Water Street Inn Reviews

We recently had our wedding reception at the Water Street Inn (May 2015), and we couldn't have asked for a better venue. The location was absolutely perfect, the vintage/antique feel of the hotel was great fit for our vintage themed wedding, the staff was friendly, and the Event Director, Allison Young, was absolutely fabulous! Allison was there was every step of the way for planning our wedding, and was always on top of things. She should have had another title of Wedding Planner, because she was so helpful and had great recommendations and tips for us. She also had everything planned so that in case we couldn't have our wedding outside at the Lowell Park Gazebo, that we could easily move it indoors to the ballroom at the Water Street Inn. All of the staff was always willing to go the extra mile to ensure that our wedding was successful and that all the guests were comfortable. The wedding party, among others, enjoyed having the pub located right in the hotel, and the bartenders at the pub were friendly and accommodating. We had so many compliments about how great the food was, including salads, steak, chicken and walleye.

Overall, the venue was beautiful, accommodating, and charming with great food, a wonderful staff, and fabulous view of the St. Croix River. We couldn't give the Water Street Inn anything less than 5 stars, and we would recommend this venue to anyone looking to get married in Stillwater, MN!!

We had the best time planning and having our wedding (ceremony & reception) at the Water Street Inn. Allison was very helpful and straightforward throughout the process. She was always quick to respond to all of our questions, and it was great to have someone who knew the process and the venue so well. The space was beautiful, and the food was great. All of the staff were friendly and accommodating. Both my new husband and myself would highly recommend the Water Street Inn as a wedding venue!

This historic inn was an amazing backdrop for our special day. The team was awesome -- they were responsive to our needs, including helping us with our meat raffle! The reception hall at night was prettier than I could have imagined. The soft lighting was perfect. We also got so many compliments on the food -- the steak and walleye were cooked perfectly. All of our guests were extremely impressed as too often, when cooking for 180+, the quality isn't there. Plus, it was a great value. For the rental of the reception hall, we also received the six rooms above it including the bridal suite. It was so wonderful that my husband and I could put our grandparents and parents up for the night.

We would recommend the Water Street Inn to anyone looking for a gorgeous backdrop with an attentive staff along the picturesque St. Croix river.

The Waterstreet Inn was wonderful! They took care of everthing... No problems at all! Beautiful venue right off the St. Croix River in the beautiful city of Stillwater Minnesota.

The catering was excellent! The food was delicous! Only good responses from our guests!

Water Street Inn was a beautiful place to have our reception. We could not have asked for a more perfect setting, there was seating inside, in the hallway and on the patio. My guests still talk about how great it was to not have to stay in the reception hall but still be with everyone. Traci Jo was extremely helpful throughout the whole process, I could not have done it without her!

My whole bridal party and several relatives stayed in the hotel the night before and of our wedding. The rooms and hotel itself are just beautiful! We were able to get some fantastic photos that went with our vintage themed wedding. It is somewhat pricing but if you are having a wedding in Stillwater and want the perfect getting ready and "first look" photos you can't beat the Water Street Inn!

I had my wedding reception at the Water Street Inn at the end of May 2014. I have to say that it went PERFECTLY. Allison Young is the person we worked with to coordinate everything. She is so attentive and answered all of our questions promptly (including the numerous questions we emailed as we thought of them) and made herself available whenever we needed her. I cannot stress enough how comfortable she made us and how reliable she was. She gave us a high quality reception and touched based with us a few times that night to ensure everything was going as expected. I felt we got great quality and great value at the Water Street Inn. I would recommend this venue to anyone for a wedding reception!
Seriously, if your wedding is near Stillwater check out this hotel.

Water Street Inn is awesome to work with! Allison was a godsend and has kept us all on track. She's very flexible and easy to reach at all times.

The water street inn was an amazing place to have our wedding! Everyone really enjoyed the fact that they were able to be in the reception hall, in the hallway, and also outside on the deck. Overall everything went smoothly and the food was abosultely amazing. I would advise everyone to get plated meals! We had salmon and stuffed chicken which were both equally great. This way everyone got enough to eat and nothing ran out, which happens at buffet weddings sometimes.

I was really pleased with the Water Street Inn, the location is wonderful and the food is great.

We had both our ceremony and reception at the Water Street Inn. Everyone really liked the food and the venue was set up nicely for both our ceremony and reception. The views of the river were beautiful and everyone really enjoyed themselves. Our only complaint was working with management. We communicated with management mostly via e-mail once we had selected this location and at times it seemed that our understanding was different than what management ended up setting up. We had a two hour social hour because of photos in between the ceremony and reception. We wanted to close down the bar for part of the time, but management insisted it be open. There was one instance where we had made a payment and when we were sent the outstanding balance by management it had jumped almost $2,000 (it was instantly fixed when pointed out, but the outstanding balance still had not been correct and when followed up with a second time, no response was given, but in the end, the final balance must of been corrected because it was accurate at time of final payment). The day of the wedding, the event coordinator was nowhere to be found and staff did not know where she was. They tried to call her, but told my husband they could not get a hold of her (they later told us she was sick, but the next day, another staff told us she went out of town). Staff did not know what to do, so my husband directed them to ensure everything had been set up as we had directed management.

Beautiful venue, great location. Value is ok for what you get, the food is good and portions were generous, however we did a plated meal and all feedback I have received was the food at our reception was cold to lukewarm at best. They were very understaffed as well, we had 1 bartender and 4 waitstaff for 190 people (of which midway thru dinner one server was fired for being intoxicated...) Our wedding planner there actually ended up bartending that night to help the one guy they had on, so i'd have to give her a thumbs up for working hard that night for sure. high turnover of staff seems to be an issue there as just about every time we called there in our 9months of planning we dealt with someone new, and had to keep going over everything for the new people. we also paid for additional late night snacks to be put out on the bar and realized the next day, that they had never put them out. Still waiting on a refund for those...
They were also very unaccomodating to our photographer who was trying to set up a photobooth (of which we paid a lot of money for) So our photographer ended up tearing down a table on his own, to get it set up. Our dj also had issues with them telling him he had the music too loud and they had guests from the hotel above complaining about the noise. Being that we were forced to rent just the 6 rooms directly above the ballroom, because those were the "only rooms" that would be affected by the noise supposedly, I found it frustrating and disappointing to have to deal with on my wedding day.
I would think that for a place that does so many events like this, that they would have it better organized/figured out by now.

My husband and I were so excited to book this place (Lots of meaning. Have spent our past 3 anniversaries and my husband proposed here). We booked a year and 3 months before our wedding day with Michelle, who was great, but she ended up leaving the company about 6 months later. Then, we worked with Tracey Jo, who was ok, didn't respond or communicate much. 1 month before our wedding she left, and our new coordinator was Robin. Things seemed to be going better and were on the right track. Until the day of the wedding. The ceremony chairs we ordered never showed up (turns out Tracey Jo had canceled them for some reason). The Inn was nice enough to let us borrow their chairs, 10 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start, but made all my groomsmen carry them out. We only had 1 bartender, and it took about 30 minutes to get 1 drink. The dinner was so unorganized. Weeks before, I provided an xcel sheet that told who was at each table and who had what, and total and kind of entrees at each table. They just went by random tables, and kept asking people what they ordered, which most people didn't remember. And if someone was away getting a drink or something, they were skipped. Some tables didn't get their food for 45 minutes! My MOH and I went up to a male server because we hadn't gotten our food, and his reply was "Yeah. You weren't there" in a very rude manner. Besides the mess, the food was delicous. And they did compt some wine for the chair mistake. I left a message with the front desk to have Robyn reach out to me when she was free, and have yet to get a response. It would have been nice to receive a phone call, or even and email to follow up and apologize. But nothing. We're pretty easy to please. Not everything about our wedding venue was negative. It is beautiful, was set up nicely, huge dance floor and patio.

We were initially happy that there was an additional outside portion but later found this to be a downfall as we couldn't ever get all of our guests in one area. We always had some guests in the ballroom, some guests in the hallway where the bar area was or some guests outside on the patio. I was also disappointed in the taste of the food. When we did our taste testing - the food we tried was delicious! The food that we were given the day of was dry and did not taste very flavorful. I also had a few special requests for where I would like what and the requests were ignored. Items were in completely different areas of where they should have been placed and items weren't out on display as they should have been. Our guests complained about how expensive the rooms were which I don't blame them! I wouldn't want to pay around $300 a night either. Another complaint was parking. We had some guests come straight from the ceremony and left because they couldn't find any available parking. Side note: Anyone can walk through the hallway and bathrooms are for all guests - at the end of the night, a random drunk person walked through and mentioned that there was a beautiful wedding going on - stated they wanted to ruin it and purposely left a mess in and on one of the bathroom toilets. I don't know who does something like that! I would recommend to have a certain area blocked off for the wedding party/guests for what is paid for the event.

I can’t recommend a wedding at the Water Street. Menu pricing is subject to change under their contract, which was non-negotiable. There are too many unknowns in a wedding - and not knowing how much we would pay for food left me stressed for a whole year. This was a decision made by the owner of the Water Street.

Water Street advertises that an event coordinator is included when you book a wedding. The coordinator we dealt with was Julie Rademacher, who had two jobs: event and sales manager. I don’t have the best things to say about Julie, so I will just say - it was super stressful from signing the contract to the wedding day. If you’re in love with the location like we were, consider hiring a wedding planner & day-of coordinator.
We had many great vendors who handled COVID, communication, pricing, and contracting differently from this venue. The main issue is customer service and unfortunately this is an issue from the top-down. There’s other venues out there if you want a stress-free day.

We stayed in the bridal suite (#304) on the historic side and in the Tower Suite (#327) on the renovated side. We loved the rooms and the views. Note - these two rooms are not part of the 6-room reservation requirement for a DJ. The historic side could use some renovation and there’s creepy paintings on the walls, but it’s also a little charming. Plus, the historic rooms have jacuzzis.

Cons: Overpriced for the quality. The blinds fell down on the sliding glass door to our Tower Suite on our wedding night. I called front desk for help, and I was told they could not help. No one would come check it out and there was no one to call either. This was confusing to me, and the front desk person understood my frustration - but there was nothing he could do. There must be a staffing issue(?). We put a plastic garment bag over the window so people wouldn’t see into our $439 suite.

I would like to express sincere gratitude towards the staff, and the owner, atthe Water Street Inn. If it wasn’t for their terrible service, disgustingattitude, and negative demeanor, we might have actually gone through withgetting married there!Saveyourself the stress, the heartache, and the tears, because the online reviewsabout this place are true. We were so excited to be getting married at such anamazing location, having grown up in Stillwater, it was always my dream to havea reception near the river. Let me start off by saying, they really make youthink at the beginning that they will be there to help with whatever you need.I am only 2 months into my wedding planning, so the only real concerns therewere was the menu, the floor layout, and the room block.Workingwith Julie was awesome, at first, until I stopped hearing from her. When Iasked questions about the floor plans it would take her weeks to respond, whenI had food questions, she never knew the answers and never connected me withsomeone who would know. But the real issues didn’t start until the room block.As someone with a majority of guests coming from out of town, rooms are a hugeconcern. To start off, the rooms are so old, so its not like the $300/nightprice tag is reasonable. But it was the lack of service that really upset us.When my guests called to book rooms, the front desk was so condescending andrude that one of my bridesmaids was literally close to tears because ofhow rude they were when she was asking questions.Butlet’s let the price and the front office staff go - after seeing reviews thatpeople had experiences where random people were blocked into the rooms theybooked for their wedding, I was determined to see my rooming list. The mainissue was that I was not able to know which of my guests had booked rooms insidemy block. When I asked Julie to send me my list, she sent an email stating itwas “against the law” to give me that information. As someone who has been inthe industry for 5 years, I was shocked. I picked up the phone to call and shechanged her story to “against company policy”. In all of the hotels I haveworked in, I have never heard of a hotel not being able to give a rooming listto the bride/contract signer. This is when the entire process went downhill. Wewere transferred to the “Hotel Manager” who is actually just the front deskmanager, Alex, who was impossible to work with. When stating that I would likea rooming list, he just said no, and when I stated that we may need to looksomewhere else if we couldn’t get this figured out he said “let me start onthat cancellation process for you”.Ithought it couldn’t get any worse. Until my Mom was finally able to get aholdof the owner, Chuck. Let me tell you, never in our lives have we dealt withsomeone so horrible. He started telling us that we were the rude ones and thatwe were calling the front desk names and making the associates cry? When wouldwe have even had time to do something so terrible? We could barely get ahold ofanyone! After more research, I saw that he was on TripAdvisor, publiclyattacking a bride who posted a negative review in regard to her wedding. Andthis man is a city council member?!Here’smy advice to you, Chuck - as people stop traveling and having events, and moreand more hotels shut down, I would try using the golden rule and treatingothers how you would like to be treated. It is the first and foremost rule ofhospitality, and your associates would learn a lot from following in thosefootsteps. Your reviews would probably improve as well.Here’smy advice to anyone thinking about a wedding here, don’t do it. It only took metwo months of dealing with these people to know that it wasn’t worth the stress.I just want to thank them for showing me their true colors early enough in theplanning process for me to find something else.

The venue itself is beautiful, however, neither of us would recommend having your wedding reception here... ever. It was an absolute nightmare.

Georgian, the wedding planner, was incredibly manipulative, hostile, and clueless throughout the entire process. She will sprinkle in some "on her best behavior" during the introduction/contract signing and when you come into to pay her thousands.

There was zero communication between Georgian and the hotel booking staff the ENTIRE time. We had people end up booking rooms across town because the hotel staff would continue to tell our guests that they were totally booked, but they absolutely were not yet. They also would book guests to the wrong kinds of rooms or not book them at all. There was a ton of confusion on their end... I had several guests ask us why the hotel staff seemed so confused and unprofessional. We would call and try to resolve the issue with the hotel staff, and they would direct us to talk to Georgian the next time she is in the office. Georgian would continue to either deflect or play dumb. It was really a toss-up whether she would decide to play clueless or if she decided to push the blame... I'd say that problem alone resulted in my wife continuing to try to resolve the issue with Georgian about 3 - 4 times.

The hotel staff was reportedly rude to our guests during check in. I had a family member tell me that they acted like they were inconveniencing them when they asked them what time they could check in their $300+ suite. Keep in my mind, AFTER check in hours, they told my family member that, "They have no idea when the rooms will be ready for anyone."

The kitchen staff had several mistakes. They continued to serve desserts that they weren't supposed to.

Having my wife in tears after every single interaction with the wedding planner was horrible.