Fifteen years of weddings, from the working side of the room

I spent roughly fifteen years photographing weddings across Cleveland and Northeast Ohio — downtown ballrooms, lakefront estates, converted foundries, church basements, backyard tents in Chagrin Falls and a fair number of rooms nobody would call photogenic.

In that time I learned the version of a venue that couples see on a tour, and the version vendors see at 9:40 p.m. when the cake is late and the loading dock is locked. This publication exists because almost nothing online tells you about the second version.

The Cleveland Wedding Guide is not a directory and not a listing service. It is a small editorial publication with a point of view: that couples deserve specific, unflattering, useful information about where they are about to spend the largest sum of money in their life so far.

Every venue review here is written from firsthand experience, research, or clearly disclosed reporting. Venues can respond. Reviews get updated when a property changes hands, renovates or replaces a team. Nothing on this site can be purchased.