Duke Chapel Reviews
Reviews
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4.2 out of 5 rating
4.2 out of 5 rating
17 Reviews
84% recommend it
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![BohoRN2017]()
Ivy Sent on 12/29/2017Duke Chapel was my dream wedding venue. I've been wanting to get married there since I was in 3rd grade. I got married in November so I did not have to camp out, I was able to get my first choice date and time by showing up the day Nov '17 dates opened.
There are a lot of rules but I found most of them easy to work with. The Chapel staff were very easy to communicate with prior to the wedding. The organist has several clips of music online making it easy to choose.
Nancy was my wedding director and she was fabulous. She was friendly, organized, and ensured our wedding ran smoothly. Her assistant was also extremely nice and helpful. I chose vendors who had previously work at the Chapel before so I think that helped a lot.
Originally I wasn't going to have any flowers since the Chapel is already beautiful and large arrangements can be costly. The flowers for Sundays service arrived early and Nancy was so kind to ask if I would like to use them for my ceremony.
Parking can be a bit of a challenge. They give you 30 passes for the front which I handed out to guests, I picked them up a few days early. You can purchase vouchers to cover costs for the parking deck but they are a bit of pain to pick up at the parking office. I had our program attendant hand them out.
Overall, very happy with my decision to get married at the Chapel. I found the price very reasonable for what was included, esp. compared to some of the other ceremony venues/churches in this area. -
![Stephanie]()
Stephanie Sent on 01/28/2015I have always known that I wanted to get married in Duke Chapel, and I finally did in January! :) It is the most beautiful, reverent venue and I would recommend it to anyone that is considering it!
Sara and Blanche were amazingly organized and helpful throughout the planning process! They gave me checklists, reminders, and example programs which was all such a huge help! I cannot thank them enough for all of their support over the last eight months! -
User1424916 Sent on 11/06/2013Incredible! Gorgeous chapel and amazing staff! -
![Liliana]()
Liliana Sent on 10/18/2012The venue is beautiful and they provide very professional service. -
User914467 Sent on 08/28/2012The Duke Chapel is a fairytale wedding venue, and it made my wedding a dream come true. I got married there in March and was thus lucky that spots were actually quite available (although I recognize that this venue is quickly booked in other months)!
Our Wedding Director Blanche was so amazing. She is an incredibly nice woman--I could talk to her forever! She made the rehearsal a breeze with no work needed to be done by us, and she even bonded with my groomsman on our wedding day.
Our organist Jane was perfect--the organ was a big hit, and my husband's love of the organ was a big reason we chose the Chapel. It is really unparalleled in the area.
The one mark I put down above about responsiveness was just concerning the Wedding Coordinator Meredith, who often did not respond to emails. Blanche and Jane were incredibly responsive and pleasures to work with! -
![Des+Si]()
Despina Sent on 07/20/2011Had there been a 'star' category unrelated to service the rating would have been much, much higher.
What ruins this beautiful venue is the "gatekeeper": The Meredith that the other 5/28/11 bride talks about above. She never responded to my regular gmail account email; it was only when my now-husband emailed her from his duke account with this administration signature on it. I sent several, got nothing. He sent one, got a reply within an hour or so. NOT ACCEPTABLE, especially when someone needs to have a duke connection to even have a wedding there.
Apparently she recently replaced the woman who was giving them a horrible reputation before, though I would argue there haven't been any steps out of the hole and forward. For example, we stressed we really wanted the 6PM ceremony time slot but she told us it was gone. When we met with Blanche in April the 6PM slot was open!! Another example, Meredith told us early on the mid-day and latest rehearsal time slots were available, not the early evening one. So we took the late evening one and worked out a late formal dinner around it... Well we found out in a meeting with Blanche in April she double booked us. After days of waiting she told us that luckily the other bride said she was happy to switch (I'd like to know if that's even true!). Had it not been the case I don't know what we would have done already having sent out formal invitations for the dinner and members of the wedding party already having made work and flying/driving arrangements accordingly. It's just not the additional overhead a couple needs in the month before the wedding. Other cons are that they are very strict (no flower petals, no guaranteed rehearsal parking, a ridiculously long rule packet, wont let you list your own wedding planner alongside theirs in the programs, will kick you out or at least make you feel like your time is done when the end of your slot starts to near (not good on hot days!)), cashed my check over two months after I gave it to them, and obviously the accountability, scheduling and response issues listed above.
I must also say Blanche was very, very sweet but the day of the rehearsal and ceremony she was too pushy and had little patience it seemed. That was an unfortunate way to see her because she was absolutely lovely before then- I mean sweet as can be, emailed us back promptly, helped out tremendously, everything.
HOWEVER, that all said, the chapel is too beautiful though to turn down if you can make it work! It is gorgeous and you will fall in love with the pictures.... I wish they would just realize the things/people that cause undue stress and fix them so that there will one day only be positive things to say!! -
User524129 Sent on 04/15/2011I'm not sure the rating scale gives me sufficient options for our experience at the Chapel. The Chapel is not flexible, we had terrible trouble communicating with them, and it's expensive. But our wedding coordinator, once she was finally assigned, was wonderful, and as inflexible as the Chapel seems, she certainly did not put any extra pressure on us. The Chapel is also stunningly beautiful; I can't imagine getting married in a more elegant place. We would do it again in a second.
A couple pieces of advice. First, I thought writing, as the Chapel requests, "Please do not take photographs" was a bit cheeky, but unfortunately, we had a number of guests take pictures and get in the way of our actual photographers, who were bound to follow the rules and stay behind a certain point in the Chapel. Make sure to put in your program that the guests not take pictures!
Also, the timetable at the Chapel is very very tight, and I'm not sure we got all the pictures we wanted.
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