Wedding Planners
Sarah Smith
Smith & Co. Events — Shaker Heights
“The person I want in the room when a timeline starts falling apart.”
Cleveland • Northeast Ohio • Independently Edited
The Cleveland
Wedding Guide
The places. The people. What you actually need to know.
Independent Cleveland wedding advice shaped by 15 years spent behind the scenes of Northeast Ohio weddings.
Venues
The Venue Edit
Cleveland wedding venues reviewed from the perspective of someone who has actually worked the weddings.
Chagrin Falls — Modern Garden
Sapphire Creek Winery & Gardens
A rare Cleveland venue where the food, the light and the staff all hold up on the same night.
Highly Recommended
Cleveland — Industrial
The Madison
The best-run industrial room in the city, and the only one where the acoustics were solved on purpose.
Highly Recommended
Cleveland — Museum / Cultural
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Extraordinary architecture, genuinely restrictive rules. Both things are true and both matter.
Recommended With Caveats
Cleveland — Ballroom
The Tudor Arms Ballroom
Grand, characterful and considerably more affordable than the rooms it resembles.
Recommended
Bratenahl — Outdoor
Nine Mile Point Pavilion
A remarkable lakefront ceremony site attached to a reception space that asks a lot of you.
Depends on the Couple
Akron — Estate
Weathervane Estate
Formal gardens and a genuine sense of history, with a drive that keeps guest counts honest.
Recommended
Series
Would I Get Married Here?
Short-form venue opinions. One question, answered honestly.
Would I Get Married Here?
The Cleveland Museum of Art: The 30-Second Take
The most impressive room in Northeast Ohio, and the most rules. Here is the honest calculation.
3 min read
15 Years / 15 Lessons
Fifteen Years, Fifteen Lessons
What a decade and a half behind the camera actually taught me about planning a wedding.
6 min read
Signature Series
What Couples See / What Vendors See
The marketing version of a venue and the working version of a venue are two different buildings.
What Couples See
A gorgeous outdoor ceremony lawn.
What Vendors See
The 12-minute golf-cart trip required to move the wedding party there. Twice.
What Couples See
A dramatic staircase entrance.
What Vendors See
The only route from the kitchen to the ballroom during plated service.
What Couples See
String lights over the courtyard.
What Vendors See
One 20-amp circuit shared by the band, the warmers and the lights.
Curated
The Shortlist
Occasionally
Unpopular Opinion
Unpopular Opinion
Your Guest List Is the Only Budget Decision That Matters
Everything else is rounding.
Read the argumentVendors
People Worth Knowing
Editorial profiles of the Cleveland professionals I would actually call.
DJs & Entertainment
Marcus Vale
XYZ Entertainment — Cleveland
“One of Cleveland's strongest options for couples who care more about the dance floor than gimmicks.”
Florists
Nora Beckwith
Field & Form — Lakewood
“Restrained, architectural florals from someone who understands that a room can be over-decorated.”
Best Of
The Cleveland Wedding Guide Awards
Recognition selected through published editorial criteria. Never purchased, never traded.
Venue of the YearBest Guest ExperienceBest Venue StaffBest Wedding FoodBest Outdoor CeremonyBest Downtown VenueBest Intimate VenueBest ValueBest New Venue
Newsletter
The Weekend Edit
Cleveland venues, people worth knowing, wedding advice and the occasional opinion the wedding industry probably won’t put in a brochure.