Bella Sala Reviews

The staff at Bella Sala was so accommodating with all my request and last minute changes! The venue is beautiful and my guests loved the waterfall feature!

My fiancé and I were instantly impressed the moment we walked in the door. We found the entry way extremely elegant and warm. We also loved the place that we chose for our wedding reception. Plenty of room for tables and a dance floor. Overall, our experience was exceptional.

We loved Bella Sala and the staff! everything was perfect for our wedding day!!

JP, Lena, and Melissa were over the top. They took fantastic care of us! For those complaining about the price, good luck finding something as nice as this place with this good of staff for the same price. You get what you pay for. Our wedding was beautiful, we had people lined up to leave early and light candles at the reception, Bella Sala's staff took care of it before they even got there! They went above and beyond to make our day special! We also got our tuxes from Lena in XOXO and it was perfect, a one stop shop for everything! Thanks to these guys for there hard work to make our day special!

Everything is organized, the staff is friendly, and JP was phenomenal to work with. I will review more following the reception.

Loved Bella Sala! We got married outside and used the larger ballroom for the reception. It's a beautiful venue!

Great service! Every staff person ensured that our wedding reception went off without a hitch! Could not ask for a better venue!!

Our wedding was near Christmas and this location was beautiful. The staff was very helpful with set up and everything was perfect for the big day. The only critique would be the end of the night- too quick with tear down, felt rushed out.

I am happy that we chose Bella Sala for our venue. We had our ceremony and reception there and everything was perfect. Melissa was very helpful during the planning and would answer by emails within a couple hours. The staff the night of the event was very helpful and made sure everything was taken care of. It is an expensive venue, but it is very pretty and you pay for what you get. You could go somewhere else cheaper, but you probably aren't going to get the same quality. Bella Sala does have some decorating restrictions, but nothing that was a big deal. They do have a short catering list, but trust me Dostal Catering is absolutely amazing. We received so many compliments on our dinner.
I will say I wasn't nickeled and dimed! I would ask Melissa the cost of things and she would tell me, I knew my budget and if I said "no", she never asked again and I never felt pressured!

Bella Sala is beautiful! We love that we can use their outside water feature to get married next to and then it is an easy transition for our guests to go right inside to our cocktail hour and reception!

All in all this was a wonderful place. We were unable to use the outside waterfall area due to rain which is unfortunate since you have to pay extra for it but that is nature I suppose. They did the decorations and it was beautiful!! Would definitely recommend this place in the future!

We chose Bella Sala for our wedding reception because of the beautiful, modern space and affordable catering options. Throughout the process Melissa and JP were incredibly responsive and helpful. I went back and forth on linen/decor options and Melissa was very patient with me! The team at Bella Sala worked with my budget to create simple, elegant centerpieces for which we received lots of compliments.

We had an October wedding and the family pictures we took outside at the waterfall are gorgeous. We were fortunate to not have to share the venue with another wedding on the other side of the partition, so the lobby, bar, and bathroom were all ours. It worked out really well and we were able to get the sports events on the TV's that our guests wanted to watch. I think it may have been different if there was another wedding at the same time, because many of our guests spent time in the lobby.

We worked with JP ahead of time to estimate wine and beer amounts for our hosted bar. We were disappointed to find out that our pre-purchased wine ran out within a half an hour from the start of our reception. Throughout the night we purchased 3x our initial amount at a 20% markup. That was the only thing that we would change - other than that we had a great experience and would recommend the venue to anyone!

Everyone at Bella Sala was amazing to work with! They made our reception perfect! The process was seamless and stress free with the Bella Sala staff!

Thanks you!

Bella sala is a beautiful place for a wedding!!! Melissa has been a huge help along the way. They are even making my decor for me. They do charge high pricing on everything and only allow drinks from there establishment. Which we think is a good thing. Saved us money.

Bella Sala was a beautiful venue to have a reception at. The owners were both very nice and so was the event manager that night.

My one negative thing to say is that there is two weddings going on and guests from the other wedding did come in. Even though we were told that never happens because there would be security there. However, we didn't see security all night even though we paid for it.

The hall and the outdoor area are beautiful. The guests had a relaxing time.

I really wish I had more positive things to say. However, it is incredibly expensive and we did all the decorating and clean-up ourselves (not something you would expect from a high-end reception hall). The owners were deceptive about several things and not helpful.

PS. ANYTHING can be book in the adjacent room and you will have to share the common areas. And it is probable that guests from other events will come in and out of your event. The alcohol was expensive and the list of caterers slim. The security guard and "day of help" was a joke. Please read your contract carefully - I would recommend bringing a lawyer.

I think there are better venues, more reasonably priced elsewhere. Shop around before you commit!

Although you will have beautiful wedding at Bella Sala you will also be nickle and dimed. JP, the manager is great, but the owners are rude. Although the venue is beautiful there are much better places to hold your wedding in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area.

Prepare to be nickel and dimed. Bella Sala is a beautiful venue with an outdoor waterfall and can host a beautiful event. However, when I got married there I unintentionally doubled my wedding budget which was already substantial. They also got many things wrong and were difficult to work with. They charge you for EVERYTHING and you must give them all the money before you receive their services. Bella Sala wants 100% paid upfront when you make the reservation, for us that was a year ahead! And they don't give any refund if they are unable to have your wedding, for any reason including fire, strike, severe weather, act of God, etc.All liquor must be purchased from Bella Sala ahead of time, priced 3x+ higher than the supermarket. If you order your liquor ahead of time there are no refunds, and no taking home.---I was charged for a whole case of wine we did not drink. I didn't get to take it home and an employee told us they would RESELL IT TO THE NEXT BRIDE! If you decide to order on demand, you pay a mandatory 20% gratuity - if they have it in stock.Every appointment we made was with a different employee, even with our attempts to meet with Melissa the owner. There was little interest in getting things right and some of the things agreed upon before our wedding were not met on the day.---For example a bar was supposed to be set up on the patio for cocktail hour and the hall closed by our bella sala assigned wedding manager until the dinner hour. Not only did they not close the reception hall, they did not set up the bar. The result was confused guests wondering though our picture taking to get drinks and sitting down for the reception before the outdoor ceremony.They will not offer a cash bar in your reception hall, only open/hosted bar.No guarantee you can use the site for a rehearsal - They might rent it out the day before at the last minute.---Unique to my situation, Bella Sala did not have a ready room when we booked. I asked to use the decorations demo room and

I was married on May 17th at Bella Sala. The venue is beautiful and I will cherish the beauty in all of my pictures but if I were to redo the whole process, the one thing I would change is the venue. Even though it is beautiful, management is awful to work with. I have never worked with such an unprofessional group of people. I knew going into it, the hall was going to be expensive but I wasn't prepared for all the extra costs that would come on top of that. I was lied to about additional costs on linens. I figured it out when they gave me their price, which was a bit higher than what I had calculated. When confronted about it they told me I must have misunderstood them. They would tell me I could do something and then turn around and say that I couldn't. They are almost impossible to get ahold of. I will never recommend them to anyone, friend or enemy. They were the center of my stress during the entire process.