The Charles

My wife and I recently hosted our high school 50th/51st class reunion at The Charles Fort Wayne Event Center. It was originally scheduled for June 2020, but due to the COVID restrictions it had to be postponed until later this year. We were very pleased with the outcome. Co-Owners Christine Leto and Michelle McIntire, along with their entire staff greatly assisted us in making this an event our participants will long remember. The facility was beautifully decorated, and the food was outstanding. We had approximately 100 guests and they all commented on how nice the reunion turned out. We continue to receive cards from classmates remarking about how amazing the event turned out. We couldn’t have done this without the assistance of Chris and Michelle who worked with us to ensure that we could host a successful reunion and stay within our budget. We would strongly recommend anyone seeking a reception hall for your event, be it a wedding reception, a reunion, or simply a party to speak with Christine and Michelle before looking any further.

We had our wedding at The Charles in October and it was wonderful. Nicole was phenomenal and made sure the design was exactly what we wanted. We had a minor mishap with the weather, but Michelle stepped in and helped us move things around to have the ceremony inside. Overall it was a great day and a lovely venue!

We held my husbands retirement party in the smaller room, which is beautiful and perfect for a group of 50. Christine and Michelle were great to work with and very helpful with the planning in the months leading up to the event. Nicole worked with us to create decor that was simple and more masculine, but very well done and suitable for the event. During the actual retirement party everything was set up and ready for us and the staff was wonderful. Christine and Michelle were available if we should need anything and the bartender/bar service was perfect. We chose a non-alchoholic bar but there was a very nice variety of beverages for our guests. A special thank you to Michelle for bringing my husband a big glass of frozen coke when we arrived for the party!! She knew it was a favorite of his and had looked into providing a frozen coke machine for the party. She found one but we chose not to have it. That she remembered our conversation and took time to stop and get that for him was a highlight of the party!

We held our wedding here in October of 2021 and to say it nicely, we were extremely disappointed. The most stressful part of my wedding planning was communicating and dealing with the Charles. Their internal communication and communication towards me and my now husband was atrocious. I would email them asking a question or to verify something, and I would never get a response. So I would have to email them again and again to just answer me, which happened frequently. They were not accommodating at all and only wanted us to do what they told us to. For example, when we discussed doing a trolley ride with our bridal parties in between the ceremony and reception, they told us that they did not think it was a good idea which at first I appreciated their opinion. But the more they kept discussing it with us and trying to push us not to do it, it was ridiculous and honestly flat out rude. We had our one-on-one meetings with them, and I would have to repeat myself at the next meeting about the things I wanted or didn’t want on our day. They even emailed me the day after our last meeting to confirm or ask questions about everything I had answered at yesterday’s meeting. Having to repeat myself on multiple items about things I wanted on our wedding day was beyond stressful all because they did not communicate internally. A great example would be that we told them TWICE at our one-on- one meetings that the wedding cake was just for my husband and me so they did not have this on our invoice, and they said they put it in their notes. Well on the DAY OF the wedding when my husband and I got done cutting our cake they started to put out plates and forks and went up to my wedding planner freaking out because they needed to know if we had someone to cut our cake or if they needed to do it. My wedding planner, who attended our meetings with them, was in shock they were asking her this question. Let’s continue to talk about the Wedding day. We had one major issue and a few minors. The major issue was that at two of our one – on – one meetings we discussed that at the head table there needed to be 11 chairs. But when the bridal party walked in there was only 10 so our ENTIRE bridal party had to stand there awkwardly and wait for someone to bring a chair and their plate settings. One minor issue was the way that they set up the wooden chairs for our reception. It did not look good at all, and they did not ask us how we wanted it to be set up. I did not ask either so it is my fault as well. So if you have your outdoor ceremony there make sure to verify how they would set up the chairs! Another minor issue was that I also asked them twice to please move the tables back because we only had sixty some guests, and it felt very pushed together for no reason. I got told twice that they would, but they needed to wait for someone else to arrive. Once they did, they would move the tables for me but just needed help. Well, they did not move the tables back and when my wedding planner and her husband arrived early at the reception they tried moving the tables, but they got told no and that they did not want to have the tables pushed back to crowd the bar. They never bothered to tell me that the two times I asked them to move the tables and we had 70 guests…. I don’t think any bar is getting crowded and if they would have told me that to my face we could have further discussed this and found a compromise. Instead, they did what they wanted without even bothering to discuss it with the people who were actually having the wedding, the bride and groom. There was some good things about The Charles like their venue is absolutely gorgeous, and the improvements they are making are elegant and very enticing to want to book there. Also, their decorator Nicole was very helpful when working with me on figuring out my ideal centerpieces. They were very kind in letting some of our guests who traveled far use their facilities before the ceremony. Also, the signature drink they made for me was absolutely delicious. 0/5 for Book Again

Wonderful place for a wedding reception. Catered food from Shigs in a Pit was way over cooked tho. Pulled pork was dry. Chicken wings were soooo dry. I don't understand why a restaurant would have such a difficult time preparing something as simple as pulled pork & chicken wings. Puzzles me. But, you might want to think twice before ordering catering service from this establishment.

We had our wedding ceremony and reception at The Charles. I have nothing but good things to say about this venue. They are great to work with. You have several meetings to ensure that your special day is just the way that you want it. We worked with the owner of the establishment and a design team. They were a pleasure to work with during the planning and on the actual day of the wedding. I would recommend this venue to anyone.

The ladies that run the Charles did an excellent job of being responsive and providing a location for our 200+ sold out Women’s event. Our original event was canceled by another vendor and we were scrambling last minute to find a location that would house us. The Charles did a great job setting everything up and even though weddings are their specialty, they facilitated our Women’s event with expertise. I would recommend holding your event here.