The Columbus Athenaeum

A great event space. The Olympian Ballroom is gorgeous and the theatre is a very unique space as well. The staff is extremely accommodating and easy to work with for events. The food is all done in house and is exceptional! Stop in to check it out and you might be able to try a meatball or a chocolate buckeyes as they usually had samples when I popped in. The location is great, in a desirable end of Downtown Columbus that puts you near hotels and some of the better restaurants in Downtown Columbus (Gay and Pearl St).

This is the perfect venue. So pretty. The people are so nice. The food is wonderful. Absolutely the best space in town to plan your event. Close to everything downtown for a true Columbus feel. So far the staff has been easy to work with to plan my wedding.

It is said that a classic or re-​purposed building carries a certain patina. Let’s just call the masonry and stone exterior old, weathered and in need of restoring. Originally built as a Masonic lodge, the original square and compass logo of the order appears in stone near the rooftop.
Inside you’ll see impressive original woodwork the likes never to be seen in modern times. However much of the building is in need of modern facility upgrading, like lighting (quite dim) and audio (non-​existant). We attended a wedding as guests in the Macedonian Room, a bit larger than a shoebox. Lighting over the room is incandescent single fixture chandelier with a dimmer switch and there was no lectern or podium provided. If a person will be doing a reading, expect to hold a wireless microphone in one hand and juggle the script with the other. Hopefully you’ll be able to see the script. The Macedonian room acoustics are essentially an echo chamber.
We were pleased with the Olympian Ballroom which held the wedding reception. Plenty of room, comfortable banquet table seating and a huge dance floor. The acoustics were much better here and the deejay had no issues.
We were here as invited guests. Brides should be aware that the facility has pluses and minuses, so do your due diligence and determine your needs before you book your event here.

I was reading all of these recent reviews about The Athenaeum and thought «there’s no way they could be talking about the same place I went to a wedding at». I wasn’t a bride but I’ve been a guest at two weddings and both were AMAZING! I’ve been in the hospitality industry for years and have a very high standard and am more critical on food, service, etc. than the average guest.
First, the venue is absolutely stunning. If you’re looking for a cookie cutter hotel ballroom or stale banquet hall than this is NOT YOUR PLACE! There is no other venue in Columbus like this. The architecture is stunning and so unique. A lot of reviews on here were complaining about the parking, which I honestly just don’t understand. We were able to park in a lot that was a block away from The Athenaeum with no problem. Sure it’s a little bit of a walk but if you take into consideration that you’re downtown than it’s really not that bad.
The food at both weddings was so delicious! The meatball bar as an hors d’oeurves was so yummy! They’re like the meatballs you get at Marcella’s and I seriously could have eaten a plate of those for dinner. At the first wedding we went to I had the pork which was carved by a chef who was super friendly and kept the lines really moving. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been in hospitality and when my friend told me she was having a buffet I cringed a little because I was worried about waiting in line. The second wedding I went to we had the prime rib, again carved by a chef. The prime rib was comparable to what you might get at any decent steak house and was perfectly cooked (not over cooked like so many chefs do). I was most surprised by the food because when you think «wedding food» you think gross rubbery chicken, which this definitely was NOT.
The servers were very friendly and efficient. During the dinner someone came over to our table to check on everything (I’m assuming she was a manager) and I commented on how impressed I was with their service and food. Both weddings I went to had full bars and I really can’t remember there being a line at either.
I wasn’t a bride, and I can’t speak for them throughout the planning process but the end result was absolutely amazing! We had such a good time and I’m hoping we have more friends choose them as a venue so I can eat more meatballs :) !!

Pros: Our wedding was gorgeous, beautiful and elegant. Our wedding coordinator was wonderful and I loved working with her! She was prompt in responses and always tried to be available when I came to town as I was an out of town bride. The food tasting was delicious and very well done. We had a cookie table, which is not the most convenient addition to a reception. The coordinator worked really hard to give us what we were looking for, and the cookie table was the highlight of the evening! The food was delicious, and we heard wonderful comments from all of our guests about how beautiful our reception was.
Cons: We were one of the «unlucky» ones who booked The Athenaeum before they acquired a liquor license. When we met with them initially they raved about how cost effective it was to be able to get alcohol outside the venue. We booked with them with this in mind with our budget. A few months down the road we hear they had acquired a liquor license and we were now legally bound to order through them. We had already found another vendor for our alcohol, but still had to use them. It seems strange they had no idea they were getting a liquor license when we signed the contract. When we met with our coordinator we found out that management was not going to provide any additional «accommodations» for the inconvenience of the change. We then learned that we would not be able to keep OR sell back any unopened liquor we hadn’t drank but had already paid for. This seems very unethical to keep liquor WE PAID FOR and sell it at a higher cost to other wedding parties at another date. We also were not able to take home any of the DELCIOUS food left over from our wedding. I know many couples who were able to do this after their reception with other venues. Again, another way The Columbus Athenaeum failed on customer service. My father had spoken to management at one point during the alcohol issue and the man was defensive from the beginning of the conversation and wouldn’t listen to his comments. We weren’t looking for free alcohol, just additional services for the inconvenience of changing the policy after we signed a contract.
Overall, the Athenaeum is a beautiful venue, serves amazing food and we had an amazing time. Their policies are fairly extreme, and management is a pain, but their staff are wonderful and accommodating as much as they can be. Brides, just know the policies WELL before you sign any contracts!

Beware! In the end all they care about is the money. Be sure to read over your contract. Because following the wedding they will take your deposit without you even knowing amd pretend like they never knew you. This place is a scam! So sad …

Unlike the other posts I am not a bride. I had the privilege of attending a wedding at the Columbus Athenaeum this past weekend. I was looking forward to the wedding because the pictures on the venue website looked spectacular.
Move to the day of the wedding. Due to a huge traffic jam getting into Columbus my boyfriend and I were running late. My first reaction to the inside? Creepy. We entered from the 4^th St entrance and I thought we were entering a courthouse. (It probably also didn’t help that everyone was already in the theater). We followed signs and headed up to the large theater. Luckily we ran into some staff members that were great and told us how to sneak into the ceremony since we were 20 minutes late. HOWEVER… ladies be warned: if you arrive late to a wedding at the Columbus Athenaeum your footsteps will be heard and echoed. When we entered the theater I had to slip my adorable heels off to deafened our entrance.
While I was happy with the food choices, I was disappointed by the venue’s atmosphere and overall appearance. Once the music started and the lights were dimmed I was immediately transported back to my high school homecoming.

Nickle and Dimed…
i agree with the previous 2 posters that the Athenaeum takes great pains to charge you for whatever they can, and when they can’t they find some late fee or another to throw in. But you can’t fault a business for acting like well, a business.
My biggest complaint is how I was treated when I had a legitimate gripe. We contracted to have butlered drinks during the cocktail hour. They flat out just didn’t do it. When I brought this to the Athenaeum’s attention, they offered a meger 45 dollar refund since that’s what the butler service is ‘à la carte’ The way I see it, what I contracted for was not 45 dollars worth of butler service, but rather the immense value of my guests not having to wait in line for a long time for their first drink. Especially since we had dropped thousands of dollars on this place. This is not grandma’s backyard, I should get exactly everything I paid for when making that kind of investment.
After I contacted them by email, I received a very long voicemail from a male employee that I had not previously worked with who basically told me that I was incorrect to be upset.
Overall, however I was happy with the service during the actual wedding, and with the planning beforehand. The Athenaeum is certainly ‘brisk’ with their clients, don’t expect warm customer service. But it is a beautiful location, so maybe that can be overlooked.

I was a special sort of bride when working with the Athenaeum… like most of us I and my now husband have champagne taste on a beer budget. I also have had personal experience with event planning and working many high end parties for NYC elite. I knew what I wanted: a vintage inspired wedding in the large theatre, drooping romantic flowers, and stellar food. The Athenaeum and specifically Anne Clark, Chef, and team delivered their part.
As I had mentioned before I was a special sort of bride, and wanted everything a particular way. I went back and fourth with Anne on a lot of things, from the linens, to the napkin fold, to which chairs would be in the cocktail space… My husband and I were very particular about the cheese display and what food we wanted served then. A few months before our wedding we «dropped in» on a set up for another wedding in the space we were using. We noticed the cheese display, in our opinion it was very casual, and propped with silk flowers and rope light. This was not the look we were going for. We discussed various options with Anne, I sent her images of how I wanted the display to look and we finally settled on ordering special artisan cheese from Whole foods to be displayed with cascading fruit, nuts, broken open pomegranates, figs, and herbs. The final display was beautiful and exactly what I wanted. I can not comment on the actual food off of the buffet unfortunately because I really didn’t eat… but people commented that it was good. The other concern that the Athenaeum addressed was the light focus on the proscenium of the theatre. My husband is a lighting specialist for Broadway and every time we went in to the theatre the lighting was out of focus or slipping position and not hitting its target. This would be embarrassing to show our professional theatre friends. The Athenaeum did address this and hired a few people to adjust the lighting the day before our event.
Based off of the responsiveness of Anne I really wanted to give the Athenaeum an A… but there were a few things built into their policy that I did not like.
The few things that made me give the Athenaeum a B was the crazy food tasting policy. Once you’ve booked, you and your fiancé are allowed to come to the venue and pick up one «to go» bag of the food that is being served that night for parties that evening. This «to go» bag is filled with samples of the food — and is a «chef’s choice» assortment the (copying from the information and policies page) «purpose of the tasting is not to sample each specific menu item, but rather, to sample the quality of food in order to gauge TCA’s techniques in flavoring, preparation, and style.» I feel that this policy is absolutely wrong especially for the money that we are paying, and I hope it changes in the future. While at the tasting there were things that I did not like to things that were pretty good, I found nothing stellar because, well, the food was reheated… Again, the Athenaeum worked with us to get a good menu.
The other thing that I did not appreciate was the $ 200-​$ 300 charge for them to set up a table so my family could bring in cookies… What I thought was strange was that if I had a DJ I got this table for free, but since I had a band (and paid an extra fee for the band) the table was taken away. (shrug)
Over all my experience was good with the Athenaeum, the setting is beautiful and the building is stunning. We had a perfect wedding and reception.

Be sure to have written into your contract with anyone not on the «preferred vendor» list the Athenaeum provides that the vendor only has 30 mins to load up and get out after the ceremony. Even though they give 2 hours for the load in, we lost our non-​preferred vendor deposit of $ 300 b/​c one of our vendors was 10 mins late getting out. After such great service from the Athenaeum it just felt like a cheap way for them to make a buck at the end of it all, when my wife and I weren’t anywhere around to prevent it and it was our $$. In retrospect 30 mins is crazy to get everything out that you bring in and we should have had it in our outside vendors contract.