The Chartiers Room Venue (9.24.22 wedding)
I truly do not even know where to start with reviewing Ray and Dawn and the Chartier’s Room. They are two of the nicest people i have ever met, who genuinely get to know their couples as if they are family. If you book
Your wedding here, they will truly put all they have into making it the best day of your life. When my husband and I began our wedding planning journey, we looked at over 13 venues. I can’t honestly say that it was meeting with and talking to Ray, and seeing how invested he was in his venue and the couples that were to be married there that sold me on the Charter’s Room.
Ray spent HOURS with us, drove us around the area to show us places we could go with our photographer for pictures, helped us locate churches and rehearsal dinner locations and hotels for the night of the wedding. He went ABOVE AND BEYOND any expectation I could have possibly had for a venue coordinator, and then some more. Over the course of the 11 months we plan ed our wedding, Ray and Dawn continuously blew me away with how much “Extra” they did than any other venue i spoke to, how well they got to know us and our parents and bridal party and friends, how well they worked with our other vendors (they even made some ongoing connections with some) and how professional they were at ALL times. Ray had to have met me at the venue at least 15-20 times so i could ask question after question, play with centerpieces, and bring my parents, bridesmaids, florist and photographer there to see the venue, plan out the day, and DIY decorations. One day I needed a measurement of some thing in the room, and he actually drove there from his house to measure something for me and text me the details.
Over the course of 11 months in between us booking the venue and our wedding day Ray would send me pictures and videos from other weddings so i could see what the room looked like set up for different #s of people, see different table setting options, and see how people did their centerpieces as he knew this was something I was stressing about. Ray was so willing to bend over backwards to make any visions I had for my day come true; including ordering supplies in colors He didn’t already have because they were colors I planned on using, allowing us to rent and install different things on our own for our wedding day, and bringing ANY idea i had to life (including slideshows of pictures during the father/daughter dance and lots of fun/wild ideas for bridal party entrances.
One thing I know for a fact that separates the Chartier’s room from other venues is the flexibility with everything, especially decorating before the wedding. Almost all venues I spoke to allowed you to decorate either for three hours the morning of your actual wedding or 2 to 4 hours the night before. They, not only allowed us to be at the venue Thursday evening, almost all day Friday and Saturday morning, but he was there with us the whole time helping: hanging ceiling drapery we rented, to meeting a company we rented LED lights from, to laying out terrible towels at Each table, to helping set up the alcohol. I know for a fact i would have never found another venue to allow us so much time to plan and decorate, let alone be there helping and hanging out! There was even a situation where I realized the lights in the ceiling Drapery we rented gave off a different glow then the lights supplied for underneath the table skirts, and I asked him if we went to big lots if we could change out the lights under the table skirts. Not only did he open the door to allow my stepdad to go and mess with lights but he showed up and had half of the work done before he got there. This is just one example of how he went above and beyond what anyone would ever expect out of a venue or venue coordinator.
Ray and Dawn were also SO involved the day of our wedding. From helping the caterer, to bartending, to helping us line up for entrances, to helping my MOH coordinate my sparkler exit, to allowing us to stay at the venue later than my contract stated because we were all having fun and taking pictures. They truly became part of the group were so genuinely happy for us. In addition, when I had an issue with another vendor, Ray and Dawn were the first people to try and advocate for me with this vendor. They were honestly angry for me, thats how much they cared! The day after our wedding, Ray not only showed up to help us undecorate (which was not in our contract that he needed to do) but then when i realized I lost my bouquet the day before but couldn’t remember where, he drove around to where he knew we took pictures and LOOKED FOR MY BOUQUET HIMSELF IN THE RAIN! it blew my mind and brought tears to my eyes as he knew how important it was to me because it had charms from my late grandma on it and my dogs ashes in a blue heart pinned on it. Yet agin, another example of how you wont find another venue Coordinator to care more about you, your day, your family, your experience and your feelings.
I cannot thank Ray and Dawn, or the Chartiers Room enough. I could’ve gotten married at the fanciest and most expensive venue in PA, but I would never find people like Ray and Dawn who cared so much to go so out of their way to bring my (sometimes difficult, constantly changing, and over the top) dreams to a reality and i am Forever grateful.