CHC is a spectacular and beautiful venue for a wedding reception, including the Rotunda, the gardens for photos, and the library. We booked the carousel for our reception, and it was an excellent and memorable part of the day. Our guests from the littlest kids to adults enjoyed taking a spin on the carousel. We loved the central location in Cleveland, and there were good hotel options nearby. They had plenty of parking for all of our guests. We had our reception in the Rotunda, and it was a magical night. The guests loved the classic cars around the space, and lots of guests commented on how unique and cool the venue was. For the most part, the staff members were friendly, especially the folks who ran the carousel. The point person, Brianna, had a good understanding of the space and sent us pictures of other wedding setups at the venue so we could get an idea of the look.

Our biggest challenge with this venue (and our biggest challenge planning our wedding reception overall) was working with the point of contact at CHC, Brianna. We had read reviews online prior to selecting this venue that mentioned that Brianna was difficult to communicate with and nonresponsive. We took those comments into account and planned to be proactive in our communications, but we did not realize the extent of the communication challenges we would face. Brianna did not communicate in a timely or complete matter. There were several occasions where it would take multiple attempts over weeks for Brianna to answer our questions, or for her to tell us that our email was lost in her inbox. Some of our questions were complicated, so we understood some delay, but she would not even acknowledge receipt of our messages. This seemed to extend to some of our vendors, as our DJ could not get ahold of her until we called and she was very short with the florist, who had also been struggling to get in contact with her. Brianna was also not flexible in scheduling meetings with us and would often arrive late. The most egregious example of bad communication was when we (the bride, groom, and father of the groom) received an email at 9pm the night before the wedding (for reference, while we at our rehearsal dinner) saying that some of the alcohol we had selected was not actually available. We only saw the message by happenstance, so we scrambled and made it work, but that's a serious misstep that suggests that CHC was only verifying their alcohol roster less than a day ahead of a large event. We’re not sure what Brianna’s backup plan would have been if we didn’t answer that email. Was she planning to call us the morning of our wedding? This did not feel professional and was extremely frustrating.

Two final negatives. During our reception, the Rotunda got uncomfortably hot, despite it being a nice day in April (maybe 70 degrees). The CHC staff weren’t very forthcoming with ideas about how to cool the area down. They at one point said the temperature could not be changed because of some rule against it, and the staff was rude to the mother-of-the-bride when she asked about the temperature being adjusted. It was so hot that we (the bride and groom) had to leave the reception to go outside to cool down. A member of the staff did later come to us to apologize for the heat and the rude treatment of the bride’s mother. He explained that the HVAC had been damaged in the fire (see below) so it would take a long time for the building to cool down. In Brianna’s best move of the night, she brought the bride an excellent electric fan, which cooled her down a lot. After the sun went down and the air had been running for about an hour, things cooled down.

One of the reasons we picked the venue was because of a scenic library we could use for pictures. Well, the library burned down six months before the wedding, and no one told us until we asked about it during our walkthrough a month before the wedding. To be clear, the fire was a tragedy, and we still got great pictures in the other library, but it would have been nice to know that we had to pivot.

Okay, let's wrap this up. CHC is a great location that seems to be suffering a bit from mismanagement that introduces additional stress and work when planning a reception there. If you can handle that, it's an amazing venue, especially if you love the idea of a history museum. Keep in mind, it's expensive to hold your wedding reception here. The base cost of reserving the space is high, not including alcohol or the carousel fee. Be prepared to go the extra mile in handling logistics...because CHC won't.

We did not want a run of mill wedding venue. Especially since we had so many coming from out of town, we wouldn't something with lots of interest. If thats you, this is the place!! The CHC was the perfect venue. Very easy to work with, though sometimes they can require to persistence to get a hold of. They did everything to help make our day amazing, despite cruddy weather the day of. Gorgeous and such an interesting space. Our guests are still talking about the venue, the carousel, and just everything. 10/10 would recommend. Also, the consumption bar they require, instead of open bar saved us so much money compared to other places we looked at.

I cannot say enough about the WRHS -- we had an amazing wedding in the rotunda space. The carousel was the biggest hit, and it was so fun seeing pictures of all our guests on it. We also had access to the Crawford Auto Museum for the cocktail hour, and the guests loved looking at the old cars.
There was some confusion prior to the wedding (the venue went through 3 sales coordinators in a few months), but I thought they did a good job of passing the baton and communicating with me beforehand. There was a lot more staff from the museum on hand at the wedding than I was expecting, and they were all very nice and helpful to me and the guests. WRHS is a unique venue, and the staff there do a lot to help make the day special.