Ceresville Mansion — Attraction in Frederick

Honestly I am very disappointed across the board with Ceresville Mansion. We made the most of the day and overall had an incredible wedding because of our outside vendors and guests. The venue itself is gorgeous. My complaints remain solely with the staff and owner. Two months before the wedding we were sent a "new contract" to sign. We were obviously shocked and a bit unsettled. We refused to sign because our original agreement said we were able to have kids at the wedding. Under this new management and new contract/policy they said no kids at the reception. We had already invited 8 children (4 of which were relatives including nieces). They said they would "make an exception" for ours since we were grandfathered in by the previous contract. But everything else in the contract we had to re-agree to. The coordinator Juli was a nightmare. We originally had a different coordinator...and 2 weeks before the wedding they reassigned us to Juli. On the day of the wedding she informed us she was arriving later. She was 4 hours late and everything I had asked ahead of time (that they promised to set up) wasn't there. I spent 2 hours in the morning fixing everything instead of getting ready. They put the wrong tablecloths. When I asked for them to fix it they said "oh we don't have those..this is all we have". I asked them to please set out the lighter for our lighting candle ceremony. I said I had my own lighter to use and they said "no worries honey we will take care of it." and of course in the middle of the ceremony there was no lighter. We made light of it (haha) and asked an audience member for a lighter. Juli our coordinator reprimanded our videographer (and friend) in front of everyone before the ceremony. Our DJ even mentioned to us after the wedding how unprofessional and rude she was to him without ever apologizing. Juli rushed us in the morning to line up. I understand we're on a schedule but give me 5 minutes. My sister in law was doing Reiki for me before I walked down the isle and Juli rudely barged in in the middle of the meditation...and was trying to stop us because we had to go line up (this is 15 minutes before the ceremony. We weren't even late). Juli left 3 hours before the end of the ceremony without telling us..and assigned us a new staff member. Which made things 10xs better actually. In the morning we were enjoying our champagne, that we paid for, and Juli flipped out at the groomsmen and accused them of stealing a champagne bottle from the "gold package" and said she was going to charge us. After some arguments she realized that it was her mistake and accidentally gave us the wrong bottle of champagne. The bridesmaids (all 11 of us) had TWO bottles of champagne split between us. We asked for another bottle to be brought and Juli said "you guys need to slow down, I'll bring you water." I talked to a different staff member and said they need to bring us a bottle because we paid for unlimited bottles in the morning and we had 2 bottles split between 11 people. They eventually agreed. But it was incredibly frustrating having to argue over things that we paid expensive money for. There are many other details I could share. But the entire day was rushed, special moments were interrupted. There was plenty of eye-rolling from Juli and she seemed like she was there to take our money and leave. We did not feel special. We felt like a project. Overall the staff (especially Juli) made the day much more stressful than needed. You can tell she did not want to be there and did not care. I hope everyone seriously considers finding a different venue to avoid a...

Although Ceresville WAS always my first choice, we almost went with another venue to save a little money. But after a rude incident with the owner from the other venue, we decided to go with Ceresville. I am SO happy we did. No place has a ceremony space even remotely comparable, with their wisteria covered pergola and the lily pod feature; it truly is a dream. The elegant reception ballroom has beautiful metallic accents on the columns, and the lovely parlor rooms have more metallic accents and stars painted on the ceiling of the window carve outs. Their getting ready suites are spacious and beautifully appointed. It was important for us to have a venue that had an in-house caterer, separate cocktail hour and reception spaces, a place that was experienced in holding weddings, an elegant feel, and beautiful photo ops. Ceresville checked every box in spectacular fashion. They do weddings all day, every day. Because of this, their entire team is very experienced. That experience instilled a lot of confidence in us, and was quite evident in that our wedding day was smooth sailing. Your assigned wedding planner that you work with prior to the wedding is there the day of and stays through the end of the ceremony (if I remember correctly). There is a second coordinator who is there the entire day and takes over for the reception portion. Both Lizzie and Julie did a great job running our wedding and we had absolutely NO issues with "things not going as discussed" etc. My only area of recommendation would be to ask what days your wedding planner works/answers e-mails so you can know when they have off and when you can expect responses. Ceresville even let my fiancé, our dance instructor, and me come practice our first dance before our wedding, specialty ordered Guinness cans for us to serve, and they figured out how to serve disco fries as a late night snack (even though that isn't a standard menu offering). Oh, and they had a significant Veterans discount! If you're struggling with what to select for your menu, I highly recommend calling and talking with the Chef!!! He was so kind and I felt so much better after talking to him. All in all, we were very pleased with the operations of the entire Ceresville team AND the beauty of the venue. Where else will you find a local venue with SO many different beautiful and unique photo spaces? Take a look at our photos and I think you will find they speak for themselves! Thank you Julie, Lizzie, and Ceresville!!! Our wedding was in...

Attended a wedding here recently, myself and other guests were surprised to see no staff wearing masks (despite covid-delta on the rise) while serving food to a hundred guests both indoors and out.

The venue is beautiful and well set for the numerous events of a wedding. Ample parking. Loud busy road.

The outdoor area is beautiful, but the busy road really overwhelms the outdoor space for quiet ceremony type events like weddings. Cocktail hour though, was great out here.

Inside the mansion is great, but it starts to get cramped when trying to seat 100 people. I think the wedding i attended had 110 or so, and it was tight with 10-11 of those big round wedding dinner tables.

I mention this next part because covid is real, the pandemic is real, vaccines are important but not an impenetrable shield, and behaving a certain way means we will never get out of this mess. The main hall was over crowded for the size, not only do i imagine a fire hazard (remember those?) crowded to the levels of a 100 people, but also a covid spreading hazard. Not requiring your event workers to mask regardless of vaccine status is careless and openly demonstrates low initiative to care for your clients and their guests health and well being. The main room in the mansion doesn't have a single ventilation duct visible. Anywhere. And all the windows and doors were closed. This is just asking for an event waitstaff person to get infected, and then spread it to every event there after. Yikes.

Couple all that with the frantic attitude it seemed the waitstaff had causing them to plop or drop each of the dinner plates at each and every persons setting, really ruined the beautiful and inviting outdoor courtyard we could have been eating in. I think these folks need a refresher on decorum.

The food was actually pretty good! Normally i think wedding food is awful...theres just no good way to cook hundreds of chicken or steak dishes in mass quantities without quality suffering.... but their steak and chicken were both pretty tasty, not dry or over done. They had vegan and vegetarian options too which was nice. Bravo. Again, no masks in tight quarters while making food for hundreds of people seems shortsighted and tone def.

All and all a decent venue. I dont think I'd ever want to get married here, or suggest anyone else does, but could be better suited for a smaller cocktail party, age celebration, or what-have you, where an intimate private moment isn't...