Michigan Renaissance Festival

Do not do this. It was horribly unorganized. The bridal area is a literal shed. We arrived the day before to set up and our palace was not cleaned and had rats and rat droppings everywhere. They upgraded us to the kings castle and gave us a band. Our food was not served until 1pm when the wedding was at 10:30. We had one server who was doing her best to keep us hydrated while we waited for food. The food was awful for the 7000 we paid. Some had undercooked pork loin. It was completely unorganized. No place to wash your hands except for the porta potties with the water stations. No bathrooms but porta potties.

The Michigan Renaissance Fair is a wonderful place to play and to get married! They offer several packages from simple and short to over the top! We took the middle route for 50, included tickets to the fair for everyone, lunch, space and wedding planners and staff. Then, everyone can go play after the ceremony and reception. Great place for that! We all dressed in period 'garb' - and that made it all the more fun. The staff was very flexible and they made it all happen as we had planned. We were able to customize the ceremony and day to our needs, and when it was done, we could just go and celebrate - no cleaning up and it was all done. One should remember the fair setting is not the same as a routine (boring?) wedding hall - there is limited electricity, and space can be limited, although for us the venue was fine for our sized guest list - but upgrades to larger venue and more elaborate extras exist. Overall, a fine day and it was fun! Rain didn't even matter!

This was by far the best wedding we had ever been to. Very entertaining and the food was amazing. Everyone was so helpful. We toured the venue during a festival day which they provided tickets for us to stay and enjoy the day!

Our wedding was in Sept 2016. This is what happened: 1). Parking – upon arrival we notified the parking directors of our wedding, they had myself and my bridesmaids park in general parking, and had us carry all of our stuff back to the gatehouse while the rest of the party (groom, groomsmen) and other guests were allowed to park up near the gatehouse. Dedicated parking up close to entrance and a cart for transporting additional wedding stuffs would be a great addition. 2). Gatehouse NEEDS a fan!! OMGoodness pretty darn hot. Water would be a good addition as well. 3). Bridal party was running around trying to gather info about tickets for our guests, ticket sellers and will call had no idea about the wedding or the ticket situation. Per one of my brides maids, the ticket table wasn't in the wrong spot, they didn't even have one setup. Then when they finally got her the tickets, they handed her all the tickets and told me to hand them out. Didn't have a designated person to help. RECEPTION: 1) Food was not completely set up upon arrival at Crystal Palace. (even though length of ceremony and at least a half an hour was given between the ceremony and reception) 2) Food RAN OUT – not all of our guests were provided with chicken. Upon talking with some of our guests I was informed that the server was pretty snippy and rude, and told my guests “The bride ordered this, it was SUPPOSED to feed all 50 people! I have to check to see if we can bring out more food for all of you!” This was unacceptable in my book, especially since not even HALF of my guests had been served at that point! I had guests sharing their plates!!! 3) We ordered Lemon Pepper Chicken, served Fried Chicken 4) Ordered red skin potato salad – No salad 5) Requested NO baked beans – Had baked beans 6) Requested pasta salad instead of baked beans – no pasta salad 7) We had a small wedding cake and 4 dozen cupcakes. Maid of Honor had to ASK 4 – 5 times before the wedding cake was brought out, the cupcakes had been tipped and 12 of them were ruined (the only way that would have been known is if the box were opened, why else would the box be opened unless something had happened to cause worry) 8) There were 2 – 3 of our tables that were skipped when the champagne was served for our toast, champagne ran out so some wine was given but still had 2 tables with nothing to toast us with. UNDERAGE GUESTS WERE SERVED CHAMPAGNE! 9) There wasn’t any kind of posting on the Crystal Palace indicating a private party or wedding reception so we had about a dozen strangers wander in during our reception. 10) Gentleman leading back to the pirate ship kept separating group from bridal party. 11) Were told after the fact that candles in sconces on tables for reception could not be lit due to fire hazards – may want to get electric candles to provide more light and make sconces more usable. 12) Itinerary was never given so right from the start we were scrambling to try and figure out what was happening, how and when. I expressed this to the Faire the week after our wedding, they offered to give us season passes for NEXT year. Don't want to go back, STILL trying to get some kind of compensation as of end of Oct. DO NOT GET MARRIED HERE!!!!