TL;DR....Beautiful venue but would not recommend mainly due to lack of communication from the…read moreowner.
My best friend rented this venue for her wedding ceremony in June and although the event space was beautiful, the owner (Rachel) and some of the staff did not meet expectations.
I understand that the venue is a historical monument to the city (old post office from 1915), but certain rules made it impossible to efficiently utilize the space. One example is that no large, heavy, or bulky items can enter through the front doors. The front doors are original to the building, and I understand not wanting heavy or bulky items going through them, but we weren't even allowed to bring delicate floral runners through the front doors because Rachel thought they would mess her doors up (see photos for the florals runners). We were instructed to use the rear doors which was not in our favor having to transport items at a further distance in the sweltering summer heat. Rachel also got onto us a few times for leaving her historic doors "open" while going in and out of them for fear of losing AC (more to come on that) even though we were being adamant about closing them. I inspected the doors and realized they were misaligned at the strike plates and hinges (probably because they're 107 year old doors that weren't properly maintained/sustained by the owner) which was causing the doors to constantly be open unless locked from the inside.
The inside of the venue was absolutely gorgeous, but again, the rules were such a dampener for arguably one of the most important days of my best friend's life. Brides & Grooms beware, both dressing rooms are upstairs next to each other without any sort of partition so there's very little privacy if you're worried about seeing each other before the ceremony. The owner also does not allow any alcohol upstairs in the dressing rooms unless specifically bought from her, which I felt was one way to nickel-and-dime her bride and groom on their wedding day. There is antique furniture in one of the bedrooms such as a bed, sofa, and dresser, that the owner will not allow you to touch, look at, or even breathe near unless you want to be fined.
The AC, or lack thereof, made it extremely uncomfortable getting ready in the upstairs dressing rooms. Rachel told us numerous times to close the blinds upstairs, which we did, but it still didn't help make the rooms any cooler and made it difficult having photos taken without natural lighting.
Rachel's staff (specifically bartenders) were late, underdressed, and didn't provide the services that were agreed upon in the contract. The wedding guests were supposed to be served champagne while they were being seated for the ceremony and then served cocktails immediately after the ceremony for cocktail hour. Neither of these agreements were met.
Rachel also requires the customer renting out the venue to clean up all trash prior to exiting the space. You read that right - that means all trash from your guests, restrooms, anywhere on the premise, etc must be thrown out by you. This was not previously communicated so I, along with the other bridesmaids, groomsmen, bride, groom, and even their parents were dragging stinky, leaky, trash bags out to dumpsters that were a block away from the venue in our formal attire.
My best friend (the Bride) did all of the coordination with Rachel in booking the venue, and from what I heard and saw, it was extremely difficult working with her. There was lack of communication from the very beginning and there were so many other things that weren't specified and that went wrong that she didn't acknowledge. Would not recommend using this space for events larger than 40 people as the staff and management don't seem to be equipped to handle anything larger.
