The Eastern

g twice after being too optimistic that the pandemic would be over sooner rather than later. (Will it ever be over??) Anyway, the event manager Emily Chambers was so amazing and understanding throughout the whole process. They made picking a new date easy. Our wedding ended up being on a Sunday instead of a Saturday, and they refunded us the difference in rates--since they charge more for Saturdays than Sundays. We appreciated that. The venue itself is adaptable for whatever you have in mind. It gets a lot of natural light. You can have your event indoors or outdoors on the patio, so you'll be prepared whatever the weather.

s so unique and you have the ability to bring in your own vendors to decorate as you please. The location was perfect as well, located in Detroit’s historic Eastern Market with a quick 5 minute drive downtown (which was convenient for guests staying down there). They have parking available on site and a spacious patio which we leveraged for our cocktail hour. The inside is massive which we were able to use for both our ceremony and reception! Emily and the team at the Eastern were super helpful and responsive with all the questions we had leading up to our event. We received a lot of compliments from the guests and would definitely recommend this venue for any future weddings/events!

nt location. I loved the fact that I could get creative with the space and make it my own given the industrial, modern theme in the building... it was absolutely perfect for me and allowed me to do some really cool decor things like disco balls! I was pleasantly surprised with their well liquor menu - Smirnoff ain't too shabby for well, know what I mean? Anyways, the Eastern was a great space, with a nice patio... I'd pick the Eastern all over again!

estions when we weren't sure of things and was very accommodating to our needs. The staff that was present the night of our wedding was fantastic! They were super friendly and great to work with. We thought parking would be an issue but our guests did not have any trouble. An overall great experience and I would recommend this venue to future couples!

the bartenders were rude, which is a bummer when you are required to use their bar service.

area for the bridal party, not much furniture provided, et cetera - but they were up front about the limitations of their venue and recommended vendors that were experienced with working in their space. Communication was where I was really disappointed in The Eastern. We toured the venue at the beginning of the year and were told that if we signed in a week, we could have it for the previous year's rates. Awesome! When we got the contract, though, it was for the current year's rates. The booking manager (Emily) did honor her verbal commitment once we caught this mistake, but it did make me a little nervous that they had started out trying to charge us an extra thousand dollars. During the year that elapsed between signing the contract and our event, The Eastern took away the parking lot that we had specifically asked about during the booking process. There is now a small lot for about 15-20 cars - everyone else has to street park. Getting no notification about this change felt very disrespectful. There were other small things that they forgot to tell us about, like replacing a mural on one of the walls and putting a patio outside the venue - none of them very big deals, but I do think that the venue should inform people who are planning events there about changes to the venue. If you can get over these communication issues, though, and find good vendors to make up for The Eastern's lack of amenities, you can have a really beautiful event here.

d wall on the interior east side and a beautiful cement patio right outside the roll up door. Awesome and amazing touches to the evening, although it would have been nice to have been told about it instead of finding out the week before. Definitely do your research for rentals and vendors, along with setting up the night as there are additional fees to tear down the next day; we knew that there might be additional fees, but the day goes by so fast (and you don’t realize that a venue where you need everything — cost and fees creep up on you) so that extra time you wanted for the night might not happen. A few other challenges were that I was constantly emailing asking questions (always getting a response and answers) however, I felt that I was bothering them every time — where it would have been nice to have the venue provide some initial information such as selections for the bar, how many bartenders, what the coffee bar would look like, knowing where and when to make payment, the final count, parking the day of, etc. Basic logistics that you would get with the venue. Everything went smooth the day of our wedding. We didn’t have a contact number for the person that was there, however our vendors were spot on — but it would have been nice to have that prior. We had quite a few of guests tell us that the beer was warm — not cool after the bar package was a part of the contract (ps: the bar is $/pp for 3 hours in our contract so we had to pay more for 5 hours).. The bartenders were great and the guests overall were super happy the entire time. The coffee bar/cafe was a hit! So although a little pricey, it was so worth it!! Know your guest count as there isn’t too much wiggle room once you sign the contract. I feel like the venue is growing and so each event will probably be better than the last. Overall we would most likely pick this venue again! The experience, and the atmosphere were great! Our guests can’t stop raving about the entire night — which makes us happy!! We got our dream wedding day and the venue was a part of it.

f you're looking for something different, and to really wow your guests-- the Eastern is the way to go. You can really personalize it to your wedding style, but it will still have a very industrial chic vibe to it. I loved everything about our wedding, but I highly recommend the addition of fans to the venue. Our day was perfect weather, so the heating/cooling wasn't turned on and there wasn't a ton of air flow. Not really a complaint-- just a suggestion from an overheated bride! :)

ng the planning process. They were frequently slow to communicate or gave incomplete information. For example, we were not told until late in the process that the beverage packages (already pricy) do not include glassware. On the day of our wedding, the venue opened half an hour later than expected; it was a morning wedding, so this was a big issue. Additionally, the parking area was never plowed properly. They did make amends for this by upgrading our bar package, which was much appreciated. Overall, though, the staff was far from friendly or helpful, and even though we loved our wedding, we may have chosen a different venue if we had known that ahead of time.

commodated our schedules. However, we were not pleased with the fact that we paid gratuity ahead of time, but the bartenders still had a tip jar out. We thought that distasteful as we did not want our guests to have to worry about an extra tip. We also were not told we had to be locked into one of their bar packages when we put our deposit down. We just want other couples to be aware of these two things. Overall, we had a great reception and the Eastern was a beautiful, one-of-a-kind venue.

communicative and were wonderful with my many questions throughout the year of planning our wedding. We were able to get into the space many many times to measure, take pictures, etc. We absolutely loved hosting our wedding there and bringing in vendors to make the space look exactly like we hoped. We thank the Eastern for being the most beautiful blank canvas ever! Highly recommend hosting your wedding here for unique, romantic, industrial vibes!

to make sure we were happy! The space is beautiful and so glorious at night! Really a wonderful place to host an event!! ❤

accommodated our schedules and our vendors seamlessly. I would definitely recommend this for any event!