Great Lakes Science Center

As a 2020 bride, I obviously had a lot of stress and constant changes surrounding my wedding, however the Science Center was incredibly amazing at helping with everything, easing my concerns, and working with me to adjust things along the way. I was able to change my wedding date from June to September, then significantly change the guest list and plans for the day. I also never got a chance to do a tasting or see the venue again before the rehearsal, but I didn’t need to because everything was perfect. We dropped off boxes of decorations ahead of time and the staff set everything up for us, the ceremony outside on the balcony was beautiful and the guests had an absolute blast playing with things at the cocktail hour. Then the caterer worked with us to develop our own custom “Cleveland” menu which was so delicious, and both the Science Center and catering staff were so attentive to Covid restrictions and keeping guests spaced apart and safe. I would highly recommend the Science Center as a super fun wedding event space with great help all along the way!!!

We had our ceremony here. Kristy was phenomenal to work with. She was very polite and flexible. She helped us make our ceremony perfect even though we had to have it inside because of the rain. We are very impressed with Kristy and the venue.

Very fun spot for our wedding, worked with us constantly to get us what we wanted.

I was very excited to have my ceremony at the Great Lakes Science Center. We wanted the ceremony outside on the terrace overlooking the Rock Hall and Lake Erie. Thankfully the weather held out and we were able to do the ceremony outside, so it was perfect. Kristy allowed us to make the final decision for location only two hours before the ceremony, which I appreciated because we didn't know if the weather was going to cooperate. One thing that I didn't like about the Great Lakes Science Center was that they created a Pokemon event during the same day and time as our ceremony. The event was planned after we had already paid the venue in full and I found out about the event through Facebook. I would have appreciated it if the Science Center would have sent me an email stating the event details before I had to find out about this very public event through social media. I wasn't happy that they scheduled a Pokemon event during the same time as our ceremony, but overall I thought it was a beautiful venue.

I recently had my ceremony and reception at the GLSC. It is a gorgeous venue and my guests loved the views and access to the museum, but the service we received was terrible.
While the venue rental was reasonable, they force you to use their caterer (Levy catering) which is quite expensive. I didn't have a great experience with Levy and the communication between the GLSC people and the Levy people was terrible.
The initial event coordinator for GLSC quit a few months after I booked the venue, but I didn't find out until a month later when I got frustrated that my emails were going unanswered. The Levy Catering coordinator, Lauren, took over at that time. One of my main concerns was the back-up ceremony space indoors in case the weather was bad, but Lauren was resistant to me asking about other options. GLSC hired a new event coordinator, who was more open to my requests.
Fast forward to my rehearsal- due to a family emergency, we only had the assistant event coordinator who I had never met or spoke to. I think because of this and poor communication, she was telling me different things than I had been told previously which was frustrating. On my wedding day, she seemed frazzled. The reception area was not set up when guest began arriving and I was happy to help, but I was pretty forcefully asked to stop.
Prior to the ceremony, I realized we had someone bring a guest that was not included on the RSVP. I got push back about adding one chair to the table because they were concerned the seating would be too tight. Instead, they wanted to put the guest and his date at a large table by themselves. I refused and they sat at the table I requested and it was fine. They also reportedly told this guest that she would have to wait for her dinner since she had not RSVP'd and she would get leftovers if there were any available. It seems crazy to me that there wouldn't be any extra food prepared, but even if there wasn't, why not just inform her they had to make her something and it might take a few minutes instead of making her feel bad about it. I thought this was totally unprofessional.
The "Market Fresh" table that comes with cocktail hour ran out of food and about 30 guests didn't get any. The groom's mother asked if it would be refilled and was told "only what is on the contract will be brought out".
Some of the food at dinner was not what we had ordered. We had asked for the vegan dish to be less spicy after our tasting, but it was not and we had several guests tell us they couldn't eat it. We also had a different salad than the one we originally tasted. Some tables ran out of bread and it was not refilled, and full drinks were removed from tables (luckily we did not pay by the glass!).
I was also promised a free champagne toast in my venue package (offered when I booked) and I did not receive it. My sister brought the issue up to the GLSC event coordinator and was told "it's not my problem" and then took it to the Levy people who interrupted my first dinner with my husband to ask me to show them the email to prove I wasn't lying.
At the end of the night, they cut the music off half an hour before my contract said the event went until and rushed us out. Because they had thrown away my cake box, they were also going to throw away my cake, but my sister stopped them.
Overall, they need to improve their communication, professionalism, and customer service. I emailed them with these same concerns before posting anything publicly and got the generic "we will work to address these issues" without any ownership for messing up even one thing. I'm disappointed.