The World Food Prize

The venue itself is incredibly beautiful and unique, I’ve never seen another venue quite like it, and so this is what initially drew us in. The location itself is great - close to airports, hotels, restaurants, bars, etc. and Des Moines has so many good options for other vendors who frequently work at this venue and with each other, which is also very helpful if you are like me and planning your own wedding. The venue also offers all rooms for one flat rate and so we had essentially 4 different spaces for our guests - ceremony space, cocktail hour space, dinner space, and dance floor space, which was nice considering it was January. With all the space, the guests could flow seamlessly from room to room without having to go outside to a different venue and they got to see all of the beautiful rooms in the venue, which they loved. Not to mention, it was by far the most affordable venue we looked at which you wouldn’t know with how stunning it is. By itself, when we first saw it and again during our ceremony rehearsal, it’s a gorgeous building. On my wedding day however, when I walked in and saw all the florals and decorations in the building I was actually blown away. It was absolutely beautiful. Monica the events coordinator is the sweetest human you will ever meet and so helpful and responsive. We had a wonderful experience overall. Took one star away for flexibility because you can’t have red wine in the venue at all because of the risk for staining (all the drapery and rugs etc stay for events) and initially I was really sad about that because I love red wine, especially in the winter time and with steak at dinner, but honestly none of the guests seemed to care and on the day of I didn’t really even notice so it turned out to be okay!! Also, they have specific vendors you have to use but this was a plus for me because I’m indecisive and otherwise would not have known where to even start with everything else (because like I said I did all of my own planning) and so that didn’t deter us at all.
Photographer: Laura Wills
Florals: Shelly Sarver
Signs/ Paper: Midwest Meets Design
Draping/ spotlight/ dance floor: Unique Events of Iowa

This venue was perfect for our wedding. It is very ornate and we received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our guests.

We loved having our ceremony and reception at the WFP. SOOOOO beautiful! People still go on and on about how cool the venue was. Made for some beautiful photos for years to come :) Facility was fairly expensive ($6750 + refundable $3375 damage deposit + $200 event insurance) - but for us, the venue was a big line in our budget as it really sets the mood for the party. They provide tables, chairs and a sound system in house. Nicole, the coordinator, was great to work with! Very kind and reasonably fast responses (~3days or faster).

Areas that were a little tricky:
1. Parking, but we didn't have a huge guest list so perhaps this would be worse for those with >200ppl coming (ours was 160ppl)
2. No red or blush wines allowed except for at a served meal in 1 room because of the possibility of staining. This makes no sense to me since we were allowed to have dark colas and liquors, red food sauces, etc. that were equally as likely to be spilled and stain.
3. House caterers - there are only 3 companies allowed to cater at the WFP and we chose the "most popular" one Windsor Heights HyVee.....they were HORRIBLE!!! I have a review for them on WeddingWire if you would like details, but we didn't hear good things about the other two caterers either (Embassy Club or Downtown Marriott) so I'm not sure which is the best to book. I understand having set companies who know where to go, what to do, etc. but for such a classy/pricy building it would be nice to equally have a top-notch caterer who wouldn't embarrass you on your wedding day.