Montclair Art Museum

that she wanted nothing to do with couples or wedding planning. Many of the emails that we sent were forwarded off to different departments with no consideration on how they answered clients. When we first decided on this location everyone was warm and friendly but after booking we didn't experience that same service. The rental assistant was nice but her manager lacked any customer service skills. It came to a point were I honestly dreaded seeing an email from the rental manger. Lucky for us she fell off the job once her assistant took over. While wedding planning a lot of venue changes were made, without notice, which made for a difficult and stressful process. The venue underwent construction, new rules were suddenly sprung on us and limitations on venue space were added. On our first tour we asked about having the DJ seated in the balcony since we did want to use the stage for something else and told that wouldn't be a problem. They also added that quartets play in this area and a DJ would have plenty of room but on one of our last walk thoughts we were told that this was not possible and wouldn't honor that request. We also planned to have a photo booth and a bar outside the doors in the hall and on that same visit we were told that would also not be possible due to new venue rules. With all of these last minute changes it forced us to push everything inside and cramped the space. They also gave us a really difficult time about setup times and getting decor into the venue. Thank goodness I had a great catering company and wedding planner that stored our decor/seating for us. Speaking of vendors, if you use a catering company not from their preferred list, they make you leave another deposit. The company I used is a top rated company with 20+ years in the business and they still gave us a hard time. I was fortunate on my wedding day to have a great support team and a wonderful day of planner. My husband and I also come from event management background but I couldn't imagine someone new to event planning dealing with this venue. Be careful if you do plan on booking and make sure you have any requests documented so they will be honored.

ty for her many mistakes, and instead made a lot of situations very uncomfortable for us. -They cashed our initial deposit to reserve the date, then three months later they contacted us asking us for the deposit or they will release the date to others. -you need to bring your own day-of-coordinator at the very least, as they are pretty hands off. -The rental associate, while well-meaning, was poorly-trained and would often answer questions incorrectly -Kitchen is very inadequately furnished to provide/warm dinner for a larger wedding crowd. -They require you to purchase wedsafe insurance (liability insurance). Apparently it's common for some vendors but just to let you know. -A lot of restrictions placed on your event because it's a museum. This didn't bother us too much but I can see it bothering others. (ex. no open flame ever so no-go on candle ceremony) -setup anywhere outside the ballroom is restricted until your rent start time at 5:00pm, which disallows you from using the entire space for the event from 5-11pm. You end up dedicating at least an hour of your renting time to setting up (that's rushing). In summary, you end up paying for setup time. This is unless you rent other rooms. You are not allowed to set up in hallways or publicly accessed hallways while museum is open to public

making sure everything was planned per our requests. The room the museum uses for weddings may look a bit 'plain' during the day, but with the right lighting and decor, it transforms into a glamorous and very classy hall with a great airy space, glass ceiling, and great acoustics. Top reasons to use the museum: - Again, hall is fantastic, roomy without feeling overwhelming, and beautiful when decorated - Freedom to use whichever caterer you like. Not forced to using a preferred caterer - Guests are allowed to peruse the museum during cocktail hout - Wedding party allowed to take photos inside many of the galleries, providing great photo ops, especially in case of rain! Outside area has trees and art work as well for photos - Very close to NYC, great location for out of town guests - Friendly staff Only setback is that it is a bit expensive to rent, but based on how amazing my wedding turned out, it was worth every penny! Thank you Ilana and team for a great event!

op for our wedding reception