Weddings at NewBo City Market.
Eighteen thousand square feet of year round public market in a neighbourhood the river destroyed in 2008. Five hundred indoors, thousands in the yard under tents, and the caterers are the shopkeepers whose stalls are already in the room.
The New Bohemia district, blocks from downtown
The Venue
Why NewBo City Market photographs the way it does.
The catering arrangement is unlike anything else in this guide and it is the reason to look here. Your food comes from the market's own shopkeepers, the independent traders whose businesses occupy the hall, with bar service from NewBo Beer & Wine. That means several kitchens and several cuisines from several small businesses, in the building, on the night. A wedding here is a food hall rather than a banquet, and for the right couple that is a much better party than a plated chicken.
The building is a flood story. In June 2008 the Cedar River took the New Bohemia district, a neighbourhood built by generations of Czech and Slovak immigrants and lined with late nineteenth century brick. The warehouse that became the market was part of the old Quality Chef site, had the right dimensions for a market hall, had a large front yard onto the main street, and was available for a dollar. It opened in October 2012 and it is now the closest thing the neighbourhood has to a town square.
The spaces are flexible in a way most venues are not. Rotary Hall takes a formal dinner. The Market Yard is wide open and takes tents. There is an outdoor stage and a covered patio for cocktails. Indoors runs to five hundred; outdoors runs to thousands. And you can hold an event during normal trading hours, which is offered as a feature rather than a compromise and which is the first thing to decide about.
Guides that cover this venue
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What you actually need to know
- Guest capacity
- Up to 500 for an indoor reception across roughly 18,000 square feet, and outdoor events in the Market Yard for considerably more under tents. Ask for the seated figure in Rotary Hall specifically, because a seated dinner and a standing market are different numbers.
- Ceremony sites
- The Market Yard outdoors, with an outdoor stage available, or indoors in the hall. The covered patio is the natural cocktail spot between the two.
- Reception spaces
- Rotary Hall for a formal dinner, the market floor itself, the covered patio, and the Market Yard under canvas. The mix is the point: this is a venue you assemble rather than a room you book.
- Getting ready
- Ask. A public market is not built around a wedding morning, so establish what exists rather than assuming, and plan to arrive largely ready.
- If it rains
- Strong indoors, with 18,000 square feet under roof. If the plan leans on the Market Yard and tents, settle who supplies the tent and what the wet weather trigger is, because a yard is a yard.
- What it costs
- Not published. Rates are quoted per event, so ask for the figure at your guest count and your chosen combination of spaces, and ask separately what changes if you buy out trading hours.
- What's included
- Confirm in writing. With in-house shopkeeper catering and a bar operation on site, a great deal can be arranged through the market, but the boundary between what is included and what is ordered needs to be explicit.
- Parking
- Ample and free throughout the district, which is genuinely unusual for somewhere blocks from a downtown, and it is minutes from I-380.
- Where guests stay
- Nothing on site. Downtown Cedar Rapids hotels are a short distance and the district itself is walkable.
- End of night
- Ask, and ask in the context of trading hours as well as an end time, since a working market has an operating day of its own.
- Vendor rules
- Catering comes from the market's shopkeepers and bar service from NewBo Beer & Wine. Establish early whether outside caterers are possible at all, because the in-house arrangement here is the venue's whole character rather than a revenue protection.
Worth knowing early: Whether the market is open. You can hold a gathering during normal business hours, and the venue offers that deliberately, but it means the public is in the building shopping and eating while your wedding happens. For some couples that is exactly the charm of a market wedding. For others it is a shock discovered at four in the afternoon. Decide which you are booking, get it in writing, and if you want the hall to yourselves find out what a buyout costs and whether it is even available on your date.
The four places worth your time
The market floor among the stalls
During the day, or once it is cleared
Stalls, signage and the working guts of a food hall are a backdrop nothing else in this guide has. Shoot it as a market rather than tidying it into a room, because the character is the clutter.
The Market Yard
The hour before sunset
Wide open ground with the district's brick around it. It is the only outdoor space and it is where a tent goes, so find out what will actually be standing in it on your date.
New Bohemia's brick streets
Golden hour
Late nineteenth century brick, restored, a few steps from the door. This is the neighbourhood the flood nearly ended and it photographs like a place with a history, because it is one.
The covered patio
Cocktail hour into dusk
Shelter with open air, between the hall and the yard. It is where people will drift, so it is where the candid frames are.
Your day, hour by hour
At NewBo City Market
Full Wedding GalleryPhotographing NewBo City Market
Decide about trading hours first
Everything else follows. A wedding inside an open public market is a genuinely lovely and unusual thing, and it is also a wedding with strangers buying coffee behind your first dance. Both are legitimate. Only one of them should be a surprise, and it should be neither.
The caterers are in the room
Several independent shopkeepers rather than one kitchen means several cuisines and several personalities on the night. Photograph them: the people cooking your wedding food are the same traders whose stalls the guests were browsing an hour earlier, and that is the story of the building.
Do not tidy the market away
The temptation with an industrial space is to drape it until it stops looking like itself. The signage, the stalls and the roll doors are why this venue is not a ballroom. Light them rather than hiding them.
Walk the neighbourhood
New Bohemia is restored brick and it is a few steps outside. A market hall gives you one interior; the district gives you a city.
NewBo City Market Questions
What couples ask about this venue.
How many guests does NewBo City Market hold?
Up to 500 for an indoor reception across roughly 18,000 square feet, with the outdoor Market Yard taking considerably more under tents. Ask for the seated number in Rotary Hall if you are serving dinner.
How much does a wedding at NewBo City Market cost?
Not published. Rates are quoted per event depending on the spaces and guest count, so ask for a figure at your real numbers and ask separately what buying out trading hours would cost.
Who caters a wedding at the market?
The market's own shopkeepers, the independent food businesses whose stalls are in the hall, with bar service from NewBo Beer & Wine. That gives you several kitchens and several cuisines rather than one banquet menu, and it is the most distinctive thing about the venue.
Can you have a wedding while the market is open?
Yes, and the market offers it deliberately. It means the public is in the building while your event happens. Decide which version you are booking before you sign, and ask what a private buyout costs if you want the hall to yourselves.
What is the building?
A former warehouse from the old Quality Chef site in the New Bohemia district, a neighbourhood of late nineteenth century brick built by Czech and Slovak immigrants and devastated by the 2008 flood. The building was available for a dollar, had the right shape for a market hall and a large front yard, and opened as NewBo City Market in October 2012.
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