The Calumet Club — Attraction in New Albany

When my wife and I were first touring the Calumet Club for our wedding reception, we were very pleased. The workers seemed friendly and the place itself was exactly what we needed; however, we left our reception extremely disappointed. Somebody else in the reviews said, “very unprofessional when issues arise” and that sums up our reception. Our coordinator, Amber, was very rude to our guests and wedding party members. While my wife and I were still at the church taking photos, we received a few text messages telling us that they were not opening the doors to the Calumet Club when they said they would. This left our guests out in the heat with no explanation. We decided to ignore the problem and enjoy ourselves. Our reception ended at 10:30 pm and we were promised that we had one hour to clean up our belongings and decorations. When 10:30 hit, the last song finished, and we began cleaning. Our photographer asked us if we wanted to take one last photo under the lights they have suspended over the room. We said we would like that, and he proceeded to move some tables out of the way so we could take the photo. At this moment, Amber begins screaming at the photographer that she has “had enough” and that she “has kids at home.” All of which is being done in front of the DJ, my wife and I, and our mothers. I am not sure what her children being at home had to do with anything, especially when we had another hour remaining to clean regardless. I am sure her children understand that she has a job to do. Regardless, we were embarrassed. My wife went to ask her if she needed any help, hoping it would ease the tension in the room. Amber quickly replies “nope” without looking at her. Our photographer then asks if it would be okay to take the photo outside instead, and she would not look at nor answer him. I told the mothers and my wife to head downstairs to start to clean up the rooms we rented, because I did not want any more conflict to arise. I would like to note that my wife and I discussed after that we understand if she was frustrated, but there are professional ways to act in those moments and she did not display any professionalism. My wife left the building crying because of the embarrassment, and we continuously apologized to our photographer. After a few weeks, my wife and I decided to contact the Calumet Club about the situation because every time we looked back to our wedding, we were reminded of the negativity Amber created. We sent a very detailed email that included screenshots of messages sent to us on our wedding day as proof. Instead of the Calumet Club responding to us, they carbon copied (attached) Amber to the email, where she decided she would answer for them. Amber replied, “I’m sorry you are choosing to focus on the negative instead of the positive-.” I assume that is easy to say when you ruin somebody’s wedding reception and do not want to take accountability for it. She proceeded to say that she “only read half of the email and really could argue every detail.” My wife and I were shocked with how unprofessional she had become and could not believe that she included this sentence in her response. We reach out to her employer, to bring light to the situation, and they are okay with her replying to us that she would argue but she does not think it is worth her time? A week has gone by, and we never heard from the Calumet Club on this subject. I figured I would let things go, but I cannot let someone else go through a situation like that. I would suggest finding another place to host your wedding venue/reception. I mentioned this situation to one of my friends, and I will end this review with his response. “It is incredibly surprising to see how often people fail to surpass the very, very low bar of just being a decent person because they are so into themselves instead of...

We really enjoyed our wedding at the Calumet Club on Sept 24th, 2022. We had a wedding blitz which meant we had our wedding upstairs, cocktail hour downstairs, followed by the reception upstairs after Amber and her team quickly flipped our space! Our package included access to the bride and groom suites 6 hours before the start of our ceremony time. If I could do it over again, I would have paid to add an extra hour to the bridal suite to have a little more time to setup our wedding decorations that day. I got a little behind schedule that day...about an hour, and that would have been helpful for me personally looking back.

I believe our guests really liked the fact that the ceremony and reception were all in one spot as well.

We loved the vendors we chose thru the venue....DJ Mahan (had Tommy as our DJ) and Stumler's Catering (everyone loved the food and the presentation was beautiful). We also used Mary with Chair Flair to have the chairs covered and she also supplied the wedding backdrop we used for our ceremony/reception and the floor length tablecloths at the head table...she was excellent!

Leading up to the wedding day, I probably had hundreds and hundreds of questions for Clayton, and he was always very helpful, very responsive, and very kind! Amber was also very helpful and supportive. She worked with me on the room layouts for many weeks as my type A personality tried to figure out what worked best, she was super helpful with working with my dad to coordinate a wedding slide show he created that he wanted to show on our big day, and she was very quick to repsond to all...

Our experience in working with the Calumet Club was positive from beginning to end.

The Calumet Club offers so much in a wedding venue that others don't - all inclusive pricing for catering, a day-of wedding coordinator, ceremony & reception, DJ (although we decided to go with a band), access to two incredible "getting ready" rooms for the bridesmaids and groomsmen, the list goes on. Another item worth mentioning is the open bar package pricing - unlike most venues, the Calumet Club had a very reasonable per-guest upcharge for the upgrade. Each of the pros mentioned above were included in the package and handled exclusively by the staff at the Calumet Club. The venue staff prioritize making your big day as stress-free and enjoyable as possible.

All of the items listed above may lead some to think that the Calumet Club is a "value" wedding venue. Sure, the prices are great for the level of service and care they put into your event - but the venue is BEAUTIFUL. Their renovated historic building in downtown New Albany is oozing with character that most local venues lack. The venue is also deceptively large - we had upwards of 270 guests in attendance including the band, venue staff, catering staff, etc.

I would encourage anyone looking to host an event; whether it be a wedding, office Christmas party, reunion, etc. to reach out to the Calumet Club. They're doing remarkable work and not enough people are talking about it! We are certainly pleased with...