21c Museum Hotel

21c Durham hosted a wonderful wedding weekend for my daughter & son-in-law, our family, and friends. Everything from Friday hotel check-ins to Sunday evening's wedding, cocktail hour, and reception was beyond all expectations. Trey at the front desk saved the rainy wedding day by securing a First-Look location, Jon took care of us from day one (a year prior) and Karina made every little detail perfect the day of. Axle, Brian, Amelia, and the rest of the valet crew took great care of all of our guests and helped us load in and load out. Emily took care of the room block and all guests had a seamless check-in. The tables were beautiful, the food was delicious, and the service was impeccable. Even though it rained all weekend, guests were kept warm and cozy in the Counting House and enjoyed touring the 2nd floor Art Gallery. The bridal brunch on the morning of the wedding in Gallery Five, the wedding ceremony and reception in the Main Gallery, and the Cocktail Hour in the 2nd floor Art Galleries were all so elegant and well-serviced by the staff. No little detail was overlooked. This was the first of many destination weddings coming up for our extended family and thanks to everyone at 21c Durham, we set the bar high!

If we could give this place 10 stars out of 5, we absolutely would. Everything, everything from the initial check in on Friday to us ending our wedding experience with brunch at the Counting House was the most amazing experience. We would do it all over again, but who wants to go through the wedding process again. I cannot stress enough Jon and his group went above and beyond their job requirements and made not only our experience a magical one, but also our guests’ as well. Food was also delicious. I would highly recommend anyone who is thinking about having their big day and are considering the 21c as their venue, STOP thinking and go with these guys. They know what they are doing, and most of all, have you seen this place, it’s amazing.

This is a bit of a difficult review to write; we had high hopes. Initially signing our contract was an easy process and we were glad that the hotel was willing to negotiate certain things. We knew the food at 21c Counting House is fantastic and appreciated the convenience/location of the venue. The kitchen was willing to modify some dishes to be all vegan as well and they were flexible on our dining packages since we wanted 3 entree options and no dessert options (we sourced our desserts from outside the venue). We also loved the artwork and uniqueness of the space. In the months leading up to our wedding things got a little dicey. Communication was not very good from the event coordinating staff, and it was clear they had serious internal disorganization and record-keeping problems. We loved working with Jon F. who unfortunately had to go on sudden leave, and we ended up working primarily with Karina. It was clear she was trying to pick up what Jon left off and was likely overburdened, which isn’t her fault, but it was not a smooth transition nor was she actually present for most of our wedding to help with coordination and support. She did help with bridging a serious language barrier with the waitstaff who spoke little to no English, but after that was not present for assistance. The hotel was OK. Many guests loved their rooms. The penthouse suite was really cool and accommodated our large bridal party very well. However the elevators continuously broke and it was clear they couldn’t support the number of people staying and using the elevators. There is only 1 elevator that goes to the rooftop suite which was a little bit of a nuisance. The hotel also had TV issues in multiple rooms, and there were some issues with their in-house dry cleaning service. For the big day, 21c promised numerous staff and assistants and they only delivered about half of what they told us. My planner and her assistant had to scramble to take on the jobs of several people and even run food to people who waited a while for their meals. The other glaring issue is we asked for a nut free event due to allergies and the kitchen immediately began serving a peanut sauce during cocktail hour. But one of the most obvious and embarrassing issues of all was the lighting for the space. It was controlled by an iPad that was overlooked and allowed to die. No one knew how to manually control the lights so we were dealing with the ballroom lights coming totally on at points, and totally off. You can liken it to being at a nightclub and all the lights coming on at once - it truly kills the vibe. There were a lot of high points. For the most part guests were unaware of some of these mess-ups occurring in the background, and they did find the venue very cool. The food was great, and Josh went above and beyond to help us out in the days leading up to the wedding and on the big day. Without Josh things would’ve gone much more sideways. Huge shoutout to him for doing his best and always being in our corner. 21c did recognize the errors and they did provide both prompt and ample compensation after the event to make up for it, which was greatly appreciated. If you do have a wedding here my advice would be to keep it smaller and not too elaborate, at least while they’re dealing with the staffing and elevator issues. As an extra precaution I’d also advise having your planner bring multiple assistants to help with flipping the space and other tasks to avoid things being missed.

We booked the 21c for getting ready space + room block, but not the actual ceremony or reception. Our experience at the 21c was amazing! While I agree with one other reviewer that they have switched coordinators a couple times and that caused a slowdown in communication, it didn't create any major issues for us. Our guests were really happy with the rooms, especially at the price we got for the room block. The hotel staff was able to quickly & efficiently distribute the welcome bags to our guests, though we admittedly got them there late. They even hunted down guests who had checked in before we delivered the welcome bags to the hotel staff! The bridal party got ready in the Penthouse, which was a perfect spot to do so. The large bathroom was an idea spot for everyone to have hair & makeup done. We also had the Penthouse for the night of the wedding as a "honeymoon suite" and it was amazing. We got in the hot tub on the porch and had a soak which felt awesome after all that dancing in uncomfortable shoes! Management also sent up a bottle of champagne and red wine for us, which was a lovely surprise. All in all, our experience with the 21c for rooms & getting ready space was wonderful and I would highly recommend them!