Marriott East Lansing at University Place

We came to look at this venue for our reception and the place was beautiful and the rooms were renovated. Front desk people were nice however some of the workers there act like they're above it all and gave my older sister dirty looks because she was in "comfortable clothes" and was walking around the area to look at everything. She's a business owner. Anyway, we wanted to go with the most expensive package and open bar but when they gave us our "finalized draft" it was over $21,000. Price isn't an issue to us but they wanted to make us pay for PARKING and was unwilling to negotiate AT ALL with the pricing in general. They kept stating their parking structure "is owned by the city of east Lansing" and they "had no control over it" which I understand. But you can't shell out $400 when I'm the one that has to pay over $21,000 just for food and drinks ALONE? And that doesn't include anything else. I know that parking seems like a smal thing but I was willing to compromise If whole parking situation would be negotiated but they REFUSED to do any negotiations at all. I guess Marriott doesn't care if they lose money or not so they definitely lost my business. Don't book your wedding here unless you want to pay for parking for all of your guests. Oh and make sure you look nice when you walk into that hotel or they'll treat you differently.

We held our wedding room block at the EL Marriott. The hotel is gorgeous and recently renovated. However, it was really pricey compared to other downtown Marriott's that I've stayed at. We were upgraded to the Executive Suite during our wedding weekend and had chocolate covered strawberries and champagne delivered on our wedding night which was lovely and an unexpected treat. Claudia and team are very responsive. However, they won't let you know when your room block is full or becoming full. I had to hear from the guests that (1) the room block was full and (2) the reservations staff was redirecting them to another hotel! That was exceptionally frustrating. So we had to scramble to add additional rooms - then we find out that the Marriott is actually sold out that night. Then, we had to find another room block at a different hotel. It was a logistical nightmare because we also paid for transportation to pick up our guests... so then we had to pay more from transportation and find out a way to let the guests know that there is another hotel. On top of that, the Marriott ended up having some cancellations and we had a free open spots. That was great but they decided not to award the room block rate and charge close to $200 per night for a room for those open spots. One of our guests actually checked the week of the wedding and decided to cancel the $200 per night room and get the $140 per night room rate instead. So it is like why not award the room block rate in the first place?! Anyhoo, I expected better communication but it was a nice place to stay for the wedding. The guests loved the hotel.

It was so easy working with Claudia and her team at the Marriott. They helped us block rooms and it was easy to expand our room block when we unexpectedly needed more rooms. The service we received was great, but really impressed as we got closer to our wedding day. We had people reach out to make sure we had everything we needed and we had someone help us set up a brunch the next morning, even though we had no idea how many people would be showing up. Brunch the day after was incredible; our waiter was such a pleasure to work with and he helped us grab more tables without a complaint when we had more guests than anticipated. I can't say enough by how pleasant our experience was with the Marriott and I would highly recommend them! They even upgraded our room on our wedding night :)

We chose to stay at the Marriott as we were getting married on MSU's campus and it was right across the street. The staff was very attentive, prices weren't too bad ($150/night or so), and rooms were great (they ended up upgrading our room so that we had a balcony!). The drain in our shower stopped working the night of our wedding which was kind of a bummer, but they left us a bottle of champagne so we won't complain too much :)

The wedding sales representative was rude, and unfriendly! The Marriott was our number one choice before we visited. The location is great. We were not interested in the wedding packages they offered (a lot of things we did not want or need). The sales rep was unwillingly to accommodate. Also, the food was over priced (comparable to the Kellogg but Kellogg's food is much better). The room fee however, was the cheapest we found. You really pay for what you get there. For 400 hundred dollars we could have rented the entire second floor but the room was dark, with ugly carpet, and was very dirty. To top it off we saw the sales rep at a wedding convention. They didn't know my mother was still at their booth and the Marriott sales rep started talking about us! She was complaining about us attempting to make our wedding affordable (again their packages are way overpriced). It was extremely unprofessional and rude. I would not recommend them to anyone and I'm so glad we chose not to have our wedding there!

One of the main reasons my Husband and I chose the Marriott in East Lansing was because of their wedding planner, Diane Ferich. We could tell the minute we met her that she was going to be great and she did not disappoint! She responded to my numerous emails promptly and solved all of my "problems". I was amazed at all of the details she remembered. She was very organized. The week of the wedding we were able to bring all of our decorations for the reception and she had the event staff put them out exactly as we had planned. Instead of labeling the tables with numbers, I decided to "label" them with wedding photos of our family and friends. Setting up the tables could have been a little tricky, but even this abstract idea was perfectly executed. The food was tasty and the servers were friendly and attentive. The morning after the wedding we invited our guests that had stayed over to breakfast in the hotel bistro. It was very nice. We ended up with more guests at breakfast then we had originally planned, but the staff accommodated them all, setting up extra tables. They even ran to get my elderly father a chair with arms so that he was more comfortable. I highly recommend the Marriott at University Place. We had a wonderful wedding weekend!

Working with the Marriott and Diane Ferich was an amazing experience. She was willing to work around our needs for the entire reception/hotel portion of the reception and everyone left the event with positive feedback. My friends and relatives gave rave reviews for the food and the bar/lobby set-up saying that it was one of the better receptions they had attended. Also the rooms were a great price and location for guests. As for my husband and I we could not have had a better experience all the way around. The food was as good as it was at the tasting, and everything that was promised along the way was actually delivered. The staff was beyond friendly and was more than accomodating to everyone in the entire room. If you need a place to have a reception this is the best place that you can go! I would reccomend it to everyone without any hesitation. Thank you for making it the best night of my life.

Our wedding reception experience at the Marriott East Lansing was incredible. We were on a budget, and really did not expect anything above and beyond standard service and decent food. Diane, our event coordinator, was easy to contact and extremely helpful through the entire wedding planning process. We stayed at the hotel the night before the wedding to get some final items ready, and the entire staff knew who we were and I was shocked by how willing they were to help us out. On the day of the wedding, I was expecting to get several last minute questions or issues to come up from the staff, but none ever came - we walked into the reception (which started with a cocktail hour) and everything was in place and far exceeding our expectations. The only time that I was approached by the event staff was when they wanted to take care of something that we were not expecting them to take care of, again far exceeding our expectations. There were more servers that needed, so somebody was always around to help move something or run a quick errand. The servers that were attending tables never let a water glass get empty. The food was great, and the bar staff was quick and friendly. Three weeks after the wedding and I am still getting compliments on how successful the reception was, and all we did was provide the DJ and the table centerpieces. In summary: For the budget that we had for 200 guests and the small amount of time we spent worrying about the reception, the event was outstanding - largely due to the service and staff. Thanks Diane!

My fiance and I wanted our wedding in a hotel due to our number of out of town guests. The Marriott was the perfect location. Our wedding coordinator assisted us throughout the whole process and made sure all of our details were put into place. Correspondence was prompt throughout our year of planning. The actual day was perfect. Everything was set up as specified. The staff was accommodating. The banquet room was beautiful. The food was delicious and portions were large. It was a great location for a wedding - especially for an MSU grad.