The Des Moines Embassy Club / Embassy Club West Reviews

We had both our ceremony and reception at the Downtown Des Moines Embassy Club and couldn't have been happier with the entire experience! We worked primarily with Emily, and she was so responsive and flexible--especially as we planned from out-of-state--from our initial meeting and tour to lots of emails leading up to our wedding day and the entire wedding week. The venue itself is gorgeous, especially the chandeliers, but the views are truly breathtaking, and we loved sharing them with our guests who had never visited Des Moines before. The food was delicious, and several of our friends and family commented on how it was so much better than typical wedding food. We were really pleased and impressed with all of the staff, all of whom went out of their way to make sure everything was exactly how we wanted it and that we had a great wedding. Highly recommend!

Take many tours and ask lots of questions! Your guests will be very impressed with the atmosphere and professionalism this venue offers.

I would have given them more stars if I could have! The view from this room is spectacular. Floor to ceiling windows overlooking Des Moines in all directions! The staff was professional and the food was simply amazing. Head Chef Imre provided us with some of the best food I have ever tasted. The comment I heard, and keep hearing, from my guests was how wonderful the food was. Not only was it delicious, the presentation was fantastic as well.
Everything about the DMC--the food, the views, the staff--made this a night my husband and I will remember forever. We couldn't have asked for anything better. I recommend this venue to any bride-to-be!!!

We had our wedding at the downtown Embassy Club location, and we loved it! Kristy helped us every step of the way through all the planning details. The staff was extremely helpful with setting up the reception, and making sure everything ran smoothly that night. The food is fantastic, and no one can beat that view! I also thought they were reasonably priced for that nice of a venue. We also had a lot of out of town guests, so the proximity to hotels was great. When we received our final bill, we were pleasantly surprised with a gift certificate for our one year anniversary. I would definitely recommend The Embassy Club!

Just had our daughter's wedding at the Des Moines Embassy Club - downtown. Most beautiful venue in the city!
Staff was excellent and food was beyond perfect. You are definitely going to want to have an event here!

One of the best-kept secrets in Des Moines! We are so thankful we found the Embassy Club Downtown and selected it as our wedding venue. From our first meeting with the staff to our wedding day, we were incredibly impressed with the professionalism, organization, and service of the Embassy Club team. It was so nice to enjoy our wedding day because we knew that the Embassy Club would properly execute all aspects of our wedding day. They were easy to work with and thoughtful of our budget. They accommodated last-minute changes right up to our big day. We loved the classic look of the space, but were also attracted to the fact that all of the essentials of a wedding venue (seating, tables, linens, settings, etc.) were included, that all in-house catering could be personalized, and that you received top-knotch service for all guests. Our guests loved the views and the out-of-this-world food and drink from the Embassy Club. Weeks later, we are still receiving compliments! Book them for your special day if you want a stunning venue to wow your guests but also receive quality service that you can trust on your wedding day.

The Des Moines Embassy Club downtown was a wonderful venue to host our wedding reception. The staff was wonderful to work with and very accommodating for our menu choices as well as floor layout. On the day of the event, everything went very smoothly and was high quality (we offered 4 different menu options). The staff took care of the small details so that we didn't have to take time away from our celebration. Our guests also shared many compliments with us in regards to the venue. We did have an open bar, and our liquor bill at the end of the night was significantly more than anticipated. Food was very delicious and served elegantly. I would highly recommend this venue for a wedding reception (or location for any other large event).

The Des Moines Embassy Club has a history with the city known for providing unique dining experience to those members of it's supper club. They retain a professional demeanor when it comes to plannig your event but at times can be difficult to either get a hold of or strike a deal with. Their prices are as stated. Food is of the best quality and service is unmatched. Every detail of your event is covered with an extensive food tasting. This does not come without a price and to go with the Des MOines Embassy club means you get the best but you pay for it as well. Our wedding was over a year ago and people still talk about the food!

Take the stress out of planning a wedding, helpful staff, classy space.

The Des Moines Embassy Club catered both the rehearsal dinner and the reception dinner, and the food was very high quality. They were extremely flexible in offering a variety of food and prepared it well. We had nothing but compliments on the food.

We had our reception at the Des Moines Embassy Club downtown. At the beginning, they were a little difficult to work with and didn't seem very organized. Once our day came, everything ran very smoothly and went well. The food and drinks were amazing. It is a great venue and they have a lot to offer, you just need to stay connected and make sure you get what you would like.

Very over priced for quality.

The Embassy Club Downtown is a VERY BEAUTIFUL location for a wedding!!

QUALITY OF SERVICE- The servers did a very great job. I did have one complaint from one of my guest. A server had spilled ketchup on the floor which spilled on the chair and some on a little girl. The server clearly knew what he done but did not come back to clean any of it up.

RESPONSIVENESS- The response between the Ruan wedding coordinator was good. There would be days that took longer then others, but most days they responded back quickly.

PROFESSIONALISM- Everyone was very professional, no complaints there!
VALUE- WOW! Let's just say VERY VERY expensive!! Make sure you ask every question possible! One thing I didn't know about was the SERVICE CHARGE. They do charge a service fee for all the staff, mine almost was about $1000. So watch for the FEES!!! The food was really really good but the cheapest plate is $32 PER PERSON!! Also, DRINKS ARE

SEPERATE at a rate of $2.50 PER SODA!!! I could go on and on at cost, just make sure you understand that IT"S NOT CHEAP!!! You Definetley will be paying over $7000 for everything!!

FLEXIBILITY- No complaints there!!

I would only recommend this venue to someone who had money to spend, thank goodness we had help!! The View is AMAZING!

We worked with Kristy to plan our wedding ceremony and reception, both of which took place at their Downtown location. She was very helpful and made it easy to get a visual of what the day would look like. The Club held two different tastings for us, and we were even able to bring family members along with us. Super helpful! The day of was so easy - the service staff was amazing. The food was amazing. The bar service was amazing! I cannot thank Kristy and her team enough. We had a memorable wedding with incredible views of the city!

Very nice to work with. A little unhappy with realying information regarding billing.

I was thrilled to find the Embassy Club with it's stunning 34th floor views of Des Moines. Diane was wondering through the entire planning process. The day of the wedding was another story entirely.

Many of the aspects of our catering that we had discussed in detail (and were in our contract) were not executed correctly. The food was not what we had agreed upon. In fact, it seemed like they cut corners in quality and presentation on the day of because they knew I couldn't asked for it to be changed at the last minute. Moreover, the food was decent at best...nothing special.

Also, do not let them put up the black curtain at the back of the room. They drape a black curtain at the back end of the room to cover where they store their service items, blocking off useful space that is included in what you pay for. We specifically asked that the whole room be available because we rented the entire room, not a portion of it. When I walked into the space before the reception started, the curtain was up and I was told it had to be up to shield the extra tables, glasses, etc. from guest view. There was nothing that could be done at that time. I was also told there was plenty of space. When my husband and I went to greet guests at the back of the room, my husband and two other guests tripped because they back tables were too close to the curtain. I was so incredibly embarrassed. It looked so tacky.

The bottom line on the Embassy Club is a great venue, but the service and catering are another story. I truly believe the staff here think they can change things on your wedding day to save them money and time because there is nothing you can do to change it at that late time.

We had our reception at the Temple for the Performing arts, which is run by the Des Moines Embassy Club (DMEC). Buyer Beware! The Temple is one of the most beautiful indoor venues in Des Moines, but I would have serious reservations about booking them if I had to do it again. The beautiful surroundings don't mean much when the customer service is subpar! Below are some examples of things that went wrong.

1. The food we were served at our tasting was NOT the food we were served at our wedding. The food served at the wedding only vaguely resembled the food we tasted and agreed upon before the wedding. For instance we had decided on a salt and spice encrusted Portabello as one of our entree options. What we were served was a rubbery substance that somewhat resembled a mushroom and had NO salt or spices on it. I could barely get a few bites down! Prior to the wedding, I had gushed to everyone that the food from our tasting was delicious. Needless to say, I was beyond embarrassed by the food that was actually served. To add insult to injury, the menus that I had printed (with details taken directly from our contract) were obviously for a meal other than that on our guests' plates.

2. Multiple items of decor were not returned to us. My mother had generously lent us an easel and a one-of-a-kind candlestick to use as part of our decorations. When we went to pick up our decorations the morning after the wedding the candle and the picture were there, but candlestick and easel that had held them a few hours before ( among other sundry objects) were not. When we notified the DMEC that the items were missing, they were very nonchalant about the situation and took no measures to rectify it. At my brother's wedding a few months earlier (held at the Renaissance Savery Hotel), we got back everything the next morning. Even little scraps of trash that we didn't want!

3. There were no napkins at the place settings. Linens (including napkins) are included in the contract and we had even discussed how we wanted the napkins arranged at our walk through the day before, but come the day of the wedding no napkins were to be found. We ended up having to use napkins from our decorator at the last minute(to the tune of an additional $200) since the DMEC couldn't come up with napkins for our guests.

4. We had a candy buffet and gave specific instructions, including photographs, about how to set it up. Instead of being set up on its own table prior to the reception so that guests would be able to peruse it during the cocktail hour as we had requested, it was thrown out haphazardly after dinner onto the guestbook table without any regard to our specifications. The table looked like an afterthough rather than the carefully curated and decorated treat display we had designed. The glass scoops tied with coordinating ribbons were "lost" as were the signs for specifying the contents of each jar. When we picked up the jars the next morning, one was broken and the "lost" signs and scoops were miraculously in the same box as remaining jars.

5. Communication was often an issue. It would routinely take days-weeks to get a response through email and it would often take multiple emails to get simple questions answered. To top it off the catering managers were late to the walkthrough. You don't have time to waste that close to the wedding day!

6. The voucher for our 1-year-anniversary dinner at a DMEC restaurant was much less than the amount specified in the contract. Although I doubt this is really of any consequence, since I can safely say that we will be having our anniversary dinner elsewhere.