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Weddings

National Aquarium Reviews

National Aquarium View more information

Reviews

4.5 out of 5 rating
18 Reviews
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94% Recommended by couples

Awards

18
  • A
    Adam Sent on 09/07/2018
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    We were gifted with Joe, Nicole, and Chef Tyler for our wedding. As most weddings go, we were stressed. As soon as we sat down for our tasting Joe, Nicole, and Chef Tyler alleviated all of our stress. The dishes and the layout for our wedding had us filled with joy and excitement. Every single dish chef Tyler presented us were absolutely delicious. Just the Maryland crab cakes, Peruvian steak, and paella could have sufficed, but chef Tyler went the extra mile and was able to incorporate dishes from our culture. Dishes that our older family members could not only appreciate, but enjoy because of how delicious they really were. He was able to create pancit, lumpia Shanghai, and lechon kawali (that's pork belly) that was so good I ended up eating all of it. We were so confident and impressed with Chef Tyler's creations that we gave him full creative freedom on the dessert menu. Food is a big part of our lives and one of the significant factors that started our relationship in its early beginnings. Tasting how good the food was, we knew our guests were going to be blown away. Not only was the food amazing, but the setup and layout of our wedding was beautiful. Nicole was able to envision something truly incredible. The use of space, colors, and aesthetic that Nicole was able to conjure up was exactly the look we were hoping for. My favorite part was the bar next to the dolphin tank. It was an aquarium bar which only exists here. A place you can watch sealife while enjoying a drink rather than awkwardly at your phone like at so many weddings I've been to before. My now wife and I were able to see the beautiful layout, but Nicole made sure we had drinks in our hands the whole night which was incredible. She also got a plate of lechon for my now father in law who didn't have to wait in line for the mouth watering pork. She really took care of us that night. It was absolute beautiful and I can't thank Joe, Nicole, and Chef Tyler enough for all their work and help.
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    Barbara Sent on 10/12/2017
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    The staff at the National Aquarium are so professional, knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with in so many ways. Corey Frier the event coordinator was amazing. We had the time of our lives. A special shout out to the awesome security team.
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    Emily Sent on 11/02/2014
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    We had an incredible time at our wedding here! The staff were very accommodating the night of and kept everything flowing smoothly. We rented both interior sections of the aquarium so our guests were free to roam most exhibits during the cocktail hour. Our ceremony had a late start time, 7:30pm, but we were able to stay at the reception until midnight. I would absolutely recommend this venue to anyone looking for a "wow" factor. Our guests really enjoyed the atmosphere!
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  • K
    Katie Sent on 10/26/2014
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    We used the Blue Wonders Harbor Overlook for our ceremony, then had a cocktail hour that was officially in the Knott Harbor View Room (but was really spread out through the entire building), then a reception inside the Pier 4 Pavilion. We loved every aspect of holding our wedding at the Aquarium. The whole night went off without any issues. I will mention that we used Classic Catering, not the in-house Sodexo caterers, and we think we made the right choice there. Classic Catering blew us away (I left them a very positive review here), while when we were supposed to visit the in-house folks they forgot we were coming...

    While planning we originally worked with some aquarium employees that no longer appear to work there. With those original people we had some issues with communication, but after that passed we had nothing but good responsiveness. Closer to the wedding we primarily worked with Victoria Payerle, and she was very helpful and professional.

    Overall, we had a blast the night of our wedding, and we received a million compliments about the venue. I would recommend the Aquarium as a venue to anyone and everyone.
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    Paulette Sent on 05/24/2014
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    Very friendly polite and help to keep thing moving. Very informative ☺
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    Maretta Sent on 09/27/2014
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    This was the most amazing place to have a wedding. Not only was it unique and beautiful at night but the staff and event coordinators were impeccable. They were so helpful, accommodating and made my wedding something that I will never forget. My husband and I are beyond thrilled and couldn't have asked for anything more.
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    Greggory Sent on 08/22/2013
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    The staff at the Aquarium were wonderful. They were very flexible and worked with us...and our budget. Ryan B. was there on the day of our wedding. Don't let his age fool you...he was amazing! He was so professional and so organized. We don't know what we would have done without him!
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    Elizabeth Sent on 07/19/2011
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    Everyone loved the venue!
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    Marsha Sent on 06/29/2010
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    This is an amazing place to have a wedding. It was gorgeous! The staff was fantastic. Timing was tight, and they pitched in to help us get set up and started on time. When it was time to break down, they were right there to help us load and carry things out to the cars. This was the third wedding I have done in two years, and they were tip top!
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    Linus Sent on 11/21/2013
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    We had our ceremony and reception in the Harbor View Room. The room was turned over during cocktails in the gallery, so guests could enjoy the fish on that floor with drinks. The venue was great for a small wedding (about 50 people), and fit our personality (and my love of fish- I have 3 tanks).

    The Aquarium was also nice in letting people come early, and long with the wedding couple for pictures at the site at various exhibits. Even more accommodating was that the Aquarium allowed the photographer to enter (for free) much earlier so he could scout out possible locations for our photos.

    My only "criticism" would be it would be great to have the venue for longer, so the reception could be longer. The earliest start time is 6:30 pm, as the building is still open to the public at 6 pm, and everyone has to leave by 11:30 pm. It may be possible to have an early start time in the Dolphin area for the ceremony and dinner, and then move the dancing to another area (no loud music allowed in the Dolphin area); the Dolphin area was unavailable for our wedding date.
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    Angela Sent on 09/24/2012
    4.9 out of 5 rating
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    I couldn't have asked for a better experience from a venue. While getting in touch at the pre-planning stages was tricky, once we had a signed contract they were responsive and available.

    The aquarium has 3 options for rentals: the main aquarium building, the dolphin building, or an outside tent. All seemed lovely, and varied in price (but not by much). I thought the pricing was fair and not much more than other inner harbor venues. The only downside was only having 2 caterers to choose from, and both were quite expensive.

    The night of the wedding we were surprised to find that there were aquarium staff there to help things run smoothly (we thought it would just be the caterers there). They were so professional, and so incredibly helpful. Everyone had a great time. I wholeheartedly recommend this venue.
  • Janeen
    Janeen Sent on 02/05/2015
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    The National Aquarium is an absolutely beautiful place to hold a wedding. It's right on the inner harbor. It's cheaper than most other venues on the inner harbor. And guests can roam the exhibits during the cocktail hour/reception. The only downside is that there are very limited hours to use the aquarium (our ceremony started at 7pm and the reception went until midnight) due to it being a public exhibit.

    I booked the aquarium 18 months out from our date and the responsiveness was always within 48 hours. Victoria gave us a tour of the available spaces and was available for our three pre-wedding meetings at the aquarium (design meeting to figure out how to design the space, final walk through, and rehearsal). Victoria was not at the wedding, but quite a few of her staff members were and they were absolutely professional and easy to work with. Everyone coordinated very well.

    We originally booked the overlook as both our ceremony and reception space, but the dolphin viewing area had a cancellation a couple of weeks before (note, unless you rent out all the spaces, there's the possibility you will not be the only event in the aquarium at the time) so we rented out the dolphin viewing area for the ceremony and the overlook for the reception. The ceremony was an absolute dream. How many people can say that they had dolphins swimming around behind them as they exchanged vows? We also had access to the entire aquarium (except the rain forest) during cocktail hour, finishing in the Knott Harbor Room (another beautiful space that looks over the harbor with floor to ceiling windows). After cocktail hour, the guests made their way down to the Overlook room (overlooks the dragon boats and the harbor, again, absolutely beautiful) to an amazing night of dinner and dancing on the inner harbor. It was an amazing experience and you cannot go wrong with the aquarium!
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    Chase Sent on 07/30/2012
    4.6 out of 5 rating
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    We thoroughly enjoyed our wedding at the Aquarium! It was a perfect waterfront venue and the guests loved the fact that they were able to see the exhibits too! Only downfall is that you must use their caterer... you can't bring in your own team. Otherwise, excellent venue and a great price too!
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    Kelly Sent on 10/15/2014
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    We got married at the aquarium last Saturday and all of our guests were blown away. They loved the unique venue and being able to see some of the exhibits before the ceremony started. I really liked the fact that everything from the ceremony to cocktail hour and reception was all in one location. I've only seen pictures from our guests so far but even those were stunning so I know our professional pictures will be outstanding thanks to having an amazing location!
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    Emily Sent on 10/20/2010
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    We held our wedding (ceremony, cocktail, and reception) at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and were very happy with the overall experience. We got a lot of comments from guests that they loved the location. People really enjoyed being able to tour the exhibits and the location itself has a beautiful view of the city. The event manager we primarily interacted with ahead of the event, Victoria, was a pleasure to work with. She was very responsive to our requests and very friendly to interact with. She was not the on-site manager at the wedding though, and we would have preferred to have her there. The day-of event manager, who was the same person we interacted with when first checking out the aquarium, was not as friendly to interact with and apparently made our officiant nervous prior to the ceremony. However, everything was still taken care of as needed.
  • Ashley
    Ashley Sent on 10/29/2008
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    The Aquarium Event Planners were very responsive the week before the event but failed to return phone calls during the begining stages of planning (or even to actually see the location was a few weeks later). I guess my best advice if you want to have your wedding at the Baltimore Aquarium is to be patient and eventually someone will call you back. Also be warned that all of the tanks and exhibits are on timers which this information was not volunteered to us so make sure you ask when planning your event if you want pictures in a certain area. The Classic Catering staff was wonderful and Alberto made his best effort to take care of everything we asked for. All together we were pleased and would recommend the Aquarium for events as long as you have the money to do so.
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    Y Sent on 12/12/2007
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    fun for children & adults alike
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    Alexandra Sent on 07/17/2013
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    The aquarium was a fun, unique and affordable space to host our wedding reception in and we had a fantastic evening, dancing the night away. However, trying to work out the logistics of the aquarium ended up being a recurring set of headaches and the greatest amount of stress leading up to the wedding.
    1) We had disscussed June 15 as our wedding date and were told that the date was being held for us. We lined up all the other vendors, sent in our contract to confirm and were then told "oops".
    2) Our contract was for 7pm. Several weeks after we sent the final contract in we were told "oops", we can't actually hold indoor receptions until 8pm. Back to changing all the contracts...
    3) We went though 3 contact individuals from start to the day of. While the woman who coordinated with us on the actual day of the wedding was very nice, we had never met her before and didn't even know about the change of contact persons until a couple days out.
    4) Trying to coordinate getting centerpieces and such to the aquarium was a huge headache. We weren't told until a few weeks before the wedding that there were time restrictions on when things could be dropped off at the aquarium. Once we thought we had it all figured out to drop things off on Friday evening, we get a phone call telling us that our contact person was planning on checking out of work on Friday early.
    Again, we had a lovely experiance at the aquarium on the day of the event (which I attribute mainly to the assistance of our amazing caterer) but I'd attribute 70% of the stress I had leading up to the day to inadequate/insufficient communication on the part of the aquarium.
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