Ijams Nature Center

Nathan and Sara. They were professional and outlined the services provided in a friendly manner. The services included parking attendants, staff to greet and assist guests, a bartender, an event assistant, a floor plan, and the museum would be open for our guests to tour. After a virtual tour and speaking with Nathan, we booked the home site for the ceremony and the multipurpose room for the reception. We started having concerns about the venue when a new rental coordinator (RC) reached out about package add ons that were not available when we booked the venue. After letting the RC know we were not interested in any add ons, they reached out to my daughter saying the wedding could not happen as planned. When we reached back out asking questions we were told to never mind it was fine. About 2 months before the wedding we reached out to the RC to rent the multipurpose room the night before the wedding to decorate. We were told there was already an event scheduled so it was unavailable. Fast forward to the wedding rehearsal at Ijams, we stopped in the visitor just before closing and there was no event taking place. Unfortunately, the day of the wedding the weather was overcast and severe storms were expected. We decided to move the ceremony into the multipurpose room. We showed up at 9:00 am to decorate the multipurpose room for the wedding ceremony and reception to discover the room had NOT been cleaned and sanitized. This was the beginning of the problems we had the day of the wedding. Ijams was inflexible and unable to provide or suggest solutions for storing the wedding decor boxes during the event, the WiFi didn’t work, the air conditioning unit was broken, moving furniture, and parking problems. When we returned for the wedding, there was no one greeting guests, helping them park, or assisting guests. This was important to us because the wedding had been moved from the home site to the multipurpose room. We had to ask the guests to step out of the room between the ceremony and reception. During the initial planning, Nathan had indicated Ijams would provide help with changing over the room in the event of rain. No staff from Ijams made an appearance or offered to help with this process. Also, I asked the RC twice if the museum would be open so our guests could visit while we changed the room over for the dinner reception. While the RC had responded yes, it was actually closed. The RC refused to let appetizers be put in the hallway outside of the multipurpose room during this time to make our guests more comfortable. At the end of the evening and after cleaning up the decor, our family was told to pick up all of the chairs and break down all of the tables. Ijams and the RC were ill equipped to handle a wedding of 60 people. The RC made inappropriate negative remarks throughout the day about the caterer and the services provided by Ijams. The RC was unprofessional, unfriendly, and never smiled. When approached with questions or concerns the RC seemed confused and was unable to respond constructively. At the end of the day, we paid for a dirty room with broken air conditioning and an employee who didn’t care. Ijams failed at making it a stress free day and certainly didn’t come close to providing the the serviced promised in theirwedding guide.

a destination wedding but due to covid that was out. Throughout the course of planning Ijams added more options to their packages and seemed to really get competitive with what they were offering compared to other venues. We were able to add on a tent package and a few other things that made planning much easier. We were so grateful that the money we did spend on the location itself went to the children's programs they run. The venue itself is on the homesite - there is a place for the ceremony overlooking a flower garden with a nice arbor, a covered wood structure (we did happy hour here), a leveled terrace (we had outdoor games here for our guests), and a tent pad area. There is space for you to store your décor prior to your wedding. Katie was great to work with in setting up all of the logistics. They do have their own staff to help with the day of as well as a bar tender (this saved us so much money by using this option). All of our guests were impressed with the set up and had a great time. Every Ijams staff member was so sweet and helpful. It also made it special because we can actually visit our wedding venue in the future for anniversaries (compared to a banquet hall).

nd employees to help with parking--for the price!