Des Moines Beach Park Event Center Reviews

We choose this location for budget friendly and the simple beauty of this park. Courtney and Robert from the park and recreation office were helpful and accommodating ours requests. We also choose May for the gorgeous landscape and a better weather!

Amazing venue and easy staff!!

We had our wedding ceremony at the Des Moines Beach Park Meadow, followed by our reception in the Auditorium. We were absolutely thrilled with how great everything turned out. Both locations comfortably fit our 200 guests. The staff were friendly and accommodating on wedding day, as well as very responsive during wedding planning. We made absolutely the right decision with choosing the Des Moines Beach Park!

Loved our venue and the responsiveness of all their staff, they truly made our day wonderful. . The Dining Hall's remodel is absolutely gorgeous. They allowed us to decorate the day prior, to put some of my anxiety at ease. My deposit was returned promptly after our wedding day.

Shannon and her crew were wonderful to work with. Very caring, attentive, flexible and fun! We used the Auditorium for our wedding venue and it was perfect for our 160 crowd. We had the ceremony outside along the side of the building in the courtyard (also a great place for all the kids to play in) and the reception inside. We got wonderful sunset shots across the water...a perfect evening! I highly recommend using the Beach Park for whatever event you are planning. Thanks Des Moines Beach Park!! -Kelly + Robert

We loved our experience working with Shannon and Sonja at Des Moines Beach Park Event Center for our July 2014 wedding! They were SO responsive and helpful, even when I asked the same questions multiple times. The facility is gorgeous, and our guests couldn't stop commenting on what a lovely, multi-functional space it was. It was easy to decorate, as they've installed hooks and pulleys to make hanging things from the ceiling easier, and they provided a chart with sizes/distances so we could plan how many Christmas lights we'd need.
I'd say they're a bit more expensive than some similar venues ("similar" in a loose sense--this is such a wonderful facility that I think it exceeds its competitors in size, view, parking, staff, etc. etc.), but what you get for that money is so great. You can choose your own caterer and bring in your own alcohol, the staff are really, really helpful, and it's in such a lovely location--the view of the sound from the lawn is beautiful.
They actually hosted two weddings at the larger park at the same time, and we hardly even noticed! They were so professional and competent that it was as if we had their undivided attention the whole day.
I'd highly recommend Des Moines Beach Park Event Center or their other facilities, like the Founder's Lodge, to anyone getting married in the South Sound.

Very helpful. Very flexible. Heps with planning and supplies and great price.

No complaints on the venue itself. It is beautiful. Do beware of their staff. During our wedding planning, our direct contact changed a few times. Biggest advice would be to have every communication and/or changes IN WRITING. Reiterate everything if you have to. There were a few things that their staff agreed to have ready at the very beginning of our rental which was not met. One of their leads gave a bit of an attitude to my husband because she "had a lot of things going on" at the time when asked why certain settings weren't ready. There were also some gaps between the first staff member and the others on what did or didn't have an additional fee. Again, we didn't have some of this in writing so we couldn't show the new staff what was communicated between us and the initial employee helping us. After dealing with a few mishaps, I'd still recommend this venue due to the cost but I hope you'll have better luck than us when it comes to having a consistent person to deal with.

The venue is beautiful and the location is great. We loved the flexibility of using whatever vendors we wanted. However, the people working there are very hot and cold. We either got great, quick, responsive customer service, complete silence, or annoyed, short answers. To add to the frustration answers changed as time went on - things were explained one way and then we were told we misunderstood when we questioned a different response later. We loved the venue but our experience was far from ideal.