Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

My sister Lien, who is an interior designer, planned our Sept. 22, 2012 ceremony and reception at the museum. The rental of the entire museum is nearly $9K and for that amount of money, we expected top-notch customer service. Unfortunately, we got terrible day-of service due to the fact the museum was in the middle of outsourcing its event planning business. The coordinator we worked with when we first secured the venue left and about 3 months before the wedding we got a new coordinator.

Since the Nature Museum is a children's museum, my sister brought in a lot of custom furniture, lighting and decor that she personally made for our wedding. Lien created a detailed schedule for setup that was reviewed with museum staff several times. She gave both the museum and Sound Investment, our lighting/decor company, a time table of which vignettes to set up when and where complete with floor plans and instructions. On the day of the wedding, the museum's outsourced event company hindered setup and obstructed the work of Sound Investment's lighting/decor staff. Sound Investment worked triple-time to transform the museum into our ceremony and reception areas and we are so grateful for their hard work.

The bridal room where I could store makeup, my outfit changes and other odds and ends had a lock for security reasons. I think that's completely understandable however the museum did not properly staff someone to be available to let me and my bridesmaids in and out of the room. We were often locked out and waiting several minutes to get in to change or store gifts.

My sister followed up with the events director at the museum after the wedding to let them know about her profound disappointment in her staff. The museum director promptly replied, profusely apologized and explained that the museum was in the middle of the events planning management switch. Although she was professional, our other vendors suffered greatly because of their...