Schauer Arts Center

ould recommend Amy and the Schauer Arts to anyone who is looking for an affordable, gorgeous spot to have their wedding.

nter team. I can’t recommend them enough. The Wisconsin Auto Museum is connected to the venue and was rented out for cocktail hour which was so cool and guests seemed to love it! Pricing was affordable and very reasonable. If I could do it all over again I wouldn’t change a thing! Everything went exactly as planned.

per professional and accommodating throughout the entire planning process. Schauer is a beautiful venue. We absolutely loved having the Suckow Art Gallery and Automotive museum open for cocktail hour and guests seemed to really enjoy this as well! All in all we highly recommend working with Amy and choosing Schauer for your wedding venue!

u have in your head, then you really need to call Amy at the Schauer Arts Center! Amy & Mallory were absolutely delightful to work with despite my many unusual and time-sensitive requests. They took the time to understand each of my requests and then found a way to make it happen. The best possible customer service AND a beautiful venue! My husband & I were originally married in Rome, Italy and are blessed to have been married in the church on our 5th Wedding Anniversary. Our vision was to marry the two events by bringing Italy to our guests... the food, the wine, the photos, the chocolates, and even the music. Amy helped with it all and the result was absolute perfection! The comments from our guests include: "Absolutely Fabulous Day!"; "Beautiful event... no detail overlooked or forgotten!"; "Spectacular idea... wasn't sure you could make it happen but you certainly did not disappoint!"; "I truly felt as though I had been transported to Italy for the day!"; "You have forever changed my opinion of Hartford!"; and one guest even commented it was "by far, the best wedding they had ever attended" (and that individual is over 60) because no detail was left to chance. Many people plan weddings assuming it is all about the bride and groom but our wedding/anniversary celebration was about our guests. We truly wanted them to know how important they are to us and Amy understood that from the very beginning. She knew that we wanted to create a special and unique day for our guests so she never considered us demanding but instead took every request as a challenge or opportunity... what a truly refreshing spirit!! Amy was the BEST and the space is quite easy to transform into almost any vision with the assistance of Amy & Mallory. I've been planning corporate events for 40 years and have never enjoyed the planning as much working with anyone else. I highly recommend you call Amy to start planning your amazing day at the Schauer Arts Center... you will not be disappointed with the venue or the service!

ot to enjoy our night instead of worrying about the little things! Thank you so much!!

dding day. Jessica was always available for any questions, no matter how small or how many times I had asked it. The movement from ceremony to cocktail hour to reception was absolutely flawless, and the venue’s bar staff were attentive and really helped make all of our guests feel at ease and enjoy themselves. Jessica’s hard work really made my wedding day the best day of my life. I would absolutely recommend this venue and their wonderful event team to any bride looking for a very memorable wedding.

job has high turnover (3 people had the job in the year we were planning) so I hope if you book here you will have someone new by your wedding. It is especially unfortunate because the location is stunning and bar tenders make the best cocktails you've ever tried. But some fair warnings: Jessica tried to renegotiate our catering contract to include linens that the center couldn't provide and had misinformed us they would. She called our caterer and asked him to bring linens. That change would have been charged to us at about $20 per linen creating an expensive extra charge without my knowledge or approval weeks before our wedding. Obviously our caterer checked with me before altering our contract, and I was able to purchase linens for cheaper than the rental price but I was shocked at how that was handled. She refused to follow through on items the prior coordinators agreed to handle like assisting with the use of sound the sound system, cordless mic and cocktail music. When we booked we were told "it's a theater our sound systems are top notch" but unfortunately we wouldn't know. Thankfully our dj was flexible and accommodating in these changes just days before the event- they even brought an extra sound system free of charge in order to have music in the separate cocktail hour space. Finally she never left her office on our wedding day or helped when asked. This forced our party to have to put out the dessert instead of enjoying the cocktail hour, our mothers facilitating the final touches of our dining room, and our other vendors to hunt down other staff members with questions or help. My groom did see her when she informed him he needed to start cleaning up the room an hour before the end of our wedding.... great first impression for the evening right? All around this venue is costly considering it merely provides the space, bar staff, and coordinator- no decor, linens, catering, alcohol, tips, etc. When you pay for that service you should be able to count on their help. If I could do it over I would have hired someone else to coordinate our day so there was consistency and much less heartache.

lt cramped - this venue met all of my requirements. The bar area was set outside of the banquet area which meant no long lines and crowds inside the room! Jessica the Events Coordinator was awesome to work with, she met all my requests and helped everything run smooth. We also were able to rent the neighboring auto museum for our guest during cocktail hour and I heard nothing but compliments from them. Thank you for making our wedding so special!

ly adds a fun touch! The combination of the Pike's Peak room and the Suckow gallery allowed our guests plenty of room to spread out and either dance or chat throughout the night; even with 200 guests, it never felt crowded and really set the stage for a fun evening. While I could say a lot more about how great the Schauer Center facility is, one of the biggest reasons we ultimately chose the site for our reception was because of Brandon, the Schauer Center's Event Coordinator. We can't say enough good things about him. Brandon truly went above and beyond before, during, and after our event. We wanted to do some more unique things which required bringing in several outside vendors, which Brandon coordinated seamlessly so we wouldn't have to worry about it. He was constantly checking in on the bridal party and our families to make sure everything was going smoothly during the reception, and even diffused a bridal meltdown! We highly recommend that anyone searching for a unique venue with a talented, professional event coordinator, check out the Schauer Center.

alk between tables and not feel cramped. The price was very reasonable compared to other places we looked and the fact that the bar is all set up through the Schauer Center helped save money compared to most places we made budgets for while deciding. They are able to get pretty much any beer, wine, or alcohol you want and assisted in keeping within our budget. The additional option of renting the Auto Museum is great to give the guests something to enjoy during down time while the bridal party did photos. The director of event services, Brandon Herr, was fabulous! We started booking and getting things organized with the previous coordinator, and then Brandon was hired midway through our planning. This made me a bit nervous at first, but he was seriously the best thing about the Schauer Center. He kept everything organized and had great rapport with the other vendors. I had concerns about my dessert table when the catering company offered very little assistance and he made sure to take care of it with the catering staff. He seriously was everywhere at once! I really don't know how he keeps it all organized while being of such great assistance to everyone. My bridal party and my parents all commented on how he would check in with them to make sure they didn't need anything during the night. He worked with us to make our specialty cocktail perfect and everything went off without a hitch. He responded to emails in a reasonable amount of time and his attention to ALL details as the date approached was remarkable. So happy we chose the Schauer Arts Center for our wedding and will continue to recommend it to everyone!

ay of the wedding. He was a calming voice throughout the evening and even brought drinks to the head table at dinner! The venue was beautiful and we rented the Wisconsin Auto Museum for cocktail hour and our guests truly enjoyed it. One of our special touches was to purchase a gobo to project our names on the floor just at the base of the stairwell. This was also a suggestion that Brandon made. We could not have been more satisfied with our choice.

Pike Peak's room and the art gallery for one flat price. Brandon, the new event coordinate, was AMAZING! During the planning stages he worked with us to make sure that everything would be exactly like we wanted on the day of the wedding. The day before/day of the wedding he helped with getting all of the decorating done correctly, and made it so that we didn't have anything extra to worry about during the day of the wedding. During the reception he made sure that everything went smoothly, working with all of our other vendors, and he made sure that whenever we wanted something, it was taken care of immediately. We cannot thank Brandon enough for all that he did! We loved the character that this venue had. It wasn't just another banquet hall, and we think that the venue selection went a long way towards making our wedding a huge success.

up the beautiful staircase and all of our guests could see us and cheered from the gallery. It was a perfect moment. It looked so classy, and the extra bar in the gallery was a must. Derek, the events planner, answered all our calls and emails quickly and attended to our every need the night of the wedding. At the last minute (last minute=during dinner), my father asked him to play our slideshow (it had been played during the cocktail hour) and he had it up and going in less than five minutes. He made sure everything happened when I wanted it to and worked closely with the vendors. I had no stress the night of because of that. We were allowed to decorate Friday morning (wedding was Saturday night), which was perfect because we didn't feel rushed at all. My mother-in-law made all of the centerpieces but couldn't get them all their the weekend of the wedding. We were allowed to store them at the Schauer Center for over a week, which relied so much stress. I really cannot say enough good things, but I an guarantee you will not find a more classy venue for a better value that close to Milwaukee.

utiful and connected to the Wisconsin Auto Museum. However, unfortunately for us we had the bad luck of having to work with this venue during a major staffing change. The problem from the start was communication about the changes. We were not informed until we started asking questions and it made us feel as if we were forgotten about or were not a priority. We felt as if we deserved to be informed about the changes in who we were working with and not left to find this information out on our own. When a new event coordinator was hired we noticed while keeping up with their website. We gave it about two weeks or so to see if anyone would reach out to us and let us know. After we felt it was long enough without hearing from them we took the action of reaching out. This whole process made us feel as if we were starting over, but the only difference was now we didn't have the option of going with a different venue. The new event coordinated didn't meet our expectations from the start. I understand that when staffing changes policies sometimes changes along with it. However, there was a situation where the new event coordinator wanted to place his new policies onto us which meant we would have to change our centerpieces/candles, weeks before the wedding. Our centerpieces and candles were approved prior to his arrival by the old event coordinator. We eventually got them to realize it was in their best interest to honor prior agreements made before the staffing change, but for me that does not excuse the fact it caused us unnecessary stress weeks before the wedding. Other negative experiences included the venue being too warm the day of the reception and them unable to do anything about it. I guess they are a non profit organization and have a tight budget. We asked to have the blinds closed for dinner to give it an elegant feel but when the time came the blinds were wide open. As it seemed to me this really had impact on the temperature of the room as the sun shined through the big windows, let alone that it took away from the mood we wanted to set. In the days and weeks after our wedding we also heard many stories from our guests about their experiences with the bartenders. Everything from them not knowing how to make some peoples drinks, to charging different prices for the same drink throughout the night, and some thought they were just rude. Well thats my summary. It's a shame because we had such high expectations when we chose The Schauer Arts and Activities Center.

de our as difficult as he could have. One of the main reasons we chose the art center is because it is very beautiful and because we could choose any caterer that we wanted, we didn't have to use their food service. But looking back we should have gone somewhere else and used their food service because the event director made it extremely difficult for our caterer to do his job and was fighting him every step of the way. I would strongly recommend picking a different venue unless you want a stress filled road through your wedding. Knowing what I know now, I know my wife and I would have.

paration of our event, had limited contact with external vendors, and was very rude to several of our guests and vendors on the night of our wedding. We had several complaints from guests and vendors with how our event was handled. It is quite a shame that the staff of the Schauer Center tainted our wedding, as the facility itself is quite beautiful. Unfortunately, we cannot recommend this as a strong venue for future weddings.

e. Kathy the event manager was extremely helpful and quick to respond to all of my questions. The staff the day/night of the wedding was helpful and courteous to all of our guests. We received many compliments on the venue choice and guests truly enjoyed the art gallery & auto museum. Would recommend this wedding venue to any and all couples!

ight. She ensured the night ran smoothly and was always very gracious. She knew exactly what our vision for the night was and helped us see it through until the end. I highly recommend the Schauer Center for an event! Thank you Kathy! ~ Jaimie and Chad

guests to mingle in, and if you’re willing to pay a little extra, a car museum for your guests to explore. The downside however is the bar selection and prices, as well as the extra 12% they tack on the catering bill.