City Museum Reviews

My husband and I had our ceremony and reception in the Vault Room, and we could not have been happier with our choice of venue! Kelly and Caitlin were great to work with, very responsive to calls and emails, and had helpful referrals for other vendors such as a DJ. This is an exceptional venue if you're looking for something unique, and it is well worth the price considering what you pay for elsewhere. Since the space was already gorgeous and came equipped with twinkle lights, we were able to keep costs low with minimal decor. Also, you don't have to worry about providing activities here! Our wedding was on Sunday evening, and our guests had the entire museum to themselves to explore. They also got free admission to the museum during the day, which our out-of-town guests really loved. We had a great experience using the in-house catering (Pablo's), and were continually impressed by how accommodating everyone was!

My wife and I got married on March 4th, 2017 and the City Museum was the perfect venue for us! We had a large reception (invited 320 and ended with about 250) so it was difficult to find a place large enough and also was unique and lots of character because we didn’t want a standard hotel ballroom venue. Therefore, the City Museum was our ideal spot. It was reasonably priced, the open floor plan was awesome where you could always see the tables, bar, dance floor, etc. I would highly recommend using this venue – plus we got to skip to the front of the line at the end of the night and slide down the 3rd floor slide when we left!!

The city museum, architectural hall, was the absolute perfect place for our reception. The unique and fun space made it a memorable event for our guests. Guests have access to the City Museum all day- which made for a lot of fun between our church ceremony and the reception. We LOVED taking photos with our wedding party around the museum and a few rooftop sunset shots were just fantastic. The room is a little difficult for sound because there isn't much to absorb the sound- but it was manageable. It isn't the cheapest place to have a reception, as not much (just the space, tables and chairs) are included in the rental price (everything else is through the caterer), but well worth it!

Great place for a family outing. There is something for all ages. It is an all day place, make sure you plan enough time to be there for several hours.

The absolute best place for a wedding ceremony and reception! We had our 6/20/15 wedding in the vault room and it was awesome. I knew long ago whenever i got married city museum was my place, so when i got engaged i immediately booked it. Kelly is super nice and helpful, laid back and a no pressure sale. I emailed her several times over the months leading up to the wedding with questions and she always got back to me promptly. The cost of renting the space was pretty fair i thought for what you get, as i found several places will charge you a separate fee for the ceremony and the reception even if they are in the same room! Everyone loved our venue and went on and on about how beautiful and different it was, they enjoyed exploring the museum itself also. The rich look of the big safe and the safety deposit boxes, the Italian marble bar , and the wall of soda bottles, twinkle lights and the big industrial windows just makes the room sparkle. It was a little warm , Kelly offered to leave up the solar curtains in the room but we did not like the look of them and the air was blowing all night (prob working overtime) when i got hot from dancing Kevin got me a fan to stand in front of to cool myself :) .
I also put together my own candy bar and brought all my own jars and candy via my wedding coordinator and fiancée, Kevin was able to let my fiancée pull up to the freight elevators and the big tubs i had the stuff stored in were lifted right up to the vault room.
We could not have asked for better service and a more beautiful space. If you are looking to save money on decorations , city museum is the place , the rooms are beautiful on there own, they don't need much added to them. They also wont charge you extra for using their lights, another "added charge" some other places add for using lights that are already up.
We had the time of our life , cant wait to see the pics!

The City Museum was an awesome venue for our wedding! All our guests had a blast, and it was very unique. We rented the vault room where we had our ceremony (on the left side) and our reception on the right. This area is set up perfect for a wedding. Our guests especially enjoyed being able to explore the City Museum through out the evening. There are a lot of awesome photo opportunities there as well! We got photos on the ferris wheel, the bank vault, on the slides, and in the mirrored hallway. We cannot wait to see all of the photos!

I would like to have every life event in this space! I made 150 people fly to St. Louis for my wedding and everyone of them thought it was worth it based on this venue. The city Museum team was very flexible as we had some last-minute changes up to a few days before the wedding. Also an Incredible value. Highly recommended!

It was very helpful to visit Architecture hall several times to develop ides on decor, how things would be setup, the flow, etc. Kelly was very helpful in this as was Pablo.
Working with Pablo Weiss and Tony Stone, of Museum Concessions, the in-house caterer, was easy and a joy. They had a great variety of options in terms of menus and worked with us closely throughout the planning. They were very flexible and helpful as questions, changes, etc. inevitably arose. The actual event was fabulous and the food was a HUGE part of this. We loved the food, the presentation, arrangement, the servers, etc. Our guests loved the whole meal as well as the venue and the whole reception. We could not have asked for more! Big Bonus: the big & little kids loved exploring the museum.

beautiful! wonderful! such a great place to have our reception!!

I've always loved the City Museum and thought it would be a neat place for a wedding, so once we got engaged I didn't hesitate bringing my fiance down from Chicago to see the venue. He fell in love with it immediately! Coming from Chicago, the rental price was amazing to us, but I have heard others say it's a little on the higher side; however, considering we rented the entire Architecture Hall AND Museum, I thought it was a great price! We had plenty of room to play with and my guest raved about the venue choice! The only downer is we were so busy with the wedding/reception that we had little time to play! It's hard to describe the City Museum to people who have never been there, but once they go, they'll remember it forever! If you want a unique venue for the non-traditional bride, this is the place for you! :)

The City Museum in St. Louis is AWESOME! Not just a great looking space, but a fun environment for photos and fun for guests to roam. Kelly Richter (event planner) answered every little question that I had, without fail. And I had a LOT of questions! I highly recommend The City Museum for your wedding and/or reception!

We used the City Museum Vault Hall as our reception site and love that it is a fun, creative, querky site. The City Museum offers a variety of approved caterers, so you can pick one in your price range. Our guests didn't have a problem finding parking in the two lots or the street parking (which is free on Sat after 7pm). Guests also get free entrance to the museum so since we had a break between the ceremony time & reception start time they had something to do for those 2 hours. There was enough space for the buffet table, cake table, guest book table, DJ area, dining tables, and a big area in the middle for dancing.

First off, I love the City Museum! It was the perfect place to reflect our (my husband and I) personalities as well as to set the tone for the event itself. It is perfect for a couple who are very laid back and want their guests to have a great time with or without their children around. We thought it was the perfect setting for both kids and adults because if the kids (or adults) get bored at the event they still have a wonderful area to go crawl around and explore!

As for the facility and people working with us to make sure the night went smoothly, any time we had a question it was answered within a day or two. We were introduced to everyone that would be helping with set up and given contact information right from the start. The staff were very helpful with every request we had.

It was unfortunate that wedding parties can not reserve the City Museum parking lot but it is understandable since there really aren't that many spaces to begin with and our wedding was going on during open hours. Luckily the City Museum staff did give us contact information for the parking lot across the street and we were able to reserve parking from there.

Since we had both the ceremony and reception at the same location (the vault room) we were given an extra hour to set up which was a very big help! Staff helped with setting up the tables and chairs and made sure to keep people out of the area that didn't belong there.

Our wedding photos were taken on the rooftop of the City Museum and they even made sure we could use the back set of elevators so guests coming in didn't run into us!

The only thing I would have to say that was any kind of negative was where the wedding party had to go to change into their outfits. It was in the office area on the third floor and the area was sweltering hot! There was only one almost full length mirror for everyone to use and not much in the way for privacy but what are you going to do when this place wasn't made for weddings but rather for crawling around and getting a little dirty : )

Overall we were very pleased with the outcome after using the City Museum. The price was extremely reasonable for the amount of space offered and how many it accompanied. Also, with the price of the venue all guests received wrist bands to be able to crawl around the museum without being charged themselves, very big bonus that the guests appreciated!

I absolutely lover our reception site! The City Museum was something unique and different, which was exactly what we were looking for! It was fun for us and all of our guests and they were very easy to work with!

No place better than the City Museum!

Great venue, especially if you will have a lots of kids or out-of-towners at the wedding -- everyone gets free museum admission all day. Between our afternoon ceremony and evening reception, everyone was more than excited to play! Also a great space for photos

The City Museum itself is pretty awesome. The people who handle booking the room are great.

The Vault Room is a great place for a wedding. The room is on the same level as some of the really cool outdoor elements of the museum - which allowed us to quickly run outside for our ceremony. The room itself has a lot of neat details that are great for photos and entertainment- especially the vault, the mirror tunnel, and the human exercise wheel. The bar is a great size which really helps the bartenders to be able to serve people. The prep room for the caterer is large so the people providing the food (very important) are happy and able to provide great food.

The Museum has a list of preferred caterers - which is fine because the one we used was awesome.

We used the vault room which was beautiful. The staff were great and since they had no other events that day they allowed us to adjust our reception times to reduce the time between the wedding and reception. Our guests had a blast in the museum itself since they were allowed free entry as part of our wedding.

My heart was set on the City Museum from the start. Kelly, the event coordinator, worked with me before we were engaged (assuring me that we could move the date if he didn't propose in time). She was a joy to work with, and she offered advice and extra services (such as an additional hour) without any pressure. She responded to emails within 24 hours, and was generally super nice.

The guy we worked with for the rehearsal and the actual ceremony was difficult to find the day of. We had some questions as we were setting up, and we had a very hard time finding him (I'm not sure if he was ever found). He'd said he'd be around, but I didn't see him until 11PM. His version of our contract said we were to leave at 11. However, when I told him we were there until midnight, and offered to go get my phone and find the most recent contract, he took my word.

The venue itself is amazing. If you haven't been to the City Museum, you should go. Having our wedding there was pure fun. Every single guest was enthralled by the place, and we saved a ton on decorations, since the whole place is unique. The parking attendent and the staff were really friendly and helpful for those who couldn't immediately find our reception.

I had my wedding and reception in the architectural hall at the City Museum. Kelly is the events coordinator and she is really nice and she responds quickly to any and every question you may have. I like the fact that there was no additional fee to have the wedding and the reception in the same location and that there was no difference in price from a Saturday ceremony vs a Friday or a Sunday. The only cons that I have is that parking was not easy and it also was not free. Our guests got free admission into the museum, but parking was $5 cash only. Also, the museum was still open to the public during the time of our ceremony. The only parts that were closed were the parts we paid for. It is very crowded on the weekends. However, most of the guests saw it was a wedding and they would just move aside and also compliment us on how nice we looked which was a plus. Also, there is no place for the bridal party to get dressed. I had to hope this one space was available and then we had to block it off so that the public wouldn't see us getting dressed. The staff was super nice. The space looked amazing! Another con I will warn about in the summer months, if you have a lot of guest (i had like 250) the room will get hot! But the space was amazing and my wedding was beautiful.

We had our wedding in Architectural Hall, and it was beautiful! We had a few problems along the way. We sent a check to finalize our balance 2 months before the wedding. I called Kelly to confirm everything was ready to go 1 week before the wedding. At that point she looked at our file and realized she had never received our last check. While it took her 2 months to realize this, she required payment within 5 hours to hold our spot. The City Museum was also unreasonable about bringing our items in. We could only arrive 2 hours beforehand, and we were required to push our way through the crowds and main entrance to set everything up. It was also impossible to find the event manager on site - but he did finally arrive when he heard we were ready to give him a tip. (I found out later the workers at the City Museum are not supposed to receive tips). We also reserved the Architectural Museum for cocktail hour, but there was some miscommunication. The caterer ended up setting up food stations there, so we could not use it for cocktail hour. City Museum at least reimbursed us for this extra cost though.

I would HIGHLY recommend this venue - it's beautiful and unique. You pay only for the space. Kelly was great to work with ahead of time and there aren't too many restrictions on what you can do with the space. Beyond that, you're on your own. Our day-of space manager was difficult to track down and the space is not well labelled for guests entering the museum - we gave them directions, but some were still confused due to coming in with guests of another wedding at Windows Off Washington.

2 great event spaces to choose from. Architecture room is way bigger but noisier. 2nd floor has a strange layout, but has private entrance to outside which is super cool.

Amazing venue, though a little difficult to work with the scheduling. Wouldn't have had it anywhere else, though- many of our guests said it was the most fun wedding they'd ever attended!

I will start with the positives: the venue is incredibly cool; all of our guests were wowed by how unique it was. We had our ceremony and reception in the Architecture Hall- we initially booked the Vault Room, but after we ended up having more guests than expected RSVP yes, we were able to change it to the larger space fairly easily. The space was gorgeous, from the bar to the dance floor to the beautifully eclectic facades and art around the room. Now for the criticism. The communication on City Museum’s end was pretty awful. There were some extenuating circumstances, which I sympathize with: we booked in July 2021 for a July 2022 wedding, and in that timeframe, the City Museum Event Management position turned over three times. While I understand that happens, we were not notified any of the times about our new points of contact, and only found out when we would reach out to confirm details and not get any response. We would then have to call or email multiple people to figure out who exactly our new point of contact was. This was extremely stressful after Zak L left, who was our main point-of-contact for most of the process. We were about a month out from the wedding when we decided to email with our final details and payment and heard no response for some time. After reaching out to the City Museum, we were told that Zak had left, and they had not filled his position yet, so our new point of contact was the Marketing Outreach Manager (I think?). I know that must have been difficult to juggle two jobs at one time, but some of the more frustrating things that resulted from this three weeks out from the wedding: - not being able to get any response to multiple emails, texts, and voicemails about floor plans or payment for over a week - calling the City Museum front desk and asking for the person directly; front desk had no idea if she was even working there that day or not. Reached out to someone else in outreach who also had no idea if this person was working or how to contact them beyond the methods we had already tried. - apparently, they were sick for a week and out of the office. I understand that happens, and you can’t avoid getting sick! However, for whatever reason, NOBODY at the City Museum was able to tell us this, or help us with our questions, or accept our payment that had been due the week prior. The week before our event, they hired their new Events Manager, Zachary. Zachary was helpful and present on the day of the wedding, which I appreciated, especially given that he was thrown into the management position less than a week before our event. However, day-of, we had other issues, including the parking attendant not being informed of the three spots we were told were reserved for us. He even apologized to us and told us that management “has no clue what they’re doing.” We had a parking spot reserved for my husband and I in the garage so we could enter without being seen by guests, which was very nice, but day-of, nobody answered our phone call to help us figure out where to go (the parking garage is shared with another residence/business). Luckily, we were able to figure it out. There were other smaller issues along the way, but overall, very frustrating lack of communication. TL;DR- the space is incredible. Don’t book unless you have an outside coordinator to handle things day-of, and/or don’t book unless you are willing to pester people through multiple avenues of communication in order to get a response.