Cincinnati Museum Center

ze depending on the size of your party. We settled on doing our ceremony in the Cafeteria, the Cocktail Hour in the Natural History Museum and our reception in the Grand Rotunda. Having the ability to set up bars inside an exhibit with dinosaur fossils and actually have our guests experience the museum during our event was a big reason why we chose the venue. Unfortunately, we ended up having our wedding in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and our plans had to change drastically. Based on the guest size of our event, and the social distancing guidelines, we had to move our entire event into the Grand Rotunda. We were really looking forward to being able to move to different areas of the museum, but we knew that we had to do what would be safest for our guests. The Rotunda is a gorgeous room, but people will caution you about the sound and potential echo in this space. We found that using the Museum Center's sound system during our ceremony worked perfectly and we did not have any issues. Our DJ however, did not have a good setup for the space, and people had a hard time hearing speeches if they were sitting away from the DJ's speakers. I would recommend using the Museum's sound system for as much as you can. It worked great. We had originally scheduled our wedding for May 2020, and then decided to move it to October 2020. This process was obviously a little daunting because we were unsure of whether or not we would be able to move our event, or if we could be refunded deposits that we made for the different event spaces that we had planned to utilize. Cincinnati Museum Center, and Caroline Calhoun especially, were amazing to work with however. Caroline was our main contact with the museum and no matter how many times we had to reach out to her with a last minute change or a new request, she handled everything amazingly. We inundated her with questions and she remained organized, helpful and was always quick with her responses. Our event would not have been a success without her. When having an event at the Museum Center, one thing that you should know is that you will have to utilize their catering service for your event. The food was delicious. We chose to go with one of the buffet options, but we talked with the catering coordinator, Caitlin Davis, about substituting a entree from another option, and adding a beer that was not part of one of their bar packages, and she was more than happy to work with us to ensure that we were able to get everything that we wanted. She also had to endure numerous questions and requests in the lead-up to our wedding, but was always friendly and willing to work with us. As for pricing, I would say that the catering costs were a little higher than I was expecting, but the price to rent out the spaces was less than I would have thought based on comparable options in the area, so overall it's probably a wash. Overall, our wedding was very different than we had originally planned due to COVID-19, but the Museum Center went out of their way to ensure that we could have the best day possible. We have nothing but positive things to say about the Cincinnati Museum Center team, specifically Caroline and Caitlin, and how great they were to work with.

as it matched the Art Deco style of my ceremony location. Overall my reception was beautiful and our food was great, but we had communication issues. Communication with Caroline and Kayla was not always great. Caroline failed to tell me that they had special hours during the holidays. So when I chose my reception times it was supposed to start when the museum was closing. However, due to the holidays my reception started while the museum was still open to the public. Besides not being told the holiday hours, the contract you sign for them has blurry/chunky font making it difficult to read. In the contract, the bride/groom is referred to as “the organization” which is confusing since the couple is not an organization but the museum is. This lead to a communication issue between Caroline and myself as 6 days before my wedding I was asked to produce insurance covering the wedding since it was a requirement mentioned in the contract that “the organization” would provide. Kayla was the person who was our point of contact for catering. I was given one date to come in for a tasting. One date. I had to work on that date and could not attend so parents were able to go for me. Our food ending up being perfect and accommodating to our vegan diet. Another communication issue was that at my reception we had drink tickets for the guests, which required us to pay for the drinks after the reception. We got the bill in early December and paid about ten days later via check. I got an email from Kayla on December 30th informing me that they have not received payment for the drinks. I called the bank and the check was cashed by them on December 24th. Kayla apologized and confirmed that we did pay our balance. I knew this upfront but another headache was only having access to the dinning room a few hours before the reception. It was stressful to set up the reception in between the ceremony and reception. We had access to the dinning room starting at 2 pm and my reception started at 5pm. I believe we had less time than that to set up due to taking family photos after my ceremony. I am not sure why the museum center was so strict with the hours we had to set up the room. It would have been much easier to set up the night before or even that morning. Overall I had a beautiful reception at the museum center but it was stressful due to these communication issues.

ions. Chef was accommodating to special dietary needs as well. In addition, the venue itself was beautiful and required little to no additional decoration.

re of the building, the iconic Cincinnati feel, and the great location made it the best place possible for our (mostly out-of-town) guests to come and celebrate with us. We are so lucky that the renovation was delayed a few months and that we had the opportunity to host our wedding in the museum. We used the Cincinnati Dining Room (ceremony; dancing) and Losantiville Cafe (dinner) for our ceremony and reception spaces. Our ceremony worked out perfectly and the transition to the band and dancing was seamless. We worked mostly with Hillary, but also had some interaction with Racquel and Andrea. The staff's support was critical to the success of the day. They coordinated and made sure our vendors were as prompt and efficient as possible. We had a positive experience with the museum and highly recommend it for events!

e had two rooms to ourselves, both men and women restrooms, and secured coat racks, gift tables, etc. away from the public. The staff was excellent to work with, very helpful in planning every detail and offered great suggestions, and stayed with us the whole night. They offer a wedding ceremony coordinator, whose efforts to make sure our ceremony went off without a hitch turned out to be very much necessary. The setups were beautiful, the food was even better, and our guests had such an incredible experience being inside a true architectural gem. The day of, we spent hours before the ceremony taking photos in every inch of the museum, which made for better wedding photos that I have seen elsewhere. The photos and having an amazing backdrop was very important to me, and if you feel the same way I encourage you to check this place out. They have several options for ceremony locations and can accommodate many different size events. I just can't say enough about how happy we were at the end of the night. Andrea and her staff are true professionals and we had the best night of our lives. Check out all their photos on their Facebook page: Events and Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal.

have asked for a better location! We had our cocktail hour in the Cincinnati History Museum, which was well worth the cost. It gave our guests something fun to do while we took wedding party pictures. And the Public Landing at the end added a complete wow-factor. The reception was in the private dining rooms which worked out really well. All of the original details made for a truly unique and beautiful location. Our service was excellent, no complaints there. You do have to use their caterer. The food was definitely good, better than many weddings I've been to, but way above and beyond the norm or anything. The photo opportunities throughout the building can't be beat. Overall, we were very pleased! And we definitely had a wedding we will never forget, and neither will our guests.

ly helpful and knowledgeable. Their Event Saleswoman, Andrea, was beyond helpful. On the night of the rehearsal dinner and day of the wedding, their wedding planner was instrumental in getting things done smoothly and stress-free. I can't say enough good things about this venue! Excellent and beautiful location (our reception was held in the Grand Rotunda, which left our guests wowed), very helpful staff, excellent food, and an overall perfect experience!

were more than helpful in making sure our vision was met. They were truly great work with.

m for dancing.

out of town guests. They let us go into the exhibits to take photos.