About this vendor
Located in Washington, DC, Mess Hall is a unique and welcoming wedding venue that awaits your special day. It is a short drive from landmarks such as the White House, the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and more. The versatile building offers three event spaces with all the necessary equipment and amenities to celebrate your once-in-a-lifetime event with your nearest and dearest.
Mess Hall is a mid-century brick warehouse that has been converted into a maker space and is home to DC's hottest emerging food entrepreneurs. Our indoor/outdoor event space with 18-foot ceilings has quickly become DC's most unique and buzzworthy venue for special events. A fully functional open kitchen enables highly interactive food experiences and unforgettable receptions.
Part of what makes Mess Hall so unique is our community of local makers who produce within our walls. Our food and beverage producers range from full-service caterers and food trucks to bakers and makers of specialty goods and everything in between.
Our bar program features award-winning spirits and craft beers that are #MadeInDC.
Host "THAT PARTY" that your guests have always wanted to attend.
Amenities + details
Ceremony Area
Covered Outdoors Space
Dressing Room
Handicap Accessible
Indoor Event Space
Liability Insurance
Outdoor Event Space
Reception Area
Wireless Internet
On-Site Accommodations
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
Settings
- Brewery & Distillery
- Industrial & Warehouse
- Loft
- Restaurant
Venue Service Offerings
- Bar & Drinks
- Cakes & Desserts
- Food & Catering
- Planning
- Rentals & Equipment
- Service Staff
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.015 reviews
Mess Hall was an unexpected and fantastic find for our wedding welcome event! It has a really cool and unique vibe, and we loved that it’s a food incubator supporting the local cu...
linary scene (including some of our favorite restaurants!). Al was fantastic to work with - really friendly, always super responsive, and helpful with experience-based recommendations. He also provided a great list of partner Makers for us to consider for catering (we went with Magandia [Filipino/El Salvadorean]), and the coordination between us all was pretty seamless. The drinks package was very reasonably priced - and again, all local! The day-of support was awesome too: when we arrived, everything was fully set-up looking good and waiting for our last few decorations. Our guests raved about the vibe and it was the perfect setting to get the wedding weekend going. Highly recommend!
Al and the team have truly worked to make Mess Hall a special gem for weddings and events in the DC area. I’ve worked with them as a wedding coordinator, and they made the process ...
an absolute dream. From clear communication, quick problem solving, and friendly attitudes, they really made everyone, from guests, to vendors, to - of course - the couple, feel so well taken care of. I look forward to working with Al and the whole team at Mess Hall many more times down the road!
We held our wedding at Mess Hall in October 2024 and couldn't be happier with how things went. From the very beginning, working with Al, the owner, was a dream. He's incredibly res...
ponsive and thoughtful and helped us think through a vision for the evening. He had great recommendations for food and drink that felt personal to our taste as a couple. His ability to think big-picture AND attend to the smallest details made for an incredibly smooth planning process and sensational wedding day. Our guests loved the industrial vibe of the garage bay and the farmhouse/tavern feel of the interior rooms - the best of both worlds! When speeches went long during dinner, Al worked with us in the moment to adjust our timeline so we could maximize time on the dance floor. Al doesn't miss a beat. We wholeheartedly recommend Mess Hall for your next big event!
I can't recommend Mess Hall enough as a wedding venue! From the moment we first reached out, Al was incredibly responsive and helpful. He made the planning process much smoother by...
always being available to answer questions and give suggestions. His professionalism and attention to detail ensured that everything went off without a hitch.
The venue itself is a gem—unique, versatile, and full of character. The space allowed us to get creative, and we were given carte blanche to design a wedding that truly reflected our vision. Our guests gushed about the atmosphere, and we couldn't have been happier with how it all came together.
Hosting our wedding at Mess Hall was one of the best decisions we made! The space is just what we wanted: industrial chic near the MBT with a covered outdoor area and access to ama...
zing food. As a culinary incubator, they have a ton of great vendors on site, and while you don’t have to use one of their partners, that was a huge draw to us because we wanted to support small business and do something different than the standard chicken/fish/vegetable offering you get from most wedding caterers (shoutout to Kam & 46 for incredible Hawaiian/Filipino food!).
While there was some staff turnover during the planning process, Al’s consistency and guidance gave us confidence that everything would run smoothly on the day of. The space is very customizable, it’s easy to choose what kind of furniture and lighting you want, plus the digital screen and sound system (both indoors and outdoors), helped us fully transform the space to achieve everything we envisioned. Our only concerns during the planning process was the size of our party – we had over 120 attend – so we didn’t do the traditional assigned seats and tables, but nevertheless there was plenty of seating space indoors and outdoors, it didn’t feel too crowded at all, and there was never a line for the two single-stall bathrooms the entire night.
Not only was the space great, but the service was superior. During our wedding reception, Al was incredibly attentive to us and anticipated our needs even before we did. For example, he regularly offered to fetch us drinks from the bar when he saw us finishing our beers and when he saw one of standing with friends, he immediately brought over a standing table so we could rest our food and drinks. Our guests were really impressed when we told them he was the owner of Mess Hall. I’m sure there’s a lot of things he did that we didn’t even see – all of which helped our wedding go smoothly.
Overall, we were extremely pleased with Mess Hall and hope you will be too!
Mess Hall is a gorgeous venue and Al was incredible, extremely professional, and accommodating, I highly recommend Mess Hall for your events.
After our original venue backed out at the last minute, Al & the Mess Hall community came through and helped us host a hugely successful 100-person fundraiser at Mess Hall. Especia...
lly given the urgent/last minute nature of our event, Al was incredibly receptive, responsive, and supportive as we worked with him to fully realize our fundraising event. Mess Hall is a great space - cozy, well-located, and, importantly, a 'blank canvas' with lots of options to make your event come to life. Al & co have a selection of furniture (tables, chairs, etc) to rent if you prefer to streamline the process; you can bring your own decorations and furnishing if you had something more specific in mind. Furthermore, they have an incredible group of local and upcoming caterers that use the kitchen space there, making catering incredibly easy (and delicious). We were able to easily accommodate vegan and gluten-free dietary restrictions with one of their caterers (Kam & 46). Finally, their bar features hyper-local drink options from the DC area; our bartender for the event was great.
In short: Mess Hall is a great venue, with a great mission, and great people behind it. The pricing was also incredibly reasonable; we went for the open bar. I would gladly collaborate with them again! Thanks for everything, Al!
We hosted an event at Mess Hall recently, and the experience was exceptional. The team at Mess Hall helped us customize an experience for our guests and worked with us to make it t...
ruly special and stay within our budget. We worked with Jordan as our event planner, and she was fantastic. We would absolutely hold another event there and would highly recommend the venue to others.
We held our wedding at Mess Hall and thoroughly appreciated working with Jordan and the team. They were not at all frightened by our plans for a giant bake-off amongst our guests, ...
music on a vinyl record player, book exchange, and more! They had terrific recommendations for people to hire, suggestions for places to rent additional chairs, and tips for how to make their space work for us! The venue is a wonderfully adaptable space with great vibes and lovely staff.
My husband and I had a tiny COVID wedding and chose Mess Hall as our venue for a post-wedding party to celebrate with all of our friends a year later. Our experience working with ...
the team at Mess Hall was completely wonderful from start to finish!
When we first saw Mess Hall and met with Al, we knew we’d found the right place for our party. It was such a warm first meeting, just checking out the venue over a couple of beers, and we could totally picture ourselves and our friends in the cool, laid-back space. We knew right away that we could trust Al to help us pull off our vision for the party. A few months later, Mess Hall added their new event coordinator Jordan, who is absolutely wonderful. Great vibes from the entire team—incredibly supportive, willing to do anything to make our party perfect, and always at the ready with helpful suggestions when we needed them.
The day of the party, we felt so loved and supported by everyone at Mess Hall while we collaborated on setting things up (Al personally helped us hang our neon sign and disco ball) and put the finishing touches on our vision. Jordan and Al both made sure everything went smoothly all night—and we have Jordan to personally thank for documenting the party on our polaroid camera! It was a perfect night and we can’t recommend Mess Hall highly enough!
We held our wedding at Mess Hall in October ‘22 and it was the perfect size venue combined with that unique NE DC industrial aesthetic we really love. Having two spaces that separa...
ted the ceremony and the reception was ideal, meaning zero travel for everyone after the ceremony. Our venue hosts were Al and Jordan, they are easy to work with, quick to respond to your emails, help you figure out how to layout your vendors, and all around great people. The space also has a gourmet industrial kitchen you can use to cook and cater the food onsite, no gross rubber chicken at your wedding! if you have a vision for your big day and need a space to bring it to life that isn’t another over-done venue around DC, Mess Hall is a great option.
We recently had our wedding reception at Mess Hall and loved it. Hopefully we only ever get married once – but we can both definitely say if we have the opportunity, we will choose...
Mess Hall a million times over for our wedding reception. Really 5 out of 5 stars on all fronts for Mess Hall – especially for their staff and management. Obviously, the space itself is very cool – in a class of its own and very unique. And the location too – walking distance to 2 metro stations! But things like space and location are things that are easy to look up online – if you’re reading this review you probably want to know about the intangibles and the staff – and so that is what this review is mostly about.
When we chose Mess Hall as our venue about 10 months ago, we initially did so because we liked the space and location – but we would eventually find out that we also greatly appreciated, valued, and trusted the advice, help, and judgment of Mess Hall’s leadership and staff like Al and Jordan. Preparing for a wedding reception is a large undertaking – and for most of us regular folks its not something we will do many times in our life. Whenever we needed guidance or helpful suggestions on how to prepare and execute our event, Mess Hall staff and leadership worked with us to build out our vision. Our event certainly was our vision – but Mess Hall guided us in how to realize and execute it perfectly. We found that Mess Hall was very flexible with us, but also willing to share wisdom when we experienced some challenges in how to realize our vision. And just a tip – you can definitely trust Al, Jordan, and the rest Mess Hall staff!
And the staff on day-of were also great! The event supervisor filled in any gaps as they inevitably arose throughout the evening, and the bartenders / waitstaff / custodians provided friendly and diligent service throughout the evening. Procuring staff directly through Mess Hall is definitely worth it if you choose to do that.
We used Mess Hall for our 80-person wedding reception, and we could not have been happier with the decision. We wanted a unique space that would work for both an intimate dinner an...
d party atmosphere, and we certainly got both! The inside space was perfect for accommodating a seated dinner, bar, and buffet line, and we used the garage area for our band and dance floor. So many of our guests have complimented the space! Al and Jordan went above and beyond our expectations for communication and thoughtfulness for venue hosts -- both leading up to and on the day of our event. Al was great at providing ideas while also allowing us to really make the event our own. If you are looking for a unique event space, we definitely recommend Mess Hall!
Our guests absolutely loved our wedding for its uniqueness and that was all due to Mess Hall and Al!
Mess hall is obviously non traditional, but it can easily be turned into a bea...
utiful wedding venue. Not to mention the loading dock beats every dance floor I’ve ever been on.
The owner, Al, was amazing and helped us through the entire process. From suggesting vendors to getting us a rain tarp three days before our wedding, he made sure that our minds would be at ease on our wedding day! If a non traditional wedding is something that speaks to you, Mess Hall is an excellent choice.
Mess Hall was the perfect location for our wedding, and we’re so pleased with how the event went. The space is both hip and classy and easily accommodated our 70-person reception. ...
Plenty of space to sit and to dance. The wine/beer package was good quality and reasonably priced. Mess Hall also set us up with a partner caterer, Sloppy Mama’s, which served mind-numbingly delicious barbecue. We’re very happy to have chosen Mess Hall for our wedding. Al and his team are honest, flexible, and professional. It was a pleasure working with them on the event. Highly recommended!
Contact
703 Edgewood St NE, Washington, DC
