State Room - Weddings

Rating

Overall (2)	Food (8)	Service (1)
Decor (8)	Value (2)	Average (4.20)

Review
I hate to be the only one to leave a negative review, but I feel it's only fair to share my experience for other bride's out there considering the State Room. We had a terrible experience working with State Room for our September Wedding. The communication with their clients is horrible. We went through three different planners at the venue because they were either quitting or getting fired. But the poor service was consistent throughout all three planners. Any questions we had we were told they would get us an answer by a certain day. It's completely understandable that they would need time to get answers to our questions, but the day they promised to get back to us would pass, then a week would pass, and still after no word from State Room, I would have to check in to see where they were in getting us information (whether it was for a color swatch, a lighting quote, a confirmation on rental equipment, a catering question, etc.). This went on until the very day of our wedding, where we still didn't have price quotes and rental confirmations that we had been waiting for since May. It was so bad, my parents had to go State Room the morning of my wedding to sign the contract because up until that day we did not have a contract that stated the correct rentals and decor. They were so unorganized we didn't even have the amount of what the final payment would be until the Thursday before the wedding. And this was after they weren't responding to our emails and voice messages, so my Mom and I literally drove into Boston and walked into their offices to see what was going on. They constantly used the number of events they had as an excuse as to why they would never get back to us. I found this more irritating than anything else because it's basically saying they're a quantity over quality venue but the prices they charge don't align with the low quality of service they provide. I should state that our wedding was beautiful (but I truly believe that had more to do with our florist, Dana Markos, who is amazing!!). Honestly, as beautiful as State Room is and as wonderful a time as we had during our Wedding, I don't think it was worth the amount of stress and heartache they caused for the entire year we had to work with them. Their disorganized nature and lack of communication showed through the course of events during our wedding. The martini bar was supposed to display our four signature drinks in ice sculptures. The drinks in the ice sculptures were incorrect, which really isn't a huge deal except they assured me they knew what we wanted (obviously they didn't understand what we wanted but they still charged us the full amount). In addition, we were told tickets would be handed out to our guests so they would not have to pay for parking in the garage. We would than pay the parking charges after the wedding. We found out at the end of the night that State Room was telling our guests that they had run out of tickets and our guests had to pay for their parking. This was pretty humiliating. We're not sure if it was our mistake or there's but it's another example of poor communication on the part of State Room. Probably the most disappointing part of the night was it took such a long time for them to serve the courses that we fell an hour and a half behind schedule. The wedding ended at 12am, we didn't get to parent dances until 11:30 and this left very little time for dancing. It basically turned into a 3 1/2 dinner party, which is not what we wanted. These examples would not have been a problem if they were isolated events, but it was one headache after another with them. Along with their mistakes came an ego and rudeness that came across as "We're the best and we don't care if we are being difficult." If I could do it all over again, I would have had our wedding The Langham Hotel. We had a room block for our guests at The Langham and also held the Bridesmaids' Tea, Wedding After-Party, and Brunch at various party rooms at The Langham. The contacts at The Langham were an absolute delight to work with and made everything so easy. Not only would they get back to us within a day but often times it would be within an hour. We wanted a more modern look for our Wedding than The Langham has in their ballroom, but I've learned you can make any venue look gorgeous, it's the customer service the venue provides that sets them apart. Unfortunately, when it comes to client service the State Room is about as low end as it comes.
Posted by Lindsey: Oct. October 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 PM