Allerton Park & Retreat Center — Attraction in Monticello

My wife and I had our wedding here in May 2017. I cannot say enough about how wonderful the gardens, the mansions, and the staff were through the entire process.

We were fortunate that the weather cooperated in early May for our wedding date and the gardens were absolutely beautiful. The peony garden, when in full bloom, is a sight to behold and the rest of the gardens are well kept and made for a pleasant walk to the ceremony in the Sunken Gardens. Allerton provides a golf cart and driver for your use throughout the day of your wedding and we took full advantage, and took pictures throughout all the gardens before and after the ceremony. The Sunken Gardens were setup the night before and available to us for rehearsal and everything was in place and wiped down the day of the wedding. In short we lucked out with a picture perfect day for our garden ceremony and Allerton didn't disappoint - everything was silky smooth.

But that's not all. Since we had our reception at the Mansion we were able to rent out the entire building for the weekend. Us and our entire wedding party stayed at the Mansion both Friday and Saturday night. We had a rehearsal dinner there on Friday with breakfast on both Saturday and Sunday. The food was delicious and the service was great. Since we had the mansion booked we were also able to utilize the rec room in the basement and party into the night. We were also pleasantly surprised on Sunday morning to go to breakfast and find they had moved all our centerpieces from the reception into the dining area for breakfast - a detail we didn't ask for, but was done because they're on top of those little details.

And finally the reception. The reception was wonderful. The Allerton mansion provides a nearly perfect backdrop - basically, additional decoration is strictly optional. And they'll put tables pretty much everywhere. We had tables outside by the Koi pond, high top tables near the bar, long tables for gifts and pictures in the Butternut room, big round tables in the gallery for dinner, and smaller cafe tables in the library where our DJ was setup.

We were able to have a late night snack of pizza (which was voraciously consumed by our guests) and the fire pit just outside the library was lit in the evening. And although the reception officially ended at 11, those of us who still had some party left in them just headed outside and enjoyed the fire and some more adult beverages (BYO).

If it wasn't enough for the mansion to be gorgeous and prepped perfectly. The staff was thorough and pleasant. And nobody deserves higher marks than Jordan. Through the planning process my wife and I were frequently overwhelmed and anxious. Every single time we met with Jordan we walked away feeling fantastic about our wedding. She has an answer for every question and she'll guide through the entire thing. She was absolutely fantastic.

If it sounds like I'm heaping on just about every accolade I can, it's because I am, they deserve it. If it sounds like I'm using hyperbole, I'm not, they were just that good.

We looked at a couple other more affordable options before we decided on Allerton. Truthfully, our mind was already made up before we left the park, but we wanted to do our due diligence before that kind of monetary commitment. We're glad we picked Allerton, it couldn't have been better otherwise.

Now the nits to pick: The rooms are a bit uneven in both size and quality. But, none of my guests mentioned anything particularly bad about any of the rooms, just some peculiarities. To me, this is what to expect when staying in a 100+ year old mansion that's been turned into a hotel/event space. Also, the room rates are right for what you get. They serve Coke, not Pepsi. That's it. Those are my nits. Literally the worst part of the experience was being served Coke instead of Pepsi - a completely subjective and nonsensical nit to pick. When that is the worst part of an experience, you know it was good.

If you're considering Allerton for an event, do yourself a favor and just vote yes. You...

I have been meaning to write this review for quite some time now, but have not had the emotional bandwidth to do so because thinking about everything that led up to my wedding honestly makes me angry and regretful of a day that is supposed to be legendary for every couple. First off, I pity any bride that has to deal with Jordan Gifford. Have your wedding at Pear Tree Estates or the university instead. Even skipping the tradition and getting married at town hall would be better than dealing with Jordan. She is absolutely the worst wedding coordinator I have ever heard of. She was rude, verbally discriminatory, unresponsive, condescending, and very unorganized when it came to providing credible information about simple requests made. Less than a week before my wedding day, I had actually learned there were other wedding coordinators besides Jordan because she maliciously transferred me to not only one, but two other coordinators whom I never spoke to or met. Mind you I am an alum of the university, worked in their Human Resources department, and had known Jordan through communications for nearly 2 years and just found out there were other people. Her reason for switching me twice was that she (and the "second" coordinator) were going to be out of town; which was never communicated until a couple of days prior to my wedding. I ended up with Fraya instead who is a much more experienced, compassionate, and resourceful wedding coordinator.

The boiling point was when Jordan legitimately argued over the phone with me including scoffed at my budget that I told her I wanted to be in. Not every bride wants to spend a year's salary on their wedding, but I digress. It was not until I threatened to call the Office of the President at UIUC to tell them about her lewd behavior was when she had calmed down. I then requested to speak to her manager in which she refused, and instead placed the phone down for 10 minutes until she finally respected my wishes and adjusted my catering count. Jordan made a big deal out of something so simple contrary to when I was instantly offered free wine by one of the catering managers for my guests on the day of my wedding to make up for her mistake in telling me that I could have an open bar on a Sunday on university property. To reiterate, this was a simple judgement call that was made in seconds by someone in charge of catering, and we were on the phone for an hour.

Two days prior to my wedding; because I was so fed up with the disrespect, I had actually found out who her manager was through a connection who told me his name was Derrick. Derrick went above and beyond to make my wedding a success, and so did all of the staff. I was extremely surprised to finally receive the service my money paid for; especially in the nick of time. To give credit, I really appreciated each and every person down to the desk staff who supported me and exemplified true customer service. Unfortunately $12,000.00+ later and 6 hours before I was scheduled to say "I Do", was a little too late to make up for Jordan's reprehensible damage. Looking back on my wedding day gives me as much joy as I could have had with such a permanent experience that was a true nightmare. Everything was so slammed together in haste that day because I had never met or talked to anyone (I repeat, anyone) who helped me.

Overall, I would recommend that no one marry at Allerton Park as long as Jordan is working there. She is the type that will slander your name behind your back as a customer, write you nicely in emails (50/50) and want nothing to do with you over the phone. No bride deserves that, period. One could always take photos around the grounds for free; which a lot of brides do. My mistake is that I should have called Staff Human Resources and filed a...

Our wedding at Allerton Park & Retreat Center was everything we could have dreamed of and more! I am a VERY type-A person and had a million questions before we booked and about a million more after. Fraya patiently answered all of my questions and I cannot thank her enough for that! We were navigating a pandemic wedding and it was challenging since Allerton had to follow guidelines set by the university which meant there were many changes that didn’t always exactly align with the changes the state was making but they were so kind and communicative throughout which really helped us deal with the chaos. Their communication was superb all the way through and the day itself was amazing. Allerton is a gorgeous location, we felt like we were in a fairy tale! Everything was set up beautifully and exactly how we wanted it and the package we booked included tear down. That tear down was so helpful because we were able to relax towards the end of the night. We also absolutely loved being able to stay there. All of the benefits of a hotel wedding without having to sacrifice aesthetics. I cannot say enough good thinks about every single staff member I interacted with at Allerton, they were all so kind. The only issue we ever had was there was some confusion when some guests tried to book rooms as part of our room block, would recommend the couple arrange the rooms themselves. We had even lost one of the room keys in the chaos of packing up the next day and they graciously allowed us to bring it back later (I knew we had it, it was just somewhere in the car). About half of our guests stayed in the estate and they all talked about how...