Eastland Suites Hotel & Conference Center

un catering team offering awesome service. Overall an excellent wedding venue in Bloomington, Illinois. Highly recommend.

where I wanted to set up the gift table. In the weeks leading up to the wedding, we were trying to schedule a meeting. I said I could come in any day after 4:45. She said she leaves the office before then - didn't I have a lunch break I could come in on? Excuse me? You work in hospitality! Luckily I work in town and I was able to skip lunch that day to make this meeting, but my husband works 30 min away in Heyworth. He couldn't be there because he would have spent his whole lunch break driving. We also booked the 25 person shuttle bus through ES. On the wedding day, the driver called our suite to check if we still needed the ride at noon. I said yes, we were nearly ready, just running a few minutes behind. In the 20 min from that phone call to when we walked outside, the driver left. I was squeezed into a car in my big ballgown to get to the church and start the first look while my bridal party and parents waited outside in DECEMBER trying to get someone to send a bus. My photographer coudn't believe it. She said anyone in this business knows that sometimes weddings run a bit behind. Same thing happened after the ceremony. No shuttle. My groom and I had also expected to use the complimentary limo to get to the reception. Guess what else ever showed! For the 2nd time that day I was crammed into a car in my beautiful dress while my groom sat in back with our photographer. Our videographer drove us but we had lost so much time waiting we didn't have time to stop for a photo op in Uptown Normal like we had planned. When I got to ES, I found that some of my guests had still not found their seat because half of the escort cards had not been put out and the table numbers were mixed up. I had put all placecards in envelopes clearly labeled with table number, so how did half of table 8 guests end up at table 13? They spent most of cocktail hour searching for their placecard with their phone flashlight in the low light. Also, three tables didn't have favor bags. One of my guests had to ask a server about it. Server was great and found a box of them, but I worry that other guests didn't get theirs because they were too shy to ask. The next day the serving staff and Mike helped us load up all gifts and decor that they had packed up and stored for us overnight - so nice! But when we called later to ask about the top layer of our cake, the person at the front desk was very snippy with us. Said yeah, we had to come get all our stuff that we had just left here. We told her that we had been told we could leave it there, that we had already picked up our stuff, but no one had mentioned the cake so we had forgotten about it until now. When we went in to get it we mentioned the transportation situation, and were told that in order to use the complimentary limo we had to sign a contract, and it was our fault that we didn't because how were they supposed to know we intended to use it? The limo pick up time was clearly in the day-of timeline I provided to Alex, and she never said a word about it. Our day was great in spite of Eastland Suites, not because of it. Book with caution, and only if you can be organized enough to beat their chaos!! The serving staff and Mike in sales were great, the management not so much.

parately) and all our decor, food, drinks AND even the cake were handled expertly by Eastland. Cake in their wedding package is done by Janet's Cakes & Catering, and it was delicious! We delivered our centerpieces and special items (guestbook, family photos, gift/card table decorations) to Eastland the day before the wedding, and they did all the decorating. My husband and I were able to pick up our neatly boxed things the following Monday. I cannot stress enough how phenomenal this is. If you have ever tried to clean up after a reception drunk (or hungover the next day) you know how fantastic this is. If you haven't, take my word for it, this service is something you NEED on your wedding day. All the Eastland staff, Ashley Walter & Liz Coon in particular (our coordinators) were delightful to work with. They were flexible with us in planning a bar package that fit our budget but was also good for our guests. When we arrived after the ceremony, they had saved a plate of hors d'ouevres for us, had a vase ready for my bouquet, and immediately took our drink orders (hallelujah!). Liz even handled politely ushering some of our guests to the *correct* table, after they set up shop at the wrong one. How nice I didn't have to do that. The event was seamless and stress free.

s to pick up the next day. My husband and I also got a free room. All our guests were very impressed with the full kitchen in all the suite rooms. I would recommend Eastland Suites!

two days before the wedding and they did all the set up and tear down! You can't put a price on that. All the servers and workers treated everyone with such respect. I'm still impressed. The room fit 200 people very comfortably for the whole night. If I had to plan my wedding again, I would still pick Eastland Suites.

rtunity to eat but everyone said the food was good! Ashley and her staff set up everything from the food stations, cupcakes, bar signs, guest book area and candy buffet to the bathroom decor. All we had to do was bring in what we wanted displayed and they handled the rest with a smile.

ond helpful and knew exactly their role and executed it perfectly!

i would have done without her help. all of the staff at the hotel was very friendly and accommodating. they went out of their way to make sure everything was perfect...and it was! we received nothing but compliments from our guests regarding the food at the reception and the hotel rooms and staff.