ARTISANworks — Attraction in City of Rochester

After a year of planning our dream wedding at ARTISANworks, we were surprised and heartbroken at how badly our plans were executed on the day of the wedding. Long story short, the hour between the ceremony and reception was a complete disaster! My husband and I, along with 20 family members and our photographer, were LOCKED OUT of the second building where we were supposed to take family photos. We had paid an extra $500 for ARTISANworks' event coordinator to make sure the wedding day went smoothly. As we all stood outside, sweating in the hot summer sun, the event coordinator was not responding to my urgent phone calls or text messages. Even after our photographer ran back to the main building to tell her we were locked out, she did not respond in a timely manner. When our elderly relatives started wincing in pain from standing so long, we had to abandon our plans and move back to the main building, where we hurriedly took family photos. As a result of this 30-minute delay, my husband and I MISSED OUR ENTIRE COCKTAIL HOUR! And to make matters worse, when we finally arrived at the reception, we were horrified to discover that the bartender from Madeline's Catering had switched our open bar to a cash bar, and several of our guests were charged money for their drinks before the event coordinator told her it was supposed to be an open bar all night long. We later discovered that a number of our guests never even went to the bar because the rumor spread that it was a cash bar! We had expressed reservations about using Madeline's Catering for an elegant, upscale event, but ARTISANworks requires you to hire Madeline's and will not allow outside caterers. Our overpriced filet mignon was served with the wrong topping, but otherwise the food was good. However, we are still mortified that our guests ever thought we expected them to open their wallets at our wedding! (We did get Madeline's to refund their money.) We were also very disappointed that the event coordinator never reached out to us to apologize for any of this until I finally emailed her 12 days after the wedding. A word of advice to anyone thinking of having an event at ARTISANworks: (1) if you hire their in-house event coordinator, make sure to have a communication plan that requires her to respond to your calls or texts if something is going terribly wrong, and (2) insist on speaking with the staff who will be working the event to review the details of the catering contract; do not rely on Madeline to do that, as we found her to not be a good communicator, and she did not put in the necessary time to supervise new staff. Finally, we both love ARTISANworks very much, and we hope that our wedding cocktail hour fiasco was a learning experience so that they and Madeline's Catering will do better...

What an amazing surprise nestled in the city. I've never been here and was taken here on a date. It was nice because it was not his first time there so he knew all the rooms and books and cranies i would have otherwise missed. You need to give yourself plenty of time because there is literally stuff to look at everywhere. On the ceiling on the floor and everywhere in between. I can't wait to go back. There's a fire station room, Monroe room, Fredrick Douglas room, Kodak room, dental room complete with murder scenes, different tap rooms/bars (not serving) Frank Lloyd Wright room, 60s kitchen room, French dining room and so very much more. I'm going to go back for a tour for sure because there's more that's not even seen umpires l unless you're on a tour. What an amazing place!!!! So happy to have had this experience. Highly suggested. 10 out of 10 would do it again and again. There's no way you'll ever see EVERYTHING in one visit! Plus you can book events there and they have catering on scene! Just incredible and a band you can rent for the night and the prices were so reasonable. Just amazing. And the catering they offer there made the ENTIRE place smell ahhhhhmazing!!!! Make sure you don't go...

My wife and I decided to have our wedding ceremony and reception here in 2013, and it was one of the best decisions we could have made. The unique nature of the layout and decor made for an unforgettable experience. They have a few options based on the size of the event, and offer excellent catering options on-site. The event coordinators we had the pleasure to work with were very kind and helpful, from our first appointment all the way thru our wedding night. We saved plenty of money by buying our own alcohol and having them serve it, and the cost to reserve this place is surprisingly inexpensive compared to other wedding venues we explored. We still get comments from friends and family about how much they enjoyed our wedding and reception. I'd recommend this location to anyone, from weddings to office parties. A truly unique venue in Rochester, that supports local artists.

You can visit anytime to see the art on display, so no need to wait for an event to enjoy...