Northern Pacific Center Reviews

I have always heard how stressful the wedding planning process can be. I had the opposite experience. Blacksmith Main has been the place I have wanted my wedding for years and when I got engaged it was the only place I wanted to look. The venue is breathtaking and the staff were so accommodating to us, and so helpful in guiding us through this process. Grace was amazing to work with- it was a the best day and the perfect venue!

We wanted an intimate wedding, so we were looking for an easy-to-get-to 'destination' location. From the moment we drove onto NPC's campus we were sold! It was the most breathtaking place we had ever seen. The high ceilings, natural light, dazzling chandeliers, and brickwork were stunning all together. Throughout the planning process, Grace and the rest of the NPC team were amazing and very responsive. I'm a very type A person, and would often catch myself emailing NPC with one-off questions and updates, and they always promptly responded and were so helpful. We hosted both our ceremony and reception in the Blacksmith Main space, and we received so many compliments from our guests. There is nothing I would change about our wedding day, and I can credit a lot of that to NPC. The entire campus provides so many amazing photo options. 10/10, book this venue for your big day! We are forever grateful to NPC and Grace for all they did in ensuring our big day went off without a hitch.

We were very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with The Northern Pacific Event Center, 3Cheers Hospitality and Bloom Designs for our 2020 July wedding. Grace Eberhardt at NP was extremely professional and went above and beyond in providing everything we requested when it came to renting out the space, furniture, lighting and the Bridal / Grooms suites. Sheila DeChantal at 3Cheers Hospitality was a great help in creating our menu from Prairie Bay. Her and the team did a great job in pulling together a complete package from apps, entrees, desserts and bar service, very professional! Kate Kuepers from Bloom Designs exceeded our expectations soo much from the initial meeting when providing a direction for day of look / feel based off our color pallet we provided. Kate created the most stunning arrangements and bouquet that captured the colors we requested. Our guests kept taking pictures in front of the larger arrangement and constantly commented on how beautiful the flowers were.

We booked the Blacksmith Main for our wedding 1-month out from our big day (thanks COVID!). The last minute change turned out to be our biggest blessing.

I wish we would have booked Blacksmith Main from the start. Our original venue was in downtown Minneapolis which proved to be a challenging place to host an event this past year. Luckily, I learned the Northern Pacific Center happened to have our original date available after we were forced to back-out of our original MPLS venue contract.

We toured within a week and I cannot say enough good things about this venue. The NPC team (&Grace!) were a joy to work with: responsive, detail-oriented, and first class. We were in a unique situation given we booked NPC only a month in advance, even with the reduced planning time I felt completely confident in the details and was ecstatic to work with the Three Cheers Catering Team. We held our ceremony in the Luminary Fern and Reception in the Blacksmith Main (which is a very short walk across the lot).

Our guests actually loved spending the weekend away in Brainerd - initially we were concerned about the drive (~2 hours from the Twin Cities), but we heard only amazing comments about how nice it was to "get away!". Northern MN is simply beautiful.

I would book Blacksmith Main 100 times over if I could. Thank you to the NPC team for allowing us the most BEAUTIFUL wedding we could have ever asked for.

If you are looking to get married in the Brainerd area, look no further than the Northern Pacific Center. I saw photos through a photographer I follow on Instagram and I IMMEDIATELY fell in love. Within a week of seeing photos of the venue my boyfriend and I set up a visit. At the end of our tour my boyfriend even proposed! We ended up booking both Luminary and Blacksmith Main. We held our ceremony at Luminary and cocktail hour/ reception at Blacksmith Main. Grace was such an amazing help throughout the entire process, she was so quick to respond and never made me feel like I was bothering her with all of my questions. Blacksmith Main has the industrial feel that I've always pictured for my wedding. The openness, the high ceilings and the extra lighting make the space feel so grand. Thankfully the venue was large enough that we were able to have adequate spacing between tables to make all our of guests feel safe and not crammed. (thanks covid) This place is truly one of a kind.

**Photos by Trish Allison Photography

We couldn’t recommend Blacksmith Main and the team at the Northern Pacific Center enough! They went above and beyond from the very beginning of our wedding planning process to make sure our wedding day was perfect. The venue was perfect and the staff far exceeded our expectations. They all worked diligently to make our vision become a reality.

From start to finish, every aspect of our experience was phenomenal! Grace was amazing to work with through-out the planning process and her execution of our plans were perfect. We couldn’t have asked for a more lovely venue to celebrate our families celebration.

From someone who has previously worked weddings alongside a wedding planner, I was able to attend numerous weddings within this space. With my experience, I can promise you that this venue is so well-kept behind the scenes. The staff are so attentive, and beyond that, this space is simply breathtaking. The immense scale of it allows for each wedding couple to tweak the tables, decor, etc. to make it truly unique to them and their day. Even after attending multiple weddings there, I still am blown away by how incredible this venue is, and how each event is so different. In my opinion, I think the wedding guests also feel excited to be celebrating in such a cool space which is super special! If you’re still considering booking this venue - let this be your sign to do so ASAP!

Previous reviews I'd read about difficult communication almost deterred me from this place - I live 2 hours away from Brainerd, but was in love with this venue YEARS before we even got engaged. I knew before we left our tour that this was the place for us, so I played the odds and took a chance. BEST. DECISION. EVER. Communication was amazing throughout with Grace. She was always so quick to respond via email and very patient with all of my questions throughout the planning process. She was there when we arrived to decorate and greeted me with a big hug - it's the little things! Grace and Aimee were extremely accommodating and it was great to see staff there the night of our reception to make sure we had everything we needed. Even though there was no heat in our ceremony space, we told our guests to dress accordingly and it could not have been more perfect for us. We got so many compliments on our unique venue choice and our photos are STUNNING to match the space - topped off with a dusting of snow. I honestly could go on and on, but this venue is well worth every penny we paid for the perfect day we were able to have to celebrate our marriage thanks to The NP!

**All photos compliments of Dempag Photography & Entertainment

I reached out to Blacksmith Main and the NPC team about hosting a highschool banquet in the space. Grace, the venue specialist, was so good about responding to emails in a timely manner and worked with my team so well! The industrial brick walls, beautiful chandeliers, natural light and the feeling of the whole campus is like no other. It was so much fun to see the look on everyone's face when they walked into the room!! The space is very clean and well maintained and the staff were wonderful to work with! On the day of the banquet, staff were present to help with anything we needed and continuously checked in with us! Loved this space!

Big space with a lot of options. Absolutely a place you can make your own.

Having our wedding at the NP was a dream come true, this is a hidden gem in Northern Minnesota. It's so unique and doesn't require a lot of extra decorating as the building is so beautiful. They were also very flexible with last minute changes, communication at the beginning wasn't very great but it significantly improved as our date approached and I felt comfortable with the level of response we had received.

Beautiful location and something unique in the Brainerd Area. Staff was very helpful and everything turned out better than I could have hoped!

Abosolitely beautiful venue!! 10/10 on location and decor. This review is based on the staff...
I’ll start with saying this place came HIGHLY recommended.
We took a tour of Blacksmith Main in July and fell in love with the venue. We were told we would be receiving further information on dates and such via email. A week went by and we got nothing. Since then my fiancé and I have called at least 30 times and sent many emails. We have not been responded to once! The fact that this place can not get back to us when the other 15 venues we’ve toured can, says a lot. I will NOT be recommending this venue to anyone in the future.
Hopefully this helps others decide

Let me start by saying that this venue is absolutely stunning and this review has nothing to do with the location itself but rather the owners and staff. I booked this venue for our 9/5/20 wedding over a year ago. Things changed when the new owners parted ways with one of the former partners. The space I had reserved for our rehearsal dinner was turned into a coffee shop. I know this only because I have a home in the area and happened to drive by. The staff at NP did not inform me that the location was no longer available for a rehearsal dinner and it was not until I questioned it that they told me they had moved me to another space, fine no problem. As we got close to the wedding everything became a battle, they suddenly tried to change the terms of our contract claiming a new one needed to be signed due to the split of the partnership. We were no longer allowed to bring in our own alcohol and outside decor (arbors etc) was prohibited. Anytime I emailed it took days to receive a response from Grace the venue manager. Fast forward to wedding day. There was another wedding on the property the same day which would’ve been totally ok BUT their getting ready space was right next to ours and you could hear every single word they said and every single blow dryer they used. What should’ve been a relaxing morning with my bridesmaids turned into a major headache. The other couple also walked over to our ceremony space as it was wrapping up to take photos... pretty intrusive. In addition when I walked into Blacksmith Main, our ceremony space, many lightbulbs in the chandeliers I paid to rent were burned out. When my wedding planner brought this to Grace’s attention she claimed it was an “electrical” issue. When you pay to rent lighting it should be in working order. I’ll say it again... this space is absolutely stunning but the owners care more about money than making the day perfect or special for couples. I would highly recommend looking elsewhere for a venue. Side note most of the positive reviews are from current employees and family members of employees 😳