The Historic Ambassador House and Heritage Gardens Reviews

Our day was absolutely magical here! The grounds are immaculate, love the open vendor policy, and the staff is so quick to respond and answer any questions!

The only thing I wish was different was longer day of hours as we had to get ready off site and a more equipped grooms quarters!

We had my daughter’s wedding reception here and it was just perfect! Communication with the venue during planning was great - they always got right back with us and were very easy to work with! Gorgeous venue!

This venue is stunning! It brings the best of all worlds when considering an outdoor venue. The garden ceremony seems so intimate for you and your guest. The work they have done to make the tented reception area perfect for a celebration does not go unnoticed. No sinking into the grass! The staff/coordinators make sure you feel prepared and supported from the time you make an inquiry to the time you say I do!

My Husband and I are so happy we chose to have our wedding and reception at the Ambassador House and Historic Gardens! The house and grounds are immaculate and beautiful. We felt like we were in a huge room with just the perfect breeze, sunset, and not to mention the gardens themselves. Having the ceremony and reception in the same location was wonderful too. Kristen Henley and her staff at the house were very helpful and professional. We highly recommend this location for your wedding, reception, or any event!

Kristen and her team were so helpful from the very beginning. The team at the Ambassador house were there every step of the way during the planning process. They were very responsive and on top of all of the work that goes in to planning a wedding. The space is absolutely beautiful and the grounds are well kept. All of our wedding guests enjoyed their visit and still comment on how nice the house and gardens are.

I think most, if not all, of these reviews were made before Fishers took over the grounds. Sheryl is the main coordinator now that Fishers owns the grounds and she is amazing! She worked with us to make sure we had everything accounted for and to be sure we were on track with plans. She reminded us of payments to ensure we didn't accrue late fees and was very open and honest about the whole process. The grounds are maintained weekly to ensue the grass and plants look their best. The venue is a whole was absolutely beautiful for our October 2017 wedding and I know it's beautiful all year around (I drove by frequently to show friends)! I would plan my wedding here over and over again!

The Historic Ambassador House was absolutely wonderful for my daughters wedding two weeks ago. The views are breathtaking throughout the venues many gardens. I heard from family members and guests all stating this was truly a hidden gem that more people should really know about and support. The manager of this venue is an absolute delight to work with in the preparations before the wedding, and completely throughout the entire event. Love, Love, Love this venue and staff!

Ambassador house has the benefit of being a very flexible wedding venue, so you don't have to make alternate plans due to weather, you just move into the house or under the tent. So, there is less stress. Amazing space for various sizes of weddings, amazing for pictures, and really a value given the space, facilities and beauty. Kristin and Krista were very helpful and kept me on track. Plenty of parking, as well.

Great place to have outdoor wedding ceremony & reception. I had everything outside and the weather was perfect. Every guest loved the property.

Its a BEAUTIFUL house a perfect place for a wedding!

The wedding and reception were perfect and beautiful, we held both outside. Our pictures look wonderful and I can't imagine getting married anywhere else. Our guests had a wonderful time and so did we.

My overall advice is: If you are willing to do the work to organize and decorate your own wedding (or have a family willing to help out) then this is the place for you.

We got married at the Ambassador house on 6/17/16. We booked in January of 2015. during that time the City of Fishers bought the house and so the management of the property and staff changed hands. They also added a large tent, which we did not use because of the added cost. This created some issues with communication and information,which was frustrating, but by March 2016 I felt like everything was ironed out. We reserved the house and grounds for 12 hours on the day of the wedding. Know that when you reserve this venue, you are signing up to do most of the work yourself. This is the type of wedding my groom and I were looking for, but I know that DIY is not for everyone. All the rental is done through A Classic rental, which is a fantastic company and easy to work with. We were able to hire people to help us set-up and tear down chairs and tables. It cost, but was very reasonable. This was a service that the Ambassador house found for us and I am sure it has now become a regular part of their recommendations for brides. When we arrived for the rehearsal (on the day prior) all of our chairs and tables were set up and ready to go, which was nice. The next morning we arrived a little early and we were allowed to go ahead and decorate.

This is a new and unique venue. It's great for any bride who appreciates the outdoors and/or historic value. Wonderful ceremony site! We rented a tent for the reception in the back of the house and then had a cocktail hour inside the house. So many awesome places to take photographs!

Venue allowed us to use any vendors we wanted AND supply our own liquor (huge money-saver!). The only downside: city noise ordinance meant the party had to end by 10 pm (a bit early for us and our crowd), but since we had the venue for the entire day, we just had an earlier ceremony so we could party longer :)

I had my wedding at the Ambassador House on 5/23/15. I booked this venue in January of 2014. During the time that I booked and my wedding date there was very large staff turnover. None of the staff members are full time - they are all part time or volunteer. Be prepared to do EVERYTHING yourself. They do not provide any services. I literally rented a house and did everything else myself - they provided no help whatsoever. My issue with the AH is the lack of communication from the staff. I initially had paid to have my wedding on the lawn and less than a week before my wedding I found out that the grass was ruined and a mud pit. My wedding reception had to be moved to the parking lot right behind the ceremony space and right next to the dumpster. They knew about this issue for TWO MONTHS and didn't tell me till the week before my wedding. And they didn't even tell me - it was Mike from A Classic Rentals. There was confusion on how long I had access to the house the day before the wedding (which I paid for) some staff members said 4 hours and others said 6 hours. There were issues with moving some of the decorations inside the home and with the limited rentals that they have for use (didn't provide updated quantities). I would really suggest to other brides to evaluate how much of your wedding you are willing to plan yourself and how much of your actual wedding day do you want to coordinate. Our wedding coordinators from the AH literally sat upstairs ALL DAY. They only asked who they should talk to about cutting guests off from the bar if they thought they were too rowdy (actual question). This is a beautiful venue and my wedding was truly perfect - but the stress of dealing with AH was honestly not worth it. I could of gone someplace else for what they are charging and the cost of rentals. I would really suggest looking around at different venues.

We were very excited when we first booked here for our wedding ceremony/reception. We booked a year in advanced. When we were originally taken on the tour it was with a woman named Kerri. She was very informative about the property and what the policies were, etc. However the staff is very unresponsive and hard to get a hold of. Most of what Kerri had told us was then changed by other staff telling us what she told us was not right. We would not have booked here if we knew some of the things she told us wrong.
One requirement is to use A-classic rentals for tables chairs, linens and tents. The pricing always changed and what they originally told us changed. We were originally told that for the tent tables and chairs we would be charged around $500 dollars. Less than a month before the wedding (after it taking awhile to get a hold of Mike, the A-classic manager) we were told that for tables, chairs, and linens (for 75 people) and a tent would be $1,500 dollars. Since our wedding was on a Sunday they were charging us an extra $500 dollars. Mike was extremely hard to get a hold of and very unresponsive.
We were also told when we booked the venue that they were adding a cemented area with a tent that we could use (no charge). Once it was added in we were emailed asking if we would like to use it for the wedding, but they would charge us an extra $1,700 dollars. On top of the $3,000 dollars we paid to rent out the venue.
During our wedding (after we had the whole property rented for the day) there were people wandering the property "sight seeing". We had to keep telling people to leave. They were walking the grounds and going in the house where our personal items are. The employee on the clock for the day just sat in her office upstairs and did not do anything to help. We had to come and get her to have her help us get random strangers off the property. DO NOT book here unless you would like to have a headache throughout the whole process.

Cami was horrible to deal with, she is very unorganized and super forgetful. It was always a pain to reach out even to make payments. The venue is beautiful but not worth the stress.

Absolute horrific experience. My wife and I got married at The Ambassador House, managed by The Wellington. Cami has no business coordinating a wedding. She is disorganized, shady, unprofessional, holds no accountability, inexperienced, and personally seemed like she did not care about the most important day of our lives.

THREE days before our wedding, Cami sent an email saying she wouldn't be there the day of. She handed her "notes" over to another woman who didn't know anything about our wedding and left. Come to find out, Cami was overseas in Europe with friends and family on a vacation. That is something that takes month/s to plan, not three days.

Cami also messed up on multiple things and even cancelled some china we ordered (probably because she's so disorganized) which we didn't find out about till it was hours before the wedding. There are so many things I could complain about when it comes to Cami but it would take me pages to write.

All in all, I would recommend the Ambassador House to anyone getting married AS LONG AS Cami and The Wellington is not coordinating it. The Ambassador House is a beautiful venue. Just a shame is has to be ran by a company that is in complete shambles.

***The Wellington Fishers began managing this City-Owned venue on 1/1/2023. Any reviews prior are not relevant to The Wellington's Management of The Ambassador House.***
I want to preface this review by encouraging you to do your research and read all the Google reviews on this business, and read this one in its entirety. Working with Cami and The Wellington pushed us over the edge and this was the worst service industry experience ever making a trip to the BMV look like a dream vacation in comparison. This review is our 100% honest recap of our experiences. We share so others may not fall victim to these horrific and unethical business practices. We also want to share that we would not be writing this review had Cami, the owner of The Wellington, taken ownership for her mistakes, tried to make them right or apologized to us at all during the process.

We had our wedding reception at The Ambassador House in Fishers. This venue is owned by the City of Fishers. Cami and The Wellington have a contract with the city to manage and execute events at the venue. As a result of choosing this venue, we had to work with The Wellington catering and Cami as our event coordinator. Working with Cami was an absolute nightmare from day 1 and if we had to do it all over again we wouldn’t go near anything associated with The Wellington. Its unfortunate because The Ambassador House is a BEAUTIFUL venue and event space. If the City of Fishers continues their contract with The Wellington we would not recommend this venue.

Once planning started, all of our meetings we had to setup ourselves and had to press to get them scheduled. The first meeting in the fall of 2022 was supposed to be a linen meeting. We arrived at The Wellington and Cami wasn’t prepared and had zero linens to show us. She insisted that we would want to see our linens under the tent at The Ambassador House to get a better idea and that it would happen in the spring before our June wedding. She went on to state that this meeting was solely to pick out the linens we wanted to see at the meeting in the spring. In February 2023 at our group food tasting, Cami mentions to us that we need to have a linen meeting at The Wellington. We mentioned that she originally insisted on our meeting be held at The Ambassador House and she acted as if she hadn’t heard that before but agreed that it was a good idea. A few weeks after the tasting, we still hadn’t heard from Cami regarding the linen meeting, so we had to reach out to her to schedule ourselves. We reached out to confirm the day prior and heard nothing back. She ended up cancelling the day-of citing it was too cold outside and she “wore the wrong shoes for the conditions today”. My wife called her after receiving the email stating the cancelation to inquire why as she had taken off work to attend and Cami brought my wife to tears interrupting her and berating her for even questioning her last minute cancelation. In the service industry, you would think the event coordinator would look at the weather/prepare prior to the day-of. After we had some time to cool down from that experience, we reached out again to schedule a linen meeting for a third time expecting to see full linens of what we picked out at the first meeting back in the fall of 2022. We had to reach out twice via email to confirm this meeting. Of course, come to find out Cami shows up to The Ambassador house with none of what we originally picked out. When questioned about why she didn’t have the linens for us to see, she blamed us, stating that we changed our linens multiple times and she didn’t know what to bring. This is an absolute lie. We NEVER changed our linens or color scheme. When we tried to defend ourselves with this, we again, were met with hostility, her interrupting us and berating us. When this started to happen, the father of the groom stepped in to mediate as she interrupted the bride and mother of the groom already. Cami refused to answer simple questions or take ownership for her mistake and engaged in a shouting match with us, her customers. We ended up picking out linens from a small book with tiny swatches, never seeing the full linens until the day-of our wedding. Looking at them, we wouldn’t have chosen a couple had we had the opportunity to have an actual linen meeting.

During ALL of our meetings Cami was incredibly disorganized. It seemed as if she was taking notes, but when we would receive our proposals, nothing we talked about in the meetings was ever reflected. Because of her lack of detail, we were tasked to track it all ourselves, as we could not trust her to pay attention and make sure things would be taken care of. As a result, over a period of several months, it took 7 proposals for Cami to get everything correct. We can assure you, this was not because we changed our minds so many times.

It got to the point where Cami suggested we come in to hash everything out. We were skeptical of this initially as we wanted to keep all communication via email. Again, Cami exhibited her lack of communication skills by not replying for days and sometimes even weeks. She would create multiple email chains, not ‘reply all’ and not answer all of our questions, which in turn would cause confusion, leaving us no choice but to meet in person to work everything out. We requested one email chain and her to ‘reply all’ so that all parties could be kept in the loop, but she could not follow these simple requests.

The requested meeting was somewhat productive. At her request, we showed her inspiration photos of the way we wanted cocktail sashes to be tied and the way we wanted napkins to be folded. We discussed food options for the bride, as she has dietary restrictions, and discussed tables and bar pricing. Come wedding day, our setup team inquired about the napkins being set up incorrectly and Cami refused to fix them. Once she saw our friends fixing them, she finally jumped in to help. Additionally, our cocktail sashes were not tied the way we showed her either. Also, we were charged for Mediterranean chicken for our guests with dietary restrictions and day-of they were served chicken with no sauce even though at our previous meeting, we specifically stated we did not want that.

In the weeks leading up to our wedding after multiple requests, Cami finally sent us our venue layout with tables. We wrote in the table numbers for dietary and high chair references, but we also had to draw in our cards and gift table and guest book table as she left these off. After drawing these in, we emailed her the layout, our day-of timeline and certificate of insurance. She even confirmed receipt of these items. However, come the day-of the wedding it was apparent that she did not open or review these items as she had no idea where our cards and gifts table or guest tables went or what time anything was happening. By not reviewing or printing off these items, she asked our set up team multiple questions throughout the day, our DJ could never find her to ensure the buffet was ready for him to release tables for dinner, our cutting cake wasn’t put on the floor and our bridal party had to run it out right before grand entrances, and we had to personally find her to get the bottle of champagne we purchased for our toast. Because she could never be found, our timeline was delayed as a result. Had she prepared and printed the documents beforehand, this could all have been avoided.

After the wedding, several of our guests mentioned that the servers were extremely rude. We witnessed one of the servers walking by a guest, bumping into her and knocking her water glass out of her hand. The server did not stop to apologize, clearing knowing what she had done, even after we yelled out.

At the end of the day, our wedding reception went okay. However, reflecting on the last several months, we feel as though we were robbed of the joy of planning our wedding due to Cami. She is untrustworthy, unethical, defensive, and unapologetic to her customers. It’s unfortunate we write this review, but this is our story and we hope by sharing it in detail we can spare others from being robbed of the joys that come with planning for their special day.

Pros: The grounds are BEAUTIFUL, the house is quaint and lovely, open vendor policy
Cons: Once you're booked you get no response with questions, though they claim there contract is "written in plain english because they don't ever want to hide anything" we kept getting told of extra costs that we could not opt out of that made the grounds and stress not worth the $$, brides are expected to not only do all of the work but coordinate with other brides of that weekend or pay to book for the whole weekend, very snarky coordinator who thinks she planning her own wedding rather than listening to what you, the bride, actually wants.
My fiance had several disparaging remarks made towards him and the male gender for being "clueless" and "that he's just there for the money". Neither of us appreciated those comments. My fiance is just as much involved in our planning process as me and his opinions matter. To have someone who represents our wedding venue, and by extension our wedding day, make any negative comments about us, our wedding, or our ideas led us to believe this is not a place for our wedding.
We ended up pulling out less than a month after signing. We lost a bit of money doing so but after booking with a different venue, that monetary loss was well worth the stress free wedding we are looking at now.