The Wilbur Mansion

I married my husband, Brandon, in late October this past year and we celebrated our Reception at the Wilbur Mansion with Rebecca Ciraco and Christy Jackson as our two right-hand people. Rebecca, our main contact at the Wilbur Mansion, was incredibly kind, patient, and fun to collaborate with. From the moment we met to sign the contract to the final menu selections weeks before the big day, Brandon and I loved working alongside her. Christy managed our event: she handled our signature drink, the linen colors, the layout, and any other little details at the venue. On the wedding day, Christy was the most consistent part of our reception. She made sure we were in the right places at the right times, she bustled my dress with safety pins (when we couldn’t find the little loops and buttons), she took care of talking to our DJ and communicating with staff for us, and she even made sure there was a plate of hors d’oeuvres at our sweetheart table so that we could eat after our photography session! She checked in on us throughout the event and she made the whole evening a BREEZE. Brandon and I are so incredibly thankful for Rebecca and Christy’s attention and help through our planning process and the event itself-- we truly felt so taken care of and carefree. The Wilbur Mansion is a STUNNING venue, but what truly makes it special is its team. Additionally, the Wilbur has so many beautiful places for photo ops, an excellent staff, and the food was OUTRAGEOUSLY DELICIOUS. Guests came up to me complimenting the hors d'oeuvres and meals all night at the Reception. Even now, months later, I still have friends recounting our wedding day and how wonderful the food was! Not only that, but hosting an event at the Wilbur Mansion was also a fair price. I can confidently recommend the Wilbur Mansion to anyone looking for an elegant backdrop for their event!

I highly recommend booking the Wilbur Mansion for your wedding. I had an incredible experience. Rebecca and the rest of the staff were so helpful and accommodated my every need. They were so flexible about setting up and breaking down the reception decor and were constantly checking in on me the morning of my wedding to make sure I had what I needed. The venue itself is a beautiful blank slate you can make your own. I got married in November and the cocktail hour space made for a beautiful indoor- outdoor moment!

Let me start this review with 2 points: First, I was previously married & we held our wedding reception at Hotel Bethlehem. When planning my second wedding, I did not feel it was appropriate to host our wedding at Hotel Bethlehem, even though it is one of my all-time favorite hotels. Second, I am a corporate event planner. I worked for one of the largest employers in the Lehigh Valley for over 11 years & I am now an Event Project Manager for the 3rd largest company in the world. I have planned events all over the country & have worked with hundreds of hotels, conference spaces & vendors. Throughout the planning process with the Wilbur, things were scattered at best. Calls/emails were not responded to until it was the 2nd, 3rd, 4th time I reached out. We had our tasting & the food/drinks were great. But, during the tasting the event manager mentioned we would only have 30 parking spots allotted for our guests. I was confused since we were inviting & contracted for over 115 people. I asked where everyone else should park, she said that it was up to me to figure out. She also told me I had to provide the Wilbur with a list of who would be using the 30 spots prior to our wedding. I asked if I could print out cards numbered 1-30 & the first 30 people to arrive would get a spot – nope they needed the list beforehand. If you think about this like an event planner, I have to include some type of info in the wedding invitation regarding parking which meant I needed to determine who of my guests would get the 30 spots in advance & hope they could actually come to the wedding! This was an unnecessary complication that caused a lot of reworking the invites at the last minute. Hotel B agreed to let our guests park in their overflow lot. I had to arrange & pay for another shuttle to take people from this lot to the Wilbur & back. The day of our wedding,the Wilbur only had a parking lot attendant outside part of the time, meaning the list I *had* to provide ahead of time wasn’t being checked anyway. I wanted to send in a few boxes to the Wilbur prior to our wedding. Candles, pictures, stuff for the bar etc. I asked the hotel to keep everything onsite in the couple days leading up to our wedding. The event manager said “you can send it in, but I can’t guarantee it won’t be stolen”. As someone who has worked with hotels across the country, I have never ever heard this response before. Every hotel should have a locked space for guest items. Hotel Bethlehem came to the rescue AGAIN. We had decided to stay & have our guests stay at Hotel B due to the number of rooms we would need and the proximity to Main Street provided more for our varied group to easily do throughout the weekend. Hotel B said yes to keeping our boxes so I could have everything close. To put it in perspective, the guest experience director of Hotel Bethlehem personally made sure all of the boxes I shipped in were already in our room upon check in. She knew we were hosting our wedding at another venue & still went above and beyond to make sure our wedding day was perfect. The night of our wedding, we came back to Hotel B to strawberries & champagne in our room– you can not beat this type of customer service, care & concern. If you are considering hosting a wedding at the Wilbur, be prepared to be stressed out, worried & frustrated the entire time. You might think you are organized, but it is no match for the level of disorganization & lack of communication at the Wilbur.

I cannot say enough good things about the Wilbur Mansion for your wedding! Having stayed here once before, I knew that the rooms and venue itself was beautiful and just the perfect location for a wedding. Rebecca was very easy to communicate with and answered every little question I had promptly leading up to the wedding. As for the day of, Christy kept the day flowing so smoothly and was there for anything and everything we needed! The Wilbur kept the wedding flowing with no hitches and kept my entire planning process very stress free. Our wedding party also stayed at the Wilbur the entire weekend and Louis made sure all of our guests were well taken care of! Would highly recommend the Wilbur for your event or wedding. Thank you guys so much once again and we will be back!!