Omni Shoreham Hotel

The bride and groom reside in the Washington DC area. I am the mother of the bride from the Pacific Northwest who planned the wedding celebration from afar. We chose the Omni Shoreham Hotel for the full Washington DC experience. The hotel has a long history of hosting famous people (the Beatles, we’re huge fans) and events (presidential galas). The list of preferred partners made wedding planning easy. Ask for a more personalized list, which is how we found Tabitha Roberts, our wedding coordinator extraordinaire. Surprises abound around the hotel. One afternoon, complimentary beignets and hot apple cider were offered to guests in the lobby - a welcome treat after a long day at the National Mall. The spacious ballrooms are each decorated in different styles to accommodate different visions and tastes. We chose the Empire Ballroom and Patio. The wedding celebration was well executed by a cohesive team of experienced professionals including Ashley C., Dave H., and Marcus. Communication with our team was prompt and informative. They led a polite and attentive staff who worked tirelessly throughout the wedding celebration. After the nearby chapel ceremony, the newlyweds refreshed and relaxed in the living room of their complimentary wedding suite. They later had drinks and appetizers in a private dining room adjacent to the restaurant before greeting their guests at cocktail hour. Due to rain, cocktail hour was quickly pivoted from the patio to the stately Palladian Ballroom. Our guests were none the wiser. The bride and groom enjoyed designing their menu from an expansive selection of delicious options. At the reception, the petite filet mignon was well prepared, and not petite. The salmon pleased even our most discerning Pacific Northwest guests. Our signature cocktail, Cherry Blossom Bliss, was concocted especially for us. Our guests enjoyed the S’Mores Love dessert table, a unique ending to dinner. We would highly recommend the Sunday Brunch which included a bountiful array of breakfast delights. The groundskeeper did a remarkable job enhancing the beauty of the well-kept gardens. A few days before the wedding, we walked around the gardens in the twilight hours after complimentary wine tasting, and marveled at the ombre sunset in the distance. On the last day of the wedding weekend, the skies were blue and the cherry blossoms and daffodils were in full bloom. The crystal clear fountain and gazebo were lovely backdrops for final photo ops amid the splendor of early spring. We had a moderate budget and received a first-class experience.

PART 2 OF 2. - If you think you can ask the hotel to hand out a wedding agenda (literally a piece of paper) or gift bags to guests like every other hotel you’ve ever been to, think again. They will charge you $2.50 per room to deliver them to guest rooms and won’t guarantee delivery time, which means some of our guests probably got it after the wedding started. Additionally, they will only deliver them on one day, even if we paid them for multiple days - so for guests checking in another day, too bad! - There is a black chain link fence behind the beautiful gazebo where your ceremony will be. It’s not noticeable in person, but it will be in all your photos. If the Omni thought ahead, they would plant boxwoods in front of this and it would never be noticeable. The day before our wedding there was wooden sticks and tape all over it. We had to ask to have it removed. Again, for the price you pay, some of these things just seem like they’d be taken care of. - Our original contract stated that the ceremony fee would be waived because of the high food and beverage minimum we had. On multiple occasions the Omni attempted to charge us this fee. It was very frustrating to revisit this conversation constantly and then have them act like they were doing us a favor by waiving it. - A few weeks before the wedding the Omni attempted to add a 20% holding fee that would be charged to us before the wedding and would be used for any overages during the wedding. The remainder would be refunded after the wedding. This basically means they had carte blanche to spend that money during the wedding and we’d have no way to hold them accountable for overspending it as they pleased. Our planner had never heard of something like this. - Also a few weeks before the wedding the Omni said they would not be able to help with setting up chairs and linens, even though they should be providing that as part of the contract. We had to fight with them to get staff available to do this as they weren’t willing to comp us the nearly $1,000 we would have had to pay our rental company to do it. So here’s where my stress really took off. I had attempted to call the reservation line to pay for early check in and late check out for the bridal suite. I was willing to pay the fee like any other guest and wasn’t asking for special treatment. I also knew there was no other bride checking in before or after me because the Omni has a second bridal suite. The Omni called back to say they couldn’t honor my request because “there were too many weddings.” I couldn’t check in early on a Thursday because you had a wedding…on Wednesday? Gets worse. A few minutes before my ceremony I was in the suite touching up. I heard the phone ring and decided to answer. Maybe it was an emergency and I should pick up in case someone had tried to call my cell, which was on do not disturb. I pick up to the front desk asking if I had requested housekeeping. Yes, my planner had requested they come at 5:30 when my ceremony started. The front desk proceeded to explain to me that the housekeeping staff was only waiting for me and they wanted to go home. Here I am standing in my full wedding dress - veil and all - minutes before my wedding ceremony and this person thinks it’s ok to be acting like I’m inconveniencing THEM? As we exited the suite for our ceremony, housekeeping was waiting outside the door anxious for us to leave. I’m not sure who was more anxious to be done with each other - me or the Omni.

PART 1 OF 2. Our wedding turned out beautiful, so it really pains me to think about how difficult the process leading up to it was. If we didn’t have an outside planner who was willing to fight for us every step of the way, I’m not sure our wedding would have ever happened. I wanted to write this review to let other couples know what they’re getting into by booking the Omni to be their wedding venue. You will be charmed by everything sales presents you during your tour and the beautiful gardens, but it will soon lose its luster unless you’re gifted with unlimited patience. Our journey with the Omni started in 2019. We booked the venue and were forced to switch our date to 2021 once the pandemic hit. Our POC at the Omni changed six times during the course of our wedding planning and emails/phone calls were routinely ignored, even when we found out the staff had returned to work. I at one point had to email the hotel’s general manager to get someone to respond to me or my planner. The revolving door makes a lot of sense. There are a few people at the Omni who really want to make things happen for you (Ashley, Herb), but a number of people will actually say things like “that’s not my job” when our planner would ask a simple question, like could a high chair be added to one of our reception tables per our layout. It seems there’s a broader culture issue with how the hotel manages its staff that permeates through to its clients. The Omni seems to be resting on its laurels as a previously highly regarded venue, yet its reputation in the industry is quickly tarnishing. Here are some of the hotel policies that made me regret booking the Omni as our wedding venue: - You may think you’re getting a good deal because the Omni provides everything to you in house. However, you will spend thousands of dollars on upgrades because the in-house items are tired and worn. Everything from the ugly brown chairs to the mismatched silverware (I noticed this at our tasting) is not up to standard when you’re paying close to $200 a head for your wedding. Ask to see all this at your tour. It may change your mind or your budget. - The “premium” bar upgrade is far from premium. Ask to see the alcohol list. You’ll see Sam Adams listed under craft beer… We paid insane markups to customize the bar because we were not about to serve their selections. Again, you pay tens of thousands of dollars to have your wedding there, I’m not interested in having Coors light when they could have beer from local DC breweries, which is way cooler and more fun. - You cannot bring in your own alcohol unless you want to pay a $20 corkage fee per bottle. For example, there was a local rum we wanted for sentimental reasons that we were willing to source through the Omni. The Omni tried to say a few days before the wedding they weren’t going to be able to get it. I reached out to the distillery’s VP of Sales, who personally emailed the Omni offering to hand deliver it as they do for all their deliveries in DC. There’s a certain point at which I had to call BS on things that I knew weren’t right, especially when you see the Omni boasting about these fabulous weddings they’re throwing on Instagram. - Omni has an in-house AV provider. They were super kind and did a great job for the ceremony. They also wildly overcharge you for any add-on services. They were going to charge us $125 per uplight in the ballroom. Our band only charged us $40 per uplight. They were the same uplights…

The Omni Shoreham has a large & gorgeous D.C. property, which meant that we had both indoor and outdoor options for the ceremony and reception, depending on the weather. The gazebo and the terraces outside of the ballrooms are beautiful and we greatly enjoyed their use on my daughter's wedding day. We received many compliments on the appetizers & desserts, which were particularly delicious and beautifully presented. This may be true of all hotel/reception sites, but my note of caution is the wedding brochure, which features photos of items that are rented, not owned, by the Omni Shoreham. Their furnishings (chairs, linens, plates, etc.) tend to be focused more on conventions than weddings and you will want to see those items ahead of time. Again, this is probably a note for wherever you look for a wedding reception. (Also, Covid complicated our experience, but I am not factoring that into the rating. ) It is a beautiful property & it was a beautiful day.