Herrington On the Bay

I had my wedding here on May 13, 2016. Everything was perfect. I was planning the wedding with them for over a year. The wedding coordinators were very helpful and attentive. I was very impressed with their coordination on the day of the wedding. I also dropped off my wedding decorations and just said make it look pretty and they did! Food was amazing, staff was very polite, and the venue was just beautiful. Big thanks to Brittany and Adria for making the day so special.

My husband and I had our reception at Herrington on the Bay on May 30^th, 2015. From the moment we met with Brittany Bergendahl and Krista Kuechler, we knew this place was perfect. Brittany and Krista were instrumental in helping us plan and coordinate all of the details on our wedding day. They were eager to please. I left a long list of detailed instructions on how to set everything up. Krista went above and beyond with her staff to help us set everything up. It went off without a hitch! The INN was able to accommodate almost all of our family and friends and even helped us find a rental house (The Dover House) for the other side of our family. Overall, on the day of the wedding, I was equally impressed with our private server– Lindsay– who never let us go empty handed with wine or Adam’s jack and coke. LOL. Our May 30^th wedding was hands down AMAZING. I was so impressed and had the perfect day of our lives. The fireworks too were a special treat at the very end. Thank you Herrington, Brittany, Krista, and Lindsay for making our day truly perfect and magical!

I am rating this venue on the service provided while I was researching wedding venues. I fell in love with the views at Herrington and it was the first venue my fiancé and I visited. During email (prior to the meet), I was in contact with Michael who emailed me the rental fees and sample menus. However, during the in-​person meet, I was very disappointed. We spent most of our appointment time being shown the sites, which is fine. But, when we finally got to sit down, I was the one trying to crunch numbers and see what would work for our budget. Then, we were told about his next appointment and I had to take information home to work on by myself. Michael sent us a basic proposal, which I then tried to play around with to get what we wanted, but stay within our budget. Overall, after the reviews I read about this place and Michael, I couldn’t understand why he didn’t seem to care to help us. Without me asking Michael questions (which hasn’t occurred for about two weeks now), he did not put any effort into helping us or making us feel like Herrington would be a reliable place to get married. During our visit the Chef was great, however, that’s only a small piece of the overall experience.

I attended a wedding here and the venue is lovely. I was not impressed with the wedding planner who seemed rushed and disorganized. There was a competing party (not wedding) next to us that was playing rap music during our ceremony. I think any qualified wedding planner would have made sure that did not happen. The ceremony was only 5 minutes long. The staff was helpful if you knew what to ask for but did not offer any assistance or be proactive. I would think that their experience with weddings far exceeds ours. There was an issue with the seating chart and in general I thought if they were more organized the planner would not have to had to bug the bride as much on her big day. I think the Herrington is an example of a venue that knows it is a beautiful space and then lacks on service.

I absolutely loved Herrington as our wedding venue. Our consultant was Janice and our planner was Kerri. The staff was always accommodating and friendly. Our guests had an amazing time. The food was delicious (we did a buffet for dinner). The venue is beautiful with their fresh renovations. 5 stars for sure!

We got married at Herrington’s Polynesian Bridal Lawn/​Paradise Ballroom on August 3^rd, 2013. My new husband and I have said multiple times in the past few weeks that the best decision we made in wedding planning was choosing HOTB as our venue. From the moment we arrived at Herrington for our initial meeting with Michael, we were treated with the highest importance — although there are so many weddings done at this location every year, we always felt like ours was special. When we would arrive for a meeting, staff knew us by name, and we were greeted with fresh baked goods from the chef. Their attention to detail was superb, emails and calls were returned immediately, and our questions were always answered with, «Of course we can do that for you!»
When it was time to make the switch from Michael to our day-​of coordinator, Ethan, the «pass-​off» was seamless. Ethan already knew all of the details of our wedding, and Michael still checked in to see how things were going. Adria also was amazing and helped us to plan a beautiful rehearsal dinner at Calypso Bay.
On the day of our wedding, it threatened to rain, and both Michael and Ethan were so on-​top of things, watching the weather radar and knew exactly what our «window of time» was to hold the ceremony without getting rained on. They made decisions quickly, involving our other vendors and working extremely well with them. They knew exactly which decisions to include myself and my husband in, and which ones to take over. Where other locations may have said, «It looks like rain, let’s go with plan B,» HOTB made it so that we were still able to have our dream outdoor wedding on the water.
We could go on and on about how beautiful Herrington is, how delicious their food is, and how convenient it is to have a ceremony, reception, and hotel all on one site. But all of that wouldn’t have mattered without the quality of the people we worked with for the past 16 months. We can’t thank them all enough!

I visited here, maybe about last October for potentially holding my wedding here.
The main building seems outdated and needed some slight touches, like a new layer of paint and perhaps knock the dust out in the corners. We met with a coordinator who tried to woo us with bread and fruit, hmmm– was not really impressed. We later saw the grounds, which you are charged an outrageous price for having a ceremony on site. The lodging reminds me of a camp lodge. This place is good if you really want to give away your money. Finding a decent place and affordable in MD has been a nightmare. Any venue by water they automatically jack up the pricing. As a bride you are told its your day and you get what you want. What I want is a venue that will not have me bankrupt. And I am just saying this is not even worth it. BUT if you just want some place near water than this has that.

When we first signed up with Herrington (HOTB), the Event Design Manager was Stacey Hill. She was terrific. Unfortunately, she moved away before our wedding.
Our «day-​of coordinator» was Lexy Harvey. Our first red flag w/​Lexy came in April when we needed to meet with her for planning. She told us that her only availability was Monday, Tuesday, & Thursday, from 9am-​5pm. No availability on evenings or weekends. (In contrast to Stacey who would work with OUR schedule.) Since we live in Virginia, & have jobs, taking time off from work to have a short meeting w/​Lexy, to accommodate her schedule, was not an option. In contrast, Stacey was available via phone or email, ²⁴⁄₇. This new crew only works «their scheduled hours». If you try to call or email them outside of those hours, you will get an out of office message that says they won’t be in touch until «their shift» starts again. If you think a wedding venue and their coordinators should be available more than «9−5», then keep this in mind when considering HOTB.
On the day of the wedding, we didn’t see Lexy until AFTER our ceremony. Even then, we only saw her a couple of times during dinner, & that was it. Adria, another coordinator, was present at the ceremony site, but didn’t have a clue what was going on. I asked her where I should stand before the ceremony and Adria said «I don’t know.» She later asked me if we had a flower girl, & I told her no. She asked who was supposed to put the rose petals down, and I said «You are.» She then replied, «oh», & ran over to the ceremony site to lay them on the ground. Finally, the bus was supposed to pick up my bride at her Inn room. It went to the wrong location so she had to walk over to the ceremony site in her dress.
In conclusion, we’d only recommend HOTB if you have your own Wedding Planner. If not, there are plenty of other venues on the bay that are just as beautiful, but with better service, which will ultimately mean a better event for you & less stress.

Me and my fiancé came here to check for reception and ceremony for our wedding and this place very lovely and Stacey was very professional which I enjoy. So we have a tough decision to make but I will update if we choose to work with this location.