City Winery - Washington DC

ful with it's own uniqueness already prior to any decorations. We had the wine garden area for our wedding and it was our own little piece of heaven on earth for the night. Michele, the venue coordinator, has to be the best there ever is. She made sure we were welcomed with wine every time we met up to go over planning and made sure what we were envisioning came true. There was no doubt in our mind when we decided to go with City Winery DC. What sets them apart is they provide all your catering need, location set up, staff and even audio hookups for the DJ that all in all helps you save the hassle of coordinating with so many different venues and also saves you money. Not to mention the food is AMAZING and the open bar package is perfect! The staff were all very attentive and kept making sure our belly's and wine glasses were full. Michele, City Winer DC staff, thank you all so much for everything. You could not have made our night more perfect or easier to plan.

/ vibe to it. City Winery is constantly adding into the look of the venue, they even covered the walls with Ivy in the rooftop and it really added into our overall ceremony look. Also, we had about 110 guests with several food restrictions and they accomodated/catered to all of them, everyone was talking about how delicious the food was! Moreover, our wedding was a mix of Panamanian and Jewish traditions and we had several unusual requests such as a horah dance and an hora loca with Panamanian Carnival dancers. Let me just say that Justine and Brittany just went with it and even offered more than a few recommendations along the way. We highly enjoyed our experience at City Winery and wouldn't be surprised if they become one of the top venues in the District.

e. The spaces were all perfect, our guests had an amazing time, and the food and wine was superb as well. We really felt like we lucked out in terms of the space and the food: the day itself was really magical, and it was a great experience for our guests, because the venue itself had such a great setup and food/drink. But we also felt extremely disappointed in the lackluster service that we received from City Winery's staff, especially given the very sizable administrative fees. We first started planning our wedding with Colleen, and signed the contract with her because we felt so confident in her work; unfortunately, she soon afterwards left City Winery and we began to work with Brittany, who seemed solid. We had been promised by Brittany that we would be working primarily with her, given that we had been working with Colleen before, but soon found ourselves passed off to another planner whose competence was constantly up in the air: she never seemed to be well-organized in our conversations and meetings, and we had really no confidence in her ability to pull off our actual wedding day. Communication in advance of the wedding was rough, and we constantly had to follow up on requests to make sure that they were actually implemented. We were extremely glad we had hired a day-of planner, who took careful notes in our meetings and made sure everything ran smoothly at our wedding, because we had lost confidence in City Winery's staff by the time our wedding came. Due to this issue, there were also several major issues that came up during our wedding. City Winery's dessert sweet bites were included in our package, but we made emphatically clear that the important part of our dessert was the beautiful cake that we had ordered from an outside baker. Nevertheless, City Winery's staff seemed totally incapable of serving our cake: the catering crew plated it on random tables and as a result, probably 2/3rds of our guests did not receive cake, nor even knew it existed. Similarly, there are some real mysteries regarding the space itself: we had been assured for months that the elevator would be working, but it still was not on the day-of, and our guests took a catering elevator that had to be run by an attendant -- it was not only an eyesore, but also not properly staffed. (The staircases between the floors were also wet, slippery, and pretty ugly.) Given that this is a wedding venue, we would have expected these and other issues to be much better worked out by now. But it was really the staff that was the disappointment: I would certainly recommend City Winery for your wedding, but with the hopes that there is a more competent administrative team in charge, and with the recommendation that you hire your own day-of coordinator.

leen did such a good job working with us and walking us through their vision for the space that we took a leap of faith and booked the venue for our October 2018 wedding. Colleen was patient, responsive and extremely helpful! I was planning the entire wedding by myself with no planner and Colleen worked with me through every question and/or concern that I had. I honestly couldn't have gotten through the planning process without her guidance. Unfortunately, Colleen left City Winery a few weeks before our wedding day but she informed me that I was in good hands with Brittany. I was a bit nervous about our POC changing right before the wedding but Brittany was awesome! The transition was seamless! Brittany helped me finalize all the details and kept my mind at ease. She understood my vision and executed the entire wedding perfectly. She worked with all my vendors to ensure that everything was set up just the way I wanted it. Honestly, I was blown away. The end result exceeded my expectations. Brittany made me feel so comfortable and was such a pleasure to work with! The venue itself was beautiful. We booked the 3rd floor Wine Garden for our ceremony/reception and the 4th floor Rooftop for cocktail hour. We received so many compliments from our guests about the food (dinner was amazing), alcohol (open bar), friendly staff, beautiful venue and just the entire wedding overall. Thank you Brittany and City Winery for such a wonderful experience!

ctures) Has this situation never come up during previous ceremony’s or events? We absolutely would have welcomed advice from CW in order to arrange the room to avoid this. Please consider this as other brides are planning their ceremony's. Knowing the weather can be cold in November, one of our first questions was how the outdoor space would be heated. We were told there would be heaters. We assumed that meant the rooms could be warmed to a “reasonable” temperature to have an event. Although the temperature was not that cold the wind was brisk and as soon as we walked to the bridal suite my mother was concerned. She asked CW employees several times how they were going to warm the room. Initially we were given incorrect information about plastic being pulled down, then she was told there would be heaters. My mother asked for the heaters to be brought up early to start warming the room, wasn’t done. The ceremony site was also cold and although there were four heaters in the room, none of them were turned on prior to or during the ceremony. Knowing how cold the outside wine room and rooftop were, CW should have been proactive and offered a very reasonable solution to us. We could have moved a few tables around in the indoor wine room and had the cocktail hour there. Put ALL the heaters in the outdoor wine garden and open that up for the reception. Instead my mom spent the 40 minutes she was on the roof top apologizing to our guests for how cold it was. The bottom line being CW could not make the temperature of the roof top “reasonable” and should have known that early enough in the day and presented us with options. We were originally told there would be a working elevator in place before our wedding. We understand that things happen or don’t, regardless we were told guests would be escorted to the service elevator for the ceremony. Most guests were told to use the stairs. It’s a lot to expect older guests and guests in heals to walk up three flights of stairs and we assume they had to do the same thing when they left. Even when we were taking pictures we had to use the stairs because the elevator was not around. Same thing when we left, hands full of stuff and we had to find someone to get the elevator. My sincere hope is these are things future brides and families do not have to worry about. HUGE compliments to the chefs. People raved about the food. I really wish I got to eat a little more. Do you all have a plan in place for leftovers? The general space and decor on the individual food stations were simple but really added a nice element to the space. Thank you for your support and hard work throughout this process. We really hope this information helps support future brides and families in their planning and event.

that City Winery DC, had to offer. They also have an excellent reputation, and reviews, from their other locations in the US. Working with City Winery, and Colleen, has been very easy. Colleen is local and has been extremely proactive and responsive even for the small things that I mark as "low priority". They are flexible and were able to meet my wedding day needs which are very non traditional. She has worked with my vendors who have contacted her directly and I cannot wait until September! It is going to be special and will match our personality. Another bonus, for us, is that a large portion of the City Winery staff (across all locations) went down to Puerto Rico to help rebuild after the hurricane.