Pittsburgh Children's Museum

cshafer

Hello Knotties! This is my first post here! I am getting married in Pittsburgh next October, fingers crossed, as long as we are able to book Heinz Chapel. My fiance was in the Heinz Chapel Choir all four years we were at Pitt and it's his dream to get married there!Anyway, we just went down looking at venues this past week, and our hands-down favorite was the Pittsburgh Children's Museum. The weird thing is, I cannot find ANY photos of events there on photographer blogs, google searching, looking on the Knot, or anything. It seems like it's not that common for a wedding venue. So, I'm just wondering, have you heard anything about it, good or bad? Can anybody tell me a little more about working with this venue?? THANKS in advance PGH Knotties!

npales

I almost booked my wedding there but ended up at the National Aviary (accross the street) instead. I love the Children's Museum space!I don't think I ever came accross any good photos in their venue, but their Grand Hall is pretty neutral, so you can really make it into anything you want. The only bad thing about the Children's Museum is that you only have Common Plea as a catering option. They have fantastic food, but are pricy. Make sure you try to work with them if you have a budget to adhere to. They will probably work to customize for what you need. Did they replace their old plastic chairs yet? That was something else I was not crazy about.

kwynn

Hmm, when I was looking over a year ago, I swear I had some photos of receptions done there, but maybe they were just from their website?I didn't go with them because of the Common Plea catering as well, as Nuelsi said, but they are highly regarded. I found the rental fee to be a bit high for my budget, but my budget was more limited than some.A good way to get photos would be to ask your contact there for some. Or to ask your contact there which photographers are preferred vendors there. Then call up that photog and ask to see some shots of that venue. I would agree with you that it is not that common as a wedding venue...I think I've been there only once.  But that doesn't mean it can't be unique and awesome, so if you love it, book it. Where else did you look?

cshafer

Hi ladies! Mostly I was concerned about the lack of photos because it made me think, huh, is there something I don't know about this place? Are they secretly really hard to work with, or what? Why aren't there more weddings here?I have heard quite a few times that the Common Plea is an expensive caterer. I'm actually really bummed out about using them, because I really had my hopes up for choosing a place that used Big Burrito. Children's Museum was unwilling to bend on that, though. Also, my second-favorite venue is the Heinz History Center, which ALSO exclusively caters with the Common Plea, so looks like I'll be working with them either way. Does anyone know if their food is good, though? I am willing to splurge a bit on catering if it's really tasty. We also looked at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the Frick, Edgewood Club, Mattress Factory, and the Mansion at Maple Heights.

morainemom

Welcome cshafer!I can't give you any help with the venue - but I can offer you my sympathy on sitting by the phone and dialing Heinz Chapel's number OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER on October 1st!It took us over 2.5 hours last year before my SIL finally got through.  By then all that was left was a 10:30 am time slot for Oct. 17th - my daughter later changed the wedding to 2:30 pm on Friday, October 16th.Hopefully you are not set on a particular date or time in October. Good luck!

cshafer

Morainemom, yikes! Getting Heinz Chapel is one of the things I'm most nervous about. Two of our groomsmen work at Pitt, and I've heard it's easier to get through from an on-campus number.....I'm kind of keeping my fingers crossed for that.