Wonderful, unique and fun place to celebrate a wedding. All of our guests commented about this and enjoyed being able to see the exhibits after the ceremony. The Naturalist Center was opened up for the children (and adults) and they had a blast. The museum staff is very experienced in planning events, which means fewer worries for the family. When exhibits in the atrium changed a month before the wedding, Lauren responded quickly to our concerns. The entire staff was responsive and professional. Things went smoothly the entire night, from ceremony to final send-off.

We hired the Planetarium for our wedding ceremony and the atrium for the reception. The option is available to hire the entire museum but we did not go for this package. We were drawn to this venue for a multitude of reasons including our mutual love of space and dinosaurs, that it was a prominent attraction in the city (We had a large contingent of out of town guests) and the bride was a junior docent there back in the day. All the staff at the museum were helpful and friendly, especially the planetarium staff. Couples considering this venue should bear the following in mind when making their decision - 1) The venue is only for hire outside of normal visitor hours, 2) they venue has restrictions on which outside vendor to use if you're serving alcohol and no red wine allowed, 3) there is a limit to what decorations you can put up (though this is understandable and the existing decor is obviously one of the draws), 4) obviously exhibitions and displays may change, 5) the seats in the planetarium front row are quite badly treated by visitors to the museum and in real need of repair. This are not criticisms but things to be aware of if considering the venue as it's primary purpose is not a hire venue. On the day itself everything went as planned. Museum staff were on hand to set things up, there were clear instructions on where caterers and other vendors could arrive and through which they could bring any equipment etc, security was present but unobtrusive, the wedding party had somewhere secure/secluded to go before the ceremony so they wouldn't be seen by guests. All in all we were very happy with the venue and our guests had a great time