Des Moines Venue

[bringmagicback]

Best friend is getting married next summer, shes from KC, he's from Minneapolis, decided to have the wedding in DSM. What are good places, they want somewhere that has a bar preferably setup so they dont have to hire waitstaff etc. I suggested world food prize but they said that was to fancy. They are currently looking into sticks (the furniture place not the bar) but seems like a cluster ****

Suggestions?

 

[jburke]

A lot of the venues in the DSM area are very dependent on # capacity. Nothing is really cheap, which my actually recommendation is save you money plan a destination.... I got married in Vegas going on 8 years ago, planned around UNLV game so I knew friends would come out....

A lot less stress, and no crazy expenses.

 

[JY07]

Best friend is getting married next summer, shes from KC, he's from Minneapolis, decided to have the wedding in DSM. What are good places, they want somewhere that has a bar preferably setup so they dont have to hire waitstaff etc. I suggested world food prize but they said that was to fancy. They are currently looking into sticks (the furniture place not the bar) but seems like a cluster ****

Suggestions?

Most places downtown are very expensive, with the world food prize building being one of the more expensive (they would have to hire a catering company for that, by the way)

I didn't make it to the wedding, but I know of people who've had their reception at sticks and liked it

 

[cyhiphopp]

Do you just need a reception place? Or someplace for the ceremony as well?

How fancy are you looking to get? Does it need to be downtown?

I'd suggest one of the hotels if it's just for reception. They do a lot of them and should have some packages to choose from.

 

[HGoat]

I've been to a couple of receptions at Sticks and they were nice.

 

[twnp3rd]

We had ours at Events Center West in West Des Moines. It is the old Billy Joe Picture show place. They have a bar with lots of different options for packages. Nice place and was pretty inexpensive. We had a place cater in for food. We also got wristbands for the bridal party. It was $10 per wrist band and all drinks were covered.

 

[cyclonespiker33]

It's pricey but Salisbury House is a really cool place.

http://salisburyhouse.org/private_events.php

 

[rudiskilz]

Wife and I got married at Simon Estes Amphitheater downtown on the river and had the reception right behind it at Embassy Suites. worked out perfect.

 

[DSMCy]

Highly recommend Forte
Nick was incredible to work with, food is great, great location and pricing was competitive.

http://barattas.com/venues/forte/


Others I've been to and/or we looked into:

State Historical Building (also catered by Barattas)
Botanical Gardens
Temple for Performing Arts - I think this was the most expensive one we looked at
Scottish Rite

 

[jbindm]

If they're just looking for a reception place then West End Architectural Salvage in Des Moines would be kind of cool. I've never been to a wedding reception there but I have been for a couple other events and they do it up right.

 

[DJSteve]

Do they want something full service or cheaper/DIY? I'm not sure I completely understand the thought process regarding the bar... any full service venue (most hotels or other venues in the metro that do their own food) is going to have portable bars and bartenders to staff them.

Tuscany Event Center in Urbandale or Stoney Creek Inn in Johnston are a couple that I think have permanent bars immediately adjacent to their reception space.

 

[cyhiphopp]

Had a great experience with the Holiday Inn on Merle Hay in Urbandale. They weren't terribly expensive and they took really good care of us.

 

[bringmagicback]

We had ours at Events Center West in West Des Moines. It is the old Billy Joe Picture show place. They have a bar with lots of different options for packages. Nice place and was pretty inexpensive. We had a place cater in for food. We also got wristbands for the bridal party. It was $10 per wrist band and all drinks were covered.

seems like it would be pretty crowded with the claimed seating for 350. What did they do w/ the bar side?

 

[Farnsworth]

A lot of the venues in the DSM area are very dependent on # capacity. Nothing is really cheap, which my actually recommendation is save you money plan a destination.... I got married in Vegas going on 8 years ago, planned around UNLV game so I knew friends would come out....

A lot less stress, and no crazy expenses.

I'm really surprised the Destination Wedding Police haven't come out yet like in every other wedding thread to tell you how horrible of a person you are for doing that.

Just got back Saturday from my destination wedding in Jamaica, so glad we did it that way. Now we are currently looking for venue's for some sort of reception, but we are going to keep it real casual. Nothing like a dinner/dance format.

 

[cyclonespiker33]

Had a great experience with the Holiday Inn on Merle Hay in Urbandale. They weren't terribly expensive and they took really good care of us.

Hey, I was just there for a wedding two weekends ago!

 

[ianoconnor]

We had our reception at the Johnston Lions Club. It's not fancy whatsoever, but was cheap & they let you bring in your own caterer/alcohol. We used HyVee.

 

[bringmagicback]

We had our reception at the Johnston Lions Club. It's not fancy whatsoever, but was cheap & they let you bring in your own caterer/alcohol. We used HyVee.

I was just noticing on another posters link, when you have them cater alcohol, and it says say $8 a person, does that mean its all you can drink for $8? So if 100 people, all you can drink for $800 total? I could throw some epic parties for those prices
see link
http://barattas.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2016-Bar-Menu-Forte.pdf

 

[cyhiphopp]

Hey, I was just there for a wedding two weekends ago!

Did you enjoy it? We had a lot of fun and didn't pay too much either. The staff was super nice and made special food for some of the kids in attendance.

 

[cyclonespiker33]

Did you enjoy it? We had a lot of fun and didn't pay too much either. The staff was super nice and made special food for some of the kids in attendance.

It definitely did the job. You can smell the chlorine pool when you go in but I stopped noticing after ten minutes or so. The food was very good, they did breakfast and dinner entrees, which was creative. If he is looking for seating 350 I don't know if it would work.

 

[Bret44]

I am currently looking at Venues and Lake Robbins Ballroom in Woodward is big and cheap. It looks nice and I have heard nice things about it.