Our wedding was a little over a month ago, 3.3.18, & I am still in awe of the amazing experience we had at the Henry. The venue is very unique (an art gallery operates out of the hotel) – and the event spaces are beautiful! We hosted our cockta...il hour in the Gallery Room and our dinner & dancing in the Plaza Ballroom. Both spaces are beautifully appointed & very little needs to be done with regards to décor/floral to make them special for your event.
But more importantly, I want to comment on the wonderful customer service we received from the Henry staff every step of the way. (I would like to point out that I have spent the majority of my career working for a luxury hotel in downtown Chicago – so I can recognize when a hotel is doing it right – and the Henry clearly is!) Our first warm impression of the Henry was from working with our Catering Sales Manager, Laura Bolduc, who was knowledgeable and quick & kind to answer all of our many questions. Once we signed the contract, the turnover from Sales to our Event Manager, Keri Douglass, was incredibly seamless.
There are not enough positive words out there to describe how wonderful Keri was to work with. We feel that she genuinely, deeply cared about ensuring that we had the best wedding ever. Keri worked hard to make the process of planning a wedding out of state painless & fun for us. She clearly communicated all of our wedding weekend details out to the rest of the staff at Henry to set them up for a success & to guarantee a very happy bride and groom. When we returned to our bridal suite after our reception, among a bunch of goodies & rose petals from the hotel – Keri had thoughtfully ordered us a personalized frame of two hearts made of maps from Detroit and Chicago (where we live) that tied into our travel themed wedding. Definition of a sweetheart. I am now a professional event planner, & I sincerely hope that I have the opportunity to work with Keri again in my professional life.
On the week of our wedding, I was introduced to Dana, the Banquet Captain, who oversaw the banquet staff & our dinner service. I sincerely appreciate the time she took to meet with me & run through the details of our wedding.
I also want to highlight the efforts & talents of Chef Bill and his team. Chef Bill graciously accommodated our travel schedule & conducted our tasting the week between Christmas & NYE when we were in Michigan. We sincerely appreciate how accommodating he was – not to mention the food & presentation is amazing!! We’ve received several compliments on the food. Everyone says that you don’t get a chance to eat at your own wedding – but after our tasting we made it a point to sit & down eat because the food is that good.
Last, but certainly not least – the bartenders, front desk staff, & bell staff at the Henry are all wonderful as well. Every staff member we encountered genuinely shared in our excitement & we felt like they were celebrating right along with us.
We had a 180 person wedding in the smaller of the Henry’s 2 ballrooms. Considering they have a large ballroom that can accommodate a wedding of 800, I realize that we were a small fish in a big pond for the Henry from a revenue standpoint. However, we were never made to feel like that at all, ever – in fact, we felt like we were the ONLY fish in the pond throughout the entire process and especially on our wedding weekend. Thank you to the Henry for making us feel so special on the most special day of our lives!