Griffin Photography Museum

We were just so pleased with the Griffin Museum of Photography. The museum was so beautiful both inside and outside, so the photos of our wedding turned out so pretty. We held the ceremony inside and it ended up looking like a church. Everyone we dealt with was so professional and helpful too.

I love the museum and I enjoyed working with their coordinator to set everything up. There were a few things I wasn’t thrilled with the day of the wedding, however.
(1) There was someone else from the museum working the night of the wedding, not the coordinator I’d been dealing with. He didn’t introduce himself to any of us nor did he have anything to identify himself as a museum employee. I had to ask one of the catering staff who he was, because I assumed he was with them.
(2) There was some trash on the grounds of the museum as we were setting up to do our pre-ceremony photos. We shouldn’t have had to stop and clean up in order to have a clear space for our ceremony and photos.
(3) Lastly, it was absurdly hot in the gallery where we had dinner and dancing. They host receptions there all the time – they are a museum gallery! – so there should have been better climate control in the room.

I still love the look of the venue and our guests didn’t seem to have the same complaints (other than the temperature of the gallery!). It was still a beautiful event.

The Griffin Museum is a small, intimate space for small weddings... VERY small weddings...

We thought having 50 people would fit just right in the small venue, but we were terribly wrong! Supposedly it seats 100 people, but that isn't necessarily true. We had about 55-60 people, and there was no space for a dance floor! Even the tables (6 rounds) were squished together!

We had our ceremony outside, which wasn't a good idea as right in the middle of it, the commuter rail passed by. This wasn't necessarily the museum's fault, but it's good to know when the trains are running so this doesn't happen to you!

Finally, the museum supplies walls to put up if you don't like one of the pieces. Unfortunately, we ended up using all the walls as we disliked all of the pieces. What the museum doesn't tell you is there is art on the movable walls as well. Not only did these walls take up room, we didn't like the art on them either!

The Griffin Museum is a darling space great for a small wedding (I would say 75 our under). We had 50 people and it was perfect for our guests in terms of the size. The cost was reasonable as well $980 for the evening. There are TWO downsides that are worth mentioning:

1. While the person working with us prior to the wedding was very responsive and sweet, the on-site person who worked our event was extremely rude. We had agreed with the staff ahead of time that the wedding would end at 11pm and clean up would follow. However the on-site person turned on all the lights about 10:30 and told the DJ to play the last song. Boo hiss. So we all cleared out. Meanwhile, he told one of the guests that the commuter rail was still running when in fact it was not. She was stranded at the wedding venue (as all the other guests with cars had left). In his favor, the on-site person did drive her to the nearest subway station which made up for the fact he gave her incorrect information. I had confirmed two days prior to the event that our arrangement was to end the wedding at 11pm, but he was incredulous about the matter.

2. Depending on how you look at it, issue#2 was more problematic for us. The museum is a photo gallery. Before we signed a contract we asked what photos would be on display. We were told it would be calligraphy and given the name of the artist. Indeed the photography of the calligraphy was there, but only in the gift shop. In the actual wedding venue itself, there were pictures of Auschwitz (as in concentration camps). Thankfully there were no pictures of actual people, but instead of (and I am not kidding) the luggage of Holocaust victims, the chimneys of Auschwitz, and the beds. It was so awful particularly as we had a Jewish wedding here. It was so unfortunate and we definitely felt like we were misled.

I think that our wedding was a success in spite of the venue, not because of it.

I found The Griffin Museum of Photography online when looking for a unique, small-ish wedding site and it turned out to be the only venue we looked at, because we loved it so much. We booked it the day we saw it, thought the price was a steal, and loved everything about the actual wedding. We had our ceremony & cocktail reception in the main gallery, with the bar in the lobby area. We had about 75 guests and it was really the perfect size for us. We'd highly recommend it to other artistically minded couples who want a unique, lovely, elegant but not foo-foo location. (The grounds, pond, and water wheel were fantastic for photographs, as well!)

This was a gem to have found this museum. The grounds were beautiful for our outdoor ceremony and the inside was the perfect size for our smaller wedding. We had a bar/cocktail area in 1 room and a dancing and dining area in another. It was an ideal setup for the style of wedding we had. They were very flexible and responsive to emails I sent. We also changed our wedding date by 3 weeks at the last minute and they were easy to work with. Meredith also helped coordinate some of the pickup from vendors in the days following our wedding so we could enjoy our honeymoon immediately.