Lansing Center

The Lansing Center - Where do I begin? Please take your time to read if you are truly interested in this venue. Let me first say that downtown Lansing is making a BIG TIME comeback. The atmosphere in the Stadium District, Reotown, and Oldtown (which are all along the City Riverwalk) are vibrant and full of life. The Lansing Center is at the heart of it all. Size/Space - The Lansing Center was large enough to host our nearly 269+ invites (243 attendees), which was the most important accommodation that it offered in our minds. We elected to have both our ceremony and reception indoors. Therefore, we split the 8 ea ballrooms in half. 4 ea were used for the ceremony and 4 ea for the reception. We also rented the River Street Pub which is the concourse directly west of the 8 ea ballrooms. You cannot beat the Lansing Center when it comes to size and space. 5 stars. The food and service the day/night of the celebration was exceptional, top-notch, and unmatched by any other wedding I have attended. The staff was friendly, polite, professional, and fast. 5 Stars. The only reason the Lansing Center does not get 5 stars overall from my wife and I is due to the additional time and money that we had to spend to make our event special. In order to achieve the aesthetics we wanted for our wedding/reception, we were more or less forced to hire all outside vendors. The Lansing Center does have decor packages, but the packages did not offer the quality in which we wished to display. In fact, I had a few heated conversations with Lansing Center sales staff because I felt as if their website was misleading. The wedding photo gallery accessible from the Lansing Center web page uses photos that display some very fine, elegant, and all-around aesthetically pleasing decor, but fail to tell you that what you are seeing is the venue decorated by outside vendors. Additionally, the Lansing Center failed to explain to us the additional costs that would be associated with the union employees that are required to perform the labor (you are not allowed to perform the labor yourself because you are "taking hours away from the union). All union employees are paid a minimum of 4 hours @ their respective going wages. For example, if it took an individual 30 minutes to setup some chairs, you are still paying for the 4 ea hours. Some of the time billed was actually considered overtime because it was the weekend. These costs were not brought to our attention until the BEO was written up (2 weeks prior to the event). Because the initial engagement contract and sales meetings were vague, I felt as if we were mislead a little by the Lansing Center with regard to decor, labor costs, ect. In summary, if you are thinking of contracting the Lansing Center for your venue, please ask the sales representatives to explain ANY and ALL costs upfront so you are not surprised with unexpected expenses 2 weeks prior to your event.