The Henry Clay Reviews
Reviews
We're all about trust. Our community relies on honest reviews to help you make those big decisions with ease.
-
![Caroline]()
Caroline Sent on 11/29/2020Bride And customer
Beautiful venue!!! We loved it. -
![Elizabeth]()
Elizabeth Sent on 12/08/2019Loved this venue
I knew going into wedding planning I wanted a space with a vintage vibe. I got so much more the just that when I held my wedding at The Henry Clay. Not only is the Beaux Arts Ballroom absolutely gorgeous and well-maintained, we got access to the entire fourth floor for the wedding. This included 2 other large rooms (one of which we used for cocktail hour and one we used to store items for the room flip) and a getting ready suite for the bridal party. The suite includes a mini kitchen, full bathroom (which I used all night) tons of seating, and great natural light for hair and makeup. The bones of the ballroom are historical and beautiful and you can do so much to transform it into your dream! -
![Andrea]()
Andrea Sent on 08/31/2019Wedding venue
Ally is THE ABSOLUTE BEST! We are currently working with her for our wedding next year. Not only is she very knowledgeable about her work, she is compassionate and friendly. The venue is breathtaking! -
![Krystia]()
Krystia Sent on 08/05/2019Outstanding
As a wedding planner you always want the day to go off on point. The Henry Clay provided just that. Ally was fabulous and cooperative. Our day of person was Kim. She was there to handle any issue or question we had. She pitched in to help where and when needed. I would highly recommend Ally and her staff of the Henry Clay for your event needs!!! They were the best! -
![Kelli]()
Kelli Sent on 01/12/2022Beautiful historic venue
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. -
-
![Katherine]()
Katherine Sent on 07/20/2013The Henry Clay was great. We loved the building and got so many compliments! Everyone was very helpful and the staff was great! -
![Diamond]()
Diamond Sent on 07/04/2019The Henry Clay
Grate place, very fast response and they make everything about you on your day -
![Savannah]()
Savannah Sent on 03/22/2024Staff Ran Away from Police
I hope to save at least one person from having their wedding here. This was a NIGHTMARE. I first booked with someone named Johnny who left their job a few months later. I had made the deposit with him, done walkthroughs, and talked about how things would be arranged on the day of. When I went to pay the remaining balance with the new person, Christine, it took over 2 months. 2 MONTHS TO PAY THEM! She was horrible at responding to my emails about this and when she finally did let me pay she was very snarky about it. Fast forward to 2 weeks before the wedding she changes the floor plan from what I initially set up years prior with the first guy. She was then appalled that I wouldn't like that and insisted I drive there (2 hours from where I live) to go look at her floor plan. She also said that she couldn't do my original agreement and recommended I spend THOUSANDS of dollars extra to hide tables with drape. Even though this is something she was going back on and not me I needed to shell out thousands to hide it? Her rationale was short staffing preventing them from moving tables. She then tried to say that Johnny never could have made it happen but he had walked me through all of it already. This is 2 WEEKS before the wedding day. She refused to do the room the way I requested even after I came up there, looked at hers, and told her I would prefer it another way. She said that would look terrible and my guests would hate it. I had paid for that design from a wedding planner. Now on the actual wedding day she didn't come and sent someone else instead. There was an ARMED ROBBERY during my wedding because the doors were not locked and the cameras they put in their insurance that they have did not work. We were on the fourth floor of the building. So after getting married and finding out I was robbed I went to talk to the person from the venue and she said "oooo ouch I'm sorry" then LEFT FOR THE WHOLE NIGHT. She was gone completely. Even my day of coordinator couldn't find her. She didn't even stay for the police report I had to do during my cocktail hour. There was nobody else from the venue there until after the event ended. I didn't see anyone else until cleaning up when this other person from the venue yelled at my dad for asking where the trash can was. I should have seen the red flag from her not taking my payment for 2 months and went elsewhere. My heart was broken for weeks after. I cried and cried. I got married on 9/30/2023 there and I mourn my wedding every day. In all the pics right after the wedding you can tell that nobody was happy. We all got robbed. Once I started feeling better I got my wedding video back and was just reminded of how she wouldn't let me lay the room out how I had been planning for years. My heart is broken. I will never get my wedding back. Christine was difficult to get a hold of, rude through emails, took days if not weeks to reply to emails, and was condescending the whole time. I have no idea how this woman keeps a job. I wish they hadn't lied in the contract/insurance. That would have been nice. It sucks to know that I never get my day back but she will continue ripping off other brides until she retires.
Are you interested?
Are you interested?