Michigan League - University of Michigan

We had a wonderful wedding weekend for our daughter and new son-in-law at the Michigan League on a beautiful Spring weekend in May 2023. Lauren Yanakeff worked with us for a year planning and sharing her knowledge and experience. Our daughter grew up in Ann Arbor and attended the University of Michigan; she was so excited to welcome our guests to a home-town Ann Arbor wedding. The ceremony was at St. Mary’s, a short walk from the League. Lauren arranged for easy parking at the Fletcher lot. At the League, the weather allowed for a Cocktail Party in the Garden (Vandenberg room was backup). We had dinner and dancing in the stunning ballroom. The food was excellent – short ribs, sea bass, pesto ravioli (vegetarian), and portobello mushroom (vegan). We opted for the late-night ‘State fair’ hotdog/chips snack. Lauren coordinated bar and wine options with the League’s catering team. It all went smoothly – costs were communicated clearly and there were no surprises. The wedding party and some guests spent the night on the 4th floor Inn, a very convenient and comfortable spot. Other guests stayed at the Graduate and Bell Tower. The hotels and venues were all withing walking distance, which was wonderful! The next morning, we had ‘Brunch with the Newlyweds’ in the Michigan room. The breakfast food, coffee, bagels, and danishes were excellent and appreciated by our out-of-town guests. Thank you, Lauren and The League staff for a beautiful wedding!

Our wedding couldn’t have been anymore perfect! The food was AMAZING (filet, sea bass, ravioli)! Our guests couldn’t stop talking about the food, staff, and beautiful venue! We highly recommend the Michigan league and working with Lauren.

First, I want to say that Claire, our event coordinator was awesome. If Claire & Ann Marie didn't work the actual event, things would have been a disaster. Serious lack of staff, ballroom did not open on time, leaving the guests waiting in the hall. Food was late coming out. The cake table left on the dance floor. The bride had to move it to the side so the first dance could occur. This was about an hour after the cake had been cut, so there was ample time for that to be taken care of. We had paid for that cake to be cut and served. By the time that cake was taken back to be cut, a lot of guests had already left. Staff attention to clearing the tables was lacking. The bride & myself had to clear our own tables. Our wedding planner & assistant also helped with clearing tables, collecting our gold chargers, and napkins. This was not their job to do. At one point when I went to look for staff to help, as none were visible, I observed TWO catering staff taking a cart of water to a conference that was going on in the same building. It was told to us that this conference was only booked weeks before our event. If The League was that seriously understaffed, why book a second event at the same time? We were not provided a getting ready room for the bride that was sufficient. Thankfully we had paid for enough rooms in the venue, that we were able to dual purpose the cocktail hour space. The room that we had hoped to have, was given to the conference. What was offered was a very small room, that was not big enough to accommodate the bride & accompanying party. The grooms getting ready room was supposed to be locked at all times, with only two keys to open it. One of which the event coordinator had, and the other one we paid extra for our wedding planner to have. We were told that this room would be secure, and the wedding party could leave their personal belongings in there. After the ceremony, our officiant observed the room left open and catering staff cleaning up in there. The 2 people who were to have keys were no where in sight. After the bridal party pictures, we made our way back to the room to collect cell phones and anything else that might be needed during the reception, and the best man’s wallet was missing. A report of this was made to staff. Approximately 2 hours later, a staff member claimed to “find” the wallet in another room on the floor. Everything was still in the wallet, but later that evening it was discovered that the best man’s debit card had been frozen by the bank for a fraud alert. There had been 8 charges attempted on the card for approximately $1000. A little later in the reception I found that the side doors of that same “secure” room were again wide open, with no one in sight. Part of the conference was being held in a room directly across the hall, and attendees were milling about from that conference. This was very disconcerting, being that the wallet had already been reported as missing, and all the other bridal party, photographers, and videographers had their belongings in there. I do want to give Kudos where they are due. The planning was smooth, communication was good up until the problems started 3 weeks before. Things didn’t start to fall apart until after Claire went on vacation. Once she was back, most everything was able to be addressed in a satisfactory way. The venue beautiful, reception set up perfect, food impeccable. In the end, the day was beautiful. I hope in time our negative memories fade.

We got married here on June 3rd. Lindsay and her team are phenomenal! Everything went so smoothly and the day was just so perfect. My guests kept commenting how amazing the food was. Not to mention that throughout the planning process, Lindsay has been nothing but sweet, supportive, and accommodating. They respond so fast and they truly go above and beyond!