South Carolina State Museum — Attraction in Columbia

My husband and I had our wedding at the SC State Museum on Saturday February 26, 2022. While our wedding was beautiful and everything we hoped for, the staff and the Special Events Manager were nothing but rude and disrespectful to us. I planned to have my wedding there over a year ago, my husband and I paid for the venue. When the day came, we had SEVERAL museum staff tell us we were not allowed to be there because the museum would be closing soon. I proceed to tell the museum staff that we were having an event there and they acted like I had no idea what I was talking about. They tried to make us leave telling us that the museum was closing and we needed to exit the building. All the vendors were already down stairs setting up for the event. The Special Events Coordinator DID NOT COMMUNICATE with the staff at all. Things that we had cleared with her prior to our wedding, we’re problems for some of the staff. Free After she assured me the doors to our ceremony would not be locked until 8:00 PM, they were locked BEFORE our ceremony even took place. Some of our immediate family missed the entire wedding ceremony due to her miscommunication. We were also informed that we had to leave the Planetarium, where my bridal party were waiting for the guest to move into the reception area before we made our entrance into the reception. I told the staff that we had cleared this with the Special Events Manager and they proceed to tell us, that she said we would only be using the main lobby for our wedding and no other space. When it came to addressing my problems, my bridesmaid had to track the Special Events Coordinator down to let her know that I was unhappy. She did not once come and talk to me about my concerns after the ceremony was over. She was also no where to be found during the clean up. My bridesmaid had to ask her 4 different times to clean off some of the chairs because they were disgusting. I received a phone call from my DJ the day before letting me know how rude the Special Events Coordinator was to him. He said she acted like she had zero clue what was going on for our wedding on that Saturday, and was very rude to him. I am completely appalled by the lack of respect my family, friends, vendors were shown by the staff of the museum. We felt more like an inconvenience for them, than guest there. If you are looking to have a wedding ceremony take place there, then look again because they won’t take your day as seriously as they should. If you want to have a wedding there, make sure you can use your own wedding coordinator, or someone who will make sure you day is as special to them as it is to you, especially with the amount of money you are paying to get...

It’s my first time in visiting this beautiful museum, so amazing place 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 I’ll give it all the stars possible and definitely recommend this place for everyone to come to visit it. I posted it in my other google account so much pictures and information too, and I left a review too, feel free to check both. I’ll show you how this beautiful museum looks like from inside, it’s super big super beautiful, you’ll not get bored, it’s few floors, so you’ll find stairs and elevator, the have a simulator, few attractions that probably you need to pay for each ticket, etc. This is fabulous place for a school trip, that’s how I got here, it’s so much to learn from this museum, the service is good, attention is good, professional staff, everything is clean, very colorful. You’ll find out a lot about South Carolina, the time transition from the past to present, about the colonial government, you’ll see many maps. This museum it’s about science, society, culture, etc. This museum is amazing place for the kids to see and ask many and many questions, kids can play and learn at the same time, they have the chance and the opportunity to ask all the questions and to be curious, we all can learn so much. I love this place, I recommend it for the whole family all the ages it’s fine. Definitely I’ll come again for sure. In this museum you can find out about revolution and evolution, you can see old routes and that’s good for google map 🗺 and I’ll show it some on my pictures try to check it all. This museum is super cool place the kids like it, the kids I was chaperone they all was boy and they like this museum so hey that counts, they got to see a lot cool things, some old transportation and ride the train for a picture, you can find few theaters, it’s a big big museum. It’s a café place to buy food, with few restrooms, a place with long table to eat, 3D Theater, a gifts store or shopping store, etc. This place is wonderful, it’s big enough to spend all day long so plan for it, and you’ll not be bored how I say it in the beginning well I hope you check all my pictures, please let me know what do you think, and please hit like to all my pictures👍🏼 Hopefully I’ll get to see you in my next...

It was a huge museum. I had to go on a field trip with my class. It had many interactive, realistic, and fun exhibits. My personal favorite was the exhibit all about sound and how you can interact with it.

It might be a little scary for younger children. There are mannequins that move if you stand on a black pressure pad and it looks kind of eerie. It had a big realistic wooly mammoth with elephant sounds and sharks hanging over your head. If you think your kid is okay with that then it’s perfectly fine.

The lunchroom was kept clean and they swept and wiped the tables immediately when a school left the lunchroom. The woman at the gift shop was sweet as she helped break a 100 dollar bill for me. (I didn’t have any smaller change and had to buy an eight dollar toy).

There are a few negatives however. There were at least five schools visiting on a field trip at the same time. In fact they kicked out me, my chaperone, and three other students in my group out of the lunchroom and said that they had to make room for two other schools to come in to eat.

The place was a little crowded because of all the different school coming to visit. This also made the line super long to the cafe. The hotdogs were gray, brown, or even green. Many students complained about how the grilled cheese didn’t taste right. The food was expensive and there was only one person working behind the counter. I am not sure but I’m pretty certain someone had food poisoning as they threw up in the museum after eating.

I personally feel like it wasn’t always this bad but just came on the wrong day. I give it a four instead of the three because the museum is just that awesome. I have a mixed review but I will give it a four...