WEDDING REVIEW from a bride

This venue means so much to my husband and I, and we can’t imagine getting married anywhere else. Our guests loved the venue, as well. Its stunning views speak for itself!

When we booked this venue almost 2.5 years ago, we were specifically advised NOT to get a wedding planner, by the venue manager who has since retired. I could not disagree more, and I was an extremely detailed bride who loves planning.

Even hiring all vendors who have worked at this venue before, things did not go smoothly. The execution of my planning was lacking, and we kept things relatively simple compared to other events/weddings I’ve seen at Harkness. I think this is largely due to the staffing issues this past year that have since been resolved, and due to the extremely tight set up time vendors have.

However, in the last month of planning our wedding, Mike became our contact for Harkness, and he was incredibly responsive, helpful and flexible. I am optimistic that couples moving forward will have a better planning experience than my husband and I did, and I think that if Mike is able to make things more flexible, he absolutely will. Given its state property, I know it isn’t solely up to him, but I truly believe that things will improve under Mike’s leadership just given the 4 weeks I worked with him.

Some big things I’d advise couples to be cautious about if they choose Harkness would be:

1. Hire vendors who are highly experienced with Harkness and familiar with the intricacies of this venue. It is not a standard venue for many reasons - mainly because it is a historic place that is owned by the state of CT, and therefore has some rules and regulations other typical venues do not have to follow. For example, vendors only have 2 hours to set up for events.
2. Even though you can fit 150 people technically, we felt extremely crammed with 114 people in attendance and maybe 20 vendors (including wait staff), which caught me by surprise. I wouldn’t recommend this venue for parties much larger than 100 guests.
3. Be sure to ask questions about layout when it comes to table shapes and sizes, maximum occupancy per room, etc. When we booked this venue and were planning, all answers we got in response to our questions about seating/layout came across that they can and will make anything work. In reality, it really is not that flexible. No one checked in with us on our layout plans until 2.5 weeks before, which caused a bunch of logistical issues with seating charts, seating in general, etc. My husband and I did not want people in more than 2 rooms because we wanted as many people together as possible. We thought we could do that for 130 people, but we ended up in 3 rooms with just 114 people.
4. This is not a place where you write a check and they take care of everything for you between food, decor, etc. I highly recommend a wedding planner for the entire wedding planning process, not just the day of. Even if you are a planner, I highly suggest having a day of coordinator.

Again, overall I love this venue. But it’s not the right fit for every couple, and that’s okay! If you go in knowing the time and effort you’ll need to put in, I think you’ll have an amazing experience.