suite was to die for. We had many requests for coordination, including piano delivery, programs on seats, and so on, and everything was executed perfectly.

I owe Heidi a note for the wonderful work she did.

The Carolina Inn was so beautiful, the staff was so kind and professional....I couldn't imagine anywhere else we'd want to celebrate. I highly recommend this place, and it was fun too! The staff makes everyone feel like we're family. They are highly in tuned to your needs and responsive. We loved the Carolina Inn and are so happy we picked this venue!!! Thank You!!

http://ariosostringsreviews.blogspot.com/2010/07/carolina-inn-for-jonathan-and-gails.html

Some pics of the Bryan Courtyard & Reception room, Old Well Ballroom

We were married May 2010 and had our reception (along with a cocktail party on the lawn Friday evening) at the Carolina Inn.

Ashleigh Collins was our catering manager. She was such a pleasure to work with, always professional and probably the most hardworking person I have seen in a long time. I was constantly asking her things from up here in New Jersey and she was always patient, never seemed to tire of my list of questions. I cannot imagine doing what she does!

The food was FANTASTIC....Jimmy Reale is amazing and took care of us and our guests the entire weekend. A true gem!!! I would eat there any day, any time.

My only small issue with The Carolina Inn was our room situation. We were told from the start we could reserve 80-100 rooms and this was never the case. Sure it was a big weekend in Chapel Hill...but we told the Carolina Inn from the get-go that we needed 80 to 100 rooms and this never occurred.

It all worked out in the end, and the entire staff is SO attentive. No complaints about that! Our guests loved it. But the "not knowing" if our guests would all have rooms was a big deal to us.

We had our wedding reception in the evening in the Old Well Room. The staff the night of the event was extremely helpful. Things seemed to move along so quickly and effortlessly. There was one miscommunication between the coordinator at the Inn and the banquet captain, which was resolved very quickly. The planning process was also great. We worked with both Ashleigh and Julie at various parts of the planning and they were both excellent to work with. I highly recommend the Carolina Inn.

I was just smitten with the Carolina Inn the first time I ever saw it. It is a beautiful place and is great for a formal classic wedding. Parking is a little tough as it is right in the middle of campus, but there is parking on site. Staff was helpful and my pictures turned out great with this venue as the backdrop.

I had my ceremony & reception at The Carolina Inn. Our ceremony was in Bryan Courtyard. We got married in October & the autumn leaves were at their peak. It was breath taking. Our reception was in The Old Well Room. The food was wonderful (I've been to weddings at great venues where the food was rather disappointing) & the service fantastic. I read a few of the other reviews on this site & was surprised at some of the complaints regarding the flexibility of the catering department. We were able to customize our entire menu & many of the changes were made last minute. Our contact was Julie McCay. She was friendly, accommodating & professional. We had some rather extreme changes occur last minute & she (along with Sally Herring) handled it all like Super Heros. She went above & beyond in accommodating all my last minute changes & requests. I was told by many guests that it was the most beautiful & elegant wedding they had ever been to. The only reason I did not give a full five stars was due to some mix ups regarding a few of our hotel rooms. But, the front desk took care of everything promptly & efficiently.

As a UNC-CH student (on a budget) who has known about the infamous and fabulous Carolina Inn weddings, I was both excited and apprehensive when I booked the Old Well Ballroom for my Saturday afternoon wedding. I wanted to make sure that my wedding was given the same attention to detail and support as the other big-ticket weddings I knew would and have taken place there. There were 5 other weddings the weekend of mine, but you would have never guessed it. I was treated like a queen, and the catering manager (Julie) was ever-present and attentive. From the minute I booked the room to the minute I left, everything went smoothly and the issues that arose were taken care of quickly and in a very professional and caring manner. Everyone that came loved the food, atmosphere, and service. My guests were in love with our bartender, who although not english-speaking, was as nice and accommodating as could be. A perfect experience, and well worth every dime.

I loved my wedding at the Carolina Inn. It was expensive and the workers are not willing to change much about the space or the menu planning. That said, if you go in and like the rooms, so much is done for you. Everything went smoothly once we received our actual catering manager Julie (who was awesome) and we were treated very nicely. We even were offered to have our meals reheated to make sure that my new husband and myself got something to eat. The food was fabulous, service during was wonderful and every vendor had worked at the Inn before so there were no obvious flubbs. Wonderful place.

The Carolina Inn was the absolute perfect spot to have our wedding reception! We worked with a wonderful catering manager who bent over backwards to make us feel welcome and well served. The planning was easy - they did so much of the work for us - and they were willing to change every detail that we wanted to personalize. On the day of the ceremony, they greeted us when we arrived from the church with champagne and hors d'eurves and gave us a private sitting room in which to relax while our guests finished cocktail hour. It was magnificent!

The bridal shower was just going to be with my mother and aunts, as well as my sister and best friend. I had already had a really crazy bachelorette party, so I didn't mind a nice afternoon of tea. I had been to afternoon teas before, but I had never been to the Carolina Inn. I had heard it was fancy, but WOW! It was beautiful! We were dresses up, and I was so glad we were, and that no one showed up in trainers or sneakers. The menu was tasty, but it was really all about atmosphere. I don't know much about tea, but the teas they serve were special, and the cups were really cute. I really liked it. There were other groups there, and on group had a kid. I do not think this is a place for children. Too many breakable things!

I am so glad I got married at the Carolina Inn. It's very clear they know what they're doing. I worked with Jennifer Davis, who was cheerful and very responsible. She answered any questions I had within a day or two(and I probably had 4000 questions over the year of planning) and alleviated everyone's stresses. She was organized and timely, and had an answer ready whenever I wasn't sure of what I wanted.
Plus, the space was just beautiful--my florist bill was substantially lower because the decor at the Inn is already so stunning. We got married in the Bryan Courtyard, which seats about 150, and then walked down the hall to the Old Well Room, where we had a gorgeous dance floor with chandeliers, a smaller room with a bar, and another room for quieter talking. They provide catering and the bar, and the food was really delicious, especially the shrimp and grits, the little lamp chops, and the flatbread with portabello and goat cheese.

sara was totally amazing, the inn was beautiful and the catering manager did a great job. not super flexible with their packages and food unless you raise a lot of hell but it was a great experience and beautiful.

I booked the Carolina Inn for an afternoon reception in their Old Well Room. What started out as a very receptive catering department soon became what I would call frigid and unrepsonsive as the wedding got closer and closer. I was planning my wedding from out of state, so I thought that having it at the Carolina Inn, where they are supposedly known for amazing weddings, would have helped.

We met with the catering staff the Thursday before my Saturday wedding. Gave them individual table seatings, name cards, and menu selections and color coding, since we had three en trees, gave them the favors, menu cards, and discussed how everything was to go once again. It seemed like everything was going to be great.

Let me first say, that the Carolina Inn lost our wedding parties' and my bouquet before the mass. I was 30 minutes late to my wedding because they couldn't figure out where they put the flowers. After the mass at the Newman Center across the street, we came back, and well...it was a mess!

I have an ethnic last name, and they mispelled it on the sign pointing people to the reception- nice touch. The waitstaff, which I was assured would know what they were doing, be plentiful, and speak ENGLISH, we few and far between. Oh, and they didn't speak English. Big problem when you're trying to explain what the color coding on your place cards meant while trying to relax and be happy just being married!

When my guests got to the ballroom before myself and my husband, my mother found out that the idiots in the catering department completely messed the seating of our 13 tables up. Instead of laying out the name cards from the table specific and sorted ziplock baggies I made for them, it was like they just dumped them on the floor and threw them anywhere! When my mother talked to the catering "manager" for our reception, she exclaimed to my mother "well, what do you want me to do about it?" My father and mother went around and changed the seating around as fast as they could to what they thought was appropriate...families sitting together, couples not sitting across the room, children sitting with their parents, myself and my new husband sitting at the same table... It was a mess.

It all got sorted and people were happy. More or less. We gave them leaves to put on the tables to spread about...instead they just dropped the packages of the leaves on the tables, with the POTTERY BARN labels for everyone to see! In the end, we also had extra favors of Godiva truffles, and the 20 of those also disappeared, never to be seen again. We think the incompetent waitstaff ate them, but who knows?

I went to the Carolina Inn because it was close to the church we got married in, and we didn't want to bother with renting tables, catering, etc. all the different vendors. We thought it would be easier because it was one source and everything would be managed by them.

They turned out to be very inflexible. The catering manager (Jennifer) was very unresponsive as we got closer to the wedding, and we realized it was because she was getting married the next weekend at the Carolina Inn, so she was more wrapped up in her wedding than ours. Needless to say, too far gone down that path to turn around by the time we realized this. The week of the wedding, we met with her and her "reception manager" (who did not speak English, as least that anyone could understand) and we provided her with table cards, menus, seating charts, favors, cake topper, cake knife, table decorations etc. and went through detail where everything went. We even mailed her an excel spreadsheet by table where people were sitting.

When we got to the reception, we found that the seating was a disaster. She sorted the spreadsheet column alphabetically, but didn't sort it with table numbers. My new husband and I ended up being seated across the ballroom from each other, as with many other couples that were supposed to sit together. My parents ran through the ballroom during the cocktail hour sorting out the table cards that were haphazardly placed due to the screw up. Then, when we finally sat down, we saw that the "leaves" we asked to scattered on top of the table for our fall theme, were just plopped down in their original packaging on the tables, no opened and scattered.

The final shame was that our Catering Manager was no where to be found during all these problems (trust me, there are many more!) and she never responded to my phone calls and requests for compensation. To add final insult to injury, they misspelled my name on every sign directing guests to our wedding! We spent a ton of money on the reception and to make sure our guests had a great time, and honestly, I wish we hadn't had it there.

I was not happy at all with the service of the Carolina Inn on the day of the wedding. The wedding planner disappeared during the reception, the food service was incredibly slow and lasted an hour longer than it was supposed to, and they were not responsive at all to my requests to speed up to stay on the schedule they had outlined for me. It was beautiful, but far too expensive considering the services that were provided.

After reading many positive reviews on www.theknot.com for the Carolina Inn, I booked them as my wedding ceremony and reception venue. The sprinklers in the courtyard went off as guests were being seated which delayed the ceremony for more than 30 minutes, the guest book was misplaced until about an hour before the reception ended, so only about 15% of my guests were able to sign it, my signature picture glass was broken, some of the bartenders left their stations, etc....The coordinator provided by the Carolina Inn did a very disappointing job. I hope nobody else has to experience such chaos and disorganization as I did on my wedding day.

The Carolina Inn was a wonderful choice for our wedding site. The hotel and ballrooms are truly beautiful. Our catering manager, Jennifer, was very professional and very accommodating. They truly worked hard to make sure that it was a day to remember. From our guests accommodations to handling of all the vendors everything ran so smoothly. The food was amazing and the service was superb. We couldn’t have asked for anything more memorable.

They were awesome. Just wonderful.

The Carolina Inn exceeded my expectations. They were extremely flexible throughout the whole process and ensured that I received the value that we paid for on our special day.

Gorgeous and great to work with for our reception. Returned calls, clear guidelines and deadlines. Willing to work with us and our other vendors to create just what we wanted. Food was delicious.