I have hosted two events at the Gala Center, including my 25th wedding Anniversary and my son's wedding reception. Overall, the venue is a nice, reasonably priced option for hosting events. read more

Overall decent event space. Good amount of parking ... everything was clean . Music carried well. Not modern but decent enough . Lots of space bathrooms they even have a shower on one of them lol so if u gotta decorate and get dressed there have at it ..... read more

See all

I have been an Event Designer for thirty plus years, and when I relocated to Baltimore, the Gala Center had just opened. I designed a couple of events there and was for the most part pleased with the management and staff. During the years, I began to hear more and more horror stories about the Gala Center from both Event Planners and clients.  I recently had the displeasure of experiencing firsthand exactly what was being said about this Rathole. Speaking of rodents, during my class, a mouse bolding came out to greet us during an afternoon class.   The bathrooms are deplorable and never had any method (paper towels or hand dryer) to dry my hands. Toilet tissue was a hit or miss. The floors were filthy, and the toilets should apply for Social Security. The Gala Center is a disgrace. The primary clientele supporting this venue are people of color. Please do not continue to support businesses like the Gala Center who could care less about the quality or respect of your momentous occasion. Baltimore has a host of nice venues to select from, use resources like the internet or The Knot. In closing, I would like to interject that it is truly unusual for me to write such harsh review about a business, but to be honest, I am being kind. What I really needed to write is, The Gala Center is a blah, blah, Shi^^^Fu((((dirt)))).  You Deserve Better! read more

So, the Gala Center. I'm not going to say my experience was bad. I'm super big on curbside appearance and this venue did not have it. It looked old, run down and in need of a facelift. Even putting up a new marquee sign, something bright, inviting and not drab might help it a little. Upon entry, I liked that there was a vestibule prior to going into the main room which was set up beautifully for the event I attended. I think that if there are more than one event going onat the Gala center, depending on size, parking may be challenging. Would I recommend having an event here, yes I guess. Would I? Probably not because I'm so particular about everything...but I'm an event planner! read more

I've been to several events here and most were very nice. They really have a great setup and a convenient location. T

The Gala Center is an event venue that can host multiple parties in various rooms. There is a shared bathroom between two of the event rooms through a hallway. The event I attended was the smaller of the two. Our room held 60-75 people. There was a sufficient amount of tables for guests, decorations, food and drink stations, and extra chairs. I was allowed set up 1.5 hours before the event. I was nervous about this, but it ended up being enough time. There was a stage with columns in my room. This was perfect for our decorations and would have been a nice area for pictures. The DJ was able to use the loft upstairs for his set up. Acoustics in the room were fine. There was also a coat check area for attendees. The coat check was an open walk in area with two windows and unfortunately you could see all of the rubbish, trash cans, and coats in that area where attendees were walking in. Sore sight. The welcome mat....could definitely stand to be vacuumed BEFORE each set of parties. It was filthy, even if it was black. There is parking at the facility. There is an area in the front of the building to park, in the back, and on the side. Note: the side parking is not paved. If you're wearing heels...beware. Theere are stairs that will lead you to the event building from the parking lot. I have to confess I called several times before the event was scheduled. I am not sure if the owner was on vacation and there was a reception substitute.....but it was frustrating to get questions answered by the person who answered the phone. Not only were they rude and not responsive when I asked their name but they also could not answer any details about the venue and couldn't speak English very well, they were slurring and it was hard to understand. Either way...answered professional location may want to hire someone who is cognizant of how to address paying customers. I am sure a wedding is reasonable (price wise) here but this seems more like a private party event location.....bring everything from linens to food, a place to hold and event. I would recommend. read more

See all

This establishment does not cater to the customer. Our wedding party reserved the space for the rehearsal months in advance and when we arrived they scheduled 3 customers to rehearse at the same time in the same space. We had to wait over 2 hrs. to rehearse in the space. Also, thhe pplplace is filthy. On the day of the wedding there wasstill remnants of a previous weddings glitter, wrappers, and tags all over the room where the wedding party gets dressed. I will never patronize this place and I would suggest that no other bride go through what my sister went through on her wedding day. read more

My family has had both of my sisters 30th Birthday parties and my grandmothers 70th Bday party here. It needs to be updated as far as an outdated look, but overall it wasn't that expensive for the space. Just make sure that you tell them to restock the toilet paper before a party starts. I give it 4 stars! read more

Gala Center - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Windsor Mill, Maryland

Unfortunately my experience with the Gala Center was nothing short of a nightmare. The bride and groom selected this location because the layout was appealing to them...what wasn't appealing was the attitude and disposition of the owner Dennis. Upon my first encounter with him via telephone he was short with me and a bit off putting but everyone's not going to get the "Personality of the year" award so I overlooked my first impression. Eventually I met him in person...with the Mother of the bride. Once again, he was short with us, off-putting and not the least bit accomodating. He even went as far as to say a racist comment as he recalled unpleasant business dealings in the past saying "I know how you all operate" referring to African Americans. Even though we paid for the main room off the main entrance as well as the room with the stairs leading up to the bridal suite from 10 am to 10 pm...we were informed that there would be another group occupying one of the rooms on our dime from 10 am to 2 pm. This was completely unacceptable! I then had to call the bride and groom and get them involved about this complete breach of contract as well as take time out of my day to go to the Gala Center to confront this unprofessional situation with my copy of the contract. After we confronted the owner Dennis about his poor business practices, he then vowed to make the necessary adjustments to ensure that everything would go smoothly for the wedding which was the very next day. If only that were true but it was not. This was a classic case of "over promised/under delivered". Early on during the planning process we(The Wedding Coordinator, the Bride & the Mother of the bride) requested specific items...rather straight forward items like chairs, cocktail tables, 6 foot rectangle tables etc. for which we were nickled and dimed to no end and paid for in full ahead of time by the way...only to arrive on the day of the wedding to be met with chairs that were completely filthy. Thank goodness for chair covers. Cocktail tables that wobbled and tilted and an inadequate amount of 6 foot tables for the design that we(Dennis, myself and his staff) discussed beforehand. So the bottom line is we paid for items that were dirty and wobbly and inadequate and that's only the beginning. I had given hand written instructions as to what was expected by me(The Wedding Coordinator) pertaining to how the space was to be set up upon my arrival. Sadly I arrived to a room full of round tables that were not supposed to be there. Because of this and so much more it hurt our design timeline and created chaos, so much so that our ultimate design suffered. Items were broken, boxes were left out in the open and to add insult to injury the Gala Center staff was then instructed by the owner Dennis not to assist me with anything. I was then forced to work around these tables, to set up my own chairs...totally unassisted by his staff per his orders. When I asked to speak to him I was told by his staff that he left and would not be back that evening. "How convenient for him", I thought, "to shrink away like a coward leaving his staff there to be targeted because of our displeasure due to his lack of professionalism, care &/or concern." Every corner I turned I was hit with a different obstacle. There were no cleaning products, no paper towels, no ice in the kitchen, no staff to help us. One of the two rooms had no air conditioning and our guests were melting. It was complete and utter sabotage. The room that is used to store all of the tables and chairs housed at the Gala Center was locked...which means we couldn't get anything needed out of that room and we couldn't put anything away in that room either. Items that were never to be seen by our guests were seen because we had no place to put things away. This majorly affected our events timing. I did my best to keep all of these awful things away from the bride and groom so that they could enjoy themselves. I wish that Dennis's love of hospitality and customer service was as great as his love of money. His greed, lack of respect and smug disposition is awful. Although he instructed his staff not to help us...we still assisted them at the end of the night with the clean up because that is how WE operate...dignified and classy regardless as to how others choose to conduct themselves. We feel 100% confident in saying that we will never use the Gala Center ever again. Any and all success that we had that evening speaks to our hard work and dedication to excellence. It speaks to our "never say die", "by any means necessary" disposition. Our caterer, our volunteers and our friends and family are hands down the reasons why we didn't crash and burn. No thanks to Dennis at all. All he cares to do is make money off of African Americans &/or minorities that he obviously has zero respect for made apparent by his conduct. Shame on him. read more

The Gala Center is affordable, clean, and a beautiful space. It is also very affordable...however you get what you pay for! Long story short, the service was absolutely horrible! Services promised in the contract were not rendered. We ended up having to rent cocktail tables from and outside vendor, and the owner attempted to charge extra for using additional chairs because they did not have enough "regular" chairs to accommodate the number of my guests. The owner, Dennis, is unprofessional, disorganized, and a complete shyster! He is fast-talking, and once he has your money (non-refundable deposit) he acts as if he could care less about your event. He lost proof of payment for my rental. I had to take a trip to the venue three days before my event (wedding day- and I'm the bride) to show him receipts indicating that I had paid him in full. He had an HVAC repair person attempting to repair the A/C on the same day as my event which caused my ceremony to be delayed by an hour to hour and-a-half. The room was blazing hot, while the other two rooms were freezing cold. I was fortunate to still have a beautiful wedding and reception without too much upset. However, I would never book this venue for another event. Its sad because I was considering booking them for my upcoming birthday party. But NEVER again would I patronize Gala Center. They almost ruined my wedding day. Do yourself a favor and take your hard-earned money elsewhere! DO NOT USE THIS EVENT HALL!!! You deserve much better service! read more

I went to a wedding this past week and I was helping to set up and the place would not work with us. First they said we couldn't step up until an hour before the wedding, next it was 2 hours then back to 1. Then the bride had ask for the gold chairs at the reception but they said that they couldn't do that even though she paid extra. When I was in the back I saw the very chairs, it wasn't like they were wet with paint. The next day when we went back to pick stuff up they were using the chairs for another event. Also they left food there saying they would be back in the morning for it, which they said was ok, and it was all gone. I would not recommend having your wedding here. read more

I've done several events for many years at the Gala Center and established a great relationship with the staff, except for one particular individual who does no value to the business because of the lack of professionalism. Nate/Nathiel/Nathan needs to be fired! I've very respectful to my elders but this particular event, I've had it! To the point I've argued with this man 4 times in one night. I coordinated a wedding and there was a scheduled rehearsal for an hour. We went 10 minutes over, and he comes in turning off the lights! I couldn't believe it! I had to threaten a lawsuit for him to turn on a light for my clients bridal party to walk out of the main ballroom in case someone hurt themselves walking in the dark. Come the day of the actual wedding, my client paid for the entire center. Because of the weekly rain storm she wanted to go with a plan B and have the ceremony in doors. Needless to say the sun was shining beautifully that day so she decided to go forth with having her ceremony outdoors. Nate/ Nathan gave me an extremely hard time to the point I have to call Dennis. Who tried to over talk me without hearing the me (the consumer) out. So I have to gather him together and come to common ground with him for him to hear me out. (I negotiate for a living). Dennis finally understood me and we were ok to setup the garden for the ceremony. The grumpy old man left me and Kendal to do majority of the setup because he "had to take another break". He sleeps on the job and is very lazy. He catches an attitude when asked to do a job he's paid to do. Later towards the end of the night as the wedding is winding down at 830, he starts stacking chairs while 130 of my guest is still in the room, rather than waiting until at least half leave out. The event was scheduled to end at 9:00. So I had to let him know that was very unprofessional and he says to me call my boss. My reply to him was I am your boss during this time and event until then you work for me. Don't go calling shots on your watch after we paid a great penny. I WILL NEVER HAVE ANOTHER EVENT THERE EVER AGAIN nor wILL I EVER REFER IT. Please do your deepest research on other venues to have the quality event you deserve. It's a great hall, but the bridal suite smelled like piss and the end ball room behind the main ballroom has an odor of a public porter potty. To Dennis, you should never treat your day ones with great inconsideration. I see that AFTER THE GET ALL THE MONEY, YOU LACK PROFESSIONALISM AND COURTESY! Thank you for reading! read more