The Newark Museum of Art

l of my vendors and offered great suggestions. The Ballantine mansion is a unique feature of the museum. We were able to use it for a preceremony gathering. I am so glad that our dollars are going to this nonprofit organization in the heart of downtown Newark .

beautiful space, with a first-rate collection of American art, from Copley to Warhol and beyond, an outstanding Tibetan/Asian gallery (the Dalai Lama visits when he's in town), and a lavishly restored Victorian mansion attached. But because it's in Newark not Manhattan, you can knock a zero off what you'd imagine you'd have to spend to close a museum for your own private party (and you're helping to support them too!). Carol Blunda, their events coordinator, is fantastic to work with, incredibly detail-oriented (don't bother with a separate wedding planner), and open to considering any good idea you may have. We had a two-hour cocktail "hour" with all three floors of galleries open for our guests (we paid extra for that of course). Our reception was set up in the elegant central glass-roofed courtyard. (You hire a caterer from the museum's approved list - we used Encore Catering in East Hanover, which was excellent.) Everyone was stunned by how beautiful the museum was; I hope that a lot of them will go back.

rt of my search - and Carol Blunda at the Newark Museum was one of the most responsive and helpful people I encountered. She was able to provide all of the information I was seeking up front, which was extremely clear about price and many other details. Her associate Kim showed me and my family the venue twice and was very helpful -spending all the time with us we needed. They also were very responsive over email as I was making my decision - for example, I wanted to know if we could move the ceremony to a different location in the museum and they had someone set up some chairs and measure to see if the space could accommodate my needs. I would feel very comfortable with this team, and I love the museum and think the court is really elegant. Such a cool and different venue!

ind of freaked but thank God we had it...pheeew!

ause I went to graduate school in the area, but because they are a non-profit, the museum is not allowed to advertise it's services widely. Our cocktail hour was in the sculpture garden lawn and the reception was in Englehard Court -we were really happy with both spaces, as were our guests. On the days leading up to the wedding, so many guests were buzzing about how excited they were to come to an art museum for the wedding reception and were blown away by how beautiful the space was with the additional uplighting on the dramatic columns and branched GOBO pattern dancing off the tall vaulted ceiling. To all this, add the Museum's complimentary chiavari chairs and the florists gorgeous arrangements ...it was truly breathtaking -I don't think pictures could do it justice! The Museum will also open up a gallery for wedding guests to walk through during cocktail hour, which many of our guests took advantage of and also loved. In addition to the gallery being open, they gave each of our guests a complimentary free re-entry ticket to come back and visit the museum another day. Also, the museum has a Central paid vallet parking lot that guests can park in (the couple can choose to cover this for the guests or guests can pay -we covered it and it came up to $6.50 a car and just a few extra hundred bucks). The icing on the cake with all of this beauty and delightfully unique reception space is the staff -I hope Carol and Erin see this review. You guys did such an amazing job on the wedding day and we want to thank you so much for being such a pleasure to work with. Throughout the weeks leading up to the wedding, Carol was so responsive with every email and phone inquiry that we sent and got back to us right away. She is extremely thorough and really went out of her way to make sure everything was in order leading up to our event. On the day of, Carol came into the museum (on her off day) just to make sure things were running smoothly (with our slightly complicated reception set up) & stayed through the cocktail hour; Erin was there for the entire event and was also beyond spectacular! My parents, brother, bridal party and family members who were helping ALL came up to my husband & I after the event and commented on how great Carol and Erin were throughout the night in making sure things functioned smoothly -thanks so much to you both :). AMAZING experience! We highly recommend and can not say enough what a fabulous experience we had having the museum as our venue and working with Carol and Erin :)!

ran smoothly. They coordinate with all of your vendors weeks before the wedding.

antine House as the getting-ready/picture-taking/"holding" area. During the cocktail hour, a lot of guests got out of the heat and visited the American Art gallery (one of the several galleries you can choose to keep open). The museum has an upright piano on site that we used during the ceremony, too. The less-traditional venue made a big impression on our family and friends, both at the wedding and leading up to it. (We heard a lot of, "Ooo, wow, you're getting married at a museum!") I love the guest photos that are trickling back. You've got the dancing ones, the grand entrance ones...and then ones of two of my girlfriends making goofy faces next to a painting. My friend's boyfriend pointing at the rear end of a nude statue. My sister-in-law's shot of the Jewish wedding miniature near the elevator. What a wonderful thing to have art among the details that will make up the memory of our wedding. It was a pleasure to work with Carol Blunda and her staff, who helped bring things together in the year leading up to the wedding, and were also on hand that night making sure things ran smoothly. The Newark Museum was not the only venue we looked at, but it was the first. The ones we looked at later were lovely, but we were sold -- none of them came close. The Newark Museum had the art and the majesty. The beautiful green courtyard. The reception court with the high ceiling and the skylight and the tall trees strung with lights. The National Historic Register mansion for getting ready. The experienced in-house event staff. We put down that deposit a year ago with high expectations for a great wedding, and The Newark Museum met them 100 percent.

a lush garden, a gem in Newark, and a pretty, peaceful spot for an urban wedding. We had a Saturday wedding ceremony in the garden, followed by outdoor cocktail hour, then a seated dinner and wild dancing in their gorgeous interior court. (About 150 guests, though they can hold up to 210 with a dancefloor.) Practically, though they are not a wedding venue by trade, they more than meet the requirements. Their Special Events staff is very organized and attentive, and they are ready with vendor recommendations for you. Parking is easy to manage and plentiful, not to mention the Museum is also easily accessible through public transportation (even my Brooklynite friends had no trouble arriving!). They also organize their own security, and even provide you with a very helpful tech (and mic setup) for your ceremony and cocktail hour music. Since their first priority is their museum work, you do have to work around visitor hours and the like for your rehearsal, realize the staff aren’t your bridesmaids, and of course be mindful of the priceless art all around you. However, this is more than worth it when you look up from your dinner to see amazing Gorky paintings, or your guests gush about how much fun they had cooling off and checking out art in the American galleries (they open a gallery of your choice for the cocktail hour!). Additionally, the bridal party is allowed entrance for pictures and preparations two hours before the wedding—in the historic Ballantine House!! I can’t say how much fun my family and I had enjoying the historic rooms and the beauty of that space. Again, the whole museum is a unique and picturesque background for your wedding pictures. We partied until midnight, and my only complaint was that they do have a midnight cutoff that is strictly enforced. (We worked around it by moving the party to a club in Newark’s Ironbound!!) I highly recommend the Newark Museum as a venue!

ual because of my needs. We loved having our wedding at the museum and we really appreciate how accommodating they were on our day.

ony and reception at the museum. The ceremony was in the museum's newly renovated auditorium. At first we were uncertain about having the ceremony there, fearing it would look too much like, well, an auditorium. However, our florist provided us with beautiful floral arrangements and they transformed the space, which was also large enough to hold all of our guests (170). We held the reception in the museum's Engelhart Court which is beautiful. With the help of our caterer, the space was so elegantly decorated. All of our guests were excited to be in the museum and as a part of the evening, the museum gave our guests access to one of the exhibit galleries. Before the ceremony, we had access the to the museum's historic house, the Ballentine House which is also a lovely space and the perfect location to prepare for the wedding and to have family and close friends gather for photographs before the event. The museum also has a courtyard which is lovely for photographs. We got married in early December so an outdoor wedding was not feasible. However, it was a nice day and not too cold so we were able to do photographs outside in the courtyard. Finally, not enough positive things can be said about the museum staff. We organized our wedding in 5 months and from the first phone call to the day of the event, the staff was knowledgeable, helpful, warm and courteous. The day of the wedding, we were just amazed with how attentive the staff was to our needs and the needs of elderly family members. So many of our guests told us afterwards how friendly and helpful all of the museum staff were during the event. The Newark Museum was the only venue we considered seriously for our wedding, and for us, it was the right choice. The museum staff made sure that our wedding was incredibly special and meaningful to us and all of our guests.