None of it would have been possible without Linea, the event manager, at 21C. When we first met her we knew we were in good hands. She stayed in touch regularly while designing the menu and table layout in the space. She took care of everything perfectly during the pre-ceremony, cocktail hour, and room flip. She addressed any issues without needing to add more stress to our busy day.

If you event is int he 80 - 120 number of wedding guests, the 21c team are just great pros at what they do. Great venue. Food and drink were raved about by our guests. Every question or service need we had was quickly and expertly responded to by the 21c team.

Our wedding at the 21C Durham was beyond everything we had hoped and planned for! The staff was professional, accommodating, and helpful at every turn. There were so many venues in the area with hidden costs and piles of rentals necessary and we were blown away by the straight forward and easy process with the 21C. Many of our guests were out of town and the ease of the venue was perfect - guest room block was managed incredibly, ceremony in the main gallery, cocktail hour in the curated museum, and back to the main gallery for dinner and dancing. They managed a bridal breakfast, special touches for my husband and I throughout the day, and courteous and professional staff at every corner of our event! Not the mention the incredible food from The Counting House. My husband and I visited in the summer for a birthday dinner where they recognized us as booking an event, we spoke to the chef, and he remembered not only meeting us when our tasting time came - but he recalled my food al... Read morelergies as well. Top notch service! Thank you to the 21C for making our wedding so memorable!

This venue is EVERYTHING! I held my wedding there and I got so many compliments on it. The reception hall was breath taking and required very little decorating. The art gallery where we held cocktail hour was held made it easy for guests to mingle and talk about the art. Everyone thought the bathrooms were a hoot. My pictures are going to forever reflect our relations unique style because our backdrop of the venue was amazing. The food was unreal good and we got the cheapest buffet option available. They even made up a special dish just for the wedding. We rented the penthouse suite as the bridal suite and it was perfectly sized to get 9 bridesmaids and me in makeup and hair done. I really can’t enough about how much we enjoyed our wedding here!!

I NEVER give 5 Stars across the board, but the staff and facilities @ 21C were over the TOP! Listen to their advice about wedding vendors - they have terrific local partnerships. The food is farm to table and our guests couldn't stop raving about it. The modern art is everywhere you turn, so your photography will be beyond special. Outstanding service from the planning all the way through the event/reception was stellar - top notch.

21c is many steps above all the rest. Eclectic, modern artsy fun captivating. If you want a very different type of venue to impress your guests and have them leave wanting to come back for more THEN 21c is the venue for you. Chef prepared meals, farm to table, flexibility and amazing great culinary dishes that leave you wanting a doggie bag to bring home to saviour the taste for the next day. The staff is super attentive and made our guests feel extra special. Our event surpassed our biggest expectations and is still being talked about by our guests that were blown away by the whole romantic intimate ambience (vault for drinks, Museum for canapes, ballroom for dinner). Can't say enough because the staff is just as great as the food and as the intimate atmosphere that surrounds. Thanks 21c for making our day so AMAZING

We got married at 21c Durham the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The food was AMAZING. The main gallery space for the ceremony and reception were beautiful, and the acoustics in the main gallery space were suprisingly great. We loved how cocktail hour was upstairs in the art gallery space. The art installation had recently changed, and we felt that it really fit both of our personalities. Our guests were mainly from out of town and they LOVED the venue too. We could not have asked for anything better. The only drawback was that there was a fair amount of turnover in terms of who was in charge of event planning, so it would take a while to get a response in regards to our questions.

I had my wedding guests stay here, and we used the hotel as a home-base for my wedding weekend. Unfortunately, several guests complained of poor service, erroneous room charges, and excessive construction noise. Further, at least three guests had money stolen from their rooms. I know this happens, but what shocked me was management's total lack of response in handling the issue. They ignored complaints and played the run-around with guests that followed up on the issue. After a month, only one guest continued to follow up doggedly- she was finally put in touch with someone who addressed the problem. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. No one has time to follow up week after week trying to speak with someone regarding theft. I cannot recommend this venue. Why add incompetent management to your list of potential wedding weekend worries?

21c was a beautiful venue, and we had our cocktail hour in the 2nd floor gallery and our reception in the main gallery. My husband wanted a space with a more modern (rather than rustic) feel, so 21c became a clear choice as we visited other venues. It is definitely on the pricier side of venues in the area, but we felt that it was mostly worth it. Our guests were impressed with the modernity of the venue, and really enjoyed the gallery and the vault. Our guests also raved about the food. 21c was super accomodating in that aspect, and even our guest with an egg allergy had something delicious to eat. My vegetarian friends kept on telling me how much they appreciated the veggie options we had. We also got ready at 21c, and those made for beautiful photos. Our wedding block was at 21c, and Marissa was exceptional. Eli was helpful as well, but I had more interactions with Marissa and she was very very responsive and attentive. I will echo the other reviews in that communication was... Read more difficult. We had three different event managers over a 10 month period, and our last one suddenly quit. We were not notified about her departure until I called the hotel one month before our wedding day. We did have our second sales manager, Celia, back again. Celia was helpful, professional, and flexible with our requests, but we generally heard from her anywhere between a few days to a week. We did have to rent other chairs for the space instead of the black office chairs that are included. There was some confusion amongst the staff in terms of the rental company picking up the chairs, but Celia was able to handle the situation without my having to worry too much about it. In the end, my husband, our guests, and I had an enjoyable time at 21c. We agreed that we would not want our reception anywhere else, and would go back to 21c again though we would be prepared for some patience with communications.

I love the venue itself with the changing art galleries plus the Main gallery is gorgeous. The price of the venue is comparable to others in the Durham area. We experienced some horrible service from the staff, they changed out event coordinator 3 times, but didn't tell us.I would be contacting one and they would tell me they were no longer in charge of working with me but it was another person, who had taken the job a few weeks ago but never contacted me. It would take up to a week or longer to get a response to an emails.They never returned any of my calls except when I went to the corporate level. They handled the wedding as if it was any other event instead of one that is highly emotional giving standard hotel responses to questions. They made several big errors among many small ones. One was booking another event in the wedding space that would have ended two hours before our wedding, even though I had it in writing that we would get the room by 10 am for set up. We found... Read more this out two weeks before the wedding in an email. I had to go to the corporate level to get anyone to respond to me and fix this issue. They also could not guarantee a room for the bride to get ready in up until the day of the wedding. They told me on rehearsal night they still did not have the room for me to get dressed in. When they were flipping the room from ceremony to reception the staff ended up getting some of my family members and guests to help put out tables and decor. This is unacceptable! They changed items on the menu we selected and we didn't find out until the dinner was being served. This was very disappointing. Now some of these things they made up for by working with me but there were many tears and it was a lot more stress then was necessary. Over all if you are willing to be on top of them in making sure they follow up then go for it the art galleries are amazing plus the vault was very nice for the groomsmen to get ready in.

21C was an amazing venue! My wedding and reception were absolutely beautiful and the Main Gallery's natural beauty was a highlighting factor. The only issues I experienced were long waits for responses and my cake was barely cut. They charge a $150 cake cutting fee, but we brought a whole layer untouched and over half of the layer they did cut back home. I would much rather my guests got the chance to enjoy instead of having to toss it all. Other than that, AMAZING venue! I would have my wedding and honeymoon night here again in a heartbeat.

21c offers a beautiful and unique space for weddings. It is more expensive than the average venue in this area, but the food is good and the Main Gallery is gorgeous. The art is unique and changes every six months or so. The hotel rooms were very comfortable for our guests and 21c graciously upgraded our rooms whenever possible. They also sent a gift of strawberries and champagne to my room the morning of the wedding. Unfortunately, 21c has a long, long way to go before being a customer-oriented business. My husband and I experienced serious issues with 21c staff throughout our planning process, and received poor service and communication from almost everyone we interacted with, ranging from the GM to the sales people. After voicing concerns numerous times over our 12 month engagement, we received a lot of promises but very little follow-through. There was a lot of unnecessary stress and tears shed on my part, which is a shame. All of our other vendors were fantastic. Luckily,... Read more we had a wonderful wedding day and the day-of coordinator, Celia, did a great job. However, the day after our wedding, 21c experienced "credit card authorization" issues which resulted in my credit card being charged twice in sums totaling $5,600, with no warning at all. The charges were ultimately reversed but it was incredibly frustrating to have that sum of money being held on my credit card when I needed to finalize payments with my other vendors. In conclusion, our wedding day was fantastic, but people considering 21c should decide for themselves if the stress and heartache is worth it.

We loved having our wedding at 21C Museum Hotel. While the initial booking, etc. was a little difficult due to changing staff, once things got set and we began working with Eli (room blocks) and Celia (event manager), everything went very smoothly. Communication was a little slow, but we always received answers to all of our many questions within a week or two. Our guests LOVED the venue. It is so unique to the Durham area and it was so fun to be surrounded by art (and pink penguins!). The food was DELICIOUS and the day went off without a hitch. Our guests were so impressed with the venue and how unique it was. Truly the best day and I am so happy with our decision to hold this important day here.