Stephens College Reviews

Name: Stephens College
Address: 1200 E. Broadway, Columbia, MO, 65215
Telephone: 5738767257
Rating: 4.2

Stephens College

Columbia, MO

4.2 out of 5 rating, 13 reviews

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4.2 out of 5 rating

4.2

Good

13 reviews

Recommended by 85% of couples

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Quality of service
4.2 out of 5 rating
Average response time
4.3 out of 5 rating
Professionalism
4.2 out of 5 rating
Value
4.2 out of 5 rating
Flexibility
4.3 out of 5 rating

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Gretchen Sent on 05/15/2016

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We had a great experience with Stephens College Events and Fresh Ideas. We used both Firestone Baars Chapel as our ceremony space and Kimball Ballroom (next door) as our reception space. If you want food at your event, you have to use Fresh Ideas as your caterer, but their food is very good, it's just something to be aware of.

Both venues are absolutely beautiful and can support a large crowd, so large or small, your event will likely fit into these spaces. They set up the room just how we wanted it, and everything looked beautiful. The staff was great to work with, quickly responding to any concerns or questions we had both during planning and on the day of our event. It was a great experience!
Kristin Sent on 02/20/2015

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This was a great venue! The staff at Stephens College was great and helped us have the wedding of our dreams! They were very professional and easy to work with. If you are looking for a different layout or something a little unique for your big day, I would highly recommend Firestone Baars Chapel on Stephens College campus.
User2022252 Sent on 01/25/2015

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Perfect chapel and reception location. The chapel is a short walk from the beautiful ballroom. Stephens College Events takes care of catering and provides a great list of vendors to work with.

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User995074 Sent on 10/29/2012

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The food was excellent. Amanda and Grant were easy to work with and made sure all of our needs were met

The Kimball Ballroom is beautiful and needs very few decorations. It is perfect for a wedding reception
Natalie Sent on 10/08/2008

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great to work with!
Tracy Sent on 09/24/2008

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Stephen's did an amazing job for us. We rented Senior Hall - which was a really fun place to have a reception. Tim and his crew were incredibly flexible and willing to work with us on menu. Their mashed potini's were our idea! :) (mashed potatoes in martini glasses - so so fun!) Highly recommend this staff.
User5989286 Sent on 06/25/2015

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SC Events was always responsive to contact, and the venue (Lela Raney Wood Hall Kimball Ballroom) is gorgeous as far as reception venues go. The only downside to using the Kimball Ballroom is that you have to use their caterer, Fresh Ideas, and we had a horrible experience with the catering. Otherwise, I can't recommend this venue highly enough for a reception, especially if you have a larger guest count (we had around 250).
Stephanie Sent on 08/03/2010

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We hosted our dinner, reception and dance in the Kimball Ballroom (Lela Raney Wood Hall) at Stephen's College. The catering department and catering director were amazing to work with! They went out of their way to make sure our dinner was exactly what we envisioned. The special events coordinator, who helped us set up our timeline and choose the layout of our room, was helpful when we could get in touch with her; but we had some difficulty getting her to respond to emails or calls in a timely fashion. Overall, the venue was great. They were easy to work with and open to our suggestions about how we wanted our event to go.
Amanda Sent on 08/22/2010

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We used Stephens ONLY for our ceremony (Firestone Baars Chapel). It was surprisingly affordable for such a beautiful location with an organ. We did have to purchase separate insurance for the event, though, which was a small added cost, as well as having to rent the chapel the day prior to the wedding for the rehearsal (this isn't included unless no one books it). The only issue we ran into with the chapel is that it is a little hard to fit a large bridal party near the altar (not the fault of Stephens, though!).

The people at Stephens were always pleasant to speak with, and were good about returning calls and e-mails. Overall, I was very satisfied with our decision to have our ceremony there, it is unique and beautiful! I would recommend it!
Kate Sent on 12/20/2007

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Our reception was at Stephens College Senior Hall. Beautiful -- had parlor rooms where people who didn't want to dance could sit and mingle. Great food, great service.
User2905880 Sent on 12/12/2016

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The ballroom is beautiful and the chapel looks very nice in pictures, but definitely shows its age. The chapel could use some TLC and a bit of renovating. The only issue we had with the ballroom was that some of the tables/linens were not ready for us when we showed up the day before the wedding to set up as promised, so we were rushed on the wedding day to make sure everything fell into place last minute. Also, when we were setting up the day before, the woman who we had worked with came into the ballroom to show it to another couple, but didn't even acknowledge us or ask if everything was ok or if we needed anything. We had to make a phone call to ask where some missing linens were and why things weren't set up as promised, but she was more concerned with showing the venue to a different couple than making sure everything was perfect for us.
User1968660 Sent on 12/14/2014

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They were really TOUGH to work with!
They had some staffing changes in the middle of our wedding planning and we could never keep track of who we needed to talk to for things.
They were very poor at communicating.

The venue itself was BEAUTIFUL. I would only recommend using them if you knew in advance that they would be horrible to work with.

They will also cut ALL of the cake and then not let you take it home with you. They cut every cake that we had even though we didn't even need it all cut. They said they had some policy that once it was cut, they couldn't let us take it. As the bride and groom the only cake we had that evening was when we cut it. They didn't bring any to us.
Lb Swartz Sent on 02/01/2019

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Horrible service

My son and his fiancé booked a wedding with Stephens Events last February for December, 29, 2018. The initial interaction was great. We were assured that once the contract was signed and deposit cashed, their event planners would guide us through the rest. We were told this was one of the biggest weddings to be held in their chapel-- guest list of over 250. We heard nothing more from them after the contract was in place. The bride began reaching out in June (as we were instructed by the "schedule" we were given) at which time we had a tour of the grounds, booked the parlours for getting ready ( the space in the chapel is very limited). After June the nightmare began. The bride and I emailed, called, texted... no reply's. Finally, in August we learned that shortly after our visit in June, the event planning office had a complete turn over in staff. No one reached out to us or gave us any direction how to complete our planning. A month before the wedding after weeks of trying to get a response from Stephen's we reached out to the college President's office. We were contacted the next day and told that-- ooops.. they double booked the venue and we had no where to rehearse our 22 person wedding party. Long story short... we were "allowed" to visit the chapel on Thursday before our Saturday wedding to just "look around and figure out the layout". As we arrived we ran into the wedding party that was booked Friday (the evening we should have had to rehearse). They had the same nightmare with the event staff. They graciously told us they would be done by early afternoon and allowed us to have the chapel afterward to rehearse. The last communication the bride or myself had with the event staff was two weeks before our wedding. They did not return calls and did NOT even show up one single time during our weekend on their site. The catering department delivered (dropped off and left) brunch as had been scheduled in June. The father of the bride had to track down campus security to unlock the parlours as well as the chapel on both the rehearsal and wedding day. UNBELIEVABLY HORRIBLE SERVICE!! We are one month after our event and still not one single contact from Stephen's. I would NOT recommend this venue. It is gorgeous but considering one of the colleges most well-known areas of study is their event/hospitality department, they represent the industry extremely poorly. The initial staff we worked with seemed great, the new hires had nothing to say except "it's not my fault". We ultimately had a beautiful day (thanks to many of our family and wedding party members doing much more than should have been necessary) but we certainly did not get the service the bride and groom paid for.

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