Historic Wedding Venues in Louisville

Kelli

4.6 out of 5 rating

4.6

I fell in love with The Henry Clay as soon as I walked into the Beaux Arts Ballroom. I knew right then and there that this was the room I wanted to get married in. The elegant restored 1920's architecture was gorgeous! Our wedding was a gothic Victorian theme and the building went perfectly with the dark elegant ambiance I was planning. And the venue as basically a one stop shop between the venue, the Hilton Garden Inn, and 8UP Catering, they are all under the same owner company (First Hospitality). I will be speaking on both The Clay and 8UP in this review because they are under the same parent company and I worked with Ally (with The Clay) and Apollo (with 8UP) interchangabley throughout the months of planning and Apollo didn't start working for First Hospitality until a few months before the wedding. I will also review 8UP separately. I loved that we got the entire floor and a huge bridal suite to get ready in. This was a huge selling point that not many other venues in Louisville or the surrounding areas have. There was more than enough room for myself, 5 bridesmaids, 4 mom's and grandma's, a few friends, 3 hair stylists, and 2 makeup artists to work and us all get ready without feeling claustrophobic! That's impressive! Not to mention the full kitchen and full bathroom in there as well. The guys had the Tavern Room and a board room to get ready and hang out in. There is also an open air courtyard, The Billiards Room, a second board room, and a separate set bathrooms for guests on the 4th floor. The breakfast was complimentary and was catered in by 8UP, that was also a huge perk bc we definitely needed to eat! Day of logistics were a little crazy, there were some things that were supposed to be taken care of by the caterers that were not, like they were supposed to put on the chair covers but the guys and our family ended up putting all those on which took a ton of time away from them being able to set other decor up. We were told to have the covers at the venue at 10am and they would be taken care of, but they were there well before that time and no one from the building came to put them on. We had 8UP do our rehearsal dinner upstairs at the restaurant and they did wonderful for that. Great ambiance, plenty of food, and we took home the leftovers which was nice. They also catered the reception with an open bar as well. We did received a $500 discount off our catering bill because we did all of our food through 8UP. On the wedding day, we had cocktail hour in The Tavern Room while the Beaux Arts room was being flipped for the reception. There was supposed to be a bar set up in the Traven before guests started coming in after the ceremony, but it apparently didn't get set up until our groomsmen's wife tracked someone down and made them set it up. I didn't know that until weeks later, which was annoying since the liquor was paid for by us. The food for the reception was set up in the Billiards Room and a second bar was set up in the Beaux Arts room for the reception. We paid extra for a "signature cocktail" at the bar that was a bourbon Manhattan. It was unfortunately mixed so strong no one could drink it, so that was a huge waste of money. We paid for 80 people to eat and maybe 55 people were actually there including the DJ, 2 photographers, and a videographer to eat and they ran out of food. I was told later that guests went back for seconds and there was only salad left. We had 2 meats, 2 vegetables, and salad; that seemed like a lot of food! If it was supposed to feed 80 people and that many did not show up. What if 80 people had actually shown up to eat?? Would some of my guests gone hungry? I would have been pretty furious because the food we picked weren't things that could just be whipped up real quick. Now don't get me wrong, the food was delicious! The short ribs were to die for! Everyone still talks about how good everything was, but we were super close to running out of food which was not ok. Now I didn't find out about a lot of this until later, from a bride's perspective everything went smoothly minus our signature cocktail being undrinkable. Generally, overall, we had a great experience having our wedding at The Henry Clay. Things are bound to go wrong on your wedding day and mine was no exception. I did exactly what I wanted to do and that was have the day with my girls in a huge, lovely bridal suite getting all beautiful. I got to literally see my vision, dreams, and all my hard work come to life! It was gorgeous! And I got to marry the man of my dreams in a beautiful, historic venue. There were hiccups along the way, but that's to be expected. I would still recommend The Henry Clay and First Hospitality for your wedding needs.

Farmington Historic Plantation is a gorgeous venue, even when it rains 3.48” on your wedding day! The carriage house was a perfect place to get ready and take impromptu family photos. We had so many compliments on the venue and how beautiful the pavilion was. I’d have it there again in a heartbeat!

This is an absolutely beautiful venue, perfect for outdoor weddings. My only complaint is that there are some rules that appeared after we had signed the contract, on top of the multitude of restrictions prior to signing the contract. No balloons, fire, sparklers or non-biodegradable confetti is allowed, but that was not a big deal for us.

Leesa

5.0 out of 5 rating

5.0

Last weekend we held our daughters wedding and reception at Louisville Ballroom at Shall We Dance. We were so thrilled when we contacted them in December of 2021 and they were open for that weekend. Kimberly was great to work with suggesting layouts, vendors and answering many of the questions we had since this was our first and only wedding. The day was a huge success. The weather was perfect for the outside ceremony and when we moved inside for the reception we had so many positive comments about the beauty of the facility. I would highly recommend you take a look at it if you are hosting an event of 100 or less guest.

Susan’s energy oozed as she shared how lovely this property is, and how open the venue is to allowing us to bring in whatever we need to make out wedding truly ours. We can’t wait!

We had the absolute best time at the water tower! They were so helpful in arranging our wedding & it was such a beautiful space for our reception!

Vickie

4.6 out of 5 rating

4.6

We chose Peterson Dumesnil house for our venue and loved it!! The place is beautiful and very well kept. The facility and grounds are spectacular. Everything from the cocktails to the dinner was top notch. Highly recommend!!