Festivities Event Center

Wonderful Vintage Event Venue. Space outside and in for a wedding. Plenty of parking. Great rooms for bridal party. Bar area. Clean and well maintained. In ElReno Oklahoma.

TL;DR….beautiful venue but would not recommend mainly due to lack of communication from the owner. My best friend rented this venue for her wedding ceremony in June and although the event space was beautiful, the owner (Rachel) and some of the staff did not meet expectations. I completely understand that the venue is a historical monument to the city (old post office from 1915), but certain rules made it impossible to efficiently utilize the space. One example is that no large, heavy, or bulky items can enter through the front doors. The front doors are original to the building, and I understand not wanting heavy or bulky items going through them, but we weren’t even allowed to bring delicate floral runners through the front doors because Rachel thought they would bang up her already banged up doors (see photos for the florals runners). We were instructed to use the rear doors which was not in our favor having to transport items at a further distance in the sweltering summer heat. Rachel also got onto us a few times for leaving her historic doors open while going in and out of them for fear of losing AC (more to come on that) even though we were being adamant about closing them. I inspected the doors and realized they were misaligned at the strike plates and hinges (probably because they’re 107 year old doors that weren’t properly maintained/sustained by the owner) which was causing the doors to constantly be open unless locked from the inside. The inside of the venue was absolutely gorgeous, but again, the rules were such a dampener for arguably one of the most important days of my best friend’s life. Brides & Grooms beware, both dressing rooms are upstairs next to each other without any sort of partition so there’s very little privacy if you’re worried about seeing each other before the ceremony. The owner also does not allow any alcohol upstairs in the dressing rooms unless specifically bought from her, which I felt was one way to nickel-and-dime her bride and groom on their wedding day. There is antique furniture in one of the bedrooms such as a bed, sofa, and dresser, that the owner will not allow you to touch, look at, or even breathe near unless you want to be fined. The AC, or lack thereof, made it extremely uncomfortable getting ready in the upstairs dressing rooms. Rachel told us numerous times to close the blinds upstairs, which we did, but it still didn’t help make the rooms any cooler and made it difficult having photos taken without natural lighting. Rachel’s staff (specifically bartenders) were late, underdressed, and didn’t provide the services that were agreed upon. The wedding guests were supposed to be served champagne while they were being seated for the ceremony and then served cocktails immediately after the ceremony for cocktail hour. Neither of these agreements were met. Rachel also requires the customer renting out the venue to clean up all trash prior to exiting the space. You read that right - that means all trash from your guests, restrooms, anywhere on the premise, etc must be thrown out by you. This was not previously communicated so I, along with the other bridesmaids, groomsmen, bride, groom, and even their parents were dragging stinky, leaky, trash bags out to dumpsters that were a block away from the venue in our formal attire. My best friend (the Bride) did all of the coordination with Rachel in booking the venue, and from what I heard and saw, it was extremely difficult working with her. There was lack of communication from the very beginning and there were so many other things that weren’t specified and that went wrong that she didn’t acknowledge. Would not recommend using this space for events larger than 40 people as the staff and management don’t seem to be equipped to handle anything larger.

The venue is absolutely beautiful. However, the owner is incredibly difficult to work with. Rachel (the owner) did not return phone calls or emails promptly and her bar service was terrible. We specifically discussed cocktail hour, yet none of my guests were served outside as previously discussed. Even worse, Rachel and I discussed having my guests served champagne during the ceremony; however, no bartender served the champagne. I believe one bartender was 45 minutes late. I rented a bar for outside and we arranged for the bartenders to serve our signature drinks during cocktail hour. Two weeks before the wedding Rachel was pushy about not having an outside bar because it would make more work for the bartenders. I ended up canceling my rental because I didn’t want to work with Rachel anymore than I had to. Also, the bartenders were not dressed professionally. I could continue to list things this venue did terribly; however, you get the gist. I hate writing a bad review, but I was incredibly embarrassed by the service my guests received. Although this venue is stunning, the management and communication is absolutely terrible.

There could not be a more picturesque location for a wedding in the area. However, when I booked my 200 person wedding I was told that the space could handle that size. When my planner reached out to set my layout we found out that was not the case and we would need to ditch our dance floor and all walking space to fit that many tables. In the end, I had guests at my wedding that were left standing almost the whole night. The venue host was difficult to work with even when I brought in my professional planner to communicate with her on my behalf. I told the owner I wanted outside seating and my planner had to fight for this even though I already requested it prior to the event and was okayed by Rachel herself. The venue requires you to use their bar service, which is fine. However, the ball was dramatically dropped on the venue's end. To start they opened late! My bar seemed to be short on what I paid for but that is hard to prove and I was unable to keep up with this as a bride. I do know After my hosted bar met its price limit, the prices of beers and wine seemed to change from guest to guest and I was informed people were being charged double from what I was told they would charge. I had free water for my guest and found out the bar was selling water as well. My planner had to speak with several of my guests who had RUDE experiences with the bar staff and help them enjoy the evening regardless. So much went on that my wonderful planner handled without me finding out till after. The upstairs bathroom for wedding party was not in working order at my wedding and we had to sneak around to hide from the groom to get to the down stairs restroom. The owner also went into the grooms room when we were having the ceremony! She told me carry in my small boxes of personal things through the back door not “realizing” I was the bride and ask my friends “when’s the bride getting here” after just speaking to me… She made jokes of divorce and was overall unkind passive aggressive about little things many times. When Rachel showed back up before I was about to walk down the isle in workout clothes to “watch” like she was a guest.? She is very controlling over the space to the point We were very uncomfortable. I have been a bridesmaid 5 times and have never seen another venue ran this way. All this being said I decided to keep my experience to myself but requested she not post my wedding photos for her advertisement… 8 months later and they are still reaching out to my vendors trying to get my gallery. This is my first bad review ever but this was my wedding day. Beautiful space, great location, but poor staff communication and experience. We would not get married here if we could do it over again. It was to stressful for me as a bride, and I am embarrassed for how my guest were treated.

This was a very lovely venue for our son's and his bride's wedding. Everything was set up so nicely for the ceremony outside and the reception inside. Recommended.