Des Moines Heritage Center

120 E. 5th St., Des Moines, IA

About This Vendor

2021 Dates Still Available

About Des Moines Heritage Center Welcome to the Des Moines Heritage Center, an event venue located in the heart of the Historic East Village that features all the modern comforts you could ever imagine without sacrificing an ounce of the ambiance that’s been seasoned over more than a century. Opening in fall 2020, the Des Moines Heritage Center is the perfect place for couples to celebrate milestone events such as engagements, bachelor and bachelorette parties, wedding rehearsals, and your big day. The Des Moines Heritage Center still has 2021 dates available for all couples, including couples having to change plans as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Host your next event at this iconic Des Moines landmark. Facilities and Capacity The Des Moines Heritage Center offers three different venues in the emerging Market District of the Historic East Village with views of the brilliant gold dome of the state capitol building. Venue number one is the historic 1909 East Des Moines Union Depot. The depot can accommodate 50 to 80 guests and is the perfect venue for intimate weddings as well as wedding rehearsal dinners. Venue number two is the newly constructed, state-of-the-art, Des Moines Heritage Center Events Center. The Events Center can accommodate 300 guests at tables and up to 400 guests, theater style. The Events Center includes everything you need for your big day from dressing rooms to catering kitchen to the latest in audio/visual equipment. Venue number three is the Des Moines Heritage Center Plaza. The plaza, nestled amongst the depot and the events center, with commanding views of the state capitol, provides couples with the perfect venue for an outdoor wedding or reception or flexible activity space in concert with the depot or events center. The plaza can accommodate 300 to 400 guests. Rent one, two or all three venues as the perfect setting for your special day. Visit https://desmoinesheritagecenter.org/ or call 515-210-2396 for more information. Services Offered The Des Moines Heritage Center provides couples a seamless experience. Services offered include tables, chairs, linens, audio/visual equipment, catering kitchen, preferred vendors, and dedicated dressing room. Location The Des Moines Heritage Center is located at 120 East 5th Street, in the Historic East Village of downtown Des Moines, near the state capitol building. Numerous hotels are located conveniently close by within walking distance for the wedding party and guests.

Amenities + Details

Ceremony Area

Covered Outdoors Space

Dressing Room

Handicap Accessible

Indoor Event Space

Outdoor Event Space

Reception Area

Wireless Internet

Liability Insurance

On-Site Accommodations

Ceremony Types

Civil Union, Commitment Ceremony, Elopement, Interfaith Ceremony, Non-Religious Ceremony, Religious Ceremony, Second Wedding , Vow Renewal Ceremony

Guest Capacity

300+

Settings

Ballroom, Historic Venue, Tented

Des Moines Heritage Center Reviews

Reviewed On 7/01/2022 by Shannon S

We researched several venues for our wedding with a potential of 300 guests (ended up at 228). To budget for our wedding, it was important to balance venue cost with catering/bartending costs. They allowed us to hire Smokey D's for our wedding ...

caterer as long as they could agree to their vendor agreement (no issues there) which helped us keep cost down while providing great food for our higher guest count. Catering and bartender cost for our wedding had a higher impact on overall budget than venue so we were able to balance that out. As an architect, I loved the Des Moines Heritage Center's clean, modern aesthetic adjacent to the historic brick building of the train depot. You can tell a lot of care went into the planning process and the venue was great the day of the wedding. Having the bridal room directly connected to the women's restroom was also nice - our makeup artist ended up setting up a table/chair in the women's restroom for added space/they liked the lighting while hair happened in the bridal room. Groomsmen were able to hide in the Train Depot during father-daughter first looks to avoid my future husband seeing me ahead of the first-look. Tim and Liz did a good job of accommodating and helping us with the wedding and were very flexible. Having helped a friend set-up their wedding previously, it was super nice that they took care of all set-up of the tables, chairs and most of the linens. That takes a long time to do and is super nice that they'll take care of it! Their wedding venue coordinator for floor plan layouts was very easy to work with and made that process go smoothly as well. The day of the wedding Tim and Liz helped direct confused delivery drivers for bagels/Jimmy John's to the correct places, added a couple tables outside because of the nice weather, did a small flip for us, and helped with some of the clean-up which we definitely didn't expect. They also allowed us to move all of our decorations to a storage area overnight to pick-up mid-day on Sunday instead of having to have every little thing in a vehicle Saturday night. Only require that gifts get taken out for obvious reasons. Minor things to note that could help with future wedding couple's planning-we didn't realize that they don't provide linens for tables where food will be served (buffet line, cake table, etc.) or for vendors. The website advertised linens, contract wasn't clear and it showed up in paperwork ~1-1.5 months prior. We ended up needing to purchase a couple linens for the DJ table/cake table. This made it a little confusing at clean-up when our families helping and we ended up losing one of our tablecloths because it's not clear to others whose white table cloths are whos. Luckily they were pretty inexpensive from Amazon. Lastly, storage overnight for clean-up the next day clean-up doesn't include refrigerator use. We ended up having to throw away our food leftovers because we were all staying at a hotel and didn't have a fridge big enough to accommodate the two catering trays leftover. If I had known that I probably would have made sure an in-town friend or bridesmaid could have taken them home. I'm very happy with our decision to have the wedding ceremony and reception at this location and loved the convenience near downtown hotels to allow guests a safe return back to their hotels after a fun night. The Des Moines Heritage Trust clearly puts a lot of work into the venue and making the day great for couples!