Polish Center of Wisconsin Reviews

After our engagement, our first decision was choosing a venue. We made the decision early on that we would need a larger facility than our church (Milwaukee Metropolitan Community Church, which seats at best about 50 people) for our ceremony. We toured ten(!) different venues, and chose The Polish Center of Wisconsin, an absolute gem. It was the second wisest decision we made in our wedding planning. (The first was choosing Katie of Willow and Waylon Events to be our planner.)

This facility is fairly new (about 15 years old), and has spaces for not only the reception, but also the ceremony and the cocktail hour (including a wonderfully stocked bar and outdoor beer garden). They even have a beautiful separate meeting room (the Veteran’s room, where we got ready and did some of our first photos in the sitting area by the fireplace), a garden with a fountain, a small lake on the grounds, (which was wonderful for our photographer), and an additional balcony seating area on the second floor overlooking the main reception area.

One idiosyncrasy that might put some couples off is that they have their own exclusive in-house catering. DO NOT let this be a deal-breaker for you, as their catering is among the very best we’ve seen, as well as being very reasonably priced. For our entrees we had grilled salmon in a white wine dill sauce that was delicious, and a grilled beef tenderloin in a Maderia mushroom sauce that was better than any steak I’ve had in a high-priced downtown steakhouse. They have wide variety of dishes available to satisfy the pickiest eaters, all reasonably priced ($35 per plate or less). They even had pan fried pierogis as one of our sides, which was a huge hit with our guests, Polish and Vietnamese alike!.

The bar is also an especially good value. For $15 per guest, we got a beer, wine, and soda package. They had five beers on tap, including two craft brews from the Explorium brew pub. One of these is Crocus, a refreshing Polish style lager that is made exclusively for the Polish Center. They are also able to get nearly anything on tap you like. Included in our package was also eight different wines, and the usual sodas on tap and juices. For $25 per guest you can have an open bar.

The Polish center can also handle all of the linen rentals, tables, AV equipment, and even the just-tuned baby grand piano that we rented for our ceremony musicians. The total cost we’re posting includes rental on the whole facility, rental on linens, the piano, hors o’ deourves, food, beverage, etc.. They pretty much handled everything except the florals, cake, and the DJ”s lights and sound system.

Compare this to another venue we considered: a botanical garden owned by the Milwaukee county taxpayers, that also has an exclusive hospitality contract (with a shady company that starts with “Z” and rhymes with “silly”). They wanted $95 per guest for just food (rubber chicken and lasagna) and beer/wine/soda, excluding linens, facility rental, etc. They even wanted $5 rental per chair for the ceremony. That bill would easily have been double what we paid at the Polish Center, which is an equally beautiful venue with far superior catering and bar.

If all this weren’t enough, the service was absolutely superb. Martha Norman, the banquet manager (as pleasant a person as one could hope to meet), worked with us, our planner, florist, DJ, baker, etc. to make our “dream team” that put everything together seamlessly on our big day. No detail was overlooked and we wanted for nothing. The wait staff was pleasant and efficient. The bartenders kept everyone promptly served and could make just about anything our guests asked. They even provided a bottle of non-alcoholic sparking grape juice for our champagne toasts, for children and guests who couldn’t drink alcohol.

We enthusiastically recommend the Polish Center of Wisconsin. It really was the perfect venue for us, and we think it is the best value for any wedding venue in southeast Wisconsin.

Polish Center of Wisconsin was a beautiful place to have our winter wedding reception! Jeff Kuderski was very accommodating and Jack Norman Catering provided a delicious buffet for our reception! We fit approx. 190 guests on the 1st floor and it was not cramped. Polish Center offers a balcony for more seating but we chose not to utilize it. You are able to use the entire facility for your wedding with no other parties/weddings going on at the same time, which we LOVED!! The Polish Center property provides a great setting for photos. Surrounded by a lake and woods made for gorgeous wedding photos!

Choosing our location at seeing The Polish Center of WI was easy! We loved the place! The lighting, windows, wood floors, and roomy feel! We loved the outside patio with the butterfly garden! It was just breath taking! Tom was just wonderful to work with! The room was set up just how imagine it! The wait staff and bartenders was just wonderful! Everyone just loved Tom!! I was so pleased how we felt that they truly were there to take care of us! We are so glad we choose The Polish Center! Mr. & Mrs. Dustin Fink 8/13/2011

Was a wonderful place to have a reception and a very good value!

This venue was not only beautiful but perfect! We did our rehearsal dinner, ceremony, cocktail hour and reception here. The staff was so nice to all our guests. Tom and Ericka worked with me and answered all of questions and even let us have the rehearsal dinner at the venue for no charge! They were all really great and I was so happy with everything!!

This is a real gem. I had never even knew it existed and I live a few miles away from it. I walked in the door and immediately knew I wanted my wedding there. You do not have to be polish to have the wedding here. Actually, you would never know it was polish except for the name and the flag on the flagpole. It is so beautiful inside, the caterer (that you have to use) was excellent, and it is nice to have both the ceremony/reception in the same place. I gave it 4 stars on responsiveness as they were transitioning into a new events director at the time I booked.

We booked The Polish Center because it offered an outdoor ceremony over-looking the lake and an indoor reception. Although you have to go with their caterer (Jack Norman Catering), it was worth it! They are on par with other venues as far as what is allowed and what is not allowed (open flames, sparklers, etc.). They were comparative in pricing for a Saturday wedding venue. They were willing to meet with me and allowed me to see the center set up for other weddings as much as I needed to to make plans for my own wedding. They sat down with me days before the wedding to go over every little detail (down to unity candle placement, guest book placement, card box placement, extra tables, etc.). The only thing I had a hard time with was responsiveness. I am used to responding within 1 or 2 business days. However, it was a little bit hard to get an email or phone call back. Luckily, I am a persistent person and was able to push through that. Everything else, including the catering/food, was phenomenal! I would highly recommend The Polish Center for any event, especially a wedding!

Made sure that everything was perfect for our wedding. The food and atmosphere was great!

We held our reception at the Polish Center in June, 2012 and the place was beautiful. The facility has lots of parking, a large patio area, several gardens, and overlooks a lake. The banquet manager, Tom, was very easy to work with and took care of everything for us. Tom also served as a bartender so if there had been any problems, he was there to help. Fortunately we booked over a year in advance. When making our final plans, I peeked at their calendar and the Polish Center was booked solid almost every weekend all summer long.

Be aware of some hidden costs however. In addition to the $1,600 we paid for the facility and $250 per half barrel of beer, the 19% “service charge” included in the beverage bill is not a gratuity that goes to the bartenders. It is another way for the Polish Center to make more money. You will be expected to tip the bartenders on top of it. Despite this, we still considered the Polish Center to be a good bargain compared to other facilities in the Milwaukee area.

p.s. If you choose the Polish Center, they have an exclusive catering contract with Jack Norman's Catering. However, this was not a problem because they are an excellent caterer.

We saw this location and just knew it was the place to have our wedding! It was an absolutely lovely place to have a ceremony and reception. The grounds were taken care of and made for great backgrounds in pictures. This was a slightly more expensive venue but completely worth it. My only complaint would be the fact that you had to go with the one caterer that works out of their building, the food was good but I would have liked an option.

I knew as soon as we took a tour of the Polish Center that I wanted our wedding to be there! I loved the ceremony space, the outdoor area for cocktail hour, and the reception space. They were very helpful when it came to picking the alcohol for our open bar, even allowed my father in law to bring in some of his favorite wines to be served during dinner. My ONLY complaint is that they are NOT flexible with the catering choices, you have to use theirs and the food was just ok in my opinion for the amount of money that was spent on it. Other than that we really enjoyed ourselves and our wedding!

We were so pleased with the Polish Center. The place is naturally beautiful both inside and out and their staff made the wedding run so smoothly. Highly recommended!

Pros:
-Naturally beautiful site for a wedding ceremony and reception hall. We didn't even bother to decorate the room where the wedding was held because the architecture makes it lovely.
-You can (and should) book the whole venue to yourself for the whole day. Not sharing the wedding site with others made the day a breeze.
-Large and spacious rooms for both wedding and reception. We had a 100 guest wedding but you could easily double that comfortably.
-Event coordinator was extremely helpful: he listened to what we wanted, provided us wonderful advice with the layout, and stayed the whole time to ensure everything went smoothly. He worked well with our outside vendors and called us if they told him anything that contradicted with what we mentioned to him.
-Cleanup was a breeze because the staff took care of most of it.
-The food from their caterer is delicious and received many compliments from our guests. They served very quickly and efficiently.
-You can use their outdoor patio when the weather is nice out.

Cons:
- No wall hangings, fire, water beads. Not a huge issue to those who don't need them (including us).
- Must use their caterer (but again, the food was very good and received many compliments)
-Some days (if not all?) have a minimum dollar amount you have to meet as part of the contract. Price varies by the day of the week that you use (of course Saturdays are most expensive). The price of the venue and the bar are what get you to the dollar amount needed. Those who dont enjoy drinking may find it hard to meet the minimum amount needed especially on Saturdays.

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We really enjoyed our wedding at the Polish Center. It was off to a little bit of a rocky start, but once the coordinator we were working with left, things improved. We didn't get to work with the new coordinator at all (the old one left not too long before our date), but they were very seemless and professional in the transition and took good care of us and our concerns. The site is beautiful, but look for the little charges like table linens and ceremony linens and soft drinks because other places include that in their meal price, but their caterer does not. That being said, they include center pieces which saves a ton.
I recommend that you try Jack Norman's food before committing as they are the only caterer you can use. The center says you can use local Polish restaurants, but when we asked the restaurants, they don't want to do it because they aren't equipped for weddings (unless it's small). Overall for being in the Milwaukee area it was reasonably priced (if you can say that about any wedding venue) and they helped make a great wedding.

We had our 8.28.15 wedding reception here.
Things we loved about the venue. If your looking to have total control of decorating & customizing without having extra charges then this is your venue! We loved all the options this venue could give us without having so many extra charges attached. Even some of the extras most venues charge outrageously for this venue is so inexpensive. We also loved working with the cater which the Polish Center goes through. You can decided to go through an outside vendor, but it's like a $100 dollar charge or something. We don't have one bad thing to say about the cater. Our food was hot and we received many compliments on how the food tasted. Also, working with Mark (the main individual which you work with) was very professional, easy going, organized and response time was timely. They also are very flexible as choices. This day is about the couple and they make sure you know that. They worked with us to give us meals we loved. We picked from their meal menu, but changed things as needed. We loved this venue for it's space and price!

Things we didn't like about the Polish Center.
The main guy you work with (Tom) is very hard to get a hold of and takes weeks to get back to you. He will answer all your emails and calls it just may take awhile. He is very nice guy and wants to make your day so great, but as a bride and groom just stay on top of it! He has an assistance coordinator and her name is Ericka. If it weren't for her I think we would have had a mess on our hands and more problems. She was absolutely great to work with! We were promised the day of that certain items would be turned on and displayed. Well that didn't happen. When we got to the hall for cocktail hour my bridal party and I were fast to put everything up they missed (it was minimal stuff, but still something we shouldn't have had to deal with). Otherwise, we have no other complaints. It was more frustrations then complaints.

This place was amazing to us and our wedding. The only problems we wncountered were of the professionalism nature. Halfway through planning they switched wedding coordinators. The new coordinator seemed to misplace all of our info. Also we were told they would provide seat covers and when we called them to confirm it took over 2 weeks to get back to us causing us to lose out on ordering covers from other vendors.

Beautiful facility inside and out. The site manager was fairly responsive and met most of our requests, but was not concerned with making our happiness priority.

The Polish Center is a beautiful wedding venue, both inside with the ballroom feel and outside with the gorgeous lakeside garden. The catering company that partners with The Polish Center, Jack Norman’s Catering, was absolutely delicious. The Polish Center was the perfect reception venue!

I just want to say that I called they polish center spoke with a Mary who was somewhat nice. Not helpful at all also spoke to Tom the manager. He was so rude. He had me in tears. Why even offer wedding events if your not even willing to help and give us pricing.I can't even type everything he said because he was so cruel it was crazy. I work in customer service and I can honestly say that was the worse customer service ever. I'm still in shock. I would never recommend to anyone. They treat you like complete cheap and make you feel like an idiot. I'll take my business somewhere else. Seriously really upsetting. I'm for there losing alot of business because of there terrible customer service. I still can't believe it.

I wish I could give them 0 ratings.

My fiancé called the Polish Center of WI to get information and a few questions answered. Tom was very rude, belittling and acted like we were bothering him by asking questions about their facility. A friend of mine had their wedding at this facility a few years ago, and I fell in love with the beauty and charm of the building. I had my heart set on this location, as my grandpa is 100% Polish. He would've been ecstatic, but I will now be looking other places. I am not going to spend that amount of money when he talked to my fiancé like garbage. Also a notable thing to mention is we've been trying to get a hold of him since early last week and had no luck getting in contact with him.

We booked our wedding at the polish Center almost 2 years ago. Our wedding was suppose to be October 19 2013. We asked them if there was a wedding the night before ours to please let us know, because at the Polish Center they DON'T allow you to do rehearsal they day before your wedding or decorations. In fact we were told by the asst. director that we would have plenty of time to do all of this the DAY OF OUR WEDDING!! In my opinion that is just ridiculous. We had to find out from my fiance's co-worker's friend that they had a wedding scheduled the night before ours after at least handful of times calling them and reminding them to notify us of a wedding the night before. It is impossible to get a hold of the director there. I think in the 2 yrs we have had this almost booked, we talked to him on the phone maybe twice. If you do book your venue here, ask FOR HIS CELL PHONE #. We just switched our wedding venue 4 months before our wedding to the Cedar Ridge Loft and Chapel! Place is awesome and they are there for you. I had better communication talking to Jeff the director there in the 10 mins talking on the phone than I had with the people at the Polish Center. The icing on the cake was that the director who booked the wedding the night before ours, did it early May and NO ONE had the RESPECT to tell us! We thankfully were able to switch to Cedar Ridge and they took care of us in a heart beat. Polish Center is gorgeous don't get me wrong but I would be very cautious.