The Henry Clay

They were great to work with and flexible with our odd schedule. We were both living out of town and had to do a lot of the work over the phon eor via email, but they were willing to accomodate drop offs and office visits. Beautiful location, everyone that came agreed.

We had our daughter's wedding reception at The Henry Clay in May 2010. The staff at The Silver Spoon refused to meet with my daughter and now son-in-law to taste test food to be served at reception (saying they had already meet with our wedding planner (Ellen Fox) and us-we had no taste test) and was hard to have them tell us our appetizers that they would serve during cocktail hour. The City Destinations Group that manages The Henry Clay was very difficult to work with. Ms Baker was very rude and talked down to wedding planners and decorators, not allowing us to place a pots of roses at base of stairs and place a nice calligraphy sign directing guests to second floor. Instead she had a 8x10 piece of computer paper taped to wall (which I just realized was not supposed to be allowed there). We were hoping to brighten entrance a bit- but The City Destinations was very difficult to work with. The Silver Spoon was also very hard to work with- not receptive to arranging tables,etc, differently than they had in past. We spent $$$$ and now in hindsight may have chosen The Brown or The Seelbach instead.

We held our reception at the Henry Clay in the grand ball room, and it was amazing. The room had a great stage for a band, and we rented the Atrium outside of the grand ball room to have a cocktail hour before the reception.

My wedding and reception were held at the Henry Clay, an old renovated 1920's building in the heart of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. It was the most perfect setting for my wedding. The decor of each of the rooms our party used was the perfect backdrop for photos and the 'experience' of the event. It created a romantic, classic, and chic setting.

I used the bridal suite on the 4th floor of the building. I it includes a generous space including a kitchenette, open living/dining area, a bedroom with large windows, and a vanity/bathroom with bathtub. It was tastefully decorated and provided a good backdrop to many of my bridal photos. This room was directly across from the reception room- the Beaux Arts room. All I had to do to take prewedding photos was head across the hall!

We held our wedding in the center of the downstairs lobby. The room is open to the second floor. The ceilings are vast and there was a grand piano available for the use of our string quartet, which they utilized during the pre- and post- wedding music. The setting was beautiful and tastefully restored without being over the top. I entered the room from the elevator which is near the front doors to the building. They supplied a beautiful deep red carpet that extended the length of the aisle. They supplied soft gold chairs that we added sheer gold bows to the back of on the first two family rows. We hung tobacco canvas from the 2nd floor to create an altar. The room didn't need many flowers because of the sheer beauty of the space. I believe we only used 2 oversized planters filled with flowers.

After the wedding we had a cocktail hour as a prelude to dinner and dancing. We had this in the promenade on the 4th floor- a vast hallway in which we setup gift tables, an open bar (very tastefully done), and the servers brought around classy appetizers. It was beautiful. We did this for about 30-40 minutes.

The wedding started at 6:00pm and the reception started around 7. Almost as soon as we sat down the servers (for our 20 tables at 6 people each) began taking drink orders. They promptly brought dinner about 5 minutes after we were seated. The space we used for the reception included: (again the entire 4th floor- using the bridal suite, Beaux arts Room, Promenade, and terrace (good outdoor space for smokers and once again decorated classically). It was very flexible and beautiful. The Beaux Arts room has 2-story ceilings topped with beautiful gold and green stained glass skylights. I believe they allow candlelight although we did not use it. And at the front of the room there are large, large floor to ceiling columns that provide the backdrop to the deep red carpeted stage- we used this to place the cake in the middle. It looked very grand! :)

I hope this is helpful! I loved the spaces at this venue! No complaints!