We had an incredible wedding in The Grand 1858. However, there were both pros and cons to working with them throughout the planning process.
PROS
- DAY-OF COORDINATION: MEC genuinely does a fabulous job pulling things together day-of. They wer...e very organized and coordinated seamlessly with all of the vendors.
- CONTINGENCIES: They have a ton of experience, multiple wedding venues under their management and a big staff such that if something goes horribly wrong they are well suited to fix it. I wasn't aware of anything that went wrong for our wedding, but as they said, if something did go awry, they'd fix it and no one would ever know.
- VENUE: The venue itself is beautiful and particularly great for those who want to do that ceremony and reception in one place with seamless transitions. Because the space itself has so much character (e.g., brick and accent walls, wooden beams and pillars), you really don't need to add much to the space to make it feel decorated or special.
- FOOD: The food was very good. We didn't end up trying any of the appetizers ourselves, but the entrees were great and we heard nothing but positive things from guests.
CONS
- PLANNING SERVICE: MEC told us before we signed on that the venue came with wedding planning services, to the point where you could consider the cost of a wedding planner baked into the venue fee. However, they really don't offer that. You are assigned a wedding coordinator, but that person just engages on the things that directly impact MEC (e.g., food selection). I asked our coordinator if she had any planning resources and she simply referred me to The Knot. While our coordinator did do a lot of work as there were many things that the venue had to be looped into, the service they provided was very far from what you'd get from an actual wedding planner.
- COST TRANSPARENCY: As is common with a lot of venues, we were nickel and dimed over many things. While perhaps that's to be expected, what made things really frustrating was the lack of transparency we had into what constituted an extra free and how much it cost. It created an enormous amount of stress for me throughout the whole process feeling like I was constantly waiting for them to spring on additional charges or to change the pricing of something we had already decided upon. Some specific examples:
-- They changed the cost on us for our corkage fee and late night pizzas.
-- They miscommunicated the way in which alcohol gets charged, which if left uncaught would have left us on the hook for more than we wanted
-- They tried to charge us a significantly higher price for drapery even though they had previously quoted a much lower price
-- They told us we could bring in our own catering for lunch and then surprised us weeks later with two $50 charges for bringing in an outside vendor
-- I had to ask them to break out the service charges and taxes in the event order to figure out that they were charging 2% more on the service fee than was in the contract and they were erroneously charging alcohol tax on corkage fees, which resulted in a $1,300 overcharge. They changed it, but I got no apology for the mistakes.
If you do decide to go with MEC, I recommend you ask a ton of questions upfront and get everything you can in writing. It is truly a fantastic venue, and MEC runs a world-class operation on the day-of the event, but it is important to understand what exactly they are providing and stay on top of the charges.