The Magnolia Hotel

It was a beautiful venue. I received many positive feedbacks from my guests regarding the food. Natalie was extremely responsive to my questions and emails.

The wedding was perfect!

We absolutely loved the Magnolia Hotel. The staff was fabulous and our social catering manager, Natalie Monk, was wonderful. Our guests had a wonderful time and those who stayed at the hotel loved the complimentary breakfast, and cookies and milk at bedtime. The Magnolia Hotel is the perfect venue for a wedding!

I was so pleased with my reception! Everything went so smoothly, and the service throughout the entire planning process was exceptional. Natalie did a great job of communicating with me and asking the right questions to be able to coordinate the reception, vendors, band, etc. She was very responsive and answered all of my questions in a timely manner.

Aside from the logistics and all of the planning, the venue, food, and service were excellent. The hotel is gorgeous and a fabulous backdrop for an event. I shot my bridal portraits there as well with no additional charge, and Natalie made sure that I had a room to get ready in beforehand.

The room block was very reasonable, and many of the guests commented on how much they absolutely loved staying there. All in all the whole weekend was a success thanks to all of the hard work and planning put forth by a talented wedding coordinator and staff. I would definitely recommend this to any bride!

The Magnolia Hotel Houston was the perfect location for our daughter's reception. Many of our out of town guests as well as ourselves stayed at the hotel making everything so much easier. The hotel staff was very professional and attentive and the food was fantastic. Many of our guests commented on the delicious meal. I would definitely recommend Magnolia Hotel Houston for a reception.

We arranged for a wedding block at the Magnolia Hotel for my sister's wedding earlier this month and could not have been happier with our level of service. We worked with Natalie Monk and were treated as if we were Ms. Monk's only client. The rates offered by the hotel were incredibly reasonable given the quality of the amenities. Our guests enjoyed their stay and the bride and groom couldn't have been happier. The definitely recommend splurging on the Presidential Suite. The room is enormous and was the perfect place for family and friends to gather before and after the wedding.

We had booked the Magnolia Hotel - club/lounge level - in 2009 for our September 2011 wedding. Natalie Monk, the social catering manager, is very responsive and attentive to all the details. She made the reception portion of the wedding flow seemlessly. I cannot say enough wonderful things about Natalie. The staff at the Magnolia Hotel was helpful in every manner. We were able to stay within our budget for the reception by asking for Natalie's professional help in deciding on the open bar and passed appetizers. We were able to satisfy our appetites with a combination of Vietnamese and American food over three courses for our wedding. The chef prepared the Vietnamese dishes to appeal to everyone's taste buds. We are very happy with the service, attention to detail, and professionalism of the staff at the Magnolia Hotel.

I had narrowed the party I was giving our son the night before the wedding down to three downtown hotels. I chose the Magnolia because of their party planner, Natalie Monk. She made everthing so easy for me. I planned the party from Mississippi and everything was so much more than I expected. The decorations they used were perfect and I did not have to spend more for them. The food was outstanding. I was so happy with everything. It could not have been more perfect.

Natalie was AMAZING!! I absolutely loved her. She was so helpful and so receptive to what I wanted for my wedding reception. She was there throughout the whole thing, stayed calm, and really kept everything flowing. The food was incredible. We had the carmelized apple stuffed chicken paired with the beef tenderloin with swiss chard. It was not the typical rubber chicken you usually get at a wedding - it was delicious and I received many compliments from several "foodies." Everything turned out BEAUTIFULLY!!

This place is absolutely gorgeous!! Natalie was amazing to work with and responded extremely fast to my emails and was always on top of every detail helping us through the way. The wedding would not have been as amazing as it was if it wasn't for the Magnolia Hotel.

When we first booked the Magnolia, we were working with Claudia. She is great at what she does, she answered the million questions I had, and worked with me on food and beverage options. During the planning process, Claudia transferred and we got to work with Natalie, and she is just as amazing. She was always just a phone call or email away, and always responded in a timely manner. She helped with the room setup and gave us a beautiful suite on the night of, it was beautiful! She worked with us on rooms for our other bridal attendants, and was just great to work with overall. The only complaint I would have is that the food took a little long to come out. Other than that, the food was amazing, the service was great, and we had the time of our lives!

Fabulous -- just absolutely fabulous in every sense of the word. We had known all along we wanted to have our wedding here, as we have a back story with The Magnolia in addition, we've eaten here a million times in the bar area and the food is superb. Originally when we looked at pricing we thought we could find something better so we shopped reception sites and found this was definitely our place, not only for sentimental reasons but for what you get for your money. You definitely get the biggest bang for your buck. We had a ridiculous amount of food during our cocktail hour and guests were handed drinks as soon as they walked into cocktail hour, the reception where guests were stuffed to the max (still receiving compliments on how delicious the food was and the general consensus was "I couldn't pick just one so I picked all the main courses") -- that was a good feeling! We also had midnight snacks served towards the end of the night and those were a big hit! The food was AMAZING. And there was SO much of it. We were definitely pleased with the five star service we received all night from the staff at The Magnolia. They took care of guests all night long -- and really really made sure we as the bride and groom had not a concern in the world all night. Drinks were constantly refilled and food was a plenty for the both of us. They even had our table set with all the appetizers, salads, dressings, food, etc and made sure we ate! The room rates we got were insanely cheap for a Downtown Houston Hotel and we had over 50+ rooms book for our wedding by the end of it!!! Some of our guests even decided to book that night after the wedding because they had had so much fun and the hotel honored the price they had given me originally (which we agreed would be cut off after January 12, but that was never an issue). Also note, this was a holiday weekend for the hotel!!!! With regards to the event coordinator, Claudia and Natalie. We booked our wedding about a year in advance so intially Claudia was my contact. As you can imagine I had nine thousand questions and would email her at all hours of the day and night and she never ever ever made me feel like a nuisance and always responded in a timely manner. Even once, she emailed me the next morning and apologized for taking so long to respond, I was like, seriously? I emailed you at 6:30 pm the night before lol. I was not expecting a response back so quick (as I know they do multiple weddings every weekend). Right around November, during my menu tasting, I was introduced to Natalie who would be taking over the social events and Claudia was moving on to corporate events. I was a little hesitant at first because I've heard horror stories about coordinators changing and things getting lost in the shuffle etc. I could not have been anymore wrong. Natalie stepped up to the plate and went above and beyond the call of duty. She was beyond organized, had all my previous emails saved, and I NEVER ONCE had to explain anything to her because she had basically read over my files and emails with Claudia and knew exactly what I was talking about whenever I had a question about something. She answered every phone call, email with the same turn around Claudia did and literally felt like I was talking to a girlfriend who just happened to be in charge of my ENTIRE wedding! She even listened when I had to vent about some vendors. The night before (literally as I'm checking in) I was having issues with another vendor and we texted back and forth (she was tied up at the hotel) and called me back when she was finished asking if I wanted her to come to the room to help solve the problem!!!SHE EVEN HELPED SET UP and decorate the day of the wedding. Natalie was there ALL night working so hard and making sure everything was perfect, checking in with me throughout the night. AMAZING -- just amazing. I love Natalie to death and couldn't have asked for someone more amazing than her to be my even coordinator!!!

When looking for a place to have our wedding reception, I wanted to choose something a little bit more modern and classy than floral and frilly because my husband is not a pink-roses-and-lace kind of guy. The Magnolia Hotel is super-chic, classy, and absolutely lovely. Everything from the decor to the wonderful staff and beautiful rooms completely held me, my groom and our guests in awe. The day of our wedding, things were more beautiful (and fun) than I had imagined. The Cajun-themed menu we chose was outstanding, and there was more than enough to feed everyone. Also, Natalie Monk is the best wedding coordinator you could ask for. She was so nice to us, extremely professional, and worked with us on everything. Not only that, she made it so easy for our outside vendors to set everything up. We had looked at other hotels before we saw the Magnolia, but none of them were as nice or had such wonderful service. After our wedding, I had people coming up to me to tell me it was the best wedding they had ever been to. That's a great feeling, and I give the credit to the Magnolia.

There could not have been a better venue to hold our wedding reception at. Jessica Smith was a dream to work with and she was a part of why our wedding day was so fantastic. The built in lighting and the design of the ballroom was awesome! The food was awesome and the staff was attentive. The guests that stayed at the hotel were very happy with the accomidations as well. I look forward to staying at the hotel just for fun in the future!

One stop for almost everything. Working with Claudia at the Magnolia was very pleasurable. She handled food, room setup. We got a night at the hotel as well as breakfast the next day. We felt very pampered! She remembered everything and reviewed it all with me to make sure that everything was perfect....and it was. I am so happy I went with this cozy atmosphere, it was perfect for our personality and that was very apparent to our guests.

This is were we went for our mini honeymoon! we stayed there two nights and it was amazing. They upgraded us to a suite since it was our honeymoon and they had all kinds of perks. Free breakfast, happy hour and cookie bar! they also had an amazing lounge with a library and a real fireplace! rather romantic. I loved this place, it was amazing.

We booked the Magnolia Hotel for our January 2011 wedding, and it turned out great! Natalie became our catering manager after our original person was promoted, so we only had about 2 months with her. But she took on all her new responsibilities wonderfully! She responded to emails in a timely manner, and the amenities were all fantastic. Everyone loved the food for the reception, and they thought the hotel was beautiful. There was a small issue with the number of chairs at one table, but the guests figured it out for themselves. And when we were taking photos on the staircase with the family, the lights went out (something about being on a timer), but they had it fixed within 10 minutes. It gives us something to laugh about now! And the BEST thing is that Natalie hooked us up with the Presidential Suite, which was AMAZING!!! We are big fans of the Magnolia...the food, the beds, the rooms, the hospitality...it all was fantastic! They made everything very convenient. I would highly recommend this hotel as a venue for anything!!

As the wedding planner for my cousin's wedding, we have no complaints here! Natalie and the team at the Magnolia Hotel exceeded our expectations! It was so wonderful to have a venue that we could wholehearted trust to make the bride and groom's special day spectacular. Thank you again for the wonderful service through this whole planning process.

Our guests are still raving over how great the wedding was which was on the roof ot the Magnolia. People are also talking about how great the food was, the shrimp and grits were a hit! Natalie Monk came through, she was not the person we started out with, but she picked up mid way and was great to work with. All of the staff was duly attentive to our needs. The only thing that I would have liked is for the hotel to close the pool earlier so our vendors would have had more time to decorate the roof for the ceremony. But in the end, it was beautiful and we were only off schedule by 15 minutes.

We had our reception in the Club Room at the Magnolia Hotel in March 2011 and absolutely loved our experience all around. Natalie Monk was helpful and flexible to meet with us around our work schedule and very quick to correspond by email as we were continuing to finalize all the details. She gave great advise during our tasting to help us make our food choices which our guests loved. Natalie even made sure that my husband and I had a chance to eat during the reception and had more food delievered to our room. The Magnolia coordinated so well with our DJ, florist, wedding cake company and musicians we didn't have to worry about anything the day of the wedding. It went so smoothly! The suite we stayed in the night of the wedding was beautiful!
Our guests got a great deal on the rooms and enjoyed the free milk and cookies every night. Because of the great location of the hotel, they were also able to use the light rail to go visit the museums, zoo, and the rodeo during their visit to Houston.

About The Magnolia:
This venue offered modern decor and 5 star amenities at a great rate.

About Natalie Monk:
Natalie began managing my event after my original representative was promoted. I was a little concerned that my service level may be affected by the transition, but she never missed a beat. She took every precaution to ensure my event was a success. She was professional and provided solid advice and direction on matters I had questions about. She managed my event in a manner that made me feel very important, I do not recall her ever commenting on any other events that she may have been managing at the time. I entrusted Natalie with the most important event of my life, and she nailed it. 2 Thumbs Up!

An overall great experiance! We had our ceromony and reception in the same ballroom, the room change went extremely fast especiialy forall the decorations and lighting we had for our reception. Waitstaff was excellent!

We used the Magnolia hotel as a location for our guests to stay. We did not use their services as a reception or ceremony venue. Our out-of-town family members enjoyed staying here. The amenities are top-notch, including the complimentary hot breakfast, rooftop pool, and complimentary happy hour drinks. The shuttle service was very accomodating in transporting around my elderly guests and family members who did not have cars. The rate was very reasonable considering the downtown location (although the valet/car parking fees do add a good chunk onto the quoted rate).

Only a few negatives. Although our wedding block was originally for Fri/Sat, we were told that days before or after these two days would be offered at the wedding room block rate. In the end (I hope) all of our guests got the right rate, but a number of our guests had trouble getting the guaranteed rate for all of the days they were staying at the hotel. There was a fee for handing out guest bags ($3 per bag for handing them out at the desk, $5 for placing them in the rooms). Not the end of the world or anything, but it was another expense.

In all, I would recommend using the Magnolia hotel for a wedding block. We certainly enjoyed staying there!

This was the host hotel for our guests and they LOVED it. The wedding rate they gave us was VERY affordable and family and friends had nothing but great things to say about it. For out of towners, it is very "Dallas" which was perfect! Urban yet comfortable, fun yet classy, and all about hospitality!

I would recommend The Magnolia Hotel without hesitation, particularly the services of Natalie Monk, Catering Sales. I was most impressed with Natalie's efficiency, prompt responsiveness and thorough follow-through.

We stayed at the Magnolia after our wedding since we weren't going on our honeymoon right away. I would recommend this for anyone else who isn't leaving town immediately. We didn't want to just go home after the wedding, and we ended up having a blast roaming downtown. We are both native Houstonians, but experienced the city in a whole new way. The hotel is very centrally located, making it easy to walk around downtown. My husband says that service was somewhat lacking at check-in, but other than that we had a great experience. Our king suite was generously sized, breakfast was perfect, and the valet service was prompt and professional.

In general, the quality of service and responsiveness that we received from the Magnolia Hotel through the course of planning our wedding reception was very good -- certainly well above average, given our unusual situation. We would recommend the hotel to other couples as a reception venue. However, there were a few rough edges to be polished, and we wanted to list those so that future brides know what to keep an eye on!

Our wedding reception was originally scheduled at the Magnolia Hotel in Houston on September 13. We had decided on the Magnolia the previous fall, and over the course of the next 6 months or so, the event coordinator position 'turned over' 3 times -- in all but 1 case, we had to find this out on our own when emails & phone calls started going unanswered. After this point, management of our event was turned over to the catering director, and service / responsiveness became more consistent. Simon was professional, accomodating, and easy to work with (including special requests like arranging for draping to cover up a less-than-attractive 'airwall' in the ballroom), and over the course of several meetings, we developed an event plan that we were very excited about.

When Hurricane Ike came through Houston, the hotel shut down and our ceremony and reception had to be postponed. This was (clearly) stressful. The folks at the Magnolia were very professional and assured us that they'd do everything they could to help us with rescheduling, etc. By the middle of the next week, we had a new date set, and with little intervention from us (and at no cost), they shifted all of the reception arrangements to our new date 6 weeks later. Fewer people were able to attend the new date, and they refunded the cost difference to us without question.

Room reservations for our guests were not quite as seamless. They cancelled all reservations for the weekend of the 13th, and each guest had to call back to rebook for the new weekend. In the middle of this, the hotel transitioned from one computer system to another, and a bunch of our reservations were 'lost' in the process. We had to go back and forth with the hotel several times to get all of them 'found' and in the correct system, and in the meantime, they ran out of rooms, so one of our guests had to stay at a hotel down the street. At the end of the day, not a huge problem, but this part was more work/stress than it should have been.

The event itself generally went smoothly. Arriving late, it's a little tough to tell, but we think some minor details like the setup of silverware / napkins was not the way we had requested. Other than that, the space itself was great; when you reserve the ballroom, you essentially get the use of the entire 3rd floor, including a large 'lounge' area and several small conference rooms (one of which we'd set up as a kids' room.) Reviews of the food from our guests were good-but-not-outstanding. One glitch that was visible to the guests: the DJ had announced the cake cutting a couple of times, but after we cut our slices for each other, there was no staff immediately available to cut & serve the cake for our guests. I had to go track down the event coordinator (Simon was out of town for the weekend) and have her get someone to serve, while the guests stood around waiting.

We had a brunch for our guests the next morning and Simon and the hotel were extremely accomodating about helping to put this together without breaking the bank. The morning staff did a great job of setup and we were really glad to have the extra time to spend with everyone before people headed to the airport.

On the whole, we were happy with the Magnolia and would recommend it to other couples -- just don't be shy about confirming and reconfirming your expectations in detail! We are also providing these suggestions to their management on the hope that they'll address these minor problems for their future events.

Overall The Magnolia Hotel is a good venue. We had our wedding in April and it all worked out eventually. Since I have only planned this wedding, I don't have much experience with the wedding industry. However, there were some small issues that should be addressed so future brides and grooms are not surprised the day of the wedding or after. First, the wedding manager turned over 3 times in a course of a year. They were very accommodating to the promises of the previous wedding manager, but make sure you have everything in writing or email. Second, go over details with the wedding manager if you think there could be any confusion. I covered the setup with her at least 3 times and it was not setup correctly the day of my wedding. I had asked and given a detailed map to the wedding manager of how we would like the room to be setup. When I arrived after my hair appointment, I had to explain to the staff that they were using the wrong map and this was not for my wedding. They fixed the obvious problems with table setups, but, I missed the buffet being setup and it was done backwards. This made the waiting in line time longer for our guests. Third, keep a copy of your contract to make sure they charge you correctly. I was overcharged twice and had to bring it up with the wedding manager and the accounting people a couple of times to get them to correct the charges.

Congratulations and Good Luck!

Great for a weekend stay, ABSOLUTE LAST CHOICE FOR WEDDING EVENTS. The event coordinator, Natalie, is completely unprofessional and unaware of her responsibilities. Although we were married in January of this year, it has taken this long (Almost 8 months) to try to compose a review on Natalie and our experience with the Magnolia that is acceptable to post online. It sounds like she has improved since her duties were transferred over from Claudia but I would pay anything to go back and insist that Claudia had been kept to run our wedding reception. For those brides who had a good experience, I envy you and am so glad you did not have to go thru what we went thru.

We were truly disappointed and shocked by the way Natalie handled herself the night of our wedding reception. Natalie’s unfortunate mistake and oversight on reserving tables that were requested for the family and bridal party caused a complete unfolding of other events as the reception continued. She immediately left the reception and although states she returned, she was not seen again by any of the bridal party, the bride and groom or any of the family members. During a meeting we had with her once we returned from our honeymoon, Natalie took absolutely no responsibility for her actions, was incredibly defensive and unprofessional in her comments and demeanor, and pushed the majority of the blame for all events that occurred on us. The only staff that was helpful and respectful the night of our reception was the Catering Manager and one of the bartenders. All in all, we had zero tables reserved, one of the bartenders walked out because he felt understaffed, people from off the street came into the private reception area and were able to obtain drinks from the open bar and were dancing on the dance floor, the hotel Mercedes that was supposed to be awaiting our departure for pictures downstairs was never put in place, the vendors were not allowed to set up at the promised time because the hotel did not have the Club Area ready for vendor set up, the open bar we paid for all night ran out of multiple liquor choices and was not replenished for almost an hour!!!!! I could go on and on and on.

Overall, this was a day that we prepared and planned for almost a year in advance and looked forward to with so much anticipation, and we now feel incredibly let down by the outcome. We do acknowledge that there will always be things that go wrong at a wedding reception, but the number of problems and the severity of the problems that we had to deal with were unacceptable.

Good luck if you choose to do business with The Houston Magnolia or Natalie Monk.

I am approximately six weeks away from my wedding. The reception will be held at Magnolia Hotel and I first have to say Natalie Monk, the previous social manager, was AMAZING! I received an email personally from Natalie in February 2012, stating that she is no longer with Magnolia. Ever since this, I have had the hardest time getting anything done for the reception. There are apparently now THREE social managers and none of them know what their role is. I have not had one of them return my phone call in over a month, not ONE. I am still willing to give Magnolia a good review if they can manage to call me back soon so we can schedule the tasting, layout of the room, count on guest room block and so many other details that should have been done already. I will update my review once my wedding is over on any changes of my ongoing problem with them.

Magnolia Hotel is a great place for any bride in the downtown Houston area. It is spacious and is a great place for you and your bridemaids to get ready & hang out and sharing every special moment of your wedding day.

I had the pleasure of shooting a wedding at this fine downtown Houston hotel and let me tell you, when I get married, it will be held there, no doubt!!

This is a great hotel.

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