Columbia University Faculty House

I attended a wedding here. The facilities were nice but one of the servers (older, white male) was extremely rude and started shouting at a guest. Maybe he doesn't like serving minorities? How embarrassing. I've never seen anything like it at a wedding.

Every aspect of our wedding was beautiful in large part to the amazing efforts of Leslie and her staff. We selected this location because we cold have the wedding and reception in the same place but not in the same room. We also wanted a location that had elevators and wide doorways for our friends and family with walkers and wheel chairs. We chose the friend chicken and brisket menu and it was a hit-- its been three months since our wedding and folks still mention the food! We had very specific requests and they were all met-- from menu specifics to decor. Leslie also has great suggestions for our Rehearsal Dinner, held at Lido (http://lidoharlem.com/), worked well with all our vendors, and guided us through every step of this process. The staff was very accommodating-- setting up our reception look, providing us with lots of snacks and drinks in the bridal and groom suites, and handling any last minute issues. The venue itself is gorgeous, due to the weather we had all our pictures indoors and they came out beautifully. All of guests enjoyed the space, the staff, and all the attention to detail. It was an amazing and perfect evening that we won't soon forget!

The Presidential Ballroom was the perfect size for our 110 guest wedding. Set up for the reception and ceremony were superb- fast and efficient. The staff were extremely courteous and professional. Everything was done according to what was discussed. Food and drink in the bridal and grooms suits exceeded our expectations- we never had to ask for any refills. Food was excellent- better than what we expected for wedding catering. The cake was set up so beautifully and served fast. We were given the option of storing our wedding things in the bridal suite and manager's office, which helped us to no end with set up. The cost of everything was reasonable, especially considering we were holding a wedding in Manhattan. We will definitely be recommending Faculty House as a wedding venue for all the reasons listed above, but mainly for Louise Castellano, our contact person. She was amazing beyond words. Louise was always courteous, professional, and timely in her responses. She took detailed notes every time we asked for anything and was extremely accommodating with our requests. On the day of, everything (yes, everything!) was done according to plan. For example, we had wanted the chairs set up with smaller rows the reception and decided not to go with a small table at the front of the ceremony for the efficient. We told Louise at the rehearsal. Next day, ceremony setup was exactly as we talked about. We had given Louise an itinerary of the ceremony and reception, and she had that in her hand the whole day. She knew where everyone and everything should be and was always easy to find when we needed her. She was always present but not overbearing or in the way. We will DEFINITELY be recommending Faculty House to all our engaged friends. We will tell them to request Louise. We are supremely grateful for everything she did for us.

My husband and I met at Columbia Law School so getting married at Columbia University was an obvious (and sentimental) choice for us. (the Faculty House is just steps from where we first met!) That said, Columbia's Faculty House is a wonderful wedding venue for anyone looking to have an elegant and classy NYC wedding at a reasonable price. The chef is outstanding, the location is wonderful (the Skyline Room that we used overlooks Morningside Park and has a view of midtown), and most importantly, the costs are not as outrageous as other NYC venues. The Faculty House offers a package deal that includes food, linens, the venue, cake, liquor, etc. They are really willing to tweak that package to accommodate your budget and desires. The staff at Columbia also really made all of the planning very easy and convenient. Louise Castellano, in particular, made me feel comfortable and like I could trust her to make sure everything got done according to plan.

My first time at Faculty House was at an orientation cocktail party for entrance into Columbia Business School. I was in awe of my new classmates and faculty but the winner was the beautiful terrace at Faculty House. So a year later as my husband and I talked of getting married, I took him to campus and Faculty House and he loved it too. It has an ivy league charm but is not stuffy. The venue coordinator Leslie is an amazing Southern belle with NYC class and taste who made sure every last detail was taken care of. The chef did a fantastic job - the items at the tasting were scrumptouse and remained consistently so at the wedding as well. The entire Faculty House staff made the event a memorable one because of their attention to detail and close personal care to all of our guests. Many people warned that things can go unexpectedly awry at weddings, but the staff at Faculty House essentially made sure that no such thing happened. You guys are amazing and I have already recommended this venue to all of my friends!

We had our wedding at Columbia University Faculty House. We visited a number of places and nothing compared to the modern elegance and classiness of the Faculty House. They have a variety of floors and rooms which can be used for the ceremony and dinner depending on the number of guests. In the end, we had the entire house for our wedding reception. The view at night from the balcony was stunning! The team was very helpful in helping us organize the event as well as working with our caterer. Everything run very smoothly. Overall, we could not have had a better day!

A basic requirement for a good vendor is responsiveness. Unfortunately I found many NY vendors did not return emails or phone calls. The Columbia Faculy House was one of those vendors.

I didn't get the chance to really enjoy the food during my wedding but my guests continue to rave about the excellent quality of the food. They claim it to be the best food they've had at a wedding and considered it the healthiest where they didn't leave feeling gluttonous. There deserts are AMAZING, they have a flour less cheesecake tart that is to DIE for.

excellent. Leslie Robinson and her staff were amazing

I had my wedding reception here, but I have also attended other events here. They also have a buffet lunch during the academic year if you wanted to check out the facility. It was renovated in 2009, and they really have great food and service, and are reasonably priced for what you get in the area. They are fairly close to subway lines, buses, and churches in the area. They can also provide valet parking, but as it is flat fee to add on, it can be a bit expensive.

We were trying to have a budget wedding in Manhattan for about 120 guests, and Faculty House helped us pull it off! They were willing to negotiate on certain things to customize a package for us that worked. The coordinator at times wasn't also the best at communicating with us, but overall I was pretty satisfied and everything came together beautifully on the actual wedding day. The food was delicious and the servers were very attentive. We opted to have a cake from an outside baker as well so I can't speak for the quality of the cake, but we also had a cake cutting cost that was around 3 or 4 dollars a slice.

We were trying to do a budget Manhattan wedding, which everyone knows is next to impossible. In addition, we were having about 50 people come in from out of town and so we needed a larger space for our reception. The Faculty House was great because its prices were excellent for the size and quality of the space. The Faculty House has great views of Harlem and Morningside Park. It's very picturesque, and was especially cool because my fiance (now husband) and I were living in Harlem when we met. There were various floor plans and sizes at the Faculty House depending on your budget, and so it was nice to have options as well. However, these guys are HUGE on the up-sell. We were not having any of that--we wanted what we wanted and none of the frou-frou extras. So that made coordinating with the events planner a problem. Other problems: the food was good, but pretty bland, IMO. Most of the guests loved it, but I thought it wasn't anything special. You of course have to use their caterer, that's pretty standard, and the prices were great and the food was good enough. Oh, but the cake. If you are doing and budget wedding and you want a cake and you are not willing to pay out the nose for it, back away slowly from this place. We were going to bring out own cake, and there was a $12/slice "cutting fee." What about cupcakes?, we ask. Same price. I assume it was the same for a cake from their caterers, but we just skipped the cake altogether. But aside from those, they were wonderful the day of, they were more than cooperative when they weren't trying to upsell us on everything, and the reception was fabulous.

The Faculty House is a lovely venue for a wedding in the city. The view from the 4th Floor terrace (over Morningside Park) is to die-for, and the guests at our wedding couldn't stop raving about it. The food was also excellent, and the Faculty House partners with a phenomenal cake-baker as part of its standard wedding package. Be aware that you need to rent a dance floor for the 4th Floor, if you want to have dancing, in addition to paying an extra fee to rent that floor, but the view is well worth it. The management staff did a great job executing all the details and working with our other vendors on the day of the wedding. The planning process during the year leading up to the wedding was not always so smooth. We got a fair bit of mis-information from the Faculty House (e.g. about how many guests we could fit in the room for dinner and dancing, about the typical layout of the room, etc.) and the sales staff/coordinator we worked with was often not responsive to our inquiries. In the end, we went with our own assessment of the place and the advice of other vendors (e.g. the florist), and things turned out beautifully on the day-of. We will always have wonderful memories of our wedding here!

The space has tons of character and space but our wedding still felt like a cozy affair. The in-house caterer and staff were fantastic far better than I anticipated.;My only issue was that the bathrooms were located on the first floor (in a four-story building). However the space is currently undergoing renovations and additional bathrooms are being built.