The Eastern — Attraction in Detroit

The venue is beautiful, but the stress working with management is not worth it for the "look", there are other better options. Below is an excerpt (shortened to meet character limits) from my email response sent directly to the owner after he reached out to me for feedback on our experience (spoiler: they didn't respond to the email)... Hi Scott, Thank you for reaching out to me. I've been trying to figure out how to best communicate the complications that we faced while we worked with The Eastern, specifically with Emily. We found the experience disorganized, and needlessly stressful. The parking was a large issue- and let me be clear, I'm aware that the circumstances surrounding the lot being no longer available for use were out of The Eastern's control. However it felt like the response on The Eastern's part since the lot became unusable was sub-par. In the beginning we were offered the lot across the street starting at 6pm- which wouldn't work for our full day rental as we started earlier in the day than that (wedding starting at 5pm). After repeated communications with Emily about this (some that she left unanswered from our planner, and also myself) we had a face to face conversation where she finally offered up a solution - but it wasn't guaranteed. We did finally get your confirmation email saying that the shuttle and security and the lot would be provided from 4pm- midnight running for our guest during that time period. However, the day of the event, there was no shuttle service running as outlined in YOUR EMAIL (attached) for our guests. I watched as all of our guest walked to The Eastern from the parking lot- many with health issues that they should NOT have been walking that distance. And then at the end of the night, the shuttle never came to pick up our guests and return them to the lot. Instead over 100 people walked back to their cars in the cold, in the rain and in the dark. Many not familiar with the area and concerned for their safety in Detroit. There has been no apology for this, no compensation for the blatant disregard for the promise and commitment made by ownership on the lack of follow through. Outside of this there were other smaller issues- but issues none the less. Less than a month before our rehearsal day that we had signed a contract for I get a call from Emily saying that she wants us to move our rehearsal to either another day or an hour or two earlier for another event. This not only was stressful to get this message, but also we had planned and were told via email (attached & second email) that we could, bring in our items that we needed to drop off the night before our event. If there was to be another event held we weren't going to be allowed to do so. Emily then told us we needed to pay additional fees to hold our date for rehearsal if we wanted to bring in our items since The Eastern wouldn't be able to rent out the space that night for another event. The week or two weeks before the event (our planner) sent Emily the floor plan, the final guest count and other pertinent information as requested. The day of, the bar manager told (our planner) that she never received that information from Emily and that Emily claimed to have never received it. Working with Emily was by far the worst part of planning our wedding, the lack of communication, the springing information on us randomly, the disorganization and the disregard for the stress that she was creating was unappreciated and unprofessional. I cannot in good faith give a review of The Eastern in a positive light, and have already suggested to several couples, and several of my very highly sought after vendors to look elsewhere or steer their clients to a different venue. It is of my option that Emily needs to be replaced immediately, and something needs to be done about the fact that the parking shuttle was never around for the time period and duration that was promised. I had to apologize on the day of my wedding to several guests for the lack of commitment on The Eastern's part. That's something a bride should never...

I got married at this venue on 6/17/23 and I have a lot to say.

First, Emily was sort of frustrating to deal with. We booked the venue in November 2021 and our wedding took place this past weekend. We did not hear from Emily at all between December 2021 and May 2023. I emailed her several times in May and regularly waited days for a response. I asked to tour the space a second time prior to the wedding and went almost two weeks without her getting back to me.

I also felt like I was being nickel and dimed with extra hidden fees in the final month leading up to my event. In an informational packet that Emily sent me, the fine print read that there was a 150 person minimum for all bar packages. We only had 110-112 guests at our wedding and it wasn't until I reminded Emily that we had booked the venue a year and a half ago that she advised me that rule did not apply to us, as it had been instated after we signed our contract. In addition to the bar package scare, on the morning of my wedding, we were told that we would need to take out all of the trash ourselves OR pay a $250 trash removal fee on top of the $250 venue cleaning fee we had already paid (I had also been advised by Emily via email that the cleaning and trash removal fees were the same thing) After talking with Ron and Lily about my frustrations with the venue and the stress of having to shell out another $250 on the day of my wedding, Lily waived the fee which I greatly appreciate and I wish I would have been able to deal with her through the wedding planning process.

What was possibly the most frustrating part of my experience with the Eastern is that we paid nearly $4000 (which is just shy of my total income for an entire month) to rent the space in it's entirety from 9 am on 6/17 to 2 am on 6/18. We arrived on 6/17 at about 10 am to begin setting up the space for our wedding and between about 10:30 am and 12:00 pm when we left the venue for lunch, Emily brought in at least three couples to tour the venue We were not asked permission or even given the heads up that other couples would be brought in for tours. We gave the Eastern about $9000 total between the cost of renting the space AND the bar package and it felt like our time and money was not respected. When you pay for a space, that is your time as stated in the contract and it made me very uncomfortable that there were people that we did not know coming in and out during our set up.

The venue was beautiful and exactly what we imagined for our day. But in hindsight, I would have gone elsewhere. My advice if you book this venue, get EVERYTHING IN WRITING AND ALWAYS ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT. If Emily emails you in response to your inquiries, perhaps request to speak with...

The venue is beautiful, and my wife and I were originally very excited too get married here, especially given how flexible they initially seemed with accommodating our requests. As the pandemic got underway and our wedding date approached, we were heartbroken with how The Eastern handled the situation. I'm an accountant, and my wife works in marketing (including for several other wedding venues), so we're both aware of many of the challenges that businesses are facing right now, so we know that some compromises have to be made so they can stay afloat. However, as our wedding approached, which is a hectic time even under normal circumstances, we were frustrated by a lack of understanding and sympathy expressed and were shocked by The Eastern's refusal to work with us to create a solution that we would feel safe and happy with. The other vendors we had been working with for our wedding, and the venues my wife works with for her job, were all much more accommodating and understanding about the situation. A mere two weeks before our wedding The Eastern continued to reassure us that we would be able to legally hold our wedding, but were unable to provide us with a safety plan even though at this point we were three months into the pandemic. We also felt that they were dismissive on account of our wedding having a relatively smaller number of guests. My wife and several of our guests are considered high risk due to chronic health conditions and The Eastern never acknowledged the position that put us in. Ultimately, we cancelled our wedding to ensure everyone's safety. This was not the choice we wanted to make, but The Eastern's lack of flexibility made us feel we were backed into a corner with no...