Coral Gables Woman's Club

Beautiful venue, helpful staff, great place to have an event. We attended the Edgar Allen Poe literary cocktail event there and the grounds were perfect for this. The event was held in what looked like a chapel or an old stone building. My only complaint was that they had the A/C up too high but that was remedied when the staff was informed by other patrons. I don't know how much it cost, or how difficult it is to book since I was just a guest. But this place is absolutely stunning and the historical aspect made it an interesting place to host an event.

My daughter picked this historical building Coral Gables Woman Club for her wedding reception and what a good choice. Located in the heart of Coral Gables beautiful residential community with it's picturesque natural areas and trees. There is plenty of free parking on location and on the street. Reception hall had comfortable air conditioning even when the wedding reception was full with people actively dancing and having fun. Building itself looks vintage Spanish construction to match residential area and is clean and well maintained. Event went very well and food was the best I've had at a wedding. Everything went super well as bride, groom, family and friends were all happy at this important celebration. Highly recommend this place for business, wedding receptions and party celebrations.

On 11/11/23 I went to a wedding there where we had chosen our meal beforehand. The options on the invitation were filet mignon and sea bass. Wow sounds nice! Of course there were to be horsdoeuvres. We arrived after the wedding at 4:30. We were told to "wait in our cars" bc the venue would not open until 5pm. Then when they were ready to open we walked up to the table numbers that were written on what seemed like post-its on a wall of a shelving unit from Home Depot. Ok I'm at table 4 it looks like. We go inside, no table numbers. We had to ask the planner where our table was. When the bar opens we go up and ask for a drink and they say only wine and beer until 6, after that other options. I stuck with the Prosecco. Now the hors'doeuvres, if you you didn't eat meat, there was only one appetizer that came out once which was a cracker with some artichoke on it, actually that had prosciutto. The "veggie" option was tomato and mozzarella on a toothpick. They were all so tiny that they were all one bite. To give you an idea, one was a burger with a pretzel bun. It was 1/4 of a slider so you basically held it with your thumb and pointer. I heard the bride ask for another one and they were like sorry there's no more. There was only like 1 per person so if you missed it, that was it. Ok now I just want my sea bass. I love sea bass and haven't had it in so long! Food starts coming out and they start placing the plates on the tables. I'm like hmm weird, how do they know what people ordered? They bring me a plate with churrasco, fried potatoes and about a pound of carrots, I hate carrots...Im like no, I ordered the fish. They said "this is all there is!" I was like what?! The bride's sister was at my table and she doesn't eat neat so she basically ate a few bites of the veggies. Wow what a disappointment. Luckily I had a lot to drink so I just ate it, even the carrots bc I was so hungry. I had been waiting to eat at the wedding but that was a mistake. The bride says well the food got messed up or we didn't order this. I was like "get your money back!" Oh and they started passing out cake when we didn't even see the cake on display! We had no idea what it even looked like when it should have been inside the venue. The bathrooms you use are shared with another event so you run into random people you don't know. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere. So many other options. It's not worth risking one of the most important days in your life.

If you're planning an event at this venue, good luck on reaching them. I called multiple times, weeks apart and gave my contact information to the person who answered the phone. The last time that I called, they reassured me that I would get a call back by the end of the day. Here I am, weeks later with no call. I highly suggest that you find another venue with proper communication because this is not it.

MANUELA at Coral Gables Woman's Club is very unprofessional. It is disheartening that MANUELA, the main contact at this venue is so unprofessional and mistreats her clients by not responding to emails, phone calls and her promises. My fiance and I had to go in person twice, to see her and she lied that she would provide the requested proposal. She purposely gave us a wrong personal telephone number and I have yet to hear from her. She brings a BAD name to this location and it's services.

In the 1920's, during Florida's land boom years, women's clubs were formed as a way to give back to the community with civic projects. They became an outlet for women to get out of the house and to assert their independence by allowing them to get involved in politics during a time when they were expected to be homemakers. Women's clubs helped to launch the women's rights movement.

The Coral Gables Woman's Club was founded in 1923. They joined the local Dade County Federation of Women's Club and the national General Federation of Women's Clubs. In 1927, the club organized the first library in and housed it until the city was able to build one.

In 1929, a junior woman's club was created and it became the Coral Gables Junior Woman's Club in 1936. Both clubs worked on civic projects to promote literacy, education, and health to improve the community. The Junior Club started a children's dental clinic in the clubhouse. It closed in 1944 during WW II but reopened in the fall of 1946. In September of 1957, a stand alone dental clinic was built. Since first opening its doors in 1939, the dental clinic has helped over 40,000 children in Miami,

Land for a clubhouse was donated by the city of Coral Gables. Under CGWC Mrs. Louis Langford and Junior President Mrs. Alexander Orr, 10,000 dollars was rased for a clubhouse. They worked with the city and the WPA to build their clubhouse in 1936 at 1001-1009 East Ponce de Leon Blvd. The building was designed by noted South Florida architect H. George Fink. It was built out of oolitic limestone coral rock from a local quarry. This was the first WPA project in Coral Gables. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. Historic marker F-895 was installed in front of the club in 2016.

Past club President Dorothy Thomson became the only woman mayor of Coral Gables in 1985. Through the years the history of the Coral Gables Woman's Club is entwined in the growth of Coral Gables. The historic clubhouse has been renovated and can be rented for private events like weddings. Proceeds from the rentals is used to support the dental clinic.

BE AWARE. VERY unprofessional staff.
The venue is beautiful but the person they have dealing with customers is unprofessional and don't expect to get anything you need from her.
MANUELA. During the entire process of my wedding preparation she offered to provide assistance with floor plan and was never done. Never answers her phone. I basically had to show up in person while calling her and the phone was ringing next to her and she doesn't pick it up. It has been 3 months from my wedding and I am trying to get my security deposit back. She always has an excuse and doesn't give me the deposit.
Be aware. This is stealing and very unprofessional.

I was referred to this venue by a friend who helped me plan my wedding. I loved everything about the space! It was exactly what I wanted for my romantic fall wedding. The only issue I had was with management. Terrible.

1. Don't bother calling because they're only open between 2-6, anything outside of that time frame is answered by a call service that rarely relayed messages.

2. I struggled getting in touch with the woman who manages the property on a day to day basis, Manuel Salcedo. Once I submitted my first payment it was like pulling teeth getting my questions answered. For example, night before the wedding we did a run through with my caterer and realized the ice machine was not turning on. Texted Manuela, nothing. Following day spoke with her & she assured me she would come to the property to take care of it. Never showed. Thankfully my caterer and her team found another ice maker hours before the event started.

3. My deposit was never returned. I called and called and sent messages but nothing! I had to find out second hand why they withheld it. It took two months before I finally got word from my caterer. Ridiculous. I mean, I didn't mind the struggle to get I touch with Manuela, the miscommunication along the way, the unmet expectations- but the withholding & silence regarding my deposit (for both halls)- I had it.

This venue is beautiful & from what they told me, their profits are donated to community agencies (which was a win for me). It's a shame- all the work leading up to the special day was truly tainted by unprofessional staff & an unwillingness to be transparent.

Book if you're working with a wedding planner or someone who can absolve the headache of working with the staff here; otherwise I would look elsewhere.

The venue is AMAZING!!! But, the management, sadly... is a NIGHTMARE. I booked the venue in June 2020 (during covid) for a January 2021 wedding. The venue is only open certain days of the week between 2-6pm. They have a call center that answers phone calls, I went ahead and paid the deposit in June, I would call to speak with the person in charge (Manuela) and no response, I promise, I left about 30 voicemails thru the call center and I did not receive ONE phone call. Fast forward, to about October, I finally was able to show up to the venue and ask Manuela what was going on, and what she thought would be happening with my wedding (venues were closing, and nothing was certain). Manuela then suggested I wait till after the elections to move forward. I wasn't able to send save the dates or anything at this point. Elections came and went and I proceeded on with save the dates, invitations, etc. When I met with Manuela she gave me a pamphlet with some vendors that the venue worked with. I basically did EVERYTHING on my own. I went to the cake places on my own, the linens, any and everything that was needed to be done I did. I know Manuela is not a wedding planner, but she's a manager, and she at no point "managed" ANYTHING! The told me at the beginning she would give me the information to the Dj, cake place, linens, and everything else I needed and NOTHING. I had to google all the places, make the appointments and go. When I went to visit the place for the rentals (linens and chairs HAVE to be done thru them) I spoke with Pascual (the owner) and the first thing he told me was Manuela hasn't told me anything about your wedding (this was about the last week of October).If I would've waited for her to contact me about anything, I honestly, would probably still be waiting. About the last week of November I received a voicemail from her telling me my date was coming up and we needed to have the final meeting... what final meeting if all we had was the first meeting. Every time I called or texted her it was either no answer, or an excuse, I would show up to the property and even though her car was there, nobody opened the door. I had to go as far as emailing the president of the Woman's Club to see how I could get in contact with her, and even then it took about 3 weeks after to speak with her. This venue is BEAUTIFUL, but honestly, if I would've known the stress I would've encountered with all this, I would've taken my business somewhere else. This is supposed to be a happy and exciting time and I guarantee you, it was not because of the headaches I experienced with her. They have a sister venue, La Jolla that manages the food and some other things. THANK GOD, I was able to get in contact with them and had to do my tasting there, which is where I met Yanelle and Betsy. Literally, the most amazing two people EVER. Yanelle is the one who I dealt with moving forward after the tasting, she's the one who told me who I needed to speak to about what, she pointed me in the right direction of the DJ (which I had no idea I had to pay the difference, even though the package said he was included). Aside everything else from Manuela, there are really no complaints. The DJ was AMAZING, I filled out the questionnaire and he gave us exactly what we wanted. I didn't do any décor thru the venue, all of my décor was thru SuzanneMichael , the rentals were from A touch of class, and the cake was from cake lounge. Because of the issues I had with Maunela, I let Yanelle and Betsy know I didn't want to deal with Manuela anymore and I didn't feel comfortable and most importantly didn't trust her handling my special day. The Woman's Club is a beautiful venue, but the headaches are definitely not worth it. It's such a shame that one person spoils it. I sadly, will not be referring anyone to this venue and have no problem telling anyone how my experience was and the headaches I went thru.

Attended a wedding here. The cocktail room is pretty outdated it needs some remodeling. There was only one bar in each room which was annoying because it was a large wedding so there was a pretty consistent line. The main room where the actual reception was held was beautiful. The food was pretty bad though. If it weren't for how pretty the reception room was I probably would've given less stars