I can't say a single bad thing about the Tidewater. Our wedding was amazing

We toured a few venues around Easton and St. Michaels, but the moment we stepped into the Tidewater Inn, we knew this was the one. The historic charm, elegant atmosphere, and welcoming warmth perfectly captured who we are as a couple, and created the most beautiful setting to say “I do.”

We were married in the fall, which turned out to be the perfect season for an Eastern Shore celebration. The town was alive with autumn colors, and the Tidewater radiated that cozy, golden glow that made every moment feel timeless. Guests came from near and far, and more than one told us, “Easton feels like something out of Gilmore Girls.”

The space itself is stunning, but what truly made our wedding unforgettable was the staff. Every single person we and our guests interacted with was kind, attentive, and genuinely happy to help. As my mom texted me after the weekend, “The Tidewater has made a guest for life out of me.”

As a bride and a corporate event planner, I know how many moving pieces go into a wedding or event, and working with Melanie and her team made it seamless. She was organized, responsive, flexible (especially when we had to move our date from June to October), and always calm under pressure. The coordination between the Tidewater team and our vendors felt effortless, everyone knew and respected each other, which made the day run like clockwork.

From the moment you walk through the doors to the moment you leave as a married couple; you’re in the very best hands at the Tidewater Inn. If you’re dreaming of a wedding that blends elevated elegance with true Eastern Shore charm, look no further. This is where your married story should begin.

Booking our wedding at the Tidewater Inn was the BEST decision we made in all our wedding planning. The entire building has so much charm and character, and is so well maintained, so clean, and just beautiful. The venue options for weddings (the ballrooms and courtyards) are so lovely — beautiful fireplaces & mantels, mirrors, crown molding, big windows, and elegant chandeliers. The food at our reception was exceptional! We received so many compliments on the meal and the cocktail hour food. Above all else, the Wedding & Events Team at Tidewater is beyond fantastic. They have such an experienced team — from day one, they were organized, professional, transparent, friendly, and always eager to help and answer questions. Our day went perfect! They coordinated all the decor set-up and tear down, all the vendor communications for the day-of (deliveries and set-up), and were available the entire time to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Look no further when planning a weekend long wedding. I did so much research prior to finding the Tidewater Inn. My requirements were very specific. A hotel with a nice ballroom (no carpet). One wedding a night. A large enough hotel to host a majority of guests. No night minimum for guests; reasonably priced rooms. Between Maryland and NJ. After receiving the proposals of a number of venues on the Jersey Shore, I was concerned I would not find a place that could accommodate all my must haves. When I found the Tidewater Inn, only an hour from our home in DC, I thought it was too good to be true. We went to a Saturday open house and were sold. Only had to visit one venue! The purchase of the Tidewater House in 2019 makes this venue an all-in-one wedding venue. We stayed at the Tidewater House Wednesday - Sunday. Hosted our rehearsal dinner in the Carriage House. Thursday Night Welcome Reception in the Courtyard. Ladies got ready in the Tidewater House. Ceremony in the courtyard, Cocktail Hour in the Tent, Reception in the Gold Ballroom, and Saturday Breakfast in the Crystal Room. Venue deposit included a rockstar team. I was able to plan the wedding without hiring a wedding coordinator or a day of coordinator-- everything went so smoothly. Melanie Bennett is such a professional. Her team is exceptional. Sara is amazing to work with on hotel rooms (we were constantly shifting people). Brandi ensured the day went off without a hitch. The Tidewater House innkeeper, Crystal, ensured our accommodations were clean all weekend long. Sarah at the TWH made sure I was well nourished for the day. You know when the tasting is for 150+ that the food you are tasting will be the same day-of. Everyone raved about the food. Crab cakes at the rehearsal were the 'best we've ever had.' Passed Champagne at the ceremony, passed signature cocktails during cocktail hour. Cold seafood display, tater tot bar. Amazing filet and Chesapeake rockfish topped with crab. Late night snacks! We were also able to work with a local bakery on small desserts in addition to our cake. Not to mention everyone loved the town of Easton. Best weekend of our lives. We are so grateful for the entire staff at the Tidewater Inn. Wish we could host a wedding every year. Alas, we will settle for visiting the staff that became friends!

To sum it up - amazing. Melanie and her team were a joy to work with and extremely professional and communicative throughout the entire process. We truly enjoyed the wedding tasting which helped us envision the look-and-feel for our wedding, and of course, the ability to taste the AMAZING food (more on that later). The details meeting leading up to the big day was very helpful; Melanie and team laid everything out so my wife and I knew everything from coordinating vendors to timeline were handled.

We went with the Tidewater Package so we had access to all spaces within the venue. The flow of the wedding was incredible and all of our guests were able to easily transition from ceremony -> cocktail hour -> reception by simply walking, including ramps for handicapped guests.

The Gold Ballroom was used for the reception and is beautiful; the herringbone pattern for the wood floors are extremely classy. Back to the food - all of our guests were raving about it. It is truly incredible the consistency and flavors the kitchen could promptly pump out for 170+ guests. My wife wasn't able to eat much during the reception, and without us knowing, they boxed her meal and placed it within the fridge in our room...so awesome.

Thank you Melanie & the Tidewater team for a fantastic weekend!

Thank you to everyone at the Tidewater Inn who made our wedding so special! From the very beginning, Melanie made us feel welcomed and valued. Throughout the entire planning process, Melanie and her team were communicative and helpful. Day of, I felt like people were literally coming out of the woodwork to help make sure our day ran smoothly! An entire team assembled before our eyes and kept everything on schedule and perfect. Our guests could not have been more impressed by everything and it was amazing to host our friends and family for the entire weekend at such a beautiful location. Thank you everyone for making our dream wedding a reality!

The Tidewater Inn was the perfect place to host our wedding. Nested in the charming town of Easton, the Tidewater is warm and welcoming. Almost all of our guests booked local accommodations allowing us to make our wedding a weekend event rather than just an evening.

Watching all our friends and family arrive to Easton was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Hosting them at a local bar in town was extremely ideal as the town is extremely walkable and has many wonderful dining options.

The staff at the Tidewater Inn is also incredible. Melanie, Brandy, and Sara were all absolutely incredible to work with. They were extremely responsive to all my emails and questions and handled the wedding itself flawlessly. As a stressed, type-A bride working with them was an absolute dream. They also left champagne, cake, and our leftover dinner entrees in our room after the wedding which was highly appreciated.

Finally, the food at the Tidewater Inn is exceptional. We got so many compliments on our entrees. Some even said that it was the best wedding food that they had ever tried. The crab cakes in particular were a crowd-pleaser. Ultimately if you are looking for a classic, elegant venue with good food and a top-notch staff please choose the Tidewater Inn. It is worth every penny you will spend and you won't regret it.

There aren’t enough positive things to say about the Tidewater Inn.

We got married at the tidewater inn this past April. This venue has the perfect blend of charm, elegance, and convenience. Melanie Bennett and the staff here are absolutely outstanding. They made every step of the planning process easy and stress free. They’ll provide recommendations if you need them but will also work to make your unique visions become reality. Their day-of coordination has got to be unmatched by others in the industry. We did not have to worry about managing any of the vendors or their services as the Tidewater staff took care of it all. Our guest list was about 110 but I could easily see how the Tidewater could perfectly accommodate a wedding for any size.

The food is really incredible. We had more than two dozen guests tell us it was “the best food they’ve ever had at a wedding”. I personally can say their crab cakes are the best you’re gonna get on the Eastern shore and that’s saying a lot. So if you want to add that Maryland flavor, definitely put the crab cakes on your menu. If you want to impress your guests’ tastebuds, choose the Tidewater Inn.

I would highly recommend the Tidewater Inn for any couple that wants a wedding venue where your ceremony, reception and hotels are all in one, gorgeous, location. The rooms in the hotel are also really nice.

We had a perfect wedding day, for what I could tell was a fair price. There was nothing the Tidewater provided that I thought was overly expensive.

Our wedding was a dream come true, and I know that if you choose the Tidewater Inn, yours will be too.

Our wedding was unbelievable. The Tidewater knows exactly what they’re doing and made our day AMAZING. From the event coordinators, the food/chef, service staff, everything was perfect and everyone was so professional and helpful. I seriously couldn’t recommend them enough!!!

Our original wedding date was May 2020….and then Dec 2020, then May 2021, and finally happened on July 2, 2021! We were planning to get married in a venue in Mount Vernon, Baltimore since it was close to our home. However, after shifting the date out 3 times to July and that being cancelled (facing a move out to 2022), we started to wonder if we should look for another venue so we could hold the July 2 date. I started looking online and the logical choice was the Eastern Shore, where most venues were open with capacity limitations; for this reason I felt comfortable that my wedding wouldn’t get cancelled again after moving the location.

When looking online at a few different venues in the Saint Michaels/Easton areas, The Tidewater Inn stuck out to me. Located within a beautifully charming downtown area, The Tidewater Inn (TWI) has a open lobby with spiral staircase and huge fireplace, two different event rooms based on your capacity needs (both with large outdoor spaces attached) and a really cool restaurant/bar right off the lobby (Hunter’s Tavern). Priced VERY competitively as compared to other venues I looked at, this space was at the top of my list. I started to love the idea of all the guests staying on site together over the weekend, really making it feel like a celebration that lasted days versus just a few hours. The pricing also included a coordinator up to the wedding and on the day of, which was a huge plus for me when I hadn’t had that with the original venue. I went to see it in person, and met with Melanie, who I had spoken to over email as well. I got so excited driving around the downtown area and seeing the rooms in person. The smaller room (Crystal Ballroom) really spoke to me, because the outdoor area that comes with it is a beautiful courtyard garden with lots of real greenery, which I loved. The inside of that ballroom was also beautiful - dark wooden floors and gorgeous chandeliers, floor to ceiling doors/windows looking out to the dreamy courtyard. Having both indoor and outdoor options for the ceremony and cocktail hour was also a huge plus for me, given that July weather in Maryland can be so variable. We moved forward with our new venue with excitement - for the first time in about a year we started to think this might actually happen!

From January to July, I spoke primarily with Melanie over email. My fiancé and I did go back to Easton in May for one night so he could see the venue and we could do our food tasting. The tasting was with Melanie, who is wonderful to chat with, and the food was outstanding. We had a great lunch tasting at Hunter’s Tavern in TWI, followed by an afternoon of exploring the town. At Melanie’s recommendation, we popped into Bonheur (ice cream, deserts, coffees), The Wardroom (Italian market bistro serving wine, beer, and sandwiches/small bites) and The Stewart (intimate scotch and champagne bar with light snacks and an NYC feel). We were joined that day by my fiancé’s younger brother and his fiancé, who live in NYC, and we all loved these places around town. For dinner, the four of us went to Scossa, which was where I was most likely going to hold our rehearsal dinner. We had a lovely evening there, and were able to peek into the back, private room that would be used for our event. The last stop for the day was Doc’s Downtown Grille, where we would likely have the afterparty. Everything I mention above, including TWI, is within a square block, so very convenient to walk between.

Our wedding weekend finally arrived, and Melanie was on site for set up starting in the morning. She worked with all the vendors who dropped items off or were needing to set up. I was upstairs with my ladies getting ready in the very spacious and convenient Chesapeake Room, located on the third floor of TWI and containing multiple high top tables, couches and chairs which was the perfect space for all 10 of us to hang out all day as we got our H/MU done. I peeked downstairs a few times throughout the morning/early afternoon and every time I did I could see Melanie had everything fully under control and was executing the set up exactly as I had wanted! I felt comfortable just relaxing back upstairs, without any concern or worry.

Brandy (another event coordinator at TWI) and Melanie were both present during the event itself, working together to make sure everything happened at the right times, and went smoothly. I worried about nothing and had a blast. The night flew by and to me, it felt like everything literally went perfectly! I would not change a single thing about our wedding night.

Brandy and Melanie were such a big part of everything going so well. Their efforts and kindness allowed me to step back from my typical role of managing things and really enjoy myself in the moment. The morning of, weather looked like it was going to behave so I made a call around noon to do the ceremony and cocktail hour outside. Everything was perfect and magical, and it was great that Melanie allowed me to take up to that point to decide! Another wonderful benefit was that many of our guests decided to stay a few extra nights to relax and enjoy the town. People were running into each other in Hunter’s Tavern for breakfast, and chatting in the hallways. We really got to see our loved ones so much with everyone staying at the Inn. Cannot recommend The Tidewater Inn enough - we had a wonderful experience with Melanie and Brandy and loved the space itself and the whole town!