Crowne Plaza Crystal City

Lauren Fritz was a pleasure to work with! She made planning a wedding extremely easy. She also gave me suggestions on vendors which helped as well. The food was amazing! We had a lot of hospitality folks at the wedding and everyone was raving about the food. That does not happen often at a wedding.    Everyone had a great time at the wedding. We took over the hotel for the weekend! It was very helpful to have the hotel shuttle available to take guests to and from areas in Crystal City. That is a great added feature of the hotel!  

Its so hard planning a wedding but Lauren Fritz at the Crown Plaze made it so easy for me! My wedding was beautiful it was my dream wedding I was so happy,Thank you so much Crown Plaze.

Lauren was an absolute delight to work with! She made the entire process of planning both our ceremony and reception seamless and stress free! My spouse and I would recommend her to ANYONE, and for any event. And in the area, there is no greater value for your money. The venue is gorgeous, and Lauren and her team really put in the effort to make it look memorable and amazing!

Lauren Fritz (Sales) was great. She responded very quickly to our emails and adjusted the room block as needed (especially to give us more double beds). The entire staff was great! Very helpful Front Desk Staff. The restaurant on site was a great place for us to hang out and eat and have a few drinks. The waiter was great with my sister's kids. The bartender there made the best dirty martini's I have had in a long time. Overall great experience with the hotel. They even gave us storage space in a cooler for the cake. Very friendly and helpful. I highly recommend this hotel.

We held our after wedding breakfast here. The attention we received in the planning stages was amazing! You'd think we were giving a reception for the president. The room looked beautiful, with elegant linens. The staff was very attentive. The food was delicious and nicely presented. It was perfect. I applaud the whole staff. I wouldn't hesitate to use this venue again

My wedding took place on 09/17/11 and I must say it was beyond beautiful and GORGEOUS! Lauren and Mauricio out did themselves!! I wanted my wedding to be amazing and memorable and they made this happen! I was able to be on budget. The chavari chairs were a must! The food was amazing, I was glad to be able to have the flexibility and asked the chef to make slight changes to the dish without a fuss! My guests could not stop stating how beautiful the reception room was! Lights around the reception room were a perfect touch! I highly reccommed having cocktail hour, I believe its a huge must! Hor'derves were delicious! All in all I believe my wedding was perfect! As mentioned before Lauren and Mauricio listened, understood, and met all my needs with enthusiam! Crown Plaza is the way to go! Thanks Lauren and Mauricio!!

Lauren Fritz and the staff of the Crowne Plaza Crystal City was AMAZING!!! They, especially Lauren, did EVERYTHING possible to ensure that our day went smoothly and was EXACTLY what we wanted. They worked seamlessly from the location of the ceremony (and a back-up ballroom if it rained) to changing the general menu choices to fit our eating restrictions. The day of the wedding, and pretty much all correspondence up until that day was stress free and enjoyable. I REALLY appreciate the hotel, but especially the LARGE asset they retain in Lauren and her optimistic, cheerful, "can do it all" attitude. We are a same sex couple from LA and were having a VERY difficult time finding a venue on the east coast that could/would accommodate us and all of the restrictions we had, including, but not limited to- LOCATION, style, colors, lighting, catering, cocktails, accommodations for family, etc- Lauren took the bull by the horns and welcomed us, with our modest budget, and threw a SPECTACULAR event that exceeded even our expectations. It was a WONDERFUL experience and anyone lucky enough to work with Lauren will realize what a treasure she is- especially during the nerve-racking, hair pulling, family nagging, "can we pull this off?" times. She truly took all doubts and worries out of the equation and made our day the BEST day ever. I HIGHLY recommend her, her talents, and the beautiful hotel to anyone looking for attention to detail, optimism, LOW STRESS, and PERFECTION all rolled into one for their big day. We will be eternally grateful.

We met with Lauren Fritz a year before our wedding and fell in love with her personality and enthusiasm for her job! About 6 months before the wedding we sat down with Lauren to decide on our menu choices for our sit down dinner. There we met Mauricio, a member of the event staff, who shared the same kind of personality and enthusiasm as Lauren. The meals we chose were the Horseradish encrusted salmon and the Chicken Roulade...they were amazing at our tasting and they tasted the same at our wedding! Lauren was unable to be at our side the day of our wedding, however made us feel totally comfortable with leaving us with Mauricio and Jessica (another event coordinator that she trained). Lauren did help with the set-up and made sure that everything was checked multiiple times before she had to leave, she was amazing!!!!! On the day of our wedding Mauricio did everything possible to make sure that our wedding reception was perfect! More than once, he asked us how things were and, in response to our "things are great!" answers, he would say "...but not excellent?" and would go off and do something amazing like bring us a cocktail from the bar. The service, the timing, the coordination, and the decorations were all excellent and, though we already had high expectations from this great staff, they consistently exceeded those expectations. We absolutely recommend the Crowne Plaza National Airport/Crystal City as a reception venue for your wedding. They are the real deal, the value was incredible, they were flexible and catered exactly to our needs, and, weeks later, people are still gushing about how amazing it all was.

The venue and staff surpassed all of our expectations. We live in Charlotte, NC so we did alot of planning remotely and Lauren Fritz the catering manager was very responsive and helpful in working with us to get everything organized and was very supportive and flexible in working through all of the details. We researched several venues in the Arlington, VA area and this was by far one of the best values and all of the staff down to the shuttle drivers were welcoming and kind to us and all of our guests. On the days leading up to the wedding Lauren was very reasurring about everything and made us feel very at ease about all of the things that needed to unfold leading up to the wedding day. She was great about connecting us to vendors and ensuring that all of the final details were in order. On the day of the event everything ran exceptionally smooth and the cocktail hour was beautiful and the appetizers were delicious. During the dinner we had wine service and a champagne toast that went great. A member of event staff Mauricio was also awesome all night ensuring everyone got the food that they wanted and ensuring everything from dinner to cake cutting ran smoothly. Overall everything went off without a hitch and the hotel and reception were beyond our expectations. We could not have been happier with the venue, Lauren, Maurico, and the food and drink. We would recommend this venue and staff to anyone who wants to feel like they have the space to be themselves, bring their ideas to the table, and receive exceptional service from the first contact all the way through the days and weeks after the event.

Although we didn't have our ceremony or reception at the Crowne Plaza Crystal City, we did decide that after setting up our guest room block for those from out of town, it would make a lot of sense to hold our rehearsal dinner at such a convenient location, not to mention the value! Finding a rehearsal dinner location for 50+ was the first challenge, but Lauren Fritz (who was wonderful to work with) provided us with multiple options ranging in formality. The simplest option ended up working the best for us because it saved me the trouble of taking menu requests even though we were still able to offer three options, and it was also the lowest cost for us. Most restaurants were going to run us over $2,000 and up to $4,000 for a package deal for 50 people. We were able to feed our guests for $1,200 and save enough to offer an open bar for the duration of the event! The Potomac Bar and Grille (the hotel restaurant where we hosted our event) manager Annabelle, was fantastic! We visited beforehand to taste the menu options and received complimentary dessert tasting, which was also included in our meal for guests, along with a salad. She even remembered my favorite drink from the tasting and brought me one the night of our event.

Lauren did an amazing job. She worked with me every step of the way, and was there to always answer thousands of questions that I threw her way. The ceremony came out beautifully, and so did the reception. The ballroom was set up exactly the way we pictured it, and the food was amazing. Mauricio and his team did an amazing job with our menu, they worked with us to personalize our dinner as much as possible (filet mignong/chicken plate) delicious and I wish I could have one right now. All of the staff was amazing, and on the day of the wedding for the ceremony Lauren was there to make sure everything went as smooth as possible. She worked closely with the DJ to ensure all announcements were done on time, and everything worked out great. I would recommend Lauren and Crowne Plaza to everyone looking for a great place and amazing staff for their wedding.

We tried to get a water-side venue but in the end booked Crowne Plaza just because of all the positive reviews concerning Lauren. We met her and she helped us out throughout the wedding planning process and the reviews were definitely right! She is enthusiastic and prompt with her responses. She's very cheerful and it really sets a good atmosphere to work in. We also got many compliments on the ceremony and reception site. The outdoor terrace was beautiful with greenery and Crowne Plaza's gold draping. There is some background noise from the hotel's a/c units so you definitely want to have speakers and mics for the ceremony. Here and there were planes from the nearby airport, but surprisingly, that bit wasn't as bad as we expected. To be honest, we didn't notice the background noise during the actual ceremony and though we did have one interruption from a plane, it was more of a laughable moment as the officiant waited it out for a moment. The ballroom for the reception had an "ooh~ aah~" factor with the guests as they entered the room. Especially with the uplighting along the walls, the room looked terrific. And the food was deceivingly excellent for its price. Comments were made to our parents saying that the food seems so expensive and that it must've costed our parents a fortune. In fact, prices were surprisingly reasonable and better than a lot of other venues. All in all, Crowne Plaza is pretty good as a venue though not necessarily phenomenal. What really makes this place a must is Lauren and her team. They truly go above and beyond with their services and one couldn't possibly ask for better people to work with during an otherwise frustrating planning process.

My husband and I are extremely happy with Lauren. She has been absolutely helpful and nice with all the times we spent talking, meeting, and exchanging emails. Not for a second that we were disappointed in the least bit. The outside wedding ceremony was amazingly gorgeous, thanks so much to Mauricio - such an extremely nice person. A million thanks to Lauren & Mauricio! We only regret not having the reception here.

We had no worries with Criwne Plaza Crystal City. The staff was great and everything was perfect!!!

Lauren Fritz and Mauricio are an excellent TEAM and then some! Our weeding was April 16, 2011, and was originally planned for an outdoor wedding, but mother nature had other plans. Lauren and Mauricio moved our venue to indoors and it turned out to exceed our expectations! From the floral arrangements to room decor and table set-up and decorations, everything was amazing. Our wedding day was made memorable through the hard work of these two and the entire waitstaff at the Crowne Plaza. The overall service provided was EXCELLENT, and definitely worth every penny! Thanks again to the entire Crowne Plaza of Crystal City TEAM! You all were awesome! Lauren was always proactive to any questions or concerns we had throughout the planning process. She was very detailed and thorough in her emails or phone conversations as well as our one-on-one meetings. She kept all parties, outside vendors, etc. updated on details for our special day.

We would highly recommend the Crowne Plaza Crystal City for those planning a wedding in the Metro DC area. We had the privilege of working with Lauren Fritz, Catering Sales Manager, at the hotel. Lauren is patient, enthusiastic, and highly responsive; everything you would want in someone working on your wedding. We had the opportunity to come in on different occasions to see actual room set-ups for events. This really helped us picture what our wedding could look like in the space. We loved the food tasting and planning out what cocktail hour would be for our guests. Lauren walked us through each step of the process. We picked out the linens, lighting, and even planned a private breakfast for our guests the morning after the wedding. The Crowne Plaza is just one metro stop (or a complimentary shuttle ride) from Reagan National Airport. The majority of our guests were from out of town, so having an affordable and convenient hotel for them to stay at was so important to us. The metro, shopping and dining are all within walking distance from the hotel. We received so many compliments on the look of our wedding, and our location choice. Everyone had such a wonderful time and we couldn't have asked for more!

We worked with Lauren Fritz of the hotel, who was an excellent coordinator for the event. The hotel was accomodating, responsive to any changes and requests we had, performed near flawlessly in switching the ceremony to the reception room, and did well with the food. They are also very good for their cost, convenient to transportation (DCA and Metro). We would highly recommend them.

I have nothing but wonderful things to say about the Crown Plaza's services. The food and drinks were delicious and plentiful, the servers were courteous and professional, all the set-up, clean-up, service, and transitions were done quickly and without fuss. Lauren Fritz was the coordinator for the event, and she was simply amazing. She is enthusiastic, warm, extremely responsive, flexible, and has a great eye for detail. She answered every email I sent within a matter of hours, and no request or question was too small or too silly. We met about a month before the wedding to discuss what I wanted as far as set up, centerpieces, flow of the event, etc. Lauren took perfect notes and asked all the right questions - the day of the wedding everything looked amazing and we didn't have to worry about a thing! After helping me through the wedding planning process, I would happily consider Lauren to be a friend! Mauricio was the catering manager the night of the event, and he was a huge help as well. The food came out quickly and everything tasted great. Service was wonderful and unobtrusive. Mauricio helped pack up all our gifts after the reception, and sent them up to our room with a bottle of champagne. He was great! I had SEVERAL wedding guests comment to me that this was the best, most well-orchestrated wedding they had ever been to. DC weddings and vendors can be so expensive, but we really feel like we got an excellent deal! I don't think you will find better quality for their price anywhere in the area.

So I woke up on 9/27/10 and got a crazy idea that I could plan a surprise wedding in less than two weeks. The event was going to be the surprise not the marriage. Neither one of us wanted to deal with the stress of planning a large event. Mostly because we have seen friends and family live through that unnecessary stress. But also because we both believe it's a huge waste of money to spend tens of thousands of dollars for a wedding.   By the end of the day my idea was looking pretty bleak. All of the places I called where either booked or where way over priced. Then I stumbled upon weddingwire.com and found the Crown Plaza. I sent an email and waited for a reply. It was early evening so I figured I wouldn't hear back until the following day.     Lauren Fritz replied promptly the following morning and we got the ball rolling. From her initial email to the follow up the day after the wedding Lauren was available by phone and email at the drop of a hat. Any concerns I had about pulling off the surprise where quickly put to rest after my first meeting with Lauren. It didn't matter that I have never planned a wedding. She knew exactly what to ask and by the end of that first meeting the only left to do was show up. Lauren even came in on her day off to meet with me to finalize everything and of course she was there the day of to ensure everything went smooth. After our initial meeting all I had to worry about over the next 11 days was how I was going to get my girlfriend into a dress on a random Sunday morning. I did end up asking if I could change the menu a couple days later and it was not a problem. I reserved the outside venue for the ceremony and the reception was inside. Lauren and her team did an amazing job setting up both.  The food was great and the staff was very accommodating to our guest requests. It is a great place and a reasonable price.  Lauren's salary should be doubled.                   

Lauren Fritz and Mauricio Cortez are the ultimate in professionalism. The service was excellent, the food tasting simply delicious, the decorations were very pretty, and the price was not over the top. They took the worry and stress out of my ceremony and reception planning. My guests were very impressed with everything, especially since I had about 60 days to get everything is accomplished. The ceremony and reception was so elegant and classy. Both of them always had a big smile and work very hard to please.