Ideas for Where to Wed

Whether you live in Grand Rapids or you’re planning your dream Grand Rapids wedding from many miles away, choosing the right venue is one of the most important decisions you’ll make.

The perfect wedding venue sets the tone for your big day and can make all the difference in delivering a wonderful experience for you and your guests. Grand Rapids offers a wide variety of unique venues that can accommodate whatever kind of wedding you envision – and they’re all staffed by talented people dedicated to making your dream wedding come true.

To help you get started in your search, we asked our social media followers to recommend the best local spots to tie the knot, based on their own experience as brides, grooms and/or wedding guests. Here are the top vote-getters ranked in order of most mentions:

Studio D2D

Studio D2D is housed in a refurbished 1908-era furniture factory just south of downtown Grand Rapids. It offers two venues – City View and The Loft – each featuring exposed brick walls, immense wooden beams and large windows that fill the spaces with natural light. The facility can accommodate up to 300 guests for receptions or 225 guests for wedding ceremonies.

Wedding packages at D2D include the assistance of an event planning team and all the amenities you need for your celebration, from tables and an in-house DJ to floral design and a wedding planning webpage. You can customize your package with additional services, including tuxedo rentals, photography, videography, live music, late-night pizza and more. Locally owned catering teams provide food and bar service. 

D2D is located right off the US-131 expressway, so it’s easy to for everyone to get to and it offers ample free parking for all your guests.

New Vintage Place

Billing itself as an “urban wedding venue,” New Vintage Place boasts towering windows, original exposed brick and structural steel, and soaring open-architecture ceilings in a landmark 1923 building on the city’s historic west side. The facility features two expansive event spaces, two on-site dressing rooms, a stylish cocktail lounge, outdoor amphitheater and courtyard to easily accommodate up to 300 guests.

A dedicated venue planner will help you realize your vision for the celebration and a day-of coordinator helps ensure that everything goes according to plan. Catering and bar service is provided by New Vintage-vetted local vendors.

Guests can look for the building’s iconic 150-foot smokestack to find the venue. There is free onsite parking for up to 400 cars.

Leona Road

Originally built in 1916 and serving as an elementary school for nearly a century, Leona Road has been fully renovated with modern Scandinavian styling and large open spaces accommodating up to 300 wedding guests. A lovely outdoor terrace and reception hall flooded with natural light provide plenty of room for guests to comfortably mix and mingle, and they make great photo backdrops, too. 

Leona Road offers a list of preferred and recommended vendors so that you have a choice of the area’s best food and beverage caterers, photographers, videographers, floral designers, cakemakers and entertainers. 

This modern event venue is located on the city’s west side, just 10 minutes from downtown Grand Rapids. It offers free onsite parking.

The Harris Building

Built in 1892, The Harris Building is an all-inclusive wedding venue in downtown Grand Rapids. A domed ballroom with 18-foot ceiling, original hardwood floors, brick walls, Craftsman-style woodwork and stunning chandeliers exude timeless charm and elegance, enhanced by the convenience of modern lighting, AV and Wi-Fi capabilities.

The Harris Building offers a choice of wedding reception packages that include most everything you need to stage a successful event, from event planning services and a day-of coordinator to valet parking and a live DJ. On-site ceremony packages are also available.

The venue works with a list of preferred professional caterers to ease planning even further, and couples can opt for either a limited or open bar. There is space or up to 250 guests.

The Cheney Place

“Urban meets vintage meets modern” at The Cheney Place, a refurbished warehouse just a few minutes north of downtown Grand Rapids. Up to 300 guests can be comfortably accommodated in the flexible, open-format space with polished concrete and original hardwood floors, frosted windows and turn-of-the-century freight elevator.

The first floor has tons of room for dining and dancing, and the second floor is perfect for cocktail hour. The area’s largest collection of vintage furniture rentals makes designing a distinctive event that much easier. There’s in-house bar service and the venue will work with your vendors on catering, music and other elements.

Other amenities include a day-of coordinator and free onsite parking – with attendants – so you and your guests can focus on having a good time.

Other Popular Responses

Our followers showed a definite preference for historic venues but a few less traditional spaces showed up in the next tier of recommendations:

The Rutledge is another beautifully restored vintage building in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, offering all-inclusive wedding packages and seating for up to 250 guests.

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is one of the city’s most distinctive and flexible wedding venues, accommodating 5-1,200 guests in 11 indoor event spaces and across its breathtaking outdoor grounds. Outdoor ceremonies can be held in nearly a dozen locations.

The Ballroom at CityFlatsHotel is an opulent statement of Italian Renaissance style in downtown GR, with space for up to 150 guests and an onsite salon for hair and makeup needs.

The Lit GR is an 1887-era building in downtown GR that offers such elegant touches as a Tiffany stained-glass window, historic paintings and dazzling chandeliers. It has four event rooms and can accommodate up to 200 people.

Wildwood Family Farms is located in Alto, about 25 minutes southeast of GR. A fully restored 1890s barn is just one of the picture-perfect wedding settings on this eight-acre farm, which can accommodate up to 300 guests. 

Bell Tower Falls, about 15 minutes north of GR, hosts indoor and outdoor ceremonies and receptions in and around a historic barn and modern pavilion. Up to 120 guests can enjoy the rustic elegance and expansive views of the Rogue River Valley.

For more planning inspiration, check out our profiles of three couples who married in Grand Rapids: Justine and Gary’s Winter Wonderland Wedding, Lily and Kalyan’s Destination Wedding and Caitlin and Chelsea’s Outdoor Wedding.

We know you’ll find just the right venue for your wedding in Grand Rapids. Reach out to one or all of these venues to get started!