The Capitol Theatre

ew hiccups we had are excusable. We paid a flat fee for the reception hall (and a $75 cleaning fee) which was nice to know that no one had to stay afterwards to clean! We paid a little more to reserve the theater stage downstairs since theres not a lot going on in Chambersburg and finding a different location to get married would have been difficult. The venue is very easy to get to as it’s on the main street in the center of town. There was free parking available on the street (during weekends only) and a small parking lot out back of the venue as well. The venue was extremely easy to navigate and had many charming areas to pose for photos. I was hoping they would put our names on the marquee like photos I had seen previously of weddings held there but they only put congratulations on the banner. That was only a small issue though. We were allowed in to decorate the day before the wedding which saved us a ton of time the morning of the wedding but they made us leave earlier than they had told us previously, they had a play downstairs so we couldn’t decorate the stage until the next morning (wedding morning) and they allowed their actors to eat at our decorated tables. They did let us know ahead of time their actors would be using our room which wasn’t ideal but it was too late to do anything about it at that time. We left a table empty for them but they removed stuff from one of the tables we already had set up and didn’t put the table back together… they left us a nice mess as well. I suppose they would say this is because we didn’t call two weeks before the wedding to ‘confirm’ we were still using it but we had our deposit paid and we tried to call and waited for them to email us back but they didn’t. I finally had a relative get in touch with them and they were not very pleasant on the phone but again it was too late to do anything. We had a great experience with the bar staff though. We had a cash bar which is right outside of the reception room we paid $17.50 an hour for the bar service. The bar service was worth it’s weight in gold, they were helpful and they were fun! They gave us countless compliments on the décor and had a wide selection of very affordable drinks. The set up of the reception hall was very nice as well it had a bare opened room with 20 foot ceilings and windows that go ceiling to floor covered by huge beautiful green curtains. They also provided as many round and rectangular tables and chairs we needed free of charge, the chairs were extremely comfortable as well. The room comfortably could seat 120 people with a head table and a small area for the DJ. They also had a kitchen on the one side with a large bathroom/ area to get dressed for the bridal party. The kitchen area had a large cut out spot for catering where you could set up buffet style tables and also has a sink/dishwasher/fridge behind a closed door if you would be interested in self catering! Overall the place was amazing, it was stunning it was unique it was affordable! The small things that went wrong were definitely no reason for us to have regretted our choice. I give The Capitol Theater 9 out of 10, and the bar staff an 11 out of 10 for going above and beyond.

t just how lovely the theatre really is. Then, there's the accessible, newly renovated Wood Center (basically the entire 2nd floor of the theatre) with a reception room that can seat about 120 and is a blank canvas just waiting for your creativity to arrive. And add to that the AMAZING price to rent, and you have one hidden gem of a wedding ceremony and reception venue. (As listed on the website, it's $550 to rent the Wood Center (reception) space for the entire day, and we only paid $150 for the Mainstage (ceremony) space.) The only drawback? Their offices aren't the most organized (due most likely to the understaffing that plagues most historic theatres these days) and the staff aren't exactly "professionals" when it comes to knowing the needs of a bride and wedding party. Although the staff were quite helpful and accomodating in the beginning, as we drew closer to the wedding date, it became harder to nail down details and get straight answers. On the rehearsal and day-of, they ended up being far less than helpful and more "in the way" than I imagined they would be. Luckily, I had a great friend step in as wedding coordinator at the last minute, so things ended up working out just fine. I'm sure if you know in advance that the staff isn't the most reliable, you can put people in place to make sure everything goes off smoothly. All in all, I don't regret anything about having my wedding ceremony and reception at the Capitol Theatre. I really can't say enough about what a beautiful place it really is. I highly reccommend it to any brides who aren't afraid of getting their hands in the details and have people they can trust to run the show on the big day!