Arena Stage Reviews

Arena Stage (officially The Mead Center) was the last potential wedding venue we visited. We liked it so much we moved up our wedding date from September to June to fit their schedule. It was the first racially integrated theater in DC and is an important non-profit performing arts space in the District. We felt like our money would be well spent there as opposed to alternatives. We held our ceremony in one of the theaters, cocktail hour on the terrace, and reception in the lobby. All the spaces are amazing and elevators made it all accessible for our elders. Cannot say enough about the team. Emma was incredibly patient with all of our questions. She made our wedding ceremony better by taking the rehearsal seriously and sharing great ideas we went with. Her upbeat energy created such a great vibe for planning everything together. Emma seems genuinely happy to do what she does which rubs off. The same people who do lighting and sound for the plays were the people who managed those details for our wedding ceremony which included live music. That meant we had nothing to worry about. One perk: the dressing rooms! It was so cool to be backstage getting ready with our family and then sharing a toast together just the two of us right after the ceremony. And we were able to take photos all over the place beforehand. It's an awesome space for that, inside and out. If you're okay with a relatively shorter planning window like we were (they book weddings around their play schedule which was set maybe 6-9 months or so in advance) and you have budget for venue, this is an amazing place to get married. BTW they have a handful of approved caterers and they all seem great. We talked to most of them and did some tastings and in the end went with Spilled Milk, which all of our guests raved about.

We had an amazing experience working with the events team (Emma, Demi, and Brittany) for our September 1 wedding at Arena Stage. They went above and beyond to make our wedding vision come to life, and we can't recommend them enough. We were especially impressed with the lengths they went to to ensure that we didn't see each other before the ceremony, and their attentiveness and level of detail (in working with vendors, making sure everything went off without a hitch, and even ensuring we had food and drinks while taking pictures!).

Where do I even begin? Arena Stage is a stunning venue, with soaring ceilings and floor to ceiling windows. It is in a prime location, very close to the Wharf DC which made lodging for our guests (and the after party) so easy and gave people visiting a great place to stay. As incredible as the venue is, what really made it amazing was our experience working with the special events staff. Chrystal is absolutely awesome and from the moment she gave us a tour, was so positive and warm. The staff was super responsive and went out of their way to make everything perfect for us. We could not have been happier with our experience!!

We loved our wedding at the Mead Center! We rented the Molly Smith Study for the ceremony and reception and had the cocktail hour up on the outdoor terrace.

The Molly Smith Study looked great for the ceremony and fit our group of 100 people well. It also was amazing at night with the large glass windows for the reception.

Betsy O'Keefe was our POC at the Mead Center and was super responsive and helpful with all of our questions. Would highly recommend to others.

We had a FANTASTIC experience working with the events team at Arena stage and holding our reception at the Molly Smith Study. What a stunning space! The Study doesn't even require any decoration, just some uplighting that the DJ arranged for.The staff is laid back, kept track of every detail, always made sure that we felt comfortable with the decisions being made, and made very knowledgeable vendor recommendations. If you are willing to be a little flexible around their theater schedule, there is no better space in DC.

After many, many of years attending theater at the Arena, both before and after the renovation, it was lovely to have my wedding there! It's a great contemporary space and their event staff is really on top of things. When we did the final walk through in the week of the wedding and as they were planning table layouts and so forth, they had great suggestions and worked seamlessly with my caters (RSVP) and wedding coordinator (theweddingcloser.com) so that it all came together perfectly. We had cocktails on the terrace and then reception in the Molly Smith study and it was just perfect for my small, 50 person, wedding but would have worked really well for a larger crowd, too. They were having performances in at least one theater that evening and it had no impact on my event - never even noticed. They were great to work with on some idiosyncratic extra requests we had - we rented two large wine fridges for the event and they were really helpful about letting us drop them off the day before and stock them. All in all, a fantastic choice.

Arena is the perfect venue for anyone looking for a unique DC wedding. Space - gorgeous! We were in the Molly Smith study for ceremony & reception and with the huge windows it's basically like being outside, except with AC. Location - could not be more convenient for a city wedding with the Wharf across the street, metro, and garage parking. Value - I was honestly surprised how good the value was considering it's DC proper. Service - the Arena team was wonderful and took such good care of us, including going above and beyond to help my dad set up AV for a surprise slideshow and allowing us some flexibility with space when it was confirmed there was no show in the space that day. Emma & Brittany are amazing! Arena did have a few staff changes when we were interested in booking so it took a little persistence to secure the space, and you do run the risk of a show going on at the same time (we were lucky), but you just have to go into it recognizing it's not a full-time event space, it's a working theatre and with a little flexibility it is absolutely worth it. So many guests commented on our venue and it really made our day special. (And final bonus, your event rental helps support Arena, which is an important part of DC's arts and culture scene in its own right!)

We loved working with Emma and her whole team. They really knew how to make the most of the space in ways we had not thought of. And they were intuitive and helpful and a delight to work with!

Arena Stage is a wonderful wedding venue! They don't do a ton of events, so you do have to work with their theater schedules. You also can't book until the schedule for the following year is finalized, which was March for an October wedding for us. We inquired a year in advance and went through months of holds and phone tag waiting for the date to be released, but it was worth it.

We did a ceremony and reception for 80 in the Lower Lobby and Study, and it was perfect. Larger groups can rent the upper floors and theaters in various combinations. This venue is still a good value for the area - it isn't super expensive, and vendors have early access to the building, which helps manage staffing costs elsewhere.

I worked with Danielle and Reggie and they were great. All in all, while you shouldn't expect to be able to book this venue a year or more in advance, it's a wonderful setting if you're looking for a nontraditional venue and are willing to be a little patient!

Let me start with I loved the venue. It was a great place to hold a wedding, extremely beautiful, easy to get to, and otherwise accessible and open. We even had our wedding on a night with two shows at the theater on the same night. The service and people were great, if a bit slow to respond. Early on particularly, it was difficult to get email responses and coordinate re: contracts. However, everything went through great, and we loved the event itself. The night of, the Arena stage folks were extremely helpful and responsive. They made the night great. They even helped us pick up some leftover items two mornings later, which was great. Great experience!

We had our wedding ceremony in the Kogod theater and our reception in the Grand Lobby at Arena Stage. The staff was very good about communicating with us though out our planning process, and met with us and our vendors multiple times prior to the event. The event itself went very smoothly. While the rental price is on the more expensive end for DC wedding venues, we essentially got to "buy out" the entire building from 10am-midnight, and had a 4 hour rehearsal. The architecture of Arena Stage is truly one of a kind, and makes for a spectacular flow for your event. For the ceremony, we chose to add on the service of a lighting designer, and it was the best decision we made: the designer was very professional, friendly, and really took our ceremony from being good to spectacular. If you are doing a ceremony in the Kogod, we highly highly recommend that service.

The reason why we did not give a 5 star rating to the venue is because there was quite a lot of restrictions in the space & there were many additional charges that came up after we booked the event. At the beginning we were told that having candlelight in the theater was possible as long as you had a fire marshall's approval; however, when we went to get the approval we were told that no candle light was allowed. Having candlelight at our ceremony was an important part of our cultural tradition, and it was disappointing to have to forego that.

Additionally, there was quite a lot of opacity with the additional production costs at the Kogod. We found it a bit unprofessional that there was no price sheet that the staff could give us that listed the service, its explanation, and associated cost. We had many many rounds of communication trying to figure out what was available to us and how much it cost; each time the staff gave us a different quote on the cost of the services. Overall, Arena Stage is a very unique venue and will make for an unforgettable wedding.