OLDE GAHANNA SANCTUARY

voxytoo

Our wedding isn't for some time now and we are planning on a low key, more casual affair but by no means do I want to sacrifice style or taste.  I do however want to make the event our own by doing most of the planning and decor myself which led me to the Olde Gahanna Sanctuary and my question.Has anyone been to a wedding there or had their wedding there?  What did you like/didn't like?  What is your opinion on the venue for both the ceremony and reception?  did your find the place easy to use, decorate, etc?  Any information anyone can give me would be most helpful.  I have been there to look at it twice now and each time I am there I am happy with it, but once I leave I end up second guessing myself.

Stackeye210

I went to a reception there once.  Parking was easy and convenient, plus I think the old town charm of downtown Gahanna is neat.  The reception was nice and spaced out with plenty of room to dance, walk around and table hop.  They put the food in the back room that is kind of down the hall.  I thought that was nice because they could keep the buffet open the entire night and it never got in the way of the reception.  I personally think that having a ceremony and reception there would be very easy to pull off.  I would think that the easiest way to do that would be for people to view the ceremony from their actual table location and then where you get married is what turns in to the dance floor area.  Good Luck.  I think you picked a good spot for a low key casual wedding that still has some class to it.

irysh26

A friend of mine from high school got married there. I wasn't at the wedding but she posted pics on facebook for me to see cause I was thinking of that venue too. want me to send some to you? She did both ceremony and reception. It was VERY pretty.

mrslinhart

I've been to one wedding there and I thought it was very nice.  I think if you are willing to do a lot yourself and get creative you could have a beautiful wedding there!

voxytoo

Irysh26, if you don't think your friend would mind you sharing the pictures, I would love to see them!  My email is voxytoo@gmail.com

StephyJeffy

I had my wedding and reception there in May and was very happy with everything. My mother in law thought the bathrooms needed a cleaning, so she called Jack, and he came right over and cleaned them up.  Saved a LOT of money on caterer/alcohol bills, had no issue with decoration. Feel free to email me  at stephyjeffy (at) gmail.com or check out our pics at picasaweb.google.com/stephyjeffy

zoenmatt09

A good friend of mine was married there a few years ago and I thought it was beautiful. It had alot of charm to it and I loved the windows! The wedding and reception were there and they had a clown there in a seperate room to enterain the kids!

TeacherTiff

We had our reception there last June. It was perfect!!! I would highly rec'd it! The only issue we had was that I hated the white fabric hanging from the ceiling (and the fact that it was hung with wire hangers!?) ... well, we asked if we could take it down and they told us it was no problem, just to fold it up nicely and leave it in the extra room. Well, apparantly they "forgot" they told us that, and would not give us our $100 deposit back because of this. Moral of the story: get everything in writing if you have special requests. Anyways, we are still getting compliments.. it was perfect. I also have pictures (but just set up for a reception) if you would like to see them. tiffanycudoc (at) gmail (dot) com.

weirui17

We used it for our wedding and reception. With 200 guests, it was a little bit of a stretch, but with many helpful friends who helped "flip" the room it worked out great. The big red curtain was perfect to conceal the set tables all waiting in the next room. I loved not having to pay overpriced catering and alcohol fees and it does have a nice setup for a buffet. It wasn't the cleanest- we had to do a lot of cleaning and decorating for it to be a nice enough place in our opinion, but our budget dictated that we do that rather than go elsewhere. Some really bad things included communication- like others said, sometimes they'll forget things they'll tell you. They don't call you back in a reasonable time frame. After our wedding, we needed to get something back that was left at the sanctuary. 4 phone calls later, over the course of a month, we never heard back. Moreover, a fuse blew while the caterers were cooking! This was a total nightmare and would have been fixed if they told us where the fuse box was (the locked basement) or had given us a cell phone number so we could get ahold of the guy, but the only phone number we had went to the office in the building. It was a disaster. Make sure you can get the fuse box thing figured out and his cell phone number in case of emergencies. They were really nice though and very flexible, so if that's important to you (and it was to us!) then it's probably the place for you. Our wedding photos are here and hopefully that'll give you some ideas: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2528731&id=12438575&l=0e923a7d43 and also http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2528733&id=12438575&l=c5cc32b5b4.