Meadow Brook Hall — Attraction in Rochester Hills

We had our wedding here in October and the day itself was beautiful! The mansion is absolutely breath taking and all our pictures looked stunning at the property.

My issue is with the management and coordination.

The first thing that I look back on that makes me sad is that none of our programs were passed to guests as they arrived. I still have hundred of them sitting around my house that I put a lot of time and effort into, knowing our guests would have loved them. Plus is had important information on it such as a processional order and timeline of events. My close family even said that NO ONE GREETED THEM as people arrived! And there is someone literally sitting at a desk when you walk in.

The biggest thing was that they DID NOT SERVE one of my cakes!!! We had 3 flavors of cake and only 2 cakes were served. I never was told, nor did I get it back from the venue. When I called to address this, meadow brook tried to say the bakery didn't deliver it. So I called the bakery and they ASSURED ME that they delivered all cakes and even gave me the name of who they dropped them off with. When I confronted Meadow Brook about this they never responded!! How upsetting!! I paid for that and wanted it to be served to my guests and they couldn't even give me the decency to apologize for their wrong doing! Terrible!

Something that is SO upsetting that happened too was that ALL the favors were thrown away at the end of the night!!! My family and I put SOOO much time into making all the favors and they weren't even given back to us at the end of the night. I cannot believe it! At least ask us if we want them!

Another thing that doesn't sit well with me was that the late night snack barely got touched and they threw away HUNDREDS of donuts! No one mentioned anything to me about putting out the late night snack, so I only found out when I saw someone with a donut. My husband didn't even know/get to eat one and we got them because they're his favorite!! Another thing that is so sad looking back on.

Also, our coordinator that we communicated with the entire time leading up to the wedding left in the middle of it! She had another person there but we had no idea who he was.

Overall, I loved my wedding and it was stunning, but there are many things I look back on that make me sad because of Meadow Brooks lack of management and coordination. LOTS of food was thrown away without the option of taking any home (like OUR CAKE that we paid for, and the late night snack). This really bothers me because WE PAID FOR IT!! No one even asked if it could be thrown away either.

One more thing to note is the venue BARELY lets you come before the ceremony, so if you're doing a first look you need to request extra time. My photographer requested we come 2 hours before the ceremony in order to get all our pictures done so we could enjoy cocktail hour. The coordinators let us come early, but originally they only let you come an hour before. So make sure if you are doing pictures beforehand that you ask to come earlier!

BIG price tag for all these things to go wrong the day of. Good thing is that none of our guests would have known during the wedding, but it upsets me to look back on knowing this went on...

Meadow Brook Hall is a National Historic Landmark, built in 1929 by the Dodge Wilson family. It is preserved to this day as a museum by the Oakland University. The weddings conducted at this beautiful mansion constitute one the main resources to maintain the property.

We visited around 8-9 wedding venues in the metro Detroit area and picked Meadow Brook, because it offers unique royal ambience enriched with history. It also offers exclusive use that means there would not be any other wedding or event during your wedding. Finally, it has in-house four star catering services and both ceremony and reception can be held at the venue.

After the initial booking, as we neared the wedding season, we were Stephanie as our wedding day coordinator. She further strengthened our view that we made the right choice in picking Meadow Brook as our wedding venue. We picked most of our other vendors from their preferred vendors list. She reached out to them and arranged the logistics of their arrival, set-up and pickup. She was very attentive, patient and went above and beyond in answering all our queries. We could not happier with all the work, she did for us.

There is only one downside of Meadow Brook. Since it is an old property, there is no air-conditioning there except the dining hall. Hence, the months of October – April are ideal for an indoor reception. For the months of May-September, you may use the tent outside and get it air-conditioned on a short notice if a warm weather is in forecast. However, a tent does not offer the same ambience as...

Having visited many stately homes throughout the country, we had the opportunity to visit the Dodge home this past weekend. During our last visit to MI, we visited Edsel Ford's estate so looked forward to seeing this one as a direct comparison. We booked the Behind The Scenes tour. As it was the most expensive and listed at 1.0 - 1.5 hours, I made the mistake of thinking this would encompass the house with more details about the behind the scenes. It didn't. We spent $44 for 2 of us to look at the servants quarters but as the servants quarters were all now used as office space for admin staff - there was nothing to see (lots of photocopiers etc). The old kitchens etc are now used for for food prep for weddings and events, Chef and other staff have taken over other servants quarters so they were locked too. Right on 60 minutes our guide left as she had another tour to host. There are lots of postings on the tour offering information, however there is no time to read them. The house looks nice but on this tour you see none of it - do not waste your money! Tragic that this half of the home is now used for office and administration staff - so many other buildings on the property could have been used and this preserved for people to see how the servants quarters looked properly. If offering this tour, customers should be given tickets to the self guided tour of the actual family house for free - should not be charging for this as a standalone tour, there...