About this vendor
Located in Sandusky, OH, Kalahari Resorts and Conventions is a hotel venue that hosts weddings and other special events. The management of this property strives to provide you with a refined wedding experience that is tailored to meet your needs and expectations. You and your guests may enjoy African-themed spaces in this elegant venue on your important day.
Kalahari Resorts and Conventions features several event spaces in which to host your wedding festivities, including three ballrooms. The largest of these is the Kilimanjaro Ballroom, with over 38,000 square feet of space. The Kalahari features over 17,000 square feet of space, while the exquisite River Rooms feature over 11,000 square feet. The Jaamati Huts offer another option for your festivities, with 1,200 square feet of space each. There are also 39 meeting rooms and two luxury boardrooms, with 21 meeting rooms intended for smaller gatherings. A great pre-function space stretches totals over 30,000 square feet, providing ample room to prepare for guests.
Kalahari Resorts and Conventions hosts single-faith, multi-faith, and non-religious weddings. This property also welcomes civil unions, commitment ceremonies, second weddings, and vow renewal ceremonies. These premises can readily hold gatherings between 30 and over 300 guests in size. The venue's staff offers services to enhance your celebrations, including event planning, catering, bartending, rentals, equipment, and transportation. With 890 guest rooms and suites on the premises, on-site accommodations will be available for you and all of your guests. State-of-the-art audio-visual equipment will add to the atmosphere and fun of your wedding.
Amenities + details
Ceremony Area
Dressing Room
Handicap Accessible
Indoor Event Space
On-Site Accommodations
Reception Area
Wireless Internet
Covered Outdoors Space
Liability Insurance
Outdoor Event Space
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
Settings
- Ballroom
- Country Club
- Hotel
Venue Service Offerings
- Bar & Drinks
- Cakes & Desserts
- Cupcakes
- Other Desserts
- Destination Weddings
- Food & Catering
Awards and Affiliations
2013 'Best of Weddings'
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
Reviews
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4.5
out of 5.017 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 3
Amazing venue. Our original coordinator stopped working for the company a month before the wedding and they took no time at all reaching and making sure every detail was correct in...
transition. Nicole was amazing and very responsive even on her off days! The food was some of the best wedding food I ever had. The bartenders were amazing and we drinkers! My guest had nothing but great things to say about the venue and loved the water park the next day! Worth every dollar
Our experience at Kalahari was amazing. Working with the staff for our wedding was stress free. They were always professional, friendly and quick to respond with any of our questio...
ns or concerns. We held both our ceremony and reception there which made everything convenient. The food was excellent and our cake was amazing! I gave them a picture of the cake I wanted and they made it happen.
Had an outdoor ceremony on the driving range and 175 person reception in the club house. The staff was amazing and took care of my setup. The wedding coordinator assigned to our ev...
ent was super responsive and detailed. Huge bar and large outdoor wrap around deck with heat lamps! Would highly recommend!!! So much included in the price!
The staff at the Kalahari is second to none. Our wedding went off without a hitch, thanks to their professional and dependable crew. There are so many things to stress about on the...
wedding day, but my reception venue, food, and drinks was one thing that I had complete confidence in. First of all, the food was AMAZING and our guests still continue to tell us that it was the most amazing wedding food they had ever had! Full of flavor and HUGE portions, it was a great deal for what we paid! The Kalahari offers sheers to place around the walls, and a flower box to be hung from the ceiling over the dance floor. We took advantage of these and the result was breathtaking. It was the most beautiful wedding I've ever seen, and our guests raved about it! Once in the room you would have had no idea you were actually at a family resort. I cannot say enough GREAT things about the Kalahari and their staff!
We wanted a small getaway from home so we traveled 2 hours away to an indoor water park. We got a suite to accommodate 8 girls and we stayed for two days. It was a great time, fu...
n times in the 21 and older hot tub with swim-up bar. We even got to watch chick flicks in our hotel room. Would definitely take another group of girls again!
Amazing place, food, and staff! They helped us every step of the way and when it came to the details - they had everything covered from the rehearsal dinner to the ceremony and rec...
eption. They even helped us walk through our rehearsal when the pastor was unable to attend. They were so accommodating and unbelievably helpful - we simply couldn't ask for more. We received so many compliments about the beautiful venue, the great food, and the overall atmosphere. The location also makes for beautiful pictures!
It was gorgeous and so worth it!! The staff was so helpful and there for me with every question and helped me incorporate all of my ideas. The food was AMAZING. I had so many compl...
iments. The Bar is HUGE and every one was served promptly. The balcony overlooks a pond with a fountain and SWANS!! It really was a dream Venue
Beautiful venue, excellent service, very nice and easy to work with.
For the value of the venue, the services should have been better.
Pros: The food was phenomenal and the services throughout dinner was efficient. We had the highest package ava...
ilable which entitled us to a duo plated entree, where everyone receives two main dishes. There was a soup, salad, intermezzo, and then the entree. We had grilled chicken wrapped in bacon, filet mignon, baked potato and broccoli. The guests all raved about the food.
Cons: We were told everything would be set up the Friday before our wedding by 4pm so that we could finish setting up our centerpieces and everything. We arrived Friday evening at 10pm and it was not set up. We returned in the morning and it was still not set up. This may not seem like a huge deal, but when you're told everything would be ready the last thing you want on your wedding day is to be stressing out and running around to ensure everything is set up on time.
The bar ran out of a lot of different alcohol before dinner was over and they ran out of glasses as well. This is something they should have been well prepared for and running out of glasses to serve drinks in was unacceptable.
When we received the invoice for our wedding they tacked on an additional $1,430 in bar charges and we are still remedying this and waiting for an email back (it's been two days since we were emailed saying they would have it figured out and resolved that day).
I would not recommend Kalahari for a wedding reception. For the value you could find much much better!
This place made my wedding a dream day! With beautiful weather, the green and fall leaves of Septemeber made this wedding amazing! I would recommend this place to anyone wanting an...
outdoor wedding!
We chose Kalahari for our honeymoon because it was close and we were able to enjoy the entire weekend! We had a good package that we reserved over the phone. They acknowledged th...
at it was our honeymoon but was a little disappointed that there were nothing available even for purchase for honeymoon packages. Otherwise great facility for relaxation and adventure!
I grew up in Sandusky, and relocated to Cleveland for my profession. When I got engaged I knew I had to get married in Sandusky and Kalahari was exactly what we wanted for our wedd...
ing reception. The site was an excellent choice in many areas. The food was excellent along with the service. The wedding night suite that they provide made for an amazing end to our wedding day chapter since we were able to enjoy ourselves and not worry about driving to another location to stay. A block of rooms was reserved for our guests who were able to enjoy the wedding and waterpark all in one trip. Leslie Schick was an excellent wedding coordinator that was right on top of things, making sure our event went off as we had dreamed. It was everything that we dreamed of and much more!
We used Kalahari for our Reception and were so impressed! We didn't get the wedding packages as they were out of our budget range... instead we rented the room and used their cate...
ring service. We got the Brunch Buffet and it was out of this world amazing... people are still talking about it weeks later. The service was amazing as well!
I knew I wanted to have my reception at a hotel for convenience sake. Kalahari was so wonderful I ended up having my rehearsal dinner and wedding ceremony there too! We worked with...
the onsite coordinator, Marla, she was a dream to work with. I wasn't responsible for any of the set up or take down and the food was quite wonderful. They met my dietary needs with no problems and even made a mustang GT cake for my husband for the rehearsal dinner. So happy we had everything here! It was beautiful!
Kalahari was an amazing venue for my wedding ceremony and reception! I loved the safari themed decorations throughout the entire resort and I was able to have the tropical feel tha...
t I loved and desired for my big day! The wedding coordinator Marla was so great at helping plan the event which was hours from where I live. With only two meetings (once to see the venue and the second to have the food tasting) and throughout e-mail I was able to have the day of my and my husbands dreams! Five Star Rating for sure!!! I wish it could be a 10 Star Rating!
I loved having my wedding at the kalahari! They were super expensive tho.. you have to pay for everything including some decorations they already have. the staff was nice and the a...
ctually wedding day was great! the food was good and the servers did amazing at serving everyone fast..
I thought the Kalahari Resort Convention Center was great. I had my ceremony and reception there. My ceremony was outside by one of their ponds. My reception was in their wedding t...
ent, which was beautiful. Everything went exactly as I imagined it would. The only problem was that they let go the event coordinator I had been working with for the past year only six weeks before my wedding.
Contact
7000 Kalahari Drive, Sandusky, OH
Kalahari Resorts and Conventions