We used the Alden for our wedding reception and catering. They were really great to work with. The only problems we had were with the rooms and the bartender after the reception. They kept forgetting to add more rooms to our block when it filled up so guest would call and be told that there were no rooms available when that was not the case. Also several guests mentioned that when they arrived, they were give the wrong room type (one of which was my mother in-law). There was also a VERY rude bartender the night before and the night of the wedding downstairs at the Sam Bar. Other than that they did a great job with the reception itself. The event planner was wonderful to work with and she was extremely responsive to all of my e-mails and concerns. She really did an excellent job at making sure the reception was exactly what we wanted it to be. They even did all of the set up for us and allowed us to bring all of our items to the hotel the day before the wedding. We had a great time at our reception and a lot of that was thanks to the wonderful staff at the Alden. We also can not say enough great things about the food provided. It was simply amazing! Everyone told us how much they enjoyed the dinner and how wonderful the food was! I should also mention that my husband left our rings at the hotel and showed up at the ceremony site without them and The Alden made sure the rings arrived via courier. I doubt many vendors would do that for their bride and groom!

We knew we wanted to get married at the Alden Hotel the minute we walked in. I’ve always said if I could live anywhere, it would be in a loft in downtown Boston or Chicago, and the Veranda at the Alden very much reminded me of that. My husband and I have been to ten weddings together (six of them last summer!) and we wanted a venue completely different from anywhere else we had been. It was also important to me for people to be able to stay somewhere close so no one had to worry about being the designated driver…I would say the great majority of our guests stayed in the hotel that night, and that created quite an awesome party (and after party in the bar downstairs!)! The staff (especially Catherine Bradley) was great to work with. My only complaint is that the food was not quite as good as I expected it to be, nor was the presentation / serving of the food…but I don’t believe people go to weddings for the food, so if that’s my only complaint, then I’m happy! I would recommend this venue to anyone looking for something a little different than the rest of the venues in Houston…they won’t disappoint!

My husband & I looked at numerous venues to have our reception, and just felt like we couldn't find one that we "loved." We decided to make an appointment to see The Alden, and that was to be our last place to look at as well.
Once we stepped onto the veranda, we knew this was the place. From the service, the friendliness of all the staff, the food at the reception, everything was excellent. We had so many compliments from our guests on how much they enjoyed themselves. The whole environment we wanted to create during our reception was possible because of The Alden (we wanted to bring the outside in, keep it modern, simple).
The only thing I can think of that was semi-stress inducing, is that we started with one sales/catering coordinator and a few months before our wedding date, she was no longer there & we were to work with another coordinator, Catherine. But she was awesome! She was attentive to our needs, and even worked with us when we had to change one of our menu items close to the wedding date. It felt almost like we were working with her throughout the whole process.
Minh was such an awesome banquet mgr, he made sure we were happy with everything during the whole process up until the day after our reception. We are so happy we used The Alden for our wedding reception. Thank you to everyone there that made our big day memorable.

Our daughter's wedding ceremony was outside of the country; however, we held a reception the day after we returned at the Alden for all the family & friends who were unable to attend a destination wedding. We worked with the event planner for several months prior to the reception date and felt very comfortable during the "planning" phase. We did a tasting in order to select the food & beverages that would be served. Unfortunately, the day of the event things began to unravel. The food that was served was in no way comparable to the food we were presented at the tasting. For example, we tasted & paid for a gourmet berries & cheese platter that consisted of fresh blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc, along with gourmet cheeses. What the served was a dinner plate with chunks of cheddar cheese that was sweating as if it had been sitting on the counter for awhile, along with a few strawberries. I could have purchased that cheese tray at Krogers for less than $10, but I can assure you that the Alden charged us significantly more than that. In addition to the disappointing food, the bartender assigned to us was rude, both to the Matron of Honor (Bride's Sister), as well as to the Father of the Bride. At the end of the evening as we were clearing our things from the room, my husband (Father of the Bride) asked the bartender for another glass of wine (from the open bottle sitting on the bar...), but she promptly told him "NO, we are done for the day". Another employee overheard her and quickly resolved the issue. After assuring us that she would be at our beckon call throughout the event, the event planner disappeared a few minutes after the reception started. I only learned this when I attempted to discuss my concerns over the food that was being put out. Not only did she leave the premises, no one was able to reach her via phone. When we checked out the following morning and asked for the top tier of our daughter's wedding cake, we were told that they lost it. Needless to say, we were not happy about that.

I will never use the Alden Hotel for an event again and would find it difficult to recommend them to anyone else.

What I love most about this venue is its unique modern style. My husband and I looked into a number of venues and were about to settle for one that we really didn't agree on 100%, but that was right before we came upon a magazine ad for this boutique hotel. We made an appointment to check it out, and upon arriving knew that this was where we needed to celebrate our wedding day. However, we did have one main concern: the size of the veranda. I have a large family, and my mom would want to share this day with some of her friends, too. But, it came down to what we most preferred. And the good news was the size turned out to be a non-issue: it was perfect for our 150 guests and provided an intimate gathering for our closest family and friends (including some of my mom's!). The hotel staff worked with us on the decor, food, vendors, and all the details. They were prompt, responsive, and overall very professional. Minh, the banquet manager, was also very easy to work with. He helped with the set-up of the veranda and projector and ensured the bar and food service was running smoothly throughout the evening. The one issue we did have was the portion of the food. We went with a plated dinner, and the portions were much smaller in size than what we had at our tasting and were told to expect. However, that aside, our guests really enjoyed the venue just as much as we did, and we are happy with our decision to go with the Alden.