My husband and I hesitated to write this review following our wedding at the Kimpton Journeyman Hotel this fall. So much of our wedding day was wonderful, but looking back on every...thing it’s difficult to look past some serious communication failures that made getting to our big day stressful and confusing.
The good: the venue itself is beautiful and the Founders Terrace offers wonderful views of downtown Milwaukee. We had a small wedding (20 people) so we rented the Founders room for a seated dinner and the adjacent private rooftop area for our ceremony and cocktail hour. Both were perfect for our celebration and had plenty of space. We ultimately arranged a custom bar menu, which we were excited the venue accommodated. The bartender assigned to our event (Juan) was beyond amazing, as was the Beverage Director (whose name I can’t remember) who floated in and out to ensure things were going smoothly.
Not-so-good: Communication leading up to the event was a bit of a mess and really marred what would have otherwise been a great overall experience. I’m inclined to focus on the positives, however communication with the Event Coordinator was so comically bad/non-existent we wanted to caution couples who may be considering this venue and offer a counterbalance to the very positive reviews that we read (and that helped sway us to select the Journeyman despite a high minimum spend requirement).
When emailing the Event Coordinator, it took an extended period (and generally a reminder email) before we’d get a response. We didn’t want to nag, but once two weeks passed we felt it was reasonable to flag the original message and ask if she had an answer to our question. On more than one occasion the response was that the Journeyman was hosting a ton of weddings and that she was swamped. We understood this, and tried to give her the benefit of the doubt since we know the wedding industry is ridiculously busy right now. It got to the point the month of our wedding (Oct.) that we were still trying to confirm items that we began discussing in July. As an additional complication: we were an out-of-town couple – we ultimately flew to Milwaukee in Sept. to meet with the Event Coordinator in person with the hope of being able to iron out details that we just couldn’t get moved forward via email. She was very nice in person and we left no longer worried that we were going to be ghosted by our wedding venue, but then we didn’t receive any follow up on the items she said she would send us for more than two weeks (and only after we inquired again). Ultimately this led to a flurry of activity the week before our wedding as she started confirming details.
A footnote: we emailed the Event Coordinator about our final bill shortly after the wedding and received an auto reply that she was no longer at the Kimpton Journeyman Hotel.
If you’re considering the Kimpton Journeyman Hotel for a wedding, proceed with caution. It’s a beautiful venue in a nice location with good food and drink options. Communication might be great, or it might be nonexistent and make confirming important details (dinner menu, bar, etc.) stressful and very difficult at times. We don’t regret having used the venue because the space is beautiful and everyone at the hotel that night was superb. As an out-of-town couple, however, we would have continued our wedding venue search if there had been any indication that communication would be as difficult as it was (especially at this price point).
