Cleveland Museum of Natural History Reviews

Booking the Cleveland Museum of Natural History was a highlight of our wedding planning experience! Our guests loved the unique venue and were so excited to dance the night away underneath the dinosaurs. We held our ceremony in the new Smith Environmental Courtyard which was so beautiful with the colorfully lit waterfall behind us and native plants lining the start of our aisle. We also opened the Wade Gallery of Gems and Jewels for the evening, which was a big hit during the cocktail hour!

We were thrilled to work with with Anne, our event coordinator. She was so helpful both on in-person visits and virtually when we planned much of the wedding from the East Coast. She was enthusiastic about our ideas and able to share experiences from previous events to help us make more informed decisions where possible. Anne was also really good at talking about the Museum in ways that made sense and were exciting to both lifelong enthusiasts and complete newbies- I had been to Ohio a few times prior, but my husband was a regular guest of the Museum while growing up in Cleveland.

Another highlight of working with CMNH: Anne, Zach Bruell catering coordinator Kim, and Solus Lighting coordinator Maureen are a power trio that work amazingly well together for both brainstorming and seamless execution of our plans. We are so grateful for their teamwork!

If we had to plan a wedding all over again, we would return to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History without any hesitation. It’s been a few months, but our guests are still telling people how memorable it was to attend a wedding at the Museum!

If you are looking for the most unique and entertaining venue for you and your guests, this is the place to be! We just had our wedding at the museum a couple weeks ago, and our guests are still raving about it. The dinosaur exhibits and animal enclosure were our favorite parts!

On top of having the endless entertainment of the displays, the staff there are the greatest! Their special event's coordinator Anne was as excited about our wedding as we were. She was super accommodating especially because we were planning our wedding from New York. She is super organized with a concise packet of information that answers practically anything that come up. Also she was very quick to respond via phone or email.

The museum exclusively contracts with Zack Bruell Events for catering. It was also a pleasure working with Kim and Molly. Again, all were super flexible working around our travel schedule and all our lat minute changes to the guest list. And the food.... to DIE for.

The museum also only contracts with Solus lighting who brought to life the night of our dreams. They offered soo many options for coloring, shapes, and the expertise to make it all work together.

Overall this experience has been excellent and we would HIGHLY recommend this venue!

This was an amazing venue -- everyone commented how unique the venue was and the outdoor setting was lovely for a spring wedding (we had both the ceremony and reception here.) The museum staff were very professional and happy to work with us in every way. We had a planetarium show, which they customized for our wedding. It was really the perfect site for a pair of scientists to get married.

GREAT!!!! Perfect site for our wedding. The only problem at all was it was hot in there, the air didn't seem to be working great. I love the museum though and it was just the right place for the type of people that we are. Loved it!! Dick was helpful and great about booking.

We had our reception here, and it was AMAZING! When I found out that CMNH was available to rent for weddings, I told my then-fiance and we both agreed we had to have the reception here. We are both huge nerds so the venue would really reflect us (haha), and my husband is also not big on dancing, so the museum setting would give him something to do during the reception instead of just standing off to the side of the dance floor awkwardly. The museum staff was admittedly a little hard to get in touch with early on in the wedding planning process (like when we were a year to 6 months out), but the event coordinator became very responsive as the event drew closer, and accommodated emergency updates to the seating chart when we found out family members couldn't attend due to illness, a friend was planning to come but forgot to RSVP, etc. Our guests all loved CMNH and had a great time at our reception, and so did we!
Note: This review is for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in University Circle in Cleveland, not in Rocky River as is listed on WeddingWire for some reason (??).

The museum needs to invest in an event planner who is dedicated to their job. Two weeks before our wedding, our museum contact announced that he was resigning and would not be working with us anymore. He was unsure who our new contact would be and provided us with incorrect contact information for the person he thought was his replacement. He also lost our liability insurance paperwork.

After I tracked down his supervisor, I was put in contact with the temporary replacement the museum had hired for the interim, who thank goodness was absolutely wonderful, and our wedding and reception (both held at the museum) were great. To give credit where it is due I have provided a separate review of her services (Deb) in the "wedding planner" section, but until the museum gets their act together and hires a trustworthy, permanent person for events planning, I cannot recommend this venue to anyone else.