The Madison Hotel

y Ballroom. My husband and I thought outdoor weddings were beautiful, but we didn't want to worry about rain. Thank goodness we did that, because it was definitely storming on our wedding day! It did not matter though, because this room looked just as beautiful in the rain as it does on a sunny day. We had 75 guests (the minimum for a Sunday wedding), and the room didn't feel too big for that number at all. The Conservatory Ballroom looked absolutely gorgeous, our photos are turning out stunning. The ballroom was decked out with their fall flowers (they switch the flowers out depending on the season). It would be almost impossible to take a bad photograph in here. The Madison Hotel also has a ton of beautiful photo spots: the bar at Rod's Steakhouse, the train car, the side of The Madison Hotel, the fireplace in the lobby, the list goes on and on. The food was also fantastic, our guests were raving about our cocktail hour. They also talked about what a friendly atmosphere the whole hotel had. People in the elevators would bump into one another to chat about the weddings they were attending (there were two weddings that day). Not to mention that The Madison Hotel is actually a really good deal! The wedding cake was included (made at Calandra's Bakery in Fairfield - absolutely delicious!!!), one night in their presidential suite was included, a free hotel room one year our so we could return for our anniversary was included, place cards were included, menus with our names on them were included, and votive candles were included (and probably more I'm forgetting right now). The Conservatory Ballroom has a TON of flowers (we saved a lot on decor!). Plus, The Madison Hotel assigned us a maître d' (Jose) who served as our day-of coordinator. Jose was amazing and a true professional. Everyone who worked there really was very courteous and helpful. We honestly could not be happier with how our wedding turned out here! By the way - If you are booking The Conservatory Ballroom as a reception venue, we STRONGLY recommend getting colored uplighting. It had a STUNNING effect in that room, it looks so good we would honestly call it essential. TLDR: Choose The Madison Hotel for your ceremony and reception, you won't regret it. And if you have your reception in The Conservatory Ballroom make sure to get colored uplighting!

y reflected that they are part of running a very well-oiled wedding venue machine! Joe, Carolina, and the staff were all very in control and made us and our guests feel comfortable. The cocktail hour was lovely and absolutely overflowing with excellent food. All our guests raved about it! The fantastically beautiful Conservatory venue was curated and arranged perfectly. All in all, the Madison Hotel catering staff were gracious hosts and made the entire wedding reception planning process easy. We had a spectacularly dazzling and fun wedding!

conservatory that our guests still can't stop raving about, everything about this venue was perfection. Charles, catering manager, and Joe Z., our day of maitre'd, made the process smooth and were endlessly reliable with all of our questions and concerns. The champagne wedding brunch package was all we needed for our 50-person post-elopement celebration and it came with so much! More than we'd even dreamed to ask for! A bridal suite for the wedding night, an incredible food selection and open bar, a 3-tier wedding cake from Calandra's built into the price, a getting ready room for the ladies, endless accommodations and suggestions, all in one package! What was just supposed to be a low key reception ended up being my new standard for what a wedding celebration could be! (Attached photo by Bryan Weber Photography)

le. The administrative staff went above and beyond to help make our day go seamlessly and despite an earthquake happening on the morning of our wedding, everything went as planned! Many of our guests were from out of town and expressed how much they enjoyed their hotel rooms, the beautiful lobby, and continental breakfast. We loved the fact that we did not have to leave the Madison Hotel premises for our wedding weekend events, as our rehearsal dinner was hosted in the beautiful Victorian Room and Rod’s and The Red Dog served as perfect “Welcome Drinks” and after-party locations. Thank you, The Madison Hotel, for an awesome experience and for making our wedding day so special!

m was very responsive with any questions we had. The flow of our wedding day was seamlessly executed and our maitre’d Carolina was the sweetest! From taking deep breaths with me before I walked down the aisle and helping to bustle my dress during cocktail hour and making sure I was eating she was a huge help. Our entire wedding day was nowhere near stressful knowing we were in great hands with the team working perfectly with our other vendors as well. The service we received was impeccable and we are so grateful to be one of the lucky couples who had their wedding in The Conservatory!

th its beautiful décor. This venue had always been a dream wedding location since driving by it as a teenager and admiring it from afar. We continue to receive compliments of how incredible and lovely everything was. The conservatory room is truly like stepping into a real life fairytale. It was clean and all of the transitioning from room to room the entire night went very smoothly. We were also so happy we were able to utilize the Victorian suite instead of the original plan for the cocktail hour to be underneath the conservatory. It is worth mentioning that the conservatory room itself is small and intimate. We had exactly 100 adult guests and felt we couldn’t have comfortably fit many more. Although the day was fabulous, we did come across a couple of things that did not meet our expectations or were overall disappointing. We would like to also add that when we wrote a detailed email to the coordinating staff we had been working with to share our constructive feedback after our event, they NEVER RESPONDED!! Very frustrating and unprofessional. To be specific, we had a few issues with the staff at the front desk being rude when communicating information to us and our guests during the last couple of months. Jon at the front desk is awesome and always happy to help. We were told we would hear from our assigned maître d’, once we were 10 days from the wedding, however, it was only 5 days before the wedding when we finally heard from our maître d’ Charles. In our opinion, this was not enough time to finalize the many details we had hoped to go over with him and, if you are a planner or are adding many personal touches, trust me you will also need more than just 5 days. Although we felt we were extremely diligent in relaying the vision of what we wanted for that day, there was still confusion about where the entry table was set up, the timing of the champagne before the ceremony, and the arrangement we wanted for our guest tables. When dinner orders were taken, our children (ages 10 and 12) were not offered a kids menu like we were promised they would be so they did not have dinner since we were not aware this was happening. Other than that, the food was excellent, but the passed hors d’oeuvres were limited. As the hosts of this event, we barely saw any pass us by and staff did not go out of their way to bring them to us. During the rehearsal, and again on the wedding day, we had family and friends come to us reporting that Charles seemed to have a grumpy demeanor. Although he was always very nice and accommodating to us personally, the feedback that we got was that Charles was presenting as annoyed and impatient when we were not around. It is important to point out that the mirrors supplied in the suites where the bridal party got ready were completely insufficient. They were thin, oval shaped, and small. They resembled antiques and some of us were joking that we couldn’t even fit our entire bodies into the view of the mirrors because they were so small. We included a picture of one of these mirrors so you can see for yourselves. We had to buy larger mirrors the night before and transfer them to the room, along with having our hair and makeup team bring their own mirrors. Being that the hotel holds several weddings a year, we would have hoped for more adequate mirrors since they are an integral part of the getting ready process. Finally, within a few hours after the wedding, a family member realized they forgot an important item in their hotel room and we also forgot a personalized wedding hanger in the bridal suite room that had our last name on it. We were both unsuccessful in getting an answer from the hotel about the lost items after calling several times. We finally physically went to the hotel and they had the hanger all along, stating that they forgot to call us back. Being that this was a personalized hanger that was left in our assigned suite, we’re not sure why the room wasn’t checked at the end of the night, or even in the following days, to ensure we had everything out of there. We’re not understanding how this slipped through the cracks, but are grateful we were at least able to get it back. Our best advice overall would be to visit the hotel a lot, ask all the questions you can think of, ensure your vendors are familiar with the venue, and be prepared that, despite trying to provide constructive feedback to the hotel afterwards, you may never get a response. Despite some of the negatives of our experience, we continue to advocate that the Madison Hotel is a fantastic location for a special event with a conservatory that is unmatchable! In our opinion, you will not find a more spectacular venue in NJ, but also be aware that the more meticulous you are about communicating all the details ahead of time, the better off you will be. Best wishes to you all!

l wedding. With the room already having so much greenery, we didn’t have to go crazy with flowers for the reception which was a major plus for us! We worked with Charles through the planning process and he was easy to work with. He was a little disorganized on the day of (kept trying to put my guest book in the wrong spot) but during the event itself he continued to check on me and made sure I was happy with how everything was going so overall it was a good experience. Our guests loved how unique the venue was. Using the conservatory, our options were to have the cocktail hour outside on the patio or in the newly renovated room underneath. We used the room underneath and it was a little tight but no one seemed to mind. It was more of a traditional cocktail hour with passed apps than the now-trendy cocktail hours with a ton of stations that feels like a full meal. However, the dinner served includes a pasta course and a salad course before the main meal, so people did not go hungry. Also, for the conservatory the bathrooms are down the hall, which I was nervous about but I added some signage and it was fine. It was also a huge plus that the venue is a hotel so we could have our after party right in the attached bar and we didn’t have to worry about shuttles. The only downsides of this venue are that there are multiple weddings in a night, so the rooms are limited and our block sold out quickly.