Cleveland Museum of Natural History

ul in getting plans set. Having both the ceremony and reception right in the museum was so much fun. Our guests LOVED the atmosphere, and they could grab a drink and walk through the exhibits throughout the evening! I can't say enough how CMNH made our wedding night absolutely perfect!

g: we had our ceremony in the courtyard, the cocktail hour in the geology hall, and dinner and dancing with the dinosaurs. But we didn't know just how great their staff would be to work with. Our point-person was Anne, who could not have been more accommodating with our persistent requests and questions while we planned the wedding from out of state. Between her, Kim (our main contact for Zack Bruell, the museum's caterer), and their staffs, they thought through and handled details that wouldn't even have occurred to us, like making sure our playlists were loaded across the A/V systems and plotting where the bars should be to encourage people to flow throughout the museum. So many of our guests told us that this was the coolest wedding venue they'd ever been to, and we couldn't have asked for anything more!

stions very quickly. CMNH was great about following all Covid-19 rules so my guests could feel safe during the event. If you're looking for a unique venue for your special day I absolutely recommend the Cleveland Museum of Natural History 100%!

enclosure were our favorite parts! On top of having the endless entertainment of the displays, the staff there are the greatest! Their special event's coordinator Anne was as excited about our wedding as we were. She was super accommodating especially because we were planning our wedding from New York. She is super organized with a concise packet of information that answers practically anything that come up. Also she was very quick to respond via phone or email. The museum is contracted with Zack Bruell Events for catering. It was also a pleasure working with Kim and Molly. Again, all were super flexible working around our travel schedule and all our lat minute changes to the guest list. And the food.... to DIE for. The museum also contracts with Solus lighting who brought to life the night of our dreams. They offered soo many options for coloring, shapes, and the expertise to make it all work together. Overall this experience has been excellent and we would HIGHLY recommend this venue!

lking about the cool location. We had the museum open for our guests to walk around, and the earthquake simulator was a hit! Also, Anne and Katrina did a fabulous job keeping things running smoothly and helping organize with the remaining vendors. The staff there also packed up all of our decorations and put them in my parent's car afterward so we didn't have to worry about cleaning up. Overall, very impressed and loved how it all turned out! It was also super affordable and no food and beverage minimum like most museums and hotels in the area.

lly three venues in one - we had the cocktail hour in the animal room, the ceremony in the planetarium, and the reception in the dinosaur/hominin room. We would highly recommend the CMNH to anyone in search of something more atypical!

s (haha), and my husband is also not big on dancing, so the museum setting would give him something to do during the reception instead of just standing off to the side of the dance floor awkwardly. The museum staff was admittedly a little hard to get in touch with early on in the wedding planning process (like when we were a year to 6 months out), but the event coordinator became very responsive as the event drew closer, and accommodated emergency updates to the seating chart when we found out family members couldn't attend due to illness, a friend was planning to come but forgot to RSVP, etc. Our guests all loved CMNH and had a great time at our reception, and so did we!

nts were able to celebrate with us, while the kids explored the museum. Even people without young children enjoyed viewing all of the exhibits and taking photos with the dinosaurs.

and execute our wedding. Quick response times from the event coordinator, wonderful ideas and suggestions and support. Our wedding was flawless, we were blown away, our guests loved the unique setting. My husband and I aren't big on dancing, so we and our non-dancing guests enjoyed being able to walk around and enjoy the exhibits. We got married in the front lobby, and our reception was in the big hall with the dinosaurs. We got the lighting package for the reception, and it was incredible! I just cannot say enough great things about this venue. Fantastic value, fantastic setting, amazing wedding!

ed caterers that they worked with which I loved because that meant we didn't have to vet every caterer in Cleveland before getting quotes. They also have their own liquor license which kept that cost down a lot compared to other venues I've seen. Anna let us drop stuff off the day before which allowed us just to relax all day of the wedding. When we showed up between Anne and our caterer, everything was in it's place and perfect. Nothing in my opinion could have gone smoother! I highly recommend this venue. We are still getting compliments on how much fun it was to go to a wedding at a museum. Plus, fun fact, you don't really need to do anything else after you book it! All I had to do was favors and center pieces- no other decorations, literally! It was fantastic and I'm sure a huge time and money saver in the end. 100% worth the value and then some.

t with the catering coordinator. She did not have samples or menus for us. She met with us in a hallway and told us that it would be $120 per plate. This is for 1 entrée, one side and a bread. No cake cutting service. Drinks are in extra $50 per person ($45 if you don't want water. Yes there is a water fee.) . We were pretty shocked, as other museums were half the price and included appetizers, salad, 2 entrees, 2 sides,drinks, champagne toast, and cake cutting. Then she asks "Do you want plates for your food and silverware? That's going to be extra as well." All in all about 200 per person. It was a very disappointing experience.

m shows as the wedding favor, which all of guests loved. It was an amazing night and I would do it all over again if I could!

thing was set up perfectly for the event. The staff was courteous and everything was done discretely, none of the set-up or tear down was intrusive or noticeable. Bar bill was shockingly affordable and museum let us choose exactly what we wanted to serve to keep the costs down. Guests told us all night and after the wedding how wonderful the museum was and what a great choice. We could not have been happier with the value we got for the cost and how wonderful museum staff were to work with before the event. Plus there were dinosaurs in every photo!

yond day-of execution, did exceptional work. Special thanks to Joe and Ashley, who made sure we always had drinks in our hands, that the timing of every moment was exactly how we wanted it, and that every arts-and-crafts object was laid out to exact specifications. Service was not only delivered perfectly, but also warmly. We highly recommend this place.

his laid back approach to wedding planning is not only refreshing, but very helpful. So many of the people we dealt with through our search for a caterer, dress, etc were SO tightly wound and high strung which only stressed me out more. Not at the museum. Everyone was very nice and laid back. The museum is gorgeous and you don't have to add tons of extras to the scenery to have a gorgeous wedding. I cannot recommend this venue enough!

and Dick and his staff were very flexible with scheduling meetings and tastings around my trips into town and were very easy to get a hold of over phone and email. We have received so many compliments on our choice of location since the wedding. I highly recommend the Museum of Natural History for any Cleveland brides looking for a beautiful, unique location.

t person for the museum is thorough, knowledgeable and efficient. He conducted business well with not only my (divorced!) parents who both had a big hand in planning, but with my vendors as well. What an amazing venue for the cost! The museum has its own tables and chairs which you can use, so it saves you a lot of money in the rental process if you have your ceremony there because seating is provided for the ceremony, and then for the reception, they have a good amount of tables. The lighting package is inexpensive and well worth it. The whole first floor of the museum is available for your guests to walk through, which is perfect for older guests, or in my case, more religious/conservative family members who weren't interested in drinking and dancing. The museum provides its own alcohol package, and its an EXCEPTIONAL VALUE! My wedding had 200 guests, and with an outside caterer that could have cost me upwards of 5K, but the museum package is MUCH less. In addition to the exceptionally large space, great exhibits, beautiful lighting, and valuable amenities, the art museum boasts a great space for both dancing and mingling. The only qualms I had were that during a busy wedding season, we were unable to have a very thorough rehearsal in the museum because it was setting up and preparing for so many other ceremonies besides ours! We had to do our rehearsal dinner/traditional rehearsal at my family church, and kind of improvise on the steps, but everything worked itself out beautifully the day of! I couldn't recommend a better venue! Any bride who loves museums should look into this amazing venue!!!

asn't just dinner and dancing. Everyone seemed to enjoy the interactive exhibits and the out door animals.The only down side I can think of is that the museum contact doesn't respond very quickly to email (my preferred method of communication) but he does respond quickly to a voicemail.

museum, was integral in helping us book the right caterer, choose the right layout for our reception space, and generally taking care of the add-on details. At times, I had some communication issues with the museum, but overall, this space worked well for us. All of our guests had a fabulous time, and our first dance was under the neck of the brontosaurus. How many couples can say that?

ic.;Warm in there. We asked for the air extra cool (it was July after all) but it was still very warm. Made most people not want to dance.