Weddings at the Temple for Performing Arts.
A Masonic temple from 1913, restored, with a four thousand square foot Grand Hall on the fourth floor under original stained glass skylights. It is also the only venue in this guide that publishes what a head table costs you, and the answer is seventy five guests.
Downtown Des Moines, in a restored 1913 Masonic temple
The Venue
Why Temple for Performing Arts photographs the way it does.
That number deserves the lead because no other venue will tell you. The Grand Hall seats about 275 for a sit-down dinner with a head table and about 350 without one. Same room, same night, seventy five people of difference. If your guest list is somewhere near three hundred, the decision about whether the wedding party sits together at the front is not a styling choice, it is a decision about who gets invited.
The room earns the fuss. Four thousand square feet on the fourth floor, two-storey columns, a sculpted ceiling, original light fixtures and restored stained glass skylights overhead. Skylights are the rare part: almost every large hall in this guide is an interior box lit entirely by what you bring, and this one has daylight coming down from above that changes through the afternoon.
Pricing runs $3,500 to $5,500 for a weekend wedding, and the list of what is inside that is unusually long: mahogany Chiavari chairs, an LED lighting package, staging, dance floors, audio visual, and two hospitality suites, with a bride's suite and a groom's room fitted with full-length mirrors and proper lighting. Catering is run by Catering DSM, who manage the building, so food is a fixed structure rather than a lever.
Guides that cover this venue
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What you actually need to know
- Guest capacity
- Grand Hall: about 275 for a seated dinner with a head table, about 350 seated without one, and 450 theatre style or for a standing reception. The Recital Hall is 1,200 square feet and takes 200 theatre style or 70 for a seated dinner. Ask which of those figures your floor plan actually produces.
- Ceremony sites
- Indoors. The Grand Hall handles both ceremony and reception, and the Recital Hall is the smaller option. If both happen in the Grand Hall that is a flip, so establish where guests go while it happens.
- Reception spaces
- The Grand Hall at 4,000 square feet on the fourth floor, or the Recital Hall at 1,200 for something small. Both are on the same floor, which makes moving between them straightforward.
- Getting ready
- Two hospitality suites, a bride's suite and a groom's room, both fitted with full-length mirrors and bright lighting. That is a better-specified prep space than most venues here bother to describe.
- If it rains
- Not a consideration. Everything is indoors in a restored city building.
- What it costs
- $3,500 to $5,500 for a weekend wedding, covering guest counts from 25 to 450. Given what is bundled, compare that against the rental-only venues in this guide only after adding chairs, lighting, staging and a dance floor to the other quote.
- What's included
- Mahogany Chiavari chairs, an LED light package, staging, dance floors, audio visual, and two hospitality suites. Chiavari chairs alone are a line most couples end up renting elsewhere, so read the inclusion list before deciding this is expensive.
- Parking
- Downtown Des Moines. Name a ramp for guests rather than giving them the building address and hoping.
- Where guests stay
- None in the building, but this is central Des Moines and hotels are within a short walk.
- End of night
- Ask and get it in writing, along with vendor load-in times, which matter more here than usual for reasons of geography rather than policy.
- Vendor rules
- The venue is managed by Catering DSM and catering comes with it, so treat food and beverage as fixed and negotiate on the menu. Confirm the bar arrangement in the same conversation.
Worth knowing early: The Grand Hall is on the fourth floor. Everything goes up: flowers, cake, cases of wine, a band's gear, and every guest who cannot manage stairs. Ask specifically about lift capacity and access, how long load-in realistically takes, and what the plan is for anyone with mobility needs. It is entirely workable and it is the single practical thing about this venue that surprises people on the day rather than during the tour.
The four places worth your time
Under the stained glass skylights
Mid to late afternoon
Overhead daylight in a large hall is genuinely rare, and coloured overhead daylight is rarer still. Find out where the patches land at your ceremony hour, because top light is flattering on a room and unflattering on a face.
The two-storey columns
Any hour
This is a vertical room and it wants vertical frames. Put people at the base of a column and shoot up, rather than trying to fit the hall in horizontally and losing the height that makes it worth being here.
The sculpted ceiling
Once lit
Original 1913 plasterwork. A wide shot from the floor with the ceiling in it is the frame that says which building this is, and the LED package included in the rental will pick it out if you ask for it.
Downtown Des Moines outside
The hour before sunset
The only daylight you will find at street level, and a short walk. Build it in, because a fourth-floor hall does not lend itself to nipping out.
Your day, hour by hour
At Temple for Performing Arts
Full Wedding GalleryPhotographing Temple for Performing Arts
The head table costs seventy five guests
275 seated with one, 350 without. That is published and it is the most useful number this venue gives you. Decide it early, because it changes the guest list rather than the floor plan.
Shoot the room vertically
Two storey columns, a sculpted ceiling and skylights above them. Photographed across, it is a big hall. Photographed upward, it is a 1913 temple. The second one is what people booked.
Everything goes up four floors
Flowers, cake, gear, guests. Ask about the lift before the tour ends, and give your suppliers the real answer rather than letting them discover it with a van full of centrepieces.
Read the inclusion list before judging the price
Chiavari chairs, LED lighting, staging, dance floors and AV are all inside the fee. Several venues in this guide look cheaper until you price those separately.
Temple for Performing Arts Questions
What couples ask about this venue.
How many guests does the Temple for Performing Arts hold?
The Grand Hall seats about 275 for a sit-down dinner with a head table and about 350 without one, and takes 450 theatre style or standing. The Recital Hall seats 70 for dinner or 200 theatre style.
How much does a wedding at the Temple cost?
$3,500 to $5,500 for a weekend wedding, for guest counts from 25 to 450. That includes mahogany Chiavari chairs, an LED lighting package, staging, dance floors, audio visual and two hospitality suites, so compare it against rental-only venues only after adding those to the other quote.
Does a head table really reduce the capacity?
Yes, and the venue publishes both numbers: roughly 275 seated with a head table against 350 without. Seventy five guests is a lot to lose to a floor plan, so settle it before the guest list is finalised rather than after.
Can you bring your own caterer?
No. The venue is managed by Catering DSM and catering comes with the building. Negotiate on the menu rather than the supplier, and settle the bar arrangement at the same time.
Is the Grand Hall accessible?
It is on the fourth floor, so ask directly about lift access and capacity, both for guests with mobility needs and for vendors loading in. This is the practical detail that catches people out on the day rather than during the tour.
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