Art & History Museums, Maitland

The Maitland Art Center was the Perfect choice for my small (30 guests) wedding and brunch reception!! My family from Philadelphia were blown away by how beautiful it was!! I had no issue with getting in contact with the rental manager when I had a question (they did change rental managers once from the time of booking to the event). They even allowed us to have the Yum Yum cupcake truck pull up and serve our guests!! If you want a romantic outdoor wedding this is your place!!

As the mother of the bride, I was worried about the cost of a wedding venue. Even with a small wedding I was apprehensive, but when we found the Art Center Mayan Chapel my fears were gone. We used the Chapel and the adjacent courtyard for the ceremony and reception and it was glorious. The guests could not stop talking about how lovely the venue was. Romantic, intimate, just perfect for a smaller wedding. We had absolutely no problems at all-everything was clean and ready for us-our out of state visitors could not stop talking about how stunning it was. If you have a small wedding, do yourself a favor and check out the Art Center!

The Mayan Chapel is gorgeous and very unique. It gives you the chance of an outdoor wedding, but still be in a chapel! Because it is so charming on it's own due to it's elegant simplicity, we didn't even need flowers for the ceremony. Although it ended up raining on my wedding day, we were able to accommodate our guests in the adjacent courtyard by moving the seats to the covered area. Everyone commented on how beautiful the place was.

great staff, very helpful, beautiful place. It was a dream come true

We held our wedding at the Maitland Art Center in October. For those of you who have never been there it is really a beautiful place with interesting architecture and lush foliage.We chose the Mayan Chapel for our ceremony, which is an outdoor chapel surrounded by plants and canopied by oak trees and holds up to 45 seated guests. Immediately adjacent to the Chapel is the Mayan Courtyard which is included in your rental price of the Mayan Chapel and seats up to 150 guests if you want to hold your reception there. If you have a larger wedding you can also rent the Mayan Courtyard for your ceremony and hold your reception elsewhere or the Main Garden which seats up to 200 guests. The rental prices are reasonable - There is a 2 hour minimum for $400, each additional hour is $100. There is a refundable security deposit of $400 required.While the venue is really unique and picturesque, the Art Center has some operational issues which make it less than ideal. According to our contract upon our arrival the benches normally located in the Chapel were to be removed so we could set up our rented chairs for our guests. The dressing room was supposed to be open, clean, and the AC turned on. The fountain the chapel was supposed to be turned on. The restrooms were supposed to be unlocked. A caretaker was supposed to have used a leaf blower to clean out the chapel. Yet NONE of these items were performed...when we got there everything was locked up and in disarray. Our guests were going to be arriving in less than an hour so time was of the essence. Luckily, my friends and family sprung into action to move the benches and tidy the area. When my Maid of Honor and I went across the street to see what was going on we were greeted by an argumentative and unhelpful employee who did not act interested in what was happening. She did not apologize in any way - she just shot a look at another woman who was sitting there and muttered that they should have been there an hour ago. She picked up the phone and was calling someone (who I later found out was the caretaker who should have done the set up) to see where he was. In the meantime, my Maid of Honor needed to use the restroom (nerves!) and the employee would not let my friend use the restroom in the main building. At this point I started to get mad and asked that my friend be allowed to use the employee bathroom - what was she going to do pee in the bushes outside?!? The employee opened the dressing room and I was pretty dismayed when I walked in. When we toured the facility we were told that they were going to be doing renovations to the room and cleaning it up. Not only was that not done, but the room was very hot and smelled like mold and dust. The full length mirror looked like something had spilled down the front of it and no one bothered to wipe it off. The room was so hot and musty that we got ready with the door open the whole time. The caretaker arrived 40 minutes late when the guests were already arriving. He came into the dressing room to turn on the AC. Too late, buddy! We were already sweating in our Spanx!There was also a bat living in the rafters in the back part of the chapel which kept making chirping noises. I know some people would have freaked out about this, but I actually thought it was funny!The thing that really upset me about the whole experience was the fact that there was no signage of any kind provided by the venue to alert anyone that there was a wedding in progress nor did the caretaker approach any of the crashers to let them know that the space was rented and they could not enter. As a result we had a few people wandering through during the set up process, but after the wedding is when it was just out of control. Three different groups of people barged in on us when we were trying to take our wedding photos. Two of the groups had to be asked repeatedly to leave. I had to actually threaten to call the police on one photographer and her clients because they simply would not leave and were getting in our way. We rented the Chapel and Courtyard area until 6:00 and these people had no respect for that. Where was the caretaker you ask? Well he was sitting in his minivan doing NOTHING about it! He could see that these people were not with the wedding party, yet he did nothing. The fact that I had to get into arguments with these rude party crashers was ridiculous. Contractually I was entitled to peaceful enjoyment of the venue throughout my rental time. We had personal items in the unlocked dressing room that could have easily been stolen by one of the many people wandering in and out. After the wedding I contacted the Events Coordinator who refunded $100 of our rental fee for our trouble. Frankly, I think they should have refunded the entire fee after all of the hassle. It was such a disappointment! The venue gets three stars (for the interesting architecture and aesthetics) and one star for service!

The venue itself is beautiful~ The individuals who are in charge of weddings at the Maitland Art Center are very rude, unwillingly to provide any flexibility. I had an extremely hard time dealing with the staff! Once I wiggled my way thru these hiccups the site itself was incredible............................

My husband picked this venue after attending a friend's wedding there. It was the ONLY place he wanted! We were planning our wedding with only 6 months notice and still managed to score a Saturday in November. The fact that they let you bring inwhoever you want is a big plus, but I did end up using one of the caterers on their "recommended" list (Puff N Stuff - fantastic, btw). The rental cost is rediculously low, though there is a $500 security deposit, due up front. If you don't destroy the place, you will get it all back (and quickly).Ana was VERY accommodating, even as I changed my rental time twice (caterer needed more setup time, I wanted to stay longer). I never had trouble getting in contact with her, either via phone or email.The venue is beautiful! We saved a ton of money by not doing any decorating. The table linens and centerpieces were plenty! My pictures are amazing, too!

We booked the MAC withing 36 hours of getting engaged (only a 6 month engagement). Ana was extremely professional and accommodating. The only thing we were slightly "meh" about was that their list of caterers is not "preferred" it's "required," as in, you MUST pick a caterer from their list. This ended up being okay, however, because one of the caterers on the list was Big City, and they were absolutely amazing.We got married on the Chapel and Courtyard side of the MAC, and trust me when I say it's *tiny*. We had 42 guests, and everyone fit perfectly. I don't think more than 42 chairs would have fit in the Chapel and allowed everyone to have a good view (though the website says 50 will fit). The Courtyard easily accommodated our six 8' long banquet tables (end-to-end in two rows) and we still had room to have a small dance area. More than 50 guests would be really tight, in there, though, so keep that in mind.All of our guests were completely stunned by the beauty of the MAC. Many of them had never been there before, and were just blown away by the architecture and the natural beauty of it.

Beautiful wedding venue. The staff is all very friendly and professional. They made sure the place was in tip-top shape before my ceremony.

We had a night time wedding, and fortunately a great lighting guy. There isn't much lighting otherwise.

I was planning my wedding in a very short time period, and we had a few mishaps in billing and communication along the way. I received a call two days before my wedding saying that we had not settled the remaning half of payment for the venue. However, I had called two weeks prior to have the amount charged; I had called to settle with a different card (this had not been done at that time as it should have been). I was in absolute hysterics, "two days before my wedding and I don't have a venue!" It was taken care of quickly, but still very upsetting.The event coordinator is very difficult to get in contact with. It seemed like every time I tried to call her, she was "on break" or "at lunch" or "away from her desk," and no matter how many times I told the person on the phone to have her call me (especially when we had the billing emergency), I was never called back.I was also told we could use the venue for a rehearsal the night before, but when we arrived, it was locked... and there was no one to let us in. We finally found someone (a janitor? I'm not sure) who gave us a key to get in.However, when the big day came, the billing was taken care of, we got our rehearsal, and our venue was absolutely beautiful. People who see our wedding photos are still in awe, and most of them can hardly believe any such place exists here in Florida! It was the perfect size for our intimate wedding, and I recommend it to any bride who wants something a little different, but still with an elegant, old-world appeal. Also, you absolutely cannot beat their pricing!Another perk I find it important to mention: if flexibility is important to you, this is definitely your venue. I was looking specifically for a venue that allowed me to have my own caterer. The Art Center does not have any vendor restrictions or "selected vendors" for you to make choices from. You can have anyone and everyone you want so long as they respect the property and don't break anything. There are very few rules and they are very hands-off; the only real rules are they request no birdseed, rice or fireworks (there are a lot of native birds) and they request that music does not go on past 10:00pm (the venue is set close to a lovely residential area, so be respectful!) Also, make sure to plan for lighting if your event goes on past dark.

Since i was 12, the first time I saw this place, I always thought about what a great place it would be for a wedding. Although it is all outdoors, with no place in case of bad weather, if you can stand a little rain it is very well worth it. The cost is not bad, even though they did just recently raise it a little bit. Staff here is very sweet and make sure that your venue is ready for you. There were 3 other weddings before mine that weekend and you could not tell when we got there because the place was in great shape. It is such a unique place (mayan courtyard and chapel) that your guests will be in awe of how beautiful and different it is. We were very happy with this place.