The Madison Event Center

work with and make it much more affordable as they included so much more than other venues.

s, and they work with so many weddings that they could probably host your party blindfolded! We were given ample amount of time to set-up our own decor and the small fee to pick-up decor a couple days later was the best money I’ve ever spent! If I had to give minor feedback…we did have a line at the bar basically all night and they used glassware, then plastic, then resorted to paper cups because they kept running out. The bartenders were lovely and trying their very best though! I also requested that all cocktails got light-up ice cubes in them for the dance floor and unfortunately very few were used. The lighting is a bit dated in The Grande and I had hoped for it to be updated prior to my event, but it didn’t stop me from booking it! Wonderful night and easy to work with!

ocess about the status of our event. Although there were still a lot of pieces we had to coordinate ourselves, Cheyenne was regularly checking in, staying up to date on our plans, and giving helpful recommendations as we went along. Our only two bumps we hit were with the timeline for our day and the ballroom itself. When booking the event our ceremony was booked for 5pm-6pm and our reception was booked for 7pm-12am. When booking I had asked what would happen with the hour in between and was told it would be a cocktail hour so I thought nothing of it. When we were about a month out from the event Cheyenne reached out to let us know that it was a mistake and asked if we wanted to bump our reception up. Since we had already printed and sent invitation showing the end time as midnight we were not wanting to do this. Thankfully, Cheyenne and the event team were willing to work with us to make it right and extended our reception to be 6pm-12am at no additional cost to us. The other bump was that in the year and a half between booking the venue and our event, renovations were done to The Crystal that we were not notified of. I discovered them when we went for our food tasting and we saw the room for the first time since booking. The room is almost fully mirrored and they had applied an antique glass effect to them that I really disliked. There wasn’t anything we could do about this with the event being less than 2 months out and the other reception spaces being booked. This was disappointing, but ultimately on the day of just didn’t matter at all. I only wish we had been given a heads up at the time of renovations so that we could have pivoted plans to a space that was more our aesthetic and vibe. Our ceremony was held on The Lawn at Hotel Covington. I can’t say for certain, but I think there were at least two other weddings happening at the venue on our date. Initially this made me nervous, but you could hardly tell. Our party wasn’t interrupted at all! The Lawn is absolutely stunning and was the perfect backdrop for our ceremony! It was also a fun bonus that my room in the hotel overlooked The Lawn. As I was getting ready throughout the day I could look out and see the florists progress, I could see our guests arrive, and I could watch my husband process down the aisle with his parents. I’ll also note that the hotel is pet friendly which was amazing! We had our dog in our wedding and she was able to stay overnight with us. It was super convenient to have her participate in our ceremony, and then to be able to drop her off up in our hotel room before heading over to the reception! Our reception was in The Crystal Ballroom. It was nice to be right on the first floor and the space comfortably held our ~150 guest wedding with room to spare! I only wish the tables had been more spread out and spread further back towards the entrance of the room. They felt very cramped together which seemed unnecessary given all the space that was open at the end of the room. The price tag looks steep at first glance, it ended up being on par with other more venues we looked at once you factored in caterer, bar services, decor rentals, tables/chairs, and linens. I highly recommend for couples looking to have a smoother planning experience with less moving parts from outside vendors.