Hotel Mead

Everything was amazing from the staff to the delicious food.

Our wedding day at Hotel Mead was amazing! We booked a year in advance and were the first wedding booked for our date. The hotel had 3 weddings on our day (2 actual wedding ceremonies and 3 receptions). I was very concerned the hotel was going to feel crowded, or the service/food wouldn't be good because of 3 weddings at the same time. We were the smallest group of about 70. I have to say it did not feel like there were 3 weddings going on in the hotel. We were married on the terrace in the gazebo. The gazebo was freshly painted and looked fabulous. We had a sit down dinner in the Centralia Room. The Centralia Room is elegant with a fireplace and has a lot of character. We choose Prime Rib and Hotel Mead Chicken for our entrees with the oven roasted potatoes and glazed carrots. I had the chicken and thought it was excellent. About 2/3's of our guests had the Prime Rib which we were told was also fabulous. We had lots of compliments on the food. The carrots were undercooked but the meat and potatoes were very tasty. The wait staff was very efficient, friendly and attentive. The food was delivered quickly and everyone ate on our time schedule. Some of our guests had complaints (I learned of these afterwards) about various things in their rooms, hair dryer not working, thermostats not getting the room cold enough etc. I don't know if they reported them. Our room was a whirlpool room and everything worked as it should. The rooms had new flat screen TV's in them but they were not positioned in the entertainment center (which was odd). Our rooms were in the West Wing which is the newer section of the hotel. I would recommend requesting the west wing rooms for your block as opposed to the east wing rooms. While we were planning the wedding, there were a few requests I made that they wouldn't accommodate which I found to be irritating: 1. I paid to have chair sashes on the chairs. They would place their own ivory organza sashes for a fee but if I wanted to bring in a different color organza sash, I would have to place the sashes myself the morning of the wedding. 2. They will not 'commit' to having the rooms ready for early check-in (before 4:00 pm). My guests were traveling and wanted to check in early to freshen up. 3. They would not commit to allowing us to decorate the hall the evening before. Per contract, 8:00 a.m. the day of! 4. I wanted Pepsi products and they are a Coke facility However, in the end, most rooms were ready before check-in and our banquet room was ready on FRIDAY MORNING when we arrived, ready to decorate! Their standard set-up is fantastic but I added a extra touches. Execution on the day of the wedding was perfect! Joan went above and beyond to ensure everything was fabulous. We had to make a few minor last minute changes and she was very accommodating. Throughout the whole process she was always calm and in control -- very professional always! Note: If you are going to have a buffet dinner for your wedding in the Riverside ballrooms, I would not recommend having your food buffet line in the hallway outside the ballrooms (if you can avoid it). On our day, there were a lot of people walking around in that area (it's right next to the tavern) and interrupting that couple's buffet line. If it is possible to have your buffet inside the room, that would be better. We have very fond memories and beautiful pics. We will go back for our anniversary!

The hotel was great with working with our needs and answered all of our questions and any concerns we had. We even had a change the afternoon before, little change, but Joan and the team worked with it well and made it easy to work with them through all of the planning and the questionnaire help us cover all of the points.

During the months prior to our wedding the hotel was foreclosed and auctioned off. If I hadn't read this in the paper, I would not have noticed the difference. All the staff was extremely professional and knew exactly what they were doing. We chose the turkey plated dinner. The food was hot, very good, and very large helpings. The bar asked before tapping new kegs and were friendly. The only thing to watch out for is they slap a 18% gratuity on everything.