McMenamins Anderson School Reviews

What a great venue! We had our Valentine's day wedding here. The venue coordinator was so helpful. She was always quick to reply to questions and was available on site at our rehearsal and during our wedding day prep. Can't say enough good things about the Anderson school. It was a great choice of venues for us.

McMenamins Anderson School made our day perfect by hosting an excellent welcome party. They were incredibly easy to work with, and our guests appreciated the convenient location of the hotel. Their service and accommodations set the perfect tone for our wedding celebrations, ensuring our out-of-town guests felt comfortable and welcomed.

So, first off, we chose mcmenamins because it has a special place in my heart. I have been going to their pubs for the last 37 years. My fiancee loved the connection to me, and we loved their INCREDIBLE value! Honestly, the minimum is the price of JUST a venue in the immediate area. On top of that, they have so many of the vendors and options already figured out for you that you only have to worry about HALF of the normal to-do list items when planning your wedding.

Seriously, I went into this thinking... yeah it's my wedding... it'll be fine...

I ended that night more in love with my wife than I was when I started the day. If I had dreamed of my wedding, I can tell you confidently that this exceeded anything I could have dreamed up!

We absolutely loved our wedding here. They were very professional, responsive, and obviously very experienced throwing weddings in Haynes hall/square. The whole property is decorated in such a fun way, and the landscaping is absolutely beautiful. There were so many great places to take photos! And it's of course so convenient that it has a hotel and multiple restaurants on property- we had a little afterparty at the Woodshop. And the price point is far more reasonable than any other venues we were looking at.

My one bit of advice is that if you're having a summer wedding to plan accordingly. There is no shade structure over Hayne's Square (unless you rent a tent), and it can be pretty blazing hot in July/August. We had our ceremony at 5pm on an 83 degree day, and I'd say about 70% of the guests were in the shade by then. However, our officiant and us were staring in to the bright sun and sweating like pigs! If I could plan everything again, I would probably hold off on the ceremony until 6pm, or at least 5:30. At that point the whole square is in shade. For reference, the picture of Haynes Square I added was taken at about 3pm.

We chose McMenamins for our wedding block, welcome event, and goodbye brunch and we are SO glad we did. Our guests really enjoyed the quirkiness, variety, spaciousness, and dining options at McMenamins. The hallways are filled with funky lanterns, rich information about Seattle/Bothell history, and historical illustrations. The rooms were clean, and came with amenities and toiletries. The event coordinator Jennifer and catering staff for our events were excellent. They made sure everything was set up exactly as we wanted, and had plentiful menus to choose from. The food was delicious (people LOVED the terminator meatballs), the bar was easily accessible, and they were able to adjust for headcount flexibly as well as upgrade our drinks on the day of. We can't wait to visit again!

My partner and I couldn’t of asked for an easier wedding! If you’re looking for a place that has it all, go to a McMenamins. For a base price you get catering, your drinks, linens, tables and chairs. Add ons like mics, dances floors etc aren’t expensive and easy to add to your package. At our location (Anderson school bothell) Laura helped us so much and was very responsive via email and phone. The day went so smooth and we had a blast. Some people love to pick specific vendors for their day which I totally get, but if you’re wanting a stress free easy wedding this is the way to go in my opinion!

We are SO glad we chose McMenamins Anderson School for our wedding ceremony and reception. Everyone that we interacted with from McMenamins, from the event coordinators to the bartenders to the hotel staff were all incredibly helpful and professional. The team knows how to put on an event, and every detail the day-of was executed exactly as we planned. They made the wedding planning process so easy! We also received many compliments from wedding guests afterwards who appreciated the convenience of being able to stay on-site and the uniqueness of the venue.

My husband and I had just a few requirements for our big day: we wanted a fun, unique venue, good food, we didn't want to go into debt over our wedding, and we didn't want any of our friends/family to have to be the ones setting up chairs in the morning or rolling away tables at the end of the night. McMenamin's really delivered on those four things, and more! Jennifer (the event planner at McMenamins) made the whole process smooth and painless from beginning to end, and went the extra mile as we got closer to the big day by accommodating us with getting into the spaces early to set up table decor/flowers, supplying us with tables to set up in our hotel rooms for flower arrangements, and even setting up a complimentary wine/beer tasting for us during the planning stages. McMenamin's is SUCH a value for what you get- the venue, food, drinks, set-up/take-down, and staffing are all handled in-house, so you're not dealing with the nightmare of coordinating 10 different vendors on top of trying to enjoy your special day. And bonus, it's a hotel, so your guests can easily grab a room for the night or longer if they're traveling! The staff could not have been kinder or more on top of everything. The food was delicious. All of our guests commented on how whimsical, romantic, and unique our venue was. At one point during the cocktail hour I took a minute to take it all in- gorgeous garden setting, firepits crackling, twinkle lights twinkling, everyone enjoying delicious food- and I high-fived myself for this great decision since my new husband was being eaten alive by relatives. Really can't recommend this place highly enough.

Jennifer at McMenamins Anderson School House was so helpful in organizing our wedding in Haynes Hall & Square. The tables, chairs, linens, wait staff, and planning were all included with the cost of meeting the minimum for food and drink catering. What a deal!

We went to McMinnamins for our rehearsal dinner. Booking was easy and the service was great. We had 25 people. Drinks and food didn't take long at all. They put us in a side room so we felt like everyone could chat and hangout.

We were very happy with the high level of service. The unique property and incredible ambiance alone were great, the planners and staff overall were very nice and we felt like we were in good hands from start to finish.

perfect. Everybody from staff to anyone walking around there.

McMenamins Anderson School was a beautiful location for our wedding that checked every box--- Space? Check! Rooms to get ready? Check! Proximity to ferry, Seatac and Seattle? Check! In house catering? Check! Wonderful staff? Check! Parking?! Check check!

McMenamins will give you a staff member that will coordinate your event with you from beginning to end. Jennifer communicated with us often and made sure we were taken care of. The staff was more than accommodating and helpful. The food was delicious! and the drinks were the best!

Planning a winter wedding can lead to some unexpected events, like the worst snowstorm in Seattle in years. However everything went off perfectly. The staff at Anderson School house went above expectations to make sure our day was perfect. So many guest commented on how much fun they had and how beautiful and quirky the venue was. Laura, our coordinator, is a true professional. She lent us her experiences and helped us make decisions we didn't even know we needed to make. The entire event went smoothly and timely, they didn't miss a thing -- and again during a snow storm.

It was an awesome for rehearsal dinner

Their food was great, their sales coordinator was great and the party was a blast.

Food was amazing! Setup was just as we requested, servers were very attentive. The planner assigned to us was superb and extremely helpful!

Everyone was so helpful and great at McMenamins! Laura Lilley made planning and getting ready for our wedding so easy. She was so responsive, kind, and made meetings stress-free. I highly recommend having your wedding at this venue! It's beautiful, fun, and they handled everything while making it look easy!

The staff at McMenamins in Bothell are the reason to book. They are genuine and will take care of your needs. It goes beyond saying that the facilities and food are outstanding as well. I am so happy that we held our family event here. They accommodated our large family with many small children.

The event coordinator helped us through each step of planning our son's rehearsal dinner. We went into the event knowing that everything was taken care of.
We would use them again

Great venue, great organization and professional service!

Anderson School venue, food, drink and friendly service was the BEST we have ever experienced. Our guests (and my husband, the Birthday guy) cannot quit talking about how delicious the food was, how helpful the staff was and how much fun they had. They made it easy to create the experience you wanted to have with a minimum of stress.

We had to reschedule 4 times due to weather reports and I cannot thank the staff (Adam) for being willing and so cool about changing dates! Once we finally had the event we had a lot of comments on how good the food was. The staff during the event were all A+++++
Thanks!

Plan EARLY and have Laura Lilley help plan your event!!

We hired Mcmenamins Anderson School as the venue for a wedding rehearsal dinner and for a day after wedding brunch. We selected them because of recommendations from local residents and we conducted all our negotiation and planning via phone. Everything was handled very professionally, and all arrangements were delivered exactly as contracted. The food was outstanding and the staff was terrific. The venues for both events were comfortable for our size group. The one disappointment is that the room for the rehearsal dinner turned out to be bit darker than we inferred from the pictures. However, use of the room came with an attached balcony which proved to be perfect for our guests. I would sincerely recommend McMenamins and I would use them again for this type of event.

This is our 4th summer picnic at McMenamins Cornelius Pass Road House in Hillsborro and it will not be our last! They are professional, courteous, helpful, the service is excellent and the event planning is always spot on. They take so much stress off of what I have to do to prepare for this event each year and that makes me keep coming back! I would feel comfortable not even showing up to my event because I know that everything would run smoothly. For the 250+ people that we have show up, they make it seem effortless and I love coming back each year and seeing the same faces working our event. My employees tell me each year how good the food is, how well the staff treats them and that they can't wait to come back next year. They are the best, if you are thinking of booking your event here, I absolutely would recommend that you do!

My event coordinator, Julia, was easy to work with. The Patty Murray room was the perfect size to have my birthday party just like she suggested. I had my party during the day. I had ordered the plated breakfast served as a buffet and added on the waffle bar. Then for dessert I chose the sundae bar. All the food was very good and well received by my guests. Our server, Christine, was fantastic as well. I made my own invitations from a book of post cards from the gift shop. Everyone loved them and thought the card they received was funny. I will definitely have another event there.

It was there perfect venue for our high school 40th reunion. Everyone had a wonderful time and complimented on the staff and venue many times. We are planning our 45th reunion at the same location it was such a success!

We stayed in a 'King Plus' room for two nights during our honeymoon & it was seriously the coziest hotel room you could ask for. Take advantage of the saltwater swimming pool! Everything was so clean & thoughtfully decorated & the staff was very friendly & welcoming.

Everything from start to finish was so simple and easy! The quality of the staff, their services and the food/drinks was beyond our expectation!
We would definitely recommend them to anyone and would use them again!!

everithing was good,except i forgot my cake server utensil and even after look for it and write a decription in the book of lost and found,still nobady call me,they mst know than the server was nor theirs,so what happened? this server was mine for a longtime and know its lost? im dissapointed.

About six months before the Anderson school was scheduled to open, my fiancée and I decided it would be worth the trip to Edgefield to check it out. At this point, we had toured over a dozen venues, and all of them had at least a few things that we didn’t exactly love; some were either too expensive for what they gave you, the event space was either too small or too big, or parking was a nightmare, or a host of other issues. We emailed the contact for events at McMenamins, and we happened to get the Director of Sales. We told her we were considering the Anderson School for our wedding, and were going to head to Edgefield for a night to check it out and see what all the hype was about. The Director of Sales, Susan, set us up with a complementary wine tasting of ALL their wines; there must have been fifteen of them – and put us in touch with the staff there to get a tour of their venue spaces.

The attention to detail and the insistence on keeping true to a buildings’ character and history was truly inspiring. This sealed the deal for us; we were hooked and on board. After our visit, we probably exchanged over two hundred emails with Susan, asking various details about what the venue layout will look like, catering menus, etc. Keep in mind, we booked the venue with NO IDEA of what it would actually look like; we were putting a lot of faith in McMenamins because of what we saw and experienced at Edgefield. Anderson School was scheduled to open on October 15th, 2015; and our wwedding date was 11/15/15, cutting it close? You know it! We didn’t actually see the venue space until October 13th, 2015; and we were blown away! The space was amazing, and more than we expected. The rates, the food, the space, and the people at McMenamins created a truly memorable day for us, and we highly recommend considering them for your wedding or event, you will be more than happy!

I had nothing bad to say about the evening it could not have gone any better

Communication between the venue and myself was flawless. The space was clean and ready for us when we arrived and the staff was very attentive.

These guys are great! I could not have asked for a better evening and they took care of all the details. My only mark down was on value, not because we did not get every penny's worth but it just was somewhat expensive. Using their venue, you cannot bring in your own food to cut down on costs but on the flip side, you get to take home what is left over. I would not hesitate to recommend this venue and very much appreciate the people, you will not regret choosing McMenamins.

We had our wedding reception at McMenamins Anderson School. The venue was excellent. Haynes' Hall already had its own style and character, which worked for our personal tastes. There's no dance floor but we were able to get one for the event.

The director of sales was very responsive, down to earth and always willing to accommodate us. E-mail communication was excellent. All the planning was wonderful! The staff were excellent. Our coordinator raved about the catering staff and their responsiveness.

We liked that there was no additional fee for the venue if the food and beverage minimums were reached, which was easily obtained. However, this also meant that we had to work with the onsite catering. Nonetheless our guests enjoyed the menu. They were also impressed with the beverages on tap.

The hotel rooms were very nice but pricey. That is a given for the amenities you get: lots of beer and entertainment everywhere, even including a large pool.

Our only gripe was that parking was difficult and stressful. Our wedding reception was held simultaneously with another event at McMenamins as well as a football game in the nearby stadium. This caused a lot of traffic and all the parking spots were taken. They should reserve some parking spots for wedding guests.

We were one of the first couples to have a wedding reception at McMenamins Anderson School shortly after their grand opening, so we thought overall they did a great job given that. We can only imagine them improving after learning some lessons from our event and other events. McMenamins Anderson School has everything for a wedding reception. Just watch your budget, an advice for every couple.

I did love having my wedding here. Because it is a full hotel, restaurant, tavern, and facilities place there were a lot of things that made it such a great experience for our guests. However, there was alot of little things that was not very well explained to us. One was we were told our wedding could be over by 11. But really that meant that the room had to be turned over by 11. Therefore, the bar closed at 930 and we had to kick everyone out by 10. Also, the bar was only able to be open for 5 hours not the whole time. These were things that was not made clear. Also, I felt their beverage options to be way to expensive. So my feedback to them would be to come up with a way to offer bottomless something. For instance we purchased Lemonade and Ice tea at $34 a gallon, but it was not bottomless. Which was weird to us. However, soda was bottomless. Even with all that said I would not have gone anywhere else. It was hands down the best place to have a wedding on the Eastside and it was super affordable.

This is a great place for an event. They did a wonderful job from start to finish, Pricing on a few things could have been a little less.

We had our rehearsal dinner in the Patty Murray room at McMenamin's. Everything was fabulous - the food, the beverages, and the service! I would highly recommend it to others.

The food and drinks were amazing as well as the grounds and service!!

Great to work with for planning our event. Easy to customize to meet our needs and provide the information necessary to have a successful event. They provided all the services, supplies, and staff for our event making it really easy on us.

We threw a surprise birthday dance party for about 35 people in the Andy and Patty Murray rooms and we has a PERFECT time. SO much fun. Every staff person we interacted with was responsive, helpful and worked hard.

Great service! Very communicative and flexible the night of. Lot's of extra help and checking in throughout the event!

Absolutely phenomenal!! We can't say enough good things about McMenamins Anderson School. The event coordinator, event staff, and hotel staff were all wonderful. The venue was a fantastic setting for our July wedding. The restaurants, bars, and pool are top notch. Beautiful grounds. Thank you for working so hard to make our day special. Highly recommend

We had our wedding ceremony and reception at McMenamins Anderson School, Haynes Hall. Its unique character, the beautiful courtyard, the complete package (food, drink, room for both events), and hospitality for guests wanting another bar to visit, or wanting to stay are huge strengths! Although we worried a bit about having no tasting meal, we and our guests were impressed with the food, and the sales coordinator was swiftly responsive all throughout.

We did struggle with a couple of things:
- Parking is definitely difficult, especially with a game next door. If at all possible, it would be good to check the schedule for games before planning a large event, and also consider any guests with limited mobility.
- We opted for a plated dinner, which comes with coffee and tea, and we asked if wine could be offered to guests during dinner service (rather than having them all go to the bar). Unfortunately, tea and coffee was not offered, nor was wine at the table.
- We brought in wedding cake, and ordered enough based on the bakery recommendation (2" square per guest, based on having a double-tall cake, and a plated meal--we actually well in excess of what we needed). Unfortunately, the day of, we were told that was an insufficient amount of cake, causing a guest to run out to QFC for a cake. Later, we realized that McMenamins had cut the cake quite large, which likely drove the need for this. Most unfortunately, the day-of person and the catering manager had left by the time cake was being served, so there was no way to adjust the serving, and perhaps offer our guests the nicer wedding cake we had ordered instead of the QFC cake.
- We misunderstood how much autonomy we had on table layout, and the week of the wedding needed to change how guests were seated.

We enjoyed our wedding, got many compliments from guests. Overall, we are happy, but recommend some caution if you're for a seated, plated meal, and guests assigned to tables.

Easy to work with and quirky venue.

A fun time was had by all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Julia McCoy was our event coordinator and she was amazing! She's such a sweetheart and got everything done.

Our reception is 7/30/16 so this review is based on the experience we have had so far. When I first contacted Anderson school to book I was quoted one price, and then when they found out that it was a wedding reception the price doubled. I went to the open house before they opened and was told my first choice of date was open but I had to call the next day. After calling and putting a deposit for that day, we were called back an hour later and told that the date is not available. We chose another date and the same thing happened. We finally settled on the 3rd choice. There was lots of communication issues paying the deposit, and getting responses to our emails. Since then we met in person with the event planner and things seem to be a little better. I chalk it up to growing pains. I will update my review once the event happens.

The room we had was adequate for our gathering, although, initially, we were happy that the outside enclosed area was ours to use, but then realized that it was virtually unusable due to the fact that the outside temperature was about 40 degrees and there were no heaters or lights in the area. The bar was set up out there also which was inconvenient. The bar was lacking in actual beer and wine. The bartenders had to keep leaving to get additional beer in a pitcher, which they only kept 2 on hand for the 25 people who were attending. At any given time there was only 1 or 2 bottles of wine available also. Some people went outside to smoke cigars by the fire pits but were told they had to put them out and actually threatened to have the people removed if they didn't comply.State law states that smoking is allowed outside as long as it is 25 feet from the nearest doorway, which of course the firepits are. There are no signs stating that cigar smoking is not allowed. In fact, at other McMenamins locations, it is actually encouraged by the fact that they sell them onsite. All in all, it was a disappointing event.

The event space was small, we were assigned 2 servers yet one of them only popped her head in 3 times during the 3 + hour event. Elise(?) was a great server, just needed more frequency in trips for drink orders. Food ran out half way through and was never replenished. The food was substandard frozen snack fare that was completely over priced. Lack of consistency in drink choices available throughout different areas of the property. One bar had one thing, another bar did not have the same items.