First Evangelical Lutheran Church Reviews

From the first phone call until we picked up our deposit after the wedding, the staff and clergy at First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Houston, TX was a blessing! We are not Lutheran, but were searching for a church close to Downtown Houston for our daughter's wedding ceremony. This was only 1 of 3 churches available to rent, most denominations don't allow rental. From Pastor McClanahan to Sabrina, the church secretary and even Fran (who does beautiful flower arrangements for the church and weddings, though we used our reception coordinator's venue for floral), we were treated with kindness and caring. We LOVE this church and would highly recommend it to anyone seeking a christian church setting for your wedding ceremony. They supplied our 8 bridesmaids and 8 groomsmen with bottled water which was not part of the rental by any means (I gratefully replaced it though they did not ask me to do so). MOST IMPORTANTLY, our daughter, believe it or not, had to be rushed to the ER at St. Joseph's an hour and a half before the ceremonywas to begin after swallowing 2 caplets for a headache. They lodged in her throat and began choking her, when EMS arrived, they couldn't do anyting on the spot and had to transport her by ambulance! She wasn't in her dress yet thankfully!

The church handled the situation with our wedding coordinator and Sabrina even helped me with MY dress when we returned from the hospital!! They all were so kind and understanding. The wedding went on and we were only 20 min. behind schedule!!!

We were VERY careful to make sure this beautiful house of God was cared for properly, taking care not to scratch the beautiful hardwood floors or to spill wax from any of the over 100 votives that were used during the ceremony! I would HIGHLY recommend this church to anyone looking for a church in the downtown Houston area. The cost of rental was much lower compared to the other 2 churches in the area, but best of all this church was by far the most beautiful of the 3~ The acoustics are incredilbe and the massive pipe organ simply magnificent!

We just had our wedding ceremony here and they could not have been better to work with! The best part was how BEAUTIFUL the church is inside and out! Built in 1925ish (give or take 3 years). It has the gorgeous interior without being overwhelmingly huge like so many other churches in Houston so that your service doesn't look empty even though you have 200 people. They can accommodate up to 350 or somewhere around there. Millie (the church and wedding coordinator) and Sabrina (the Church secretary) answered all over our questions and were so helpful with our rehearsal and ceremony. Millie had great suggestions and very sweet! We met with the Pastor (although he didn't marry us) and we thought he was one of the most interesting and genuine people we have ever met.
The dressing room for the bridal party was nice and large so that you didn't feel cramped and there was room for grandmothers, aunts and who ever else felt like they just had to be there or stop by. The pictures from the outside are amazing too. They even have a bell tower that they allowed my husband's grandmother and mine to ring the bells after the ceremony.
I honestly could not have been happier and this is an amazing church. We would attend services there without hesitation if it wasn't an hour from our home.

The church is beautiful and they are great to work with. This was an excellent choice for the wedding!

This is by far the most beautiful church in the Houston Area. The members are so cordial and welcoming. You will be invited back each week! The wedding itself was a hit! This church held all 300 of our guests, and had room for more upstairs! There is no fee for parking on the weekends and HCC lets you use their lots as well! It is so close to so many reception sites and hotels! A very good central location.
Our video is on the church website and you can see how beautiful everything really is!

We held our wedding ceremony at FELC on 10/1/11. First Evangelical Lutheran Church is a great church. It has history, beauty, and a very traditional setup. They were very well organized and helped us along the way. The ceremony was beautiful, and the church was a huge part of it. I would recommend FELC to any Houstonian looking for one of the oldest and most classic churches in the city. They are very open to non-members having their ceremonies at the church. We had no issues and would do it again at FELC in a heartbeat!

Our wedding was beautiful and I wouldnt have wanted it any other way. We were planning on getting married in Galveston in November but when the hurricane came around we had to replan everything. It turned out better than I would have ever expected. The church is beautiful and with the candlelight it was so romantic. All in all everyone was awesome to work with and I wouldnt have changed a thing.

Beautiful Church and Sabrinia the coordinator was wonderful to work with. We looked at many churches and found FELCH to be the prettiest and the most cost effective as it is much less expensive compared to the other churches of its caliber in the area. I highly recomend this church to any Bride.

My husband's church wasn't an option for our wedding, so we did a little "church shopping" and FELC was by far the most beautiful church we found- we walked in and knew instantly we'd found the right location for us to say "I Do". The church requires you to meet with the pastor, which was actually a really pleasant experience, as Pastor Peterman is amazing and was willing to help with anything we needed. The church staff was also very helpful, and our wedding coordinator knew how to make sure everything went according to plan during the rehearsal and ceremony. I can't count the number of compliments we got on the venue, and FELC was a big part of what made our wedding day as beautiful and memorable as it should be!

The church was beautiful and a perfect venue for a mid size wedding. We had about 270 guests. The communication and organization was a little scattered at first but then we found that Marty Ambrose had taken the position as wedding coordinator or director of public relations, everthing went very smoothly. The church was very flexible in letting us do the wedding that we designed and select our own music and musicians.
The accommodations before the wedding for the bridesmaids and groomsman were also very nice.

The church management were very easy to work with and the church was beautiful and clean.

FELC is a beautiful church! Our wedding pictures did come out very nicely. We used them for our ceremony, and they also set up our organist for us. When we booked the church, they seemed extremely helpful and willing to let us do anything we needed to make the wedding perfect.

The closer we got to the wedding date, though, the more I became nervous about them. They waited until two weeks before the wedding to put me in touch with the organist, and the organist they assigned to us was not willing to attend the rehearsal and acted like a diva on the wedding day. We had worked everything out in advance, but when he arrived at the church on the wedding day, he said he was going to play everything his way and that he didn't care about the other musicians who were there. It took a confrontation with the groom's father to get things right. After all, we were paying HIM!

Also, at the rehearsal, the church's wedding coordinator said that he would light the two candles at the altar. When I walked down the aisle, one of the first things I noticed as I "took in the beauty" was that the candles were not lit.

Also, no one from the church came to get us when it was time for the wedding. The bridesmaids and I sat in a room waiting and waiting, but no one ever came to say the coast was clear. The coordinator was just hanging out outside the church when we finally went out to check.

Also, like I said before, we had been told "anything goes" pretty much, so we arranged for the flower girls to throw flower petals. The church secretary told us we were more than welcome to use real flower petals, so we went with it because that's what she said. The day of the wedding, I'm about to walk down the aisle and the flower girls are standing at the doors about to walk ahead of me, and the coordinator comes rushing over to tell me they couldn't throw the petals. We literally had to run over to the two little girls and explain to them that what they practiced now needed to be thrown out the window.

Overall, I don't have terrible memories from the ceremony. The church is amazing; just make sure you get everything 100% clear from the staff. (And bring in your own organist!)