Mercer Island Community & Event Center

MICC was a great venue for our wedding. They worked with us when we needed to change some times, etc. They do rent by the hour which can be pricey considering all you get is the room, table, and chairs but that's the case with most vendors. Be careful on reading fine print for fees so you're not surprised. It was a beautiful building with great views which was perfect for showing off the area to our guests who were almost all from out of state. The groomsmen got dressed there and I think really enjoyed the space. The staff was really great and responsive.

We had our wedding ceremony and reception in the Mercer Room. We also rented the kitchen and one of the meeting rooms to serve as the bridal room. Price is per hour, so it can add up. They also charge a refundable $400 deposit, of which we got $350 back. They must've come up with some reason to keep $50 for themselves.

Our wedding was an early afternoon wedding, so we booked the Mercer Room from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., allowing about 3.5-4 hours total for setup and cleanup.

The staff was good at answering my questions via email and phone. However, they neglected to inform me that all vendors are required to get a Mercer Island business license until three days before the wedding. I knew that all vendors had to have business licenses because I read the rental information packet and any other information available for MICEC. I had to ask if the business license needed to a Washington state business license or one specifically for the city of Mercer Island. It's the latter because MICEC is a government facility, part of the city. My vendors had to scramble last minute for their Mercer Island business licenses, and I had unnecessary additional stress just three days before my wedding. For that, I'm taking off one star.

Overall, I'm glad we had our wedding here. I'm glad to be married and that all the wedding planning and coordination is over!

This reception site was absolutely stunning. We searched long and hard for a reception site that was available on our wedding day, and hadn't even considered looking on Mercer Island, where my fiancee was renting a studio apartment, because we figured it would far exceed our budget. We're so glad we looked into it though, because with the resident discount it beat the Seattle locations we'd been scouting, plus it was available the day we needed it. We were allowed to bring in our own caterers, which was one of my requirements. The view of the water was phenomenal, and one full wall is a large window that can lift up like a garage door to let in fresh air. It was air conditioned, had a great sound system and a digital projector we rented for our slide show.


It took some diligence to get our questions answered though, and we found we had better results if we could manage to communicate directly with Harvey during his nonstandard work hours rather than leaving messages for him with his young staff. At some point in the day of our wedding, a couple things were stolen from the kitchen. We don't know for sure that it was employees or even just community guests of the Community Center, or if was the caterer (doubtful) but at the very least we were disappointed in the lack of security, regardless of who took our things. We didn't receive a response to our email after the event asking if they'd seen anything suspicious or if they'd watch for those items to turn up.

All in all, I would recommend this facility because it was so beautiful and well-equipped. Keep in mind, however, that even though it's on Mercer Island, it's just a community center and not run by wedding professionals.