Esplanade

My daughter was married on March 10,2012 the reception was at the Esplanade Memphis. We had looked at several venues before finally choosing the Esplanade Memphis. We loved everything about the Esplanade. We worked very closely with Cheryl Angelo in the beginning planning this beautiful affair, and towards the final weeks worked with Cheryl and Audrey. Everything was perfect. The ballroom was beautiful. The food was amazing and plentiful. The staff was very courteous and accommodating. We had more compliments from our guests about the food quality and presentation. There's no doubt in our minds that we made the right decision in choosing the Esplanade Memphis. We would definitely use them again.

Since John and I met in Memphis during college, we knew that we wanted to get married in the city. However, only being college residents, we had no clue about wedding venues! Thankfully, The Esplanade was the first venue that popped up in my search engine. That day, I made an appointment! Immediately when I drove up I knew this was the place. I remember my mom and John looking at me in the car and the three of us just gasped - we were so excited! From my appointment on, I had nothing but fabulous things to say. Thanks to The Esplanade, my wedding was a breeze to plan and a fairytale come true. What a joy it was to walk around during my wedding and be showered with compliments regarding the facilities, service and the food. The staff became like family. Audrey, who booked my wedding, even brought me and John and plate of food because we were too busy to eat! The best way to describe my wedding to John was like the movie Father of the Bride and thats due to the warm hospitality of The Esplanade staff. I never imagined that finding the perfect flowers, picking the perfect dress, tasting the perfect food and finding the perfect man could be illustrated in such a perfect way but it was. Thanks to the staff at the Esplanade.

Honestly, this was a gorgeous place to have both my wedding and reception. It could have been much better if we were allowed to use another caterer, and if some of the employees were a bit nicer. With this place, you MUST to use their caterer and we did not like that. The food tasting was awesome, but the day of the wedding I was told by many people that the food was horrible. My husband and I did not get to eat because we were so busy speaking to all of our family and friends. I was so very disappointed because the food was ridiculously expensive--especially for an appetizer buffet. People said that they did not want to hurt my feelings by telling me the truth about food, but I already knew because my sister had already came to let me know about the nasty food. We had about a total of 330 guests to attend our wedding. Now calculate almost $20 per guest...EXACTLY! For food that was not even good...are you kidding me? Anyway, lets take it back to the Thursday and Friday before the wedding when the started setting up--they did not have the setup that we initially discussed. Thank God for my wonderful mother and friends, they took care of everything and had them set it up as we discussed. I heard that my mom even exchanged a few words with some of the workers there that were very rude to her. My mother decorated my columns for the ceremony for me. So she needed a ladder to hang and drape the fabric and floral arrangements, and they would not give one to her. They also told her that they were not going to hang it up for her either. My mom had to stand in a chair and do the best she could with what she had. What if the chair tilted just a bit causing my mom to fall? Thats crazy! Workers were also painting and patching holes in the wall the day before and morning of the wedding. Are you kidding me? I come inside of the building and there is dry wall, paint, and dust all in the lobby/front entrance. They said that there was a 'NFL All White Affair' there or something. I could actually speak more about this place, especially about the high turnover rate. I had to speak with so many new people from the time that I booked the venue to weeks before my wedding. What made that so bad was the fact that each person would tellme a different thing; it all got confusing. I was told that I could use the beautiful lobby and rotunda area to setup my food, then I was told that I could not! I could go on and on about my experience there. To briefly sum it up, they just want your money and they dont care about anything else that has to do with your wedding. Not all of their employees were rude though, only the new employees that came in towards the back end of everything and the new managers. The employees that I initially spoke with and a few employees after that were extremely nice and helpful. If you want a beautiful place to have your wedding and reception in--this would be the place!! Just pray that they have better customer service!

There were not that many venues in around Memphis, TN that could accomodate my large guestlist of over 350 people. After checking out a lot of venues around Memphis, I ended up at the Esplanade and fell in love with it. It is so nicely decorated. Renee Spataro was the coordinator at the Esplanade(she has now moved) and she was amazing. The food (in house catering only) was amazing and we received a lot of praise from our guests on the food that was served. The only downside is that the venue was expensive. However, we rented the venue for the whole day and served lunch, dinner ,and alcohol which all adds up. The service charge on everything also adds to the overall cost.