Morrison House Old town Alexandria, Autograph Collection

Old Town Modern/Classic Wedding

A beautiful boutique hotel. We chose the Morrison House for our 75-person wedding in May and it proved to be a beautiful setting with a perfect mix of modern, classic, and vintage style, exactly what we hoped for this event. The bridal suite was smaller than others and not specifically setup for weddings (other venues had large mirrors and hardware hung high on the walls for dresses etc). 3-4 people sat on the couch while two makeup artists setup in the sitting room and the hair stylist in the bedroom. One issue related to the room- they booked a high-ranking Marriott member in the bridal suite with a 4PM checkout, despite us having booked the hotel and that room Friday-Sunday. We arrived at 12 on Friday as discussed couldn’t access the suite until after rehearsal. I used a separate guest room to hold all of our bridal suite belongings and get ready. We didn’t move into the bridal suite until the evening. Ceremony: Plenty of room for our guests to be seated on the outside brick driveway. The front stairs made a beautiful and easy location for photos. The DJ was able to access power for mics and music without issue. Cocktail hour/bar: The hotel allocated 1 bartender for the event, which we felt would be insufficient to provide drinks to 75 people after the ceremony. A second bartender was added for a small fee. We also requested our signature cocktail be prepared and ready for guests after the ceremony to ease the rush to the bar. We could not use the room beyond the bar (restaurant area) bc it was where they kept all the additional furniture and vendor equipment. The space fit our needs and activities (photobooth, guest book, and “sip and solve” crossword). Reception: the ballroom is on the smaller side but fit 75 ppl comfortably. We had a 12x12 dance floor and two tables had to be placed on it for dinner then removed prior to our first dance/dancefloor opening. We designed our schedule to accommodate the space/table removals and it worked out well! We had a sweetheart table in the front with plenty of room for the dancefloor and table setups. All in all we were able to get a dessert table, 4’ DJ table, sweetheart table, dancefloor, and 75 guests seated in the space. Hotel staff and food service were attentive to our needs and very approachable. We had issues with the venue coordinator/catering director, which I believe is a contracted service for Marriott (Sage Hospitality Group). It involved communication- the original contact was wonderful but left a few months before the wedding. With the change in staff came difficult communication- emails being lost, voice messages left with no return, etc. I spent around 6 weeks trying to contact the new venue/event coordinator with no success. We then hired an outside wedding coordinator and it was the best decision. After similar difficulty, she was able to connect with the venue and begin finalizing details just two weeks before the wedding. The venue coordinator seemed to brush over our concerns (about the 1 bartender, setup/timeline) but the hired coordinator was able to help advocate and take the lead. The day of our event went flawlessly from my perspective, but I attribute that to my hired coordinator. I saw the venue coordinator only once on the wedding day. I’d highly recommend hiring your own if you were to hold a wedding here, I just didn’t get the impression that my wedding would be executed to our expectation with the current catering director. Overall we had a great day!

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