Museum of Fine Arts

My wedding reception was beautiful! We had it at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL. It was everything that I had dreamed of and more. It was unique, stunning and exquisite. All of my guests raved about the location and its beauty! Everyone there was so very helpful. The person that I have to give a lot of credit to, though, is the Catering Director/Director for all of your needs for your Wedding, Nancy Cotto. Nancy is one of those angels that come into your life and make everything better! Any question I ever had, Nancy quickly answered and guided me through the whole process. She is patient, kind and extremely knowledgeable. She gives you her honest opinion and makes you feel completely at ease. Trust me, she is the person you want on your team to be your guiding light through to your wedding day. I am so fortunate to have had my wedding reception here and work with such wonderful people, especially Nancy!

I planned our wedding (December, 2012) from half way across the country and Nancy Cotto was absolutely wonderful. She was more than helpful and extremely flexible in everything. You name it, she was ready and willing to help. The venue was beautiful and our guests loved that they could tour the museum during cocktail hour. We don't have our pictures back yet but I'm sure they're gorgeous because the venue just set everything off. The museum employees were also very flexible the day-of. It ended up being JUST cold enough to make cocktail hour outside uncomfortable so they moved it indoors at the last minute - AWESOME! One thing to really consider when booking venues - you really don't want to have to drop things off or set things up the day of. We were able to drop everything off the day before, with simple instructions, and it was all set up to exact specifications. We also didn't have to worry about clean up!

The food (Olympia Catering) was absolutely incredible too - they're contracted with the museum as the food provider. Their stuffed chicken is to die for and our guests asked about having extra! They also were flexible with food choices - we wanted broccoli instead of asparagus and it was a very easy change. We also wanted hot chocolate instead of an additional appetizer. Again - no problem and it was a hit! The cake was also included which saves a lot of...

Choosing to host our wedding at the Museum of Fine Arts was the best decision we made! I cannot begin to explain how completely amazing everything was. Allison Canfield is so wonderful to work with, the caterer (Olympia Catering) is superb and the staff was fantastic. Everyone is still talking about how amazing and beautiful the venue was, and I love hearing it because it truly was exquisite If you want a wedding that is sophisticated, unique and one that everyone will remember; host it at the MFA!

The Museum of Fine Arts was the perfect wedding venue. We got immediate responses to our e-mails, they were very flexible with meeting times and tours of the facility before the wedding. The day of the wedding, everything was perfect and the wedding went off without a hitch. I would recommend the museum to any couple for their wedding day. Thank you Allison!

My wedding at the Museum of Fine Arts was just perfect. Everyone at the venue was extremely helpful and easy to work with. They have an exclusive contract with Olympia catering, and I'm so glad they do! Everyone has raved about the food and cake, and many have told me it is the best food they have ever had at a wedding. It was so fun for the guests to have access to the galleries! It was the perfect setting for a magical evening!

We are so pleased that we chose MFA for our wedding. Nancy (event coordinator) was a pleasure to work with. The fact that we didn't have to think about the caterer, cake, linens, or bartender was a major plus. The only snag was that we were unable to access the venue for our rehearsal, but in the end it didn't really matter. Everything turned out wonderfully...beyond our expectations.

The Museum of Fine Arts is a beautiful venue with lots of room options for both ceremony and reception depending on what you’re looking for. The Museum’s fee includes their very helpful staff, security staff, and access to galleries for guests for a set time. It also includes a weeding coordinator, Alison Canfield, who was very nice and accommodating, but she really didn’t have a whole lot to do as far as wedding coordination itself (she largely handles logistics and contracts) – Darren from Olympia Catering handles most of the wedding-specific items. When you book the Museum, you are locked into their caterer for food and cake (Olympia) and drinks (Lundy’s), but they’re such good vendors it wasn’t a problem. Venue rental is pretty reasonably priced for what you have.

It’s really a beautiful, unique, impressive venue. They provided the set-up of tables and chairs for the reception and chairs for the ceremony – when it threatened rain just as our ceremony was about to begin everyone was out there in the garden hauling chairs inside to the Marley Room, which they used as a back-up. It wasn’t what we had planned, but even without decoration the Marley Room was a beautiful location for the ceremony.

It’s really a great place for a wedding – be sure to get the up-lighting if you use the conservatory space, because it will look spectacular. We loved it, and we’ve gotten a lot of compliments on what an impressive venue it was. Definitely look into it, and try to book early! It’s getting to be a very popular choice in downtown St....

The Museum of Fine arts was hands down the best reception venue we looked at when searching for our wedding venue. We held our ceremony under the Banyan trees outside, then held the reception in the Marly Room with cocktail hour in the Membership Garden. We had looked at the ridiculously overpriced Vinoy, and after visiting the Museum shortly after, never looked back. The downtown St. Petersburg area offers so many attractions and hotels within walking distance for out of town guests, has waterfront views without sand everywhere, and tons of nightlife for post-wedding activities. One huge plus for booking with the Museum was our catering, cake, linens, chairs, and bar were included in the contract price, which saved me tons of time and research with having to search for other vendors. They also had a projector available in our room to play a photo slideshow, so we didn’t have to pay to rent this equipment. Alison, the events coordinator, was absolutely spectacular. Super responsive, so understanding and caring, and was actually there to make sure everything on our wedding day went smoothly. I’m so glad I did not hire a wedding planner – I didn’t need one with her help! My favorite story from the day – a newly engaged couple saw our ceremony taking place and sat on a bench in the park to watch. According to a guest, they immediately went inside to speak with someone about booking their wedding at the Museum – seeing our ceremony made up their mind on venue selection.

The Museum created a fabulous one stop shop of rooms to utilize for our wedding. We used the Marley room for our Ceremony, used the membership garden for our cocktail hour and the conservatory for our reception. Affordable! They have a fabulous caterer.

It was definitely an excellent choice having our wedding at the Museum of Fine Arts and Olympia Catering with the excellent food, elegant presentation, professional staff and the excellent taste and coordination of Darren Diaz!! It was a dream come true!! all the details were in place!
Having our wedding at the Museum of Fine Arts made of our moment an amazing event with an unique touch of distinction, elegance and unique quality to our...

Amazing! So many of our guests said this was the best and most beautiful wedding they have ever been too. The venue is like no other in the area and very reasonable for the cost. Our wedding reception was in the Membership garden for the cocktail hour and the Marly room for the reception. I have to say that Darren Diaz is such a hard worker and a fantastic caterer as well as event coordinator. I am so glad we picked the Museum of Fine Arts as our venue. It made our evening magical, thank you for everything!

We used the Museum of Fine Arts Conservatory for our wedding reception and it was beautiful! All of our guests appreciated the unique quality of our venue and said what a beautiful space it was for a wedding reception. The Conservatory offers a more modern feel, but the Marley ballroom was just as beautiful. The good thing about this venue is that its unique (not a hotel ballroom) but it still has the capacity to handle weddings. Allison Canfield is a great addition to the museum's staff... she was recently hired on with the museum for special events and she's been a pleasure to work with. Very responsive and professional but still down to earth. The museum was one the best decisions we made. Note though that if you do choose the museum, you will definitely be using Olympia Catering, but their staff is just as great.

The Museum of Fine Arts was a perfect venue for our ceremony and reception. We had our ceremony outside on the lawn and the reception in the Marly room. Allison was very quick to respond to questions, when she didn't know she would ask Darren (the caterer); however, he was a little slower to respond. They allowed the art galleries to be open for the first hour and a half of the reception and had a volunteer docent give a tour. Darren set up the chairs and decorations for the ceremony and the cocktail hour.
My only issue is there is very limited parking, but I didn't hear any complaints from guests so I guess it was fine. Also, we gave all of our decorations the day before to be set up, but our guest book pens got lost and the guest book sign was misplaced several times. Only minor issues though.
All in all, the museum was very beautiful, our guests loved looking at the art. It was very elegant and affordable for what is included. I would have loved to have a couple extra hours without having to pay so much more though. You have to use Olympia catering and Lundy's for alcohol.

This was the perfect place to get married. We had our reception here and it outdid our expecations. It was absolutley stunning and our guests could not stop talking about it. It was so different than just getting married in a hotel.
They were a little hard to get a hold of when we tried to contact them, but all in all they were stupendious!!!

Would def recommend getting married here...would not have changed a thing about it.

The MFA in St. Petersburg is a beautiful venue for a wedding reception. I fell in love with the location because of it's beautiful architectural features, it's classic elegance, it's great location in downtown St. Pete, and because they allow your guests to tour the art galleries during your event.

However... their event coordinator took a leave of absence and then quit her job during the time I was planning my wedding and it took a while for the museum to fill her position. To make matters worse, we later found out that she told us several things that weren't true (like we would be the only event that night). And of course, there are strict rules as it's a museum. So I have to give low scores for responsiveness, professionalism, and flexibility.

That being said, the new event coordinator at the MFA (Allison) is very friendly and she tried her best to make it up to us. Had she been there from the beginning, our overall experience would likely have been excellent. Also, the MFA's required vendors- Lundy's for bar service and Olympia for catering- are fabulous and provided excellent service!

On wedding day, everything was beautiful and went smoothly. Hence 5/5 for quality of service.

It's a very special venue, and though it was stressful during the planning process for the reasons mentioned above, in the end I was so glad that we had our reception in the Marly Room at the MFA in St. Petersburg.

The museum is a beautiful place to have your reception! We used the Marly room and the membership garden. It was such a special night and everything went perfectly. Because the museum hosts a good number of weddings and works SEAMLESSLY with olympia catering there was absolutely nothing for me to worry about the whole night. It was a little expensive in the end because you must use Olympia for catering and Lundy's for alcohol, but they are all so familiar with the venue that it is really easy to work with the other vendors there.

It is a beautiful place to get married I had my ceremony in sculpture garden cocktail hours in membership garden also guess had a chance to walk through the art gallery when we were taking a pictures. And I had my reception at Marley room .

While this is a great spot for a reception or ceremony, the prices are extremely high. Given that it is an art museum, they are very concerned about making sure that the art is kept safe from candles, hairspray, and other hazards. There are many extra costs in having your wedding here, such as event insurance, extra charges for later times, and room rental costs are high. If you have your heart set on getting married in a museum, this would be an excellent choice, as long as you are mindful that it may blow your budget.