Weddings at the Iowa Memorial Union.
The most legible price list in this guide. Rooms at $260, $1,000, $1,300 and $2,900, a 1950s chapel at $300, a terrace on the Iowa River, and a tax exemption that quietly takes several hundred dollars off the bill.
On the Iowa River, a walk from the Old Capitol and Kinnick
The Venue
Why Iowa Memorial Union photographs the way it does.
Almost every venue in this guide quotes a number and leaves you to work out what it contains. The Iowa Memorial Union publishes a ladder. The North and South Rooms are $260 each. The Richey Ballroom is $1,000. The International Ballroom, with its woodwork and its stage, is $1,300. The Main Lounge with the Sun Porch and the North River Terrace is $2,900 and comes with a twenty one foot dance floor, customised lighting and a wireless microphone. You can choose a room by budget to the nearest hundred dollars, which is a rare and underrated kindness.
The detail nobody puts in a brochure is the tax. There is no sales tax on the rental fees, and the union says almost everything there is tax free. In a city with a local option on top of the state rate, that is not a rounding error on a four or five figure wedding, and it is worth asking exactly how far the exemption reaches before you compare this against a private venue quoting the same headline figure.
For a small wedding the standout is the Danforth Chapel: a non-denominational chapel from the 1950s beside the union, seating seventy to eighty, at three hundred dollars for a three hour block on the day plus an hour of rehearsal, with an electric piano. There is nothing else in this guide that gives you a real chapel and a rehearsal for the price of a cake.
Guides that cover this venue
If this one is not quite right
What you actually need to know
- Guest capacity
- The union does not publish per-room seated numbers, but University Catering serves groups from 7 to 700 and the Main Lounge is described as taking any size. Danforth Chapel seats 70 to 80. Get the seated figure for your chosen room with a dance floor in place, because that is the number the price list does not give you.
- Ceremony sites
- Danforth Chapel at $300, the IMU River Terrace which is complimentary with the Main Lounge rental, or the IMU River Amphitheater at $400. Read the word complimentary carefully: for both outdoor sites you provide your own furniture, equipment and labour, so a free terrace still costs you chairs and the people to set them out.
- Reception spaces
- Main Lounge with Sun Porch and North River Terrace at $2,900, International Ballroom at $1,300, Richey Ballroom at $1,000, and the North and South Rooms at $260 each. The International Ballroom has the woodwork and a stage, which makes it the most characterful room of the four on camera.
- Getting ready
- Not published. Ask what is available and when, and remember this is a working student union with its own traffic, so a room you can actually close the door on is worth asking for by name.
- If it rains
- Strong, because the indoor rooms are the main event and the outdoor sites are extras. Losing the terrace or the amphitheatre costs you a ceremony location rather than the wedding, and the chapel is another indoor fallback at a small price.
- What it costs
- Rooms $260 to $2,900 as listed above, ceremony sites $300 for the chapel and $400 for the amphitheatre. No sales tax on rental fees. Booking University Catering brings complimentary china, glassware, bar attendants and wedding planning services, which is a genuinely substantial list of things other venues charge for.
- What's included
- Tables, chairs, setup and takedown labour, custodial services and a dedicated facility coordinator come with every room. The Main Lounge adds a 21 by 21 foot dance floor, customised lighting and a wireless microphone; the International Ballroom adds the microphone and lighting. Uplights, draping, projectors, screens and staging are available at extra cost.
- Parking
- Campus ramps. Send guests to a named ramp rather than to the building, and check your date against the university calendar before assuming anything about availability.
- Where guests stay
- Not in the building, but downtown Iowa City is a walk away and the hotel choice is good. Book early for any date near a home football weekend.
- End of night
- Not published, and it matters. This is a university building with its own operating hours and programming, so get the end time and the load out window in writing rather than assuming a private venue's flexibility.
- Vendor rules
- University Catering is the exclusive food and beverage provider. Treat catering as fixed structure and negotiate on menu. The upside is real: booking them brings china, glassware, bar attendants and planning services at no extra charge.
Worth knowing early: The football calendar, and here it is sharper than at Ames. Kinnick Stadium is a walk from the union, so a home Saturday puts seventy thousand people between your guests and their hotel rooms. Check the schedule before the tour, not after the deposit. Graduation weekends and move-in are the other two dates a campus venue cannot move for you.
The four places worth your time
The Iowa River terrace and amphitheatre
The hour before sunset
Moving water directly outside the building, throwing light back up under the chin. It is the best light on the property and it costs nothing if you have the Main Lounge.
The Old Capitol
Golden hour, a short walk
The gold dome is the University of Iowa's own symbol and the frame a Hawkeye couple actually wants. Budget the walk; it is close but it is not instant, and the light will not wait.
The International Ballroom
Once it is lit
Woodwork and a stage give an interior room some architecture to work with, which the plainer ballrooms do not. If the room matters to you photographically, this is the one.
Danforth Chapel
Ceremony hour
A small 1950s chapel is an intimate room with its own light, and small rooms photograph warmly in a way ballrooms cannot. Shoot from the back to get the whole space in.
Your day, hour by hour
At Iowa Memorial Union
Full Wedding GalleryPhotographing Iowa Memorial Union
Complimentary is not the same as free
The River Terrace comes with the Main Lounge at no charge, and then you supply the furniture, the equipment and the labour. Price the chairs and the people before you count it as a saving, because an unfurnished terrace for a hundred and fifty is a real invoice.
The tax exemption is worth asking about properly
No sales tax on rental fees, and the union says almost everything there is tax free. Find out exactly what that covers, because on a wedding of this size it is the difference between two quotes that look identical on paper.
Kinnick is a walk away, which cuts both ways
Wonderful if you want the stadium in your day. Catastrophic if you did not check the schedule and seventy thousand people arrive on your wedding morning. This is the first date check, before the tour.
Three hundred dollars buys a chapel
Danforth seats seventy to eighty and includes a rehearsal hour. For a small wedding that is the most value per dollar anywhere in this guide, and it pairs neatly with one of the cheaper rooms for the dinner afterwards.
Iowa Memorial Union Questions
What couples ask about this venue.
How much does a wedding at the Iowa Memorial Union cost?
Rooms are priced individually: North or South Room $260, Richey Ballroom $1,000, International Ballroom $1,300, and the Main Lounge with Sun Porch and North River Terrace $2,900. Ceremony sites are $300 for Danforth Chapel and $400 for the River Amphitheater. There is no sales tax on rental fees.
What is included in the room rental?
Tables, chairs, setup and takedown, custodial services and a dedicated facility coordinator with every room. The Main Lounge also includes a 21 by 21 foot dance floor, customised lighting and a wireless microphone. Booking University Catering adds complimentary china, glassware, bar attendants and wedding planning services.
Can you get married in Danforth Chapel?
Yes. It is a non-denominational chapel from the 1950s beside the union, seating 70 to 80, at $300 for a three hour block on the wedding day plus a one hour rehearsal, with an electric piano included.
Can you bring your own caterer?
No. University Catering is the exclusive food and beverage provider, serving groups from 7 to 700. The trade is that booking them brings china, glassware, bar attendants and planning services at no additional charge.
Is the outdoor ceremony space really free?
The River Terrace is complimentary with a Main Lounge rental, but you provide your own furniture, equipment and labour, and the River Amphitheater at $400 works the same way. Price chairs and setup before treating either as a free ceremony.
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