I've only been a guest here, but after attending my second event in this space, here's deets:…read more I attended a wedding + reception, and the Visit Saint Paul Annual Tourism Celebration event here! The signage is a bit confusing, and I could see others struggling to find it too - you enter at the front of the building and walk down a very long hallway to get to it. The space is conducive to receptions and events: the first space has a bar and open area, and the second area is totally blank so can be transformed into a wedding, seating for a speaker, or a tabling event. At both, the bar and catering were great! One thing that bothered me at the recent event I went to: there's a beautiful glass garage door that's the focal point and backdrop of the space: it's where speakers would stand, or the couple would stand. At the recent event, there was a car parked right there, and it's a concrete slab with a gate. I know some of that is out of their control, but might be worth telling folks not to park there so you're not looking out at someone's Toyota Corolla.

Great wedding venue (from a guests perspective!) with a cocktail / holding space and Ceremony space…read morethat turns into dinner! Bar was nice, and the outdoor "patio" is appreciated! Was well temperature controlled and lots of natural lighting! And a brewery attached, score!

Attended the valentines night craft fair here for a date night and it was such a lovely experience…read more Coat check in the front, speciality cocktails available. On the first floor there were various vendors selling wood decor, jewelry, body and skin care, candles and even pastries. On the second floor even more vendors along with a tarot reader. The space wasn't too packed so we weren't bumping into other people. Elevators and stairs easily marked and accessible. The only downside is this building is located downtown there was a parking lot next to the building but it was small and filled up. Street parking is available to pay but it's free after 6pm but it fill up quickly so you may have to walk about a block like we did.

This was a great venue. My friend used it for her fashion show. I didn't like that they don't have…read morea attached or a included parking lot. It's always hard to find parking over in this area. Everything around this area is paid parking. However, this place was perfect for my friends fashion show fundraiser.

My best best friend chose this place as her wedding venue. Since I wasn't familiar with Vandnais…read moreheights, I didn't really know what to expect. It turned out to be a really beautiful building with multiple rooms, tons of windows and a beautiful outdoor area for wedding photos. It was definitely spacious enough for a large wedding party with plenty of room to spare! They also had adequate seating for all the reception guests that showed up after the vows with an enormous dance floor. The only thing I really disliked was the total disregard from management. They had promised my friend that they would put up window shades to block out the sun so the ceremony would be more intimate (she put down a $500 deposit) As soon as we noticed the shades were not assembled, we contacted them. They completely denied ever receiving any deposit and dismissed us in a very rude fashion. They didn't even attempt or offer to fix the issue. I found that to be super tasteless and unprofessional. Not sure I would recommend this place after reading previous reviews.

Great location for large events. Have used it many time for business and it always has weddings…read moreplanned. Highly professional location with a great staff that helps and is very understanding.

We hosted our cocktail style Wedding Reception here in June and felt it was woefully mismanaged…read morefrom start to finish. We booked all three rooms back in Fall of '23 and paid our deposit and were excited to get planning come May this year. We got to a month before the event and hadn't heard anything from the Event Coordinator regarding current menu, bar, timing, anything. Three weeks prior to the event we reached out and heard nothing for a week. Two weeks out we followed up and found out the Event Coordinator had changed from the one we booked with and the new one was out for an indeterminate period of time with a family emergency. We worked as best we could with the Event Captain but ended up with incorrect menus and pricing and were finally told the Event Coordinator would be back the Monday of our event week and it would be handled then. We got finalized menus and pricing 36 hours before our event. This was extremely stressful, however, we empathized with the Event Coordinator and were assured the event itself would be great. On the day, we arrived and the staff setting up was unsure how many chairs we wanted. They didn't know which equipment we had paid for to use that needed to be set up. They didn't know what the event was for. They were all very nice and let us know they had extremely limited information about our event which was very concerning for us. The Event Coordinator was present for about 5 mins to ask us about a backup wine if ours ran out and that was it (it did run out because there was only one bottle). There was no Event Captain, and the Coordinator was not on hand and (according to staff) unreachable during the event. We had agreed upon several things including a finite amount to pay for "open bar" and then switching to card after that point and we found out only AFTER we met our minimum that they were never told/weren't prepared to take cards. At that point, our options were no drinks (N/A or otherwise) for the last 3 hours or so of our event or we could just keep paying. So we ended up paying much more than was quoted/agreed upon due to lack of communication/oversight. We were told that guests could visit the attached Blue Stem bar, but it closed two hours before our event ended. We also had guests with dietary preferences/restrictions and had ordered vegan options and gluten free cake. We had asked if these could be explicitly labeled to avoid confusion and were told "yes" and on the day it did not happen so many of our guests were unaware there was anything they could eat at our reception. We were also told we could take our leftovers home and we only got cake when there was a lot of food left when they took it away. The sternos were out for some period of time and we couldn't find someone to help with that. The bar was left unattended. The bartenders were serving and refilling alcohol table to table (which we did not want or ask for), and did not pass appetizers as agreed upon. We reached out to the owner, twice, following our event to discuss our concerns to no avail. We LOVE French Meadow and are just heartbroken to have had this experience with them. Posting this (very lengthy) review in hopes no one else goes through this expensive disappointment.

We were married and hosted a reception for twenty two guests in the Nord Room/French Meadow Bakery…read more& Cafe. It was so fabulous and we cannot say enough positive things about our experience! All of French Meadow's staff were so lovely to work with. Briana and the entire catering group were so helpful from Day 1. As most wedding couples do, we had a lot of questions about logistics and planning. They answered every one of our questions in a timely manner and were thorough in coordinating all of the details of our special day. The day of our wedding, everyone there was immensely helpful and went out of their way to make us feel comfortable. We truly owe them the world for making our wedding day so special! The room is perfect. We added floral centerpieces, but the room itself was setup exactly how we wanted, the chairs outside were moved once for our ceremony and then again for our first dance. The lighting both inside and out was more than we could have imagined. We were able to play our own music (a friend just had to manage the playlist), which was super easy! The FOOD, OH MY GOSH THE FOOD! So superb, we got so many compliments from our friends and family about how wonderful the food was. We got to choose 4 food options for our guests and only heard wonderful things about each entree. The cake was also super wonderful and delicious. We would recommend the Nord Room to anyone looking for an intimate wedding location. It was such an easy day (seriously, nothing went wrong!) and we couldn't have asked for a better staff or location. We had a beautiful day and we owe much of that to the wonderful folks at French Meadow!

Attended the Northwest Coin Club Money Show 2025. The show featured coin dealers from across the…read morecountry showcasing and exchanging coins and paper currency. No photographs allowed so therefore, I don't have any photos so you will have to take my word that the show was well done and it was mind boggling! What an experience! The Center was an excellent venue for the show and provided lots of space to move, and people going in and out. Plenty and plenty of parking. Fantastic venue for a fantastic show!

This is an interesting farm to event center transformation. I attended a conference here and was…read morevery impressed with the amenities. The spaces offer many options from large gatherings, medium sessions and small break-out spaces. The main building is huge and was very comfortable despite the large number of attendees. Had the weather behaved I would have snapped some photos; fortunately both Yelp and the venue website has a lot of great shots for you to view.

This is a great space for events. I really love and appreciate that there's an elevator, and not a…read moreslow one at that. The open space brings in a lot of sunlight and gives the space a nice glow. The wooden floors are nicely polished and not creaky. I believe that a person would be quite happy to have a Chowgirls catered event here. The food and the location would be top-notch.

OH MY GOSH. My husband and I just got married at the Solar Arts Building. The space itself is…read moreincredibly beautiful and perfect for a wedding, but what put the icing on the cake was the customer service. We worked with two women, Eleni and Lauren. They were exceptional during the planning process. Always answering emails right away and helping us figure out anything and everything. I had only been involved in one wedding beforehand and was totally new to all things planning and they were both always ready to answer questions. One example is when we found our there was an event in the space when we were supposed to have our rehearsal. My mom and I had a quick freak out but their team was able to get us in the 2nd floor to practice and even sneak us upstairs before the event to do a quick run through. When the day came, I had absolutely nothing to worry about. Everything was PERFECT. Sometime during the reception, another woman on the team, Nathanya, took over and she came up to introduce herself and complimented me on the wedding. It made me feel really taken care of. My mom and I developed friendships with our planners and it was a much more personal experience than I expected which made it all the more wonderful. The space is not only beautiful, but the art studios on the 2nd floor make a perfect spot for the cocktail hour. We loved this because no one had to leave the venue at any time! Chowgirls is also the most amazing caterer. I got endless compliments on the food and desserts. I was nervous about having a buffet, but everything came out piping hot, and the staff just dismissed the tables one by one and it went off without a hitch! I would recommend this venue to anyone. It's beautiful and the staff truly cares about making the day special!

DBW gave me the wedding reception of my dreams! Firstly, thank you to Julie and Scott for being so…read moreaccommodating during COVID times. We had to reschedule our wedding from July 2020 to May 2021 because of the pandemic and also my dad getting diagnosed and eventually passing from Stage 4 lung cancer. Obviously I was not in a mood to celebrate and Julie allowed me to postpone our reception (we always planned on getting married at a church) to May vs the fall of 2020 and I'm so grateful that I was allowed that time to get some closure because I had to drastically adjust our reception (it still breaks my heart that I never got my father/daughter dance) and it just allowed me to be in a better place mentally to actual be able to enjoy my day. If you want a beautiful venue and to do very little work to make it even more beautiful, pick DBW. Pay for the upgraded package for their decor rental and you''ll spend an hour picking out pinterest worthy items that have been proven to look good with their set up, and they even do all the work on the big day to stage the items for you. I literally just had to show up and give Julie the seating chart. That was the extent of my decorating. That's it. And it was GORGEOUS. We got so many compliments on the venue! Also, to double up on how little effort I had to really put in planning this reception, DBW's welcome package has a list of all their "preferred" vendors (which is mostly just vendors that have been there before and had a positive experience) and they were all high quality professionals. I went with everyone off their list except for flowers/hair/makeup and have no complaints! We definitely lucked out and had a beautiful day weather wise, which is great because DBW is a big property with a lot of space for guests to mingle outside. Part of the decor package is yard games, so we had cornhole, hammerschlagen, yard golf, various tables/chairs to sit and gather at, a smores bar/fire pit and if you ask nicely and Scott is in town, they'll even do a tractor ride (that you can take booze on!). They also have various horses and dogs (in pens) that are very friendly that guests can interact with. And they are very well behaved. My reception was very casual and whenever the guests that were interested in the dogs came up for pets, there was no jumping or anything. Thankfully we didn't have a very hot day, but we still had the AC on because I was busy busting a move on the dance floor. There's two AC units, but there's one that's directly on the dance floor and you better believe I incorporated dancing in front of it as a move because it was industrial strength and worked so well. The barn doors had to be closed to both keep the noise from the DJ as well as the cool air in but honestly, it was not a factor at all. Honestly, if you work with contracts regularly, DBW isn't really any different. Make sure you read over it and know about the early end time (1030pm roughly, but they want everyone out by 1100pm), the special event insurance, the special insurance if you don't go with their suggested DJ (we went with their recommendation, ZeroGravity/Jeff and he was great, also already has the insurance), the closing of the barn doors while music is on, what alcohol is included in the buyback plan (also just a heads up if you do open bar and you hit your limit that you prepaid for, you can keep a card open and they'll check in with you every $500 to see if you still want to keep it open. Wasn't an issue for us but definitely is considerate since booze adds up fast and some people don't realize once they've been drinking), and things like that. The contract makes it seem like they are sticklers but honestly Julie and Scott were a blast. They even worked super hard to make sure that I had enough space for a Big Buck Hunter game for my reception as well as any other things I had questions or suggestions on. Seriously, they were so easy to work with, cannot recommend DBW enough! Everyone get married here!

Owner was out of control and very rude. Made not only the bride stressed on her wedding day but all…read morethe guests felt the glare and stress of the owner. Owner makes all the wedding party after ceremony remove items from the suits during wedding. VERY INCONVENIENT. She also stood by and timed us with a watch as we got all our items out of the suits. Like we were criminals. Owner did not allow music to play in reception due to noises being to loud for neighbors. Had to close barn doors later to get music on. What's the point of having a reception with no music??? Owner watched us like hawks and gave our DJ a very hard time. Owner was so rude and yelled at many of the ppl in the wedding including my husband. I will NEVER suggest this place!! HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. It's a pretty venue but not worth the crap she makes everyone deal with. This bride also was employed by her and she still treated her this way! JUST SHOWS CHARACTER. DJ also mentioned he would never suggest this place to any one. Worst experience he has had ever as a DJ. DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY, over priced and she's very deceitful.

My husband and I had our wedding reception here back in 1994. It was amazing then and looks like it…read morecontinues to be! Highly recommend. Its a good luck venue as we are still happily married 31 years later with 2 adult children and 6 grandchildren!

We recently had our wedding here and could not have been happier! The Event Coordinator here, Pam…read moreBerry, is truly the best around! I have not met someone who is more understanding, professional, diligent, and calming. We had a large wedding of over 300 people and they all fit wonderfully. We were able to utilize the gorgeous outdoor garden for our wedding ceremony as well as our social hour. I was worried when I looked at the outdoor space, that not all 300+ guests would fit, or that it would be crammed and uncomfortable. However, it exceeded our expectations! The flowers were beautiful, the white gazebo was so pretty against the dark green grass, and bright flowers. The outdoor area, was really beautiful and fit our summer garden themed wedding. We were able to have an outdoor bar in the garden for guests to use and mingle as they walked around and enjoyed the summer evening. With 300+ people, space was very important for us. We needed an space that would fit that many people, but also allow enough room for guests to move around. The last thing we wanted was for them to be crammed in and tripping over chairs to get a drink. The ballroom accommodated them beautifully. The dance floor is HUGEE!!! Something like 2,000 sq feet! But believe me, our guests used it! The dance floor was always filled with people young and old. It was nice to have enough room for everyone to dance around. No one stepping on others feet. Another important aspect to us, was the bars! Of course! We really did not want people to be waiting in long lines to get a beverage. Withrow has two bars, and both were fully staffed, and were able to serve our guests quickly and efficiently. Another great thing about Withrow is that it fits with almost every theme. We chose a summer-garden theme, with a flare. We did Blinged out vases, with LED lights inside, and hydrangeas. We had rose petal and diamond scatter, with black table clothes and white chair covers! It looked fabulous! I also saw pictures of other weddings with many different themes. One with a simple fall centerpiece, another glammed out. The Ballroom can adapt to any theme and blends in perfect to any decor. Overall, Withrow was the perfect venue for us, nothing too fancy or upitty, just a genuinely UNIQUE and historical venue. The best part is that ALL of our guests had a great time, and felt at home. I still don't think I have seen a wedding with more people on the dance floor with smiles on their faces. Any time multiple guests describe your wedding as "Magical" you know you did something right! Thanks Pam for all your help!