Inn at Darden Reviews

Plenty of genuine southern charm, architecturally unique and private location. All staff were super friendly and very helpful. And the food was delicious! Having the hotel room across the street was perfect for not having to get in the car and drive anywhere after the party. Highly recommend!

We used the Darden Inn as a secondary room block for our main hotel, Boars Head Inn. They were super easy to work with and provided a great rate for our guests. Those who stayed their loved their rooms! Darden Inn also does not (at least at the time of our wedding) require a deposit or minimum for room blocks--a huge plus over some other areas. The only downsides are that almost all of the rooms are single queens, not great for friends looking to share, and that if your fall wedding date happens to be on the same date as a home football game you may not be able to use them. But regardless, we highly recommend!

We found the Abbott Center (at the UVA Darden School of Business) after becoming frustrated with the very limited options in Charlottesville. We knew we didn't want a winery wedding, and we also wanted to showcase Charlottesville's unique culture and beauty to our mostly out-of-town guests. Thus, a generic ballroom was out. We're so grateful that we found Darden! It was an amazing experience for us and our guests. Their management focuses mostly on UVA events, and they are only just getting into the wedding market, so some parts of the planning process were a little difficult to navigate. Our event manager was also new to the business, so it was sometimes hard to work with her. But, the wedding weekend made it more than worth it! All of our guests stayed in a 45-room block at the Inn at Darden ($105 per night!!), within walking distance of the Friday night welcome event (at the Darden Pub), the reception (in the ballroom), and the Sunday brunch (also in the ballroom). It was early spring, so the grounds were absolutely GORGEOUS. Walk around the week before to see all of the gardens on the campus - so you can tell your photographer where you want to be photographed. The ball room itself is so classy, and very beautiful. Sandra, the dining room manager, is superb, and her staff provides exceptional service. We cannot say enough about how well everyone treated our guests - from the ladies at the front desk of the Inn, to the cocktail waiters, to the bartenders, etc. It was entirely first-class. We had our cocktail our in the South Lounge, which is gorgeous if you can get it. Our photographer climbed up to the rotunda, to got a shot looking down over us and all of our guests. If you're looking for a Charlottesville venue that's "Charlottesvill-y" without being "too UVA" (I work there, but neither of us are alumni), definitely check out Darden!!

Darden was a great, beautiful spot to host a wedding. We had to move our site indoors due to the rain forecast, and they were very flexible with us. The food was a bit pricy, but in contrast, the space paid for the venue itself was very affordable. Everyone loved the food as well. KD (banquet manager) was very accommodating during the process. There were a couple of things discussed that did not all come together on the day of, but the Abbott Center dining staff were exceptional in helping get the last minute things together. They were definitely the highlight for me.

We had an overall good experience with Darden. Darden is the business school at UVA and the spaces are GORGEOUS! Lots of natural lighting in the ceremony space we chose and was spacious as well. The facilities managers made themselves available to us and allowed us to make any changes to room set-up we needed in order to accommodate our vision for our wedding. They worked well with our budget to help us adjust the menu. On the day of the wedding, we were able to set-up a few hours before and they handled take down. We were able to pick up our decorations the next day at our convenience. My only critique would be better communication between the facilities personnel and the chef/wait staff. For example, we were supposed to have nonalcoholic beverages served to include lemonade, sweet tea, and sodas but our guests were only offered water. It also wasn't made clear to our guests that they had the option of an alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage during the toast. All of that said, we would have still chosen Darden but maybe empowered our guests to ask for included menu items.

I am dividing this review into multiple parts because of how different my experience was in three areas: 1. The actual wedding day-FLAWLESS, amazing and better than I could imagine. Beth set up the room so well, waiters and bartenders were wonderful, atmosphere at Darden was great and all went according to plan. This is what matters most, right? 2. The actual hotel (Inn at Darden) experience was TERRIBLE: I was getting ready in a conference room before the ceremony and told my close friends the room number, but the staff refused to show my friends where I was and would not help them find the room (this happened to 4 of my friends that arrived separately). When the groom and I arrived, the front desk staff complained about how we had 85 gift bags (they said "ugh where are we going to put all these" and even rolled their eyes!) instead of being thankful guests had booked 85 rooms with them. The mother and brother of the groom tried to check in early on THE DAY OF THE WEDDING and they REFUSED to give them assistance and told them there was a locker room they could use. They did absolutely nothing to make the room or day special for the bride and groom, not even a thank you note or congratulations card. Multiple guests reported the front desk staff was rude and I felt this way multiple times when I went there to do tastings and on our wedding weekend. Absolutely terrible service. I would expect a hotel to bend over backwards for a bride and groom that gave them business, but they did the complete opposite. It was some of the worst hotel service I have ever experienced and it happened repeatedly on several of our visits. 3. The planning process was awful. We changed event planners 3 times in one year with each planner not having the information or telling contrasting information from the previous person. Prices were changing left and right, what was included for free suddenly became a charge. They did not respond to emails for A MONTH despite numerous attempts on my end. Even three weeks before my wedding they took TEN DAYS to respond to my inquiries. I gave them the final head count of 188 and they charged me for 200. When I called to get it corrected, they sent me the next draft with a charge for 250! I cannot even explain the many frustrations I had dealing with Darden as a vendor. All in all, if you have patience, get everything in writing and don't expect good service at the hotel, give this a go. The actual cocktail hour, reception and farewell breakfast went off without a hitch. But be patient and expect some mishaps along the way.