The Scottish Rite Library, Museum & Cathedral facility is incredibly beautiful and historic, and my husband and I liked the idea that the money we spent on a venue for our ceremony and reception would potentially benefit the Scottish Rite Children's Hospital and other charitable causes of Scottish Rite. We also thought it was great that we were able to bring in our own caterer and alcohol, but I understand Scottish Rite has subsequently changed its policy and now only the one exclusive caterer (don't remember which one but it's one with a good reputation) is allowed.
When we booked with Scottish Rite in December 2009 for our October 2010 wedding, one of the reasons we booked was what we perceived to be a customer-service-oriented and flexible attitude from the wedding coordinator Glenda Dohm. However, Glenda left the facility in ~March 2010 and was replaced by Jamie Marshall. Jamie is a very intelligent lawyer who is detail-oriented and whose heart is definitely in the right place, but unfortunately Scottish Rite has removed much of the flexibility that was attractive about this wedding venue in order to more rigorously protect the venue as a historic building. I understand why this was done, because it's important that the building be well-maintained for the next 100 years, but the changes led to some terse and unnecessarily stressful conversations with Jamie in the weeks leading up to the wedding. For example, even though our contract specifically permitted that we could blow bubbles upon our exit of the facility, Jamie said we could not do so because guests might slip and fall on the bubbly residue that could remain on the outside steps. We were also not allowed to use rose petals, since they could stain the outside steps. So, we ended up ordering "eco-confetti" for our exit, which was at least ten times as expensive as bubbles, but it did look nice in the photos. I could list several other examples of rules that seemed a bit severe but this review is already quite long, and at the end of the day I was still glad to have used Scottish Rite because it was a great place for my wedding.
In summary, if you wish to book Scottish Rite, you'll have many beautiful photos and you'll enjoy getting to use this unique and special facility, but you should not be surprised by the many rules about exactly how and when the facility can be used. Read the contact carefully before you sign, and only use the facility if you know that you & your families are the kinds of people who can live happily within all of the rules.
