We were so, so happy with our wedding experience at Hotel 1620! From the beginning, Mary Beth Ryan was absolutely fantastic: organized, responsive, and flexible. Although we grew... up in the area, my wife and I now live in DC and consequently were planning our wedding from out-of-town. Thanks to Mary Beth, however, our planning process was seamless; she was always in touch with us and willing to make time to meet with us for preparations whenever we came back into town. With plenty of time to go until the wedding day, she had our schedule ironed out, organized into a clear document, and distributed to the vendors for everyone to be on the same page.
From a set-up standpoint, the hotel has a really great area for a cocktail reception, which we loved because it gave a nice atmosphere for breaking up these portion of the wedding and the actual reception, which we did in the main ballroom. The ballroom was plenty of room for our wedding (155 people + a large band stage), and easily could have fit about 20-30 more. In terms of decorating the ballroom, Hotel 1620 and Mary Beth have a TON of recommendations and connections for interior decor, chair covers, and flowers, which was really helpful for us in finding creative ways to decorate the reception. Apart from the inside of the hotel, we loved this venue because it could not have been in a more central location (we did our rehearsal dinner across the street and the church ceremony within walking distance).
From a food and drink standpoint, everyone was extremely happy with the options (the steak is amazing). The chef was also very flexible and even went beyond the standard menu to help us craft some options for appetizers and late-night snacks.