Urban Event

Beautiful venue. We loved the urban feel, gorgeous chandeliers, and access to the rooftop for skyline views. They also had rooms for both the girls and guys to get ready in which we really appreciated. When we toured the venue for the first time Nicholas showed us around and oversold things, I recommend talking to Chris; she's the real one in charge. One thing we didn't think about were the acoustics of the building, we had a lot of people tell us that it echoed so bad they had a hard time hearing the ceremony and speeches.

Really pretty venue, TERRIBLE customer service. Als0, parking is nightmare for guests..my event was obviously did not end up being here but trust me you can do better and make the day easier on yourself.

Definitely glad we had our wedding at the Urban Event. The thing about this venue is that it includes so many extras you won't find anywhere else without paying a lot more, or renting and bringing it in. All tables and chairs and the chairs are chiavari, floor length linens and napkins (variety of colors for napkins), actual silverware, water goblets and plates instead of plastic, and mirrors and vases you can use. Chris and Nick are nice and easy to work with, however you do have to contact them, they won't prompt you so make sure you stay on that. Only disappointment the day of was that we were supposed to get the photo booth for 2 hours of our reception, and it was never brought up. No one noticed and everything was still great, but bummed because it was supposed to be included.

The space is beautiful, the elevator is up and running for any of those who worried about that. The only problem I had that day was the day of organization, there was a lack of direction on trying to get everyone down the isle. Other than that the owners checked in and made sure everyone was doing their job.

I highly recommend this venue. The space is absolutely beautiful and the service was beyond expectations. Chris the owner was easy to work with and gladly worked with us to take care of any concerns. It was a really hot day and she kept the air running for the anxious bride and her bridesmaids. Our caterer and event planner said she was easy to work with and communicated very well with them. The wedding was beautiful and our guest are still raving about it.

The venue itself is beyond beautiful and I have no complaints about it. The service however was far below expectations. The owner was very friendly but his wife/co-owner was off-putting and abrasive and she was unfortunately my main point of contact. The elevator did not work most of the evening forcing our guests to walk up 8 flights of stairs after repeated assurance that it had been fixed and was in working order. The parking lot next to the building was promised to be open for guest parking and never was after being told all day it would be taken care of. I have called and emailed repeatedly to discuss these problems with them without a response back. It was truly a beautiful space but I would not recommend this venue to a friend due to the lack of service.

We were drawn to this space from the affordability standpoint and downtown location. If I could go back, I would have spent more money and gone with another venue. The Firestone building is beautiful, but it is not worth the stress of dealing with the owners. It was extremely difficult to get ahold of the owners, Nic and Chris. Nic showed us around initially and told us some of the expectations of what can and cannot be done. We later met with Chris and just about every thing she told us contradicted what Nic had told us (completely different parking spaces, use of candles, if staff would be present on the day of the event, etc). That was a month before our wedding. 2 weeks prior to the event, Chris called us and was offering the use of the 1st floor instead of the 3rd due to a cancellation and we gladly accepted. That was one good thing to come out of all this. Good thing we did change to the 1st floor because the elevator broke down when we were there looking at the space again. Also, on the day of the event, there was a massive line from the 8th floor wedding. I could not imagine the headache if our guests also had to use the elevator as well. When our family was there setting up, Nic could not have been more rude to them. He yelled and told them that things were our problem now and there was nothing he could do. (When asking to use a ladder they had promised we could use and when asking when the tables would be set up). Eventually everything was put in place thanks to our family and friends not Urban event. There are many other things that went wrong because of them. They did not provide many of the things that they promised. Some of the things they did do, that were promised, they tried to cut corners or otherwise shortchange us. For example they are supposed to include a photobooth, which they did. But we were supposed to have if for 2 hours and yet they tried to pack it up after about 45 minutes because they had promised it to the other wedding in the building. Dealing with Urban Event can be maddening and adds unneeded stress and uncertainty to the process and the day. The only reason I'm even rating 2 stars is because of the floor upgrade. Don't waste your time and special day in their hands.

There are two owners of the Urban Event and they're a husband and wife duo. Nick owns the entire building and is fairly hard to communicate, often overselling what they have available, but he definitely wants to accommodate. Christina runs the actual venue and she's helpful but not very communicative and often seemed annoyed when I would call with questions. There's been a lot of controversy around this building, and we had a couple of minor things go wrong, but all said and done, I wouldn't have chosen anywhere different. The space is absolutely beautiful and it was the best option for us as it was large enough to accommodate us and yet still in the city.

If I would have known our experience was going to be like it was I would have had our wedding ANYWHERE else. I do not recommend this venue to anyone. The owners are horrible people that don't care about your wedding. They are super nice and accommodating BEFORE you sign your contract but after that, they never respond and don't follow through with things they have promised. 8 weeks before our wedding I emailed the owner 3 times within 2 weeks with no response. We hadn't talked to them in months and wanted to confirm everything before our wedding. Finally I got Nicholas, the other owner, on the phone and he asked me "what else I could possibly want to know. I have too many questions and he thought that he had answered all of them." He wouldn't stop yelling at me on the phone and wouldn't let me speak, so I finally hung up on him. That became very normal whenever we had to communicate with him. He's impossible to deal with and caused more stress than anything else about our wedding. They told us multiple times when we toured the building that their wedding package comes with access to a shuttle for the bridal party to use for photos off site. I confirmed this in writing 9 months before our wedding. When we followed up 6 weeks before the wedding to confirm times that we needed it, we were told that it was no longer available. I contacted our wedding coordinator that we were assigned to asking why it was suddenly not available and forwarded her the written agreement about the shuttle from 9 months before. She called me back the next day and said that Chris, one of the owners, said she forgot we had it in writing, so we could use it....so it was available all along and they were just making things difficult for us. Our wedding reception was supposed to be on the 8th floor, but the night before our wedding we got a call at 11pm from Nicholas saying that the elevator was broken and we would either have to walk the 8 flights of stairs to the reception or move it to the basement. Walking the 8 flights was not an option since my 95 year old grandmother could barely get up 2 flights of stairs. We found out later on that the elevator had been broken for 2 weeks, but we weren't notified until the night before our wedding. During the entire planning process we were told that there would be a wedding on the first floor/basement the same night as ours. Luckily they cancelled a few weeks before our wedding otherwise we would have no choice but to use the stairs for our reception and my poor grandmother wouldn't have been able to be there (she travelled from the Iran to be at our wedding). It's so unfortunate that these people own this building because it really is a beautiful space. It just was NOT worth all the stress they caused. WE didn't even get what we paid for and had to make so many changes at the last minute: the day of our wedding. We met with Chris after our wedding and never got any apology. They only offered us 6% of a refund. Since our wedding I have heard from multiple people that have had gotten married there, attended a wedding there, had friends or family members get married there. Every single person has said that something went horribly wrong at every wedding. One of the employees for the venue told us that 9/10 times the bride is crying because of something has gone wrong at the weddings she's worked. Not worth it. Don't let these horrible people ruin your big day

The Urban Event was a BEAUTIFUL event space. It was on the news a couple of times because of the elevator breaking down often among other reasons, but I had absolutely no issues with the space. Chris was wonderful to work with and helped give me ideas on certain aspects of the reception that I would never have thought of on my own. Her and her staff took care of all the vendors on the day of the wedding, so all I needed to do was show up and get married! My bridesmaids and I did decorate in the morning, and the tables were set-up for the reception as well as the chairs for the ceremony. We reserved the 3rd floor, but an event cancelled on the first floor and basement, so Chris offered it to me. It was wonderful, beautiful, amazing, and all synonyms in between. I highly recommend this venue!

It is a total shame that Chris and Nic own this building. The only reason they get 2 stars instead of 1 is because the event space, the building and the view are all incredible but the ownership is sleezy and horrible. I had my wedding there 6/12/15. From the starting line when I booked them things started going wrong. It just seemed like little mishaps and it was no big deal but more and more kept happening. 1. They were supposed to keep my deposit check for 30, they deposited it approximately 4 days later. 2. I called to make an appointment to go up to the venue (at that time I lived about 40 minutes away) and see some of the things they offered for center pieces. When I spoke to Chris on the phone she said I didn't need an appointment and I could go up there anytime during normal business hours. Well I got there and her husband Nic said that he wished he would have known that I was coming because he would have gotten the key to the room we needed to get in to. So that was a wasted trip due to a lack of communication. 3. Wedding coordinator, and day of coordination were a couple of the perks and a lot of other promises that were not kept. Not once did we see a coordinator. We had a good friend step in and be our day of coordinator. 4. A week before the wedding we had a final meeting to discuss how our tables were going to be laid out, we got there for the rehearsal and nothing was right. We had to redo everything ourselves. 5. We got there the morning of the wedding and go into the bridal suite and it was so HOT. We were all sweating trying to get ready. Nic comes in and says "I wish I would have known you were coming. I would have turned on the A/C". It was in our contract to get the suite, of course I would use it. 6. They told us that we could use the freight elevator to get things up to the 8th floor where our wedding was. When we tried to use it, it was full of construction equipment. Nic tried to get our groomsmen to clean it out before we could use it. Seriously? We are not cleaning up your stuff so we could use the elevator like you said we could. 7. My husband and the groomsmen were trying to get to the roof for pictures before the wedding and they were coming from the 3rd floor going to the roof, Nic did not want them to take the elevator because all of our wedding guests were arriving. He told them to climb 6 flights of stairs in suits because the elevator was full. That is absolutely ridiculous. My dad ended up getting in on it and saying that the groom was more important than the guests and he gets priority. As a wedding vendor, I don't know how you can think the guests are more important. 8. One last thing, we were told multiple times that there was a back elevator. My plan from the beginning was the make my grand entrance coming down the stairs from the roof into the wedding space. Well about 2 hours before the wedding they said that was not true and the only way to get up there was from the stairs that I was planning on walking down. Well once our guests arrived that was not going to work. So because they continually lied and were horrible with communication I stood on the roof for over an hour so I could make my grand entrance. Once again, our wedding was AMAZING because of all the hard work my family and friends and I put in. It was because of NOTHING they did. They lied so many times and changed their story so many times. Thankfully I had everything together to make it a perfect day.

We do not recommend Urban Event /Firestone in Kansas City for a wedding. Our daughter’s wedding was supposed to be on the 8th floor, but had to be held on the first floor because neither the regular elevator nor the freight elevator worked. We only found that out at 9:00 the morning of the wedding that the elevators were broken when we went to the rehearsal and had to walk up 8 flights of stairs! However we were told that morning that the elevator would be fixed in time for the wedding. It was not. As a matter of fact, the daughter of a friend of ours went to a wedding there the next day and guests were forced to take the stairs as the elevator was still not available We had several grandparents and other guests who could not walk up and down 8 large flights of stairs, but luckily for us no event was scheduled on the first floor, so we could move the wedding/reception there. We strongly advise anyone considering this venue to do a thorough research of all reviews of the Urban Event. We do not feel that the management handled our daughter’s wedding to our satisfaction. It was very disappointing for the wedding couple not to be able to be married in the place they had hoped. It was very frustrating and stressful not to know about that until a few hours before the wedding. We strongly urge you to consider another venue for your wedding.

My husband and I chose the 3rd and 8th floor for our wedding and reception. We asked to come in earlier than we were supposed to so that we could set up our flowers and drop off table items which Nick allowed us to do. The tables and chairs were set up as we talked about with Kris. When we saw it all set up we rearranged slightly so there was more space for highchairs (which luckily Kris had!) and strollers. We used the plates, glasses, vases, mirrors, the rooms to get ready in, tablecovers, chairs, photobooth, and projector. Our caterer gave us a deal since Kris' people clear the tables and do the dishes. They let you hang out in the rooms on the 3rd floor to get ready in and have your make p and hair done. The room that we were in only had the wood chairs and a few mirrors and tables. Maria our stylist would have liked more amenities to make it more stylish but it worked. The guys had fun playing pool and drining beer while we got ready. The rest of the night was great. Kris was in and out during the night but everyone that worked was polite, helpful and awesome. They cut the cake, picked up dirty plates, and helped collect our stuff at the end of the night. Positives: Everything is done for you. Kris will help with basic timeline to get started and give good recommendations for caterers and florists. Negatives: Kris and Nick don't text (but Kris answered emails during weekdays - not so much on weekends). Some road construction in the streets in front of the doors.

So what I can say about the Venue is that the space is beautiful and so are the views. Thank goodness for artistic eyes and friends to make the day perfect. I would like to say that I don't have any complaints but I do. First, communication is lackadaisical. It takes days to get emails back and sometimes multiple emails for a response. The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. You get one statement from the husband and another from the wife. It was somewhat of a cluster. The were major issues at the venue. From only having on person available for 3 floors, the space being dirty (esp. bathrooms), no running water in the men's room, water leaking from the ceiling, missing door handles and no way to get out of the catering room if the door closes. The biggest thing was the elevator breaking down, even though this was assured to be fixed and no problems with the elevator. It is a same that this had to put a damper on my day...good thing I didn't really know most of this was going on until the end of the night. I would recommend the venue again for the views and space only...if your willing to put up with the other potential issues.

I'd like to start out by saying our day was beautiful. Besides the rainy weather, we had no major issues the day of. We were there early, able to get into the building and set-up as we needed to. It was unforgettable and all the guests loved it. On that note, Christina and Nicholas have no business being in the wedding business. We had issues from the beginning. My parents paid every month (which they were flexible about), but getting receipts of payments was an issue. Excuse after excuse, it didn't set a great tone. I would attempt to contact Christina by email for her to get back to me when she had the time, but apparently that was never. I had 10 unanswered emails in 14 months, all of which either my Mom or myself would have to call on. After the news broke of the permit issue, a month before our wedding day, I was almost hysterical. Everything I had worked so hard on was almost tarnished and added expense if we changed the venue. My fiance was upset, my family, his family, and our guests were upset. Everyone knew that our venue was a risk. We promptly had a meeting with her and were ready to pay the rest of the balance (after paying $5000 we still had $400+ left to pay) and get out. We weren't interested in excuses, but our guests were the main concern. Elevators being faulty when you're having an eighth floor wedding isn't going to work. To my surprise, the issues seemed to be "resolved", but honesty and integrity were two things I don't believe the owners possess. They made is almost impossible to believe that day would go well. Christina kept open contact, but the full story never came out. She blamed all the mess on everyone else but themselves, claiming a local business was trying to trip them up and steal business. That wasn't the "I'm sorry" or "We should have done this in the first place". I will let you know all you have to do is check their litigation log for their other properties on the Missouri case website to know they aren't shy about ripping people off. We were informed of the amount of money they are claiming the event space is worth, and as beautiful as it is, it's not worth $10,000 to $15,000 they ask for is they're not providing like food and proper transportation.The strain and anxiety placed on us every time an email was sent out or a call was made was almost not worth it. I wasn't sending her emails everyday, but one every three to four months asking for recommendations for vendors or assistants. On the day of, she was there in the morning and we were informed she would be the elevator attendant at an earlier time just in case something happened. However, around 11am I was met by her assistant, Jessica, who I had never heard of or seen before, saying she was helping with the day. Mind you, she was excellent, but I had no idea what she knew it was happening and Christina was no where to be found the rest of the day. Their idea of vendor coordinator doesn't exist. I scheduled everything myself for fear that the elevator would go out and our vendors would have to carry the cake up eight floors. Our only saving grace was that because the bride and groom's suite were on the third floor, we had the option to use that space if something happened. It was $1000+ less than our space and if that happened, I can guarantee no expenses would have been refunded. My word of advice, just don't do it. There are so many beautiful venues in the city, but these people are crooks down to the bone.

My daughter and son-in-law were married on the 3rd floor of the Urban Event and had their reception on the 8th floor. It was a beautiful venue! Nicholas and the staff had everything set up when we arrived early in the morning and were very accommodating when we requested a change in the ceremony space set-up. The table service and linens were lovely and the view is spectacular! The rooftop deck was a special treat. I would recommend this event space. Dana O.

This place has potential but only if it were run by different people. Nicolas is the most deplorable person in the world. I'm not even going to talk about the months leading up to the event. I'll talk about my actual wedding. Right before our 3rd floor ceremony started the elevator broke. Our 86 year old grandma had to be escorted up the stairs. Her brother never saw the ceremony because he wasn't physically capable. Then the reception, on the 8th floor, he told our guests to take the stairs. 5 flights!!! A lot of our friends are in good shape but 5 flights?!? In heels??? The elevator was fixed at this point but he was reserving it for elderly people. As if a now fully working elevator couldn't transport everyone. Then he told some of our guests we were supposed to be out by 10:30. We had a contract saying we had the space till 1A. We were planning on going until 11:30-12 and just as the party was really picking up, he shut it down. The icing on this cake was when he had the audacity to say to me "do you know how embarrassing it is to have a wedding and the elevator breaks down?" To which I responded, "yes, thanks to you I do!" And then I, the bride took the stairs down. This elevator thing by the way was an issue in April and the city had to come, shut him down, and only re-open once the elevator was fixed and up to code. So someone didn't do their job right. So much potential. Such a lovely place with lovely aesthetics and views but the owner will make you so embarrassed to have had your event there!

STAY AWAY. We learned about many of the issues when their permits were pulled right after the invitations were mailed. I couldn't find another venue at that late date that met our needs. Nicholas will tell you anything you want to hear.....if you disagree with him, he gets angry. I am so fortunate I had an outstanding caterer and florist, who overcame numerous issues to make the wedding work, both have said they will NEVER work there again. Some issues: 1. Elevator....stopped working twice, an uncle with a bad hip missed the ceremony. The vendors were allowed to put their items on the freight elevator, but were told they themselves had to walk up 8 flights. Our entire timeline was thrown off by the elevator quitting between the 3rd floor ceremony and the 8th floor reception. 2. wrinkled linens 3. Dishes that needed to be wiped down before using 4. Leaks that the florist had to deal with 5. Very slow response to questions....and inaccurate answers when we did get response. 6. includes a photo booth, such poor quality that most of the photos were left there. 7 Amounts of trash by the loading dock disgusting and unhealthy 8. Nicholas...he is a huge problem, only listens to himself, was rude to guests. My wedding planners main duty the night of the wedding was to make sure he DID NOT SPEAK TO ME. It is really a shame, because the venue itself is a cool urban chic venue.....Just not worth the hassle

Brides,if you’re looking to trust your wedding in the hands of a venue to help get things in order, this is not the place. I am getting married in two months and we had to change venue due to the unprofessional and unreliable owner Nicholas. It was a struggle to work with Nicholas from the very start and we should have taken this as a sign that it wasn’t going to work out but I had hoped it would. When we first looked at the venue, we had a some concerns and questions so we asked about these following requirements: we asked about parking, he said we can park in the parking lot adjacent to the building, the service elevator works and we can use it for catering, and the caterer can cook outside in the back of the building because we wanted to make sure the food was fresh for our guests. After we signed the contract, come to find out we are not allowed to park in the parking lot because they do not own it. We decided to stay with them just because thought it could work out. After a few months there was another wedding that cooked their food outside mid October 2014. Soon after, Nicholas tells us during another walk through that we aren’t allowed to cook outside because” the food stinks” and” we can go find another venue and get our deposit back” Given, I was very livid and it was 7 months till my wedding. I even went to search for a new venue and most venues are booked a year in advance. The emotional stress that I went through should have never happened but Nicholas is a hard man to work and is irrational and will not listen to anyone but his own voice. I felt like Nicholas is a dishonest man, he lured us in saying how great everything is and lied to us saying we could do what we asked or what he told us we can do and then changed his mind telling us we can’t every time my wedding planner speaks to him. The last straw was when we had a few of our vender’s meet us there to finalize some details and they even saw how unprofessional and rude he is. He told us the service elevator does work and we can’t use it. That was not going to work because they only have one elevator and that was supposed to be used by guests. It would have not worked out due to their elevator being small and prior to our meeting; they were also forced by the City to have their main elevator be fixed because it kept breaking down constantly. Trust me when I say, you don’t want it breaking down the day of your wedding if it’s on the 8th floor. We have walked up the flights of stairs to the 8th floor and it would not be easy for the elders or if someone was handicapped. And the photo booth was provided by Urban Event and it was sitting on the 1st floor, so if the service elevator was broken then how were they going to bring it up to the 8th floor? Tell us last min we can’t use it? There was too many unknowns and we are not comfortable to trust their management with our wedding. After my wedding planner explained everything to Chris who handles their accounts, she sympathizes with us but we still didn’t get our deposit back after all the stressed they caused us. Why would we choose to leave a venue 60 days before our wedding? We felt that Nicholas wasn’t willing to work with us and the emotional stress that he caused for me and my fiancé was not worth it. BRIDES DO NOT BOOK YOUR WEDDING AT THEIR VENUE. Please read other reviews as other Brides and Groom faced the same problem on their wedding day. I wish I followed my intuition and went with another venue a year ago

Please watch the video below. This should be a reason to not trust your wedding day in their hands. http://www.kctv5.com/story/28984907/unsafe-conditions-violations-uncovered-at-popular-kansas-city-event-space

Please watch the video below. This should be a reason to not trust your wedding day in their hands. http://www.kctv5.com/story/28984907/unsafe-conditions-violations-uncovered-at-popular-kansas-city-event-space

I cannot recommend the Urban Event. We hosted a wedding reception on the 8th floor. Two weeks before the wedding our stress began as we had to wait and see if the building would pass numerous elevator and building code violations. While they passed with a temporary 2 week occupancy permit, the ELAVATOR BROKE DOWN as guests were arriving. Over 100 guests had to climb the stairs.Some guests were stuck in the elavator. Our 90 year old aunt and uncle never made it up and went home. Nicholas called for elevator service and it was operational about 2 hours later. The bathrooms were not stocked and dirty. Chris, had promised to be the coordinator of the reception and this did not happen. The 8th floor is a beautiful room with a stunning view of downtown. It is a shame that the elavator and building were not kept up to code prior to this latest inspection ensuring the safety of their guests. I did request a financial reimbursement and after 3 email requests for a response, I accepted $1000.00 back turning down an offer of free use of the venue for a five year anniversary party or a free lunch. Our wedding reception was successful only because of our awesome vendors, not the Urban Event and it's owners!

We fell in love with the venue the second we stepped inside. It was the exact look and feel we were going for -- in the heart of the city but not too fancy! The views are beautiful and were even more breathtaking the night of our wedding. We used the 3rd floor for our ceremony, then moved to the 8th floor for the reception - and both exceeded our expectations. There were a few stressful times during planning with the transition of staff, but the owners and staff were great to work with on the day of the wedding and were willing to get whatever we needed. They worked well with our vendors and if there were any issues - we never knew it! Our guests still comment on what a unique venue and awesome atmosphere the Urban Event provided for our big day!

As event coordinators ourselves, my husband and I were looking for specific qualities in a wedding and reception venue, as well as the staff that came with it. We could not have found a more perfect fit than the Historic Firestone Building, owner Chris, and her entire staff. Chris went above and beyond for us, as we were planning our KC wedding from out of state. She was extremely attentive and such a joy to meet with when in town. The day of the wedding, I truly did not have to think about one single thing. Every single detail was effortlessly taken care of behind-scenes and I was able to enjoy 100% of the day! Beyond that, the venue is just hands-down beautiful! Urban loft environment, 360 degree window view of the city, untouched raw walls, chandeliers... Gorgeous. I wish I could throw parties here every weekend. Thank you, Chris & staff, for making my dream wedding come true!