The Whitney

Our wedding at The Whitney was absolutely perfect! Kristine Rader, the banquet manager, and her staff were accommodating and made sure everything went off without a hitch. The food was spectacular and the venue was beyond stunning. Early on in the planning process, we had some concern about minor lapses in communication. As the day approached, all of our concerns were alleviated by Kristine's attention to detail. We were also impressed with how quickly and perfectly orders were taken and hors d'oeuvres, dinner, and dessert were served to our 120 guests. We cannot say enough about the venue, it's undeniable charm, and how much our guests loved it!

Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous! There were a few set backs but overall a pleasant experience. So great in fact, we are having our vow renewal there next year. We married in front of the Tiffany stained glass landing on the 2nd floor. It was beautiful. The cons- FREEZING!! Where was the heat? People above us in the landing thought I was laughing when I was actually shaking. And in the Music Room where we held our brunch, it was quite chilly also. No discounts were given, but it was still a nice service.

The Whitney is absolutely gorgeous – inside and out. We chose to have our evening ceremony and reception at the Whitney outdoors in the garden. We had around 150 people – so it was perfect. Initial contact with the staff was horrendous and stressful – luckily they ended up replacing the original contact person with Kristine Rader. Kristine was VERY responsive and never missed our scheduled appointments. Everything we asked for happened and the Whitney staff was awesome. With the exception of some cold glares from a manager during the arrival for our rehearsal the day before and some confusion with staff telling our guests the wedding had been moved inside due to rain – everyone was accommodating. All of our guests commented on the friendliness of the staff, the great food and how awesome the bartender was. I was pleased with how quickly the staff converted the ceremony space into reception seating and the extra touches of lanterns in the back area – it made the garden look like something out of an evening fairytale. We had somewhat of a non-traditional wedding – but the Whitney let us do what we wanted and for that we are ETERNALLY grateful. Our wedding was perfect.

I book the Whitney for june 11th then decided months later that i needed to change to the week before, they had no problem. The banquet manager had changed during the time I was contacting them, but I had no problems with this. Everything I had discussed with the previous manager had been told to the next one. Kristine was great at returning my calls and putting my mind at ease about everything. They even served a gluten free meal for my son. The day was hot and the building was even hotter. I had asked for the air to be turned a little lower, as I was really hot. they did their best, but it is an old bldg and very hard to control the temp. I had absolutely no problems and everything went as planned. It was a perfect day!

Everything was absolutely perfect on our day. I had the Whitney reserved for the reception and they allowed me to use the 2nd floor to dress for my ceremony which was taking place at the Belle Isle Conservatory. The site was beautiful and the Banquet Facilities Specialist made sure we had everything we needed. The only fault that I found was we weren't served everything that was supposed to come with the meal (buffet) such as the bread and beverages. I didn't realize until afterwards because I was so caught up in the day. Other than that, I would recommend the Whitney any day. Our guests enjoyed being their and the wait staff was excited and helpful.

Not a good experience. Through the process of finding a venue we fell in love with the whitney and decided to book. That is when the nightmare started. We could not get anyone to call us back, even took 2 times to get a manager. Finally set up a tour, with Emily, and took our parents with us. Both sets of parents had to take off work in order to make it for the appointment. When we arrived we were told Emily was in a meeting and her assitant would show us around. When the tour was over we wanted to talk about contracts and setting a price and date. Well, Emily was still in her meeting and her assistant was not much help. The assistant informed us that Emily would email us a contract within the next week. We NEVER received one, and when I called to inquire I could not get anyone on the phone. Finally, I emailed Emily to ask what was going on and she acted like she didn't know anything. She wanted to know the number of people and date when we had already told everything to her assistant!
Very unhelpful and not impressed. It is a beautiful building, but no place is worth my money that treats me like that staff did. However, in the end I am happy that things did not go well because now I am planning my wedding on an AWESOME yacht and could not be happier.

I have super mixed reviews for the Whitney. There were some great positives and some great negatives.
Positives, the service the day of was excellent and the food was amazing.
Absolutely breathtaking inside and beautiful pictures to be had. When we had contact with the banquet manager, she was great. The staff was impeccable. Absolutely hands down. Food came out quickly, they kept our glasses filled AND they even packed up all my extra votives and everything! The cake was made by them and I've heard it tasted wonderful but didn't get to truly sample it myself..I forgot! We did the wedding early on a Saturday so we were the only ones there with the run of the mansion. Definitely a plus! We also had a nice little area to finish getting ready in on the 3rd floor (the AC was up in our room thank god!) WITH a bathroom.
Valet was included so that was nice.

Negatives
SUPER slow response times. There was a period of a couple months I never heard back from them until my fiance decided to be slightly snotty and then we got a response.
I explained to the banquet manager how things needed to be set up she said no problem ..except she wasn't there the day of! So I ended up having to set most of the stuff up myself. Pricing was never standard..we had 3 different price lists. We paid early and were informed there wouldn't be a refund..even before we'd given the guest count! Understandable we wouldn't get a refund if we said ok 70 are coming and 65 showed. Eventually they relented but by that time all was said and done we were just too tired to deal with it so we never did get anything back. The contract stated final guest count by this date OR your RSVP..well the date was 2 months prior to the RSVP..few issues there. Wasn't aware of a menu change til sorta late but it ended up being a good change even though I had to fix our programs.

SUPER NEGATIVE-the THIRD floor was 90 freakin degrees!!! Our guests were dying, not to mention me in that big dress and crinoline which I absolutely had to remove because it was so warm. The chocolate fountain upstairs didn't really get used after everybody went downstairs to enjoy the AC and lunch so if you're going to use one..probably better to keep it downstairs or maybe start it earlier so you get your full time.
NO working elevator! Old building so it's sort of understandable but I thought public places HAD to be handicap friendly.

All in all it's a beautiful place..had to do the ceremony indoors because of the weather. It was trying to get stuff answered before the day of but everything went off pretty smoothly considering.