Varsity Theater Reviews

"This was the best wedding I've ever been to, including my own." "Best wedding ever." "Amazing venue." "Wow." "This food is incredible. Wedding food shouldn't taste this good!"
These are some of the things we heard from our guests that attended our wedding ceremony and reception at the Varsity Theater, located in Dinkytown in Minneapolis, Minnesota. If you've driven past the venue, which is a regular concert venue for indie and other unique music acts, you've seen the marquee. But on Your night, you get to see your name and wedding theme or phrase up on the marquee, which is included in the venue price!
While it is not one of the most "affordable" wedding venues in Minneapolis, you get the most bang for your buck. And what a bang! The venue is so unique looking, that you don't need to spend a lot of money (if any at all) bringing in decorations or flowers. Plus, the Varsity Theater has so many beautiful props, linens, and decorations that you can use free of charge, which is what we did. You get ten hours of free wedding planning (Joel did a fabulous job), so they can handle all of the details that you would normally need to hire a separate wedding planner for. And because it is a concert venue and they handle events year-round, they handle all of the linens, setup and take down, lighting and sound. With a live band, it becomes an experience like no other. Last but not least, the venue is owned by the Loring Pasta bar, so they will cater the entire event. We did a buffet, s'more bar, and late night snack with absolutely rave reviews. I personally have not been to a wedding with better food.
Even before the wedding, anytime that we or our guests would tell someone that we were having the wedding at the Varsity Theater, people (often time complete strangers) would rave about the time they went to a wedding there and how amazing it was. It is obvious that the Varsity Theater consistently lives up to its reviews. I know we couldn't have picked a better venue!

The Varsity Theater was PERFECT! It was exactly what my husband and I were looking for! Fun and unique, and the staff were wonderful to work with! We keep hearing compliments about how different and beautiful the experience was from our guests!

We hit the jackpot with Varsity. Sure, it's not cheap - but it was totally worth it. Jamie helped us figure out a date and went over all the fine details of the contract with us. She told us we would work more extensively with our captain in the month before the wedding. I'm very...project oriented, so I wanted answers sooner. Jamie was extremely patient and good natured and met us to go over all my questions. When we got our captain, Charisse, we finalized everything else. Charisse even put up with my parents randomly showing up to our meeting (they were early for the tasting to follow) and smoothly dealt with everyone. She and I coordinated everything over email. We were always welcome to come to Varisty to see it being prepped for a wedding or just to remind ourselves what the space was like. They were always willing to try to make what I was asking for work. Charisse even volunteered to go pick up a case of mead (weird beer request) for us. Since I was doing all the flowers, she pulled a selection of vases they had in storage (I asked for just a mix of bud/small vases with some bigger ones for the guestbook and escort tables) and lent them to me in advance so I could arrange the flowers right in there. I mean, she just made things easy! Charisse and her team handled ALL the venue set up according to what we discussed and my instructions I dropped off the night before. The food was delicious, and all the coordination was completely handled by her and her team. It all made for a very relaxed bride - we were able to just kick back and have fun at the wedding!

We cannot say enough good things about our wedding experience at Loring Pasta Bar and Varsity Theater. We had both our rehearsal dinner + ceremony and reception at these venues and it was so nice to know our ceremony coordinator (Kimberly) and our reception coordinator (Luci) had everything under control from the first day we met them until even after the wedding. The location of the two venues made it easy for guests to walk straight to the reception rather than dealing with parking twice. The fact that we didn't have to worry about setting up or taking down (tables, dinner, decor, etc.) was worth all the money in the world. Our entire family and friends were always in the moment, leaving the rest up to the great staff at LPB and Varsity. Thank you for making our wedding so easy and perfect! Love, M&A

We LOVED having our rehearsal dinner here. The upstairs is incredibly gorgeous, with plenty of space for a LOT of people. The food is also incredible, of course :).

Loring Pasta Bar was able to accomodate out small budget while making sure people had more than enough to eat. We have had so many people call and e-mail us to tell us how excellent the food was. They go above and beyond to create a beautiful layout for the Buffet while providing out of the box dinner ideas. Leave your usual wedding dry chicken/fish at home, Loring Pasta Bar delivers perfection.

We couldn't have asked for a better reception venue. The space is beautiful and unique. They provide all of the linens, chairs, center pieces (candelabras), lighting, sound techs, bartenders, staff, and an event captain. You get to have your name on the marquee outside—and be sure to get the large posters made for the window!
Everyone was so nice and accommodating—we truly didn't have to worry about anything the day of the reception. Our event captain was Kimberly, and she did a great job and had an awesome attitude, and always responded to emails in a timely manner.
We had a band in this space which made it even more fun, since it's a concert venue as well. The dinner buffet from the Loring tasted great!
We had our reception on a Sunday, which is much cheaper than Friday and Saturday.

Charisse and her team did a fantastic job on the wedding. Everyone is still talking about it and I love going through the pictures. My husband even said the other day that, "we will never have venue remorse, there is no place better." I agree. The food was excellent, the decor top notch, the staff amazing and the planning was so easy. You have so many decor options you can throw away your decor budget (you don't even need flowers) and still have an amazing space. When they say, "let us throw you a party," they mean it. Everyone was so easy to work with and things ran smooth the entire night. I would do all over again in a hearbeat just for the amazing experience we and our guests had at The Varsity Theater. If you want a worry free event, The Varsity Theater is the place to go.

AMAZING! I'm so obsessed with this venue. Our wedding would not have been as fabulous and as fun as it was if we would have held it anywhere else. The staff was phenomenal. The venue and ambience was beyond words. If you are looking to have a fun/party vibe for your wedding reception I would check out the Varsity Theater!

We planned our wedding from out of state and would never have been able to pull off such an awesome wedding if it weren't for the loring/varsity combo and Liz! She is amazing! From the ceremony to the reception everything was seamless...it really was perfect! Tip for future couples: they underestimate the bar bill (I've heard this from other couples) so just a heads up, you should double or triple whatever is written initially (even if it is just beer and wine). We were told during dinner that we hit their estimation for the whole night which was a shock for me but it all turned out okay. Just make sure to give yourself some budget room! That was the only shock I had all night, our wedding really was perfect! Thank you thank you Liz!

We are so grateful that we chose this venue!

Go here for your event!

Great service - so personable and urban cool... everyone here is great. The venue is OMGosh amazing and the team will decorate and set up according to your needs... then they will throw in an artistic flair that will surprise and delight your socks off.

Great lighting and sound and twinkle lights to boot :-).

Jamie, Joel, Rob, Charisse - they are the best!

Go here for your event!

The Varsity Theater really was a one stop reception shop for us. They offer catering from their sister venue, The Loring Pasta Bar. Their event staff is top notch. All of our needs were taken care of all night long. Our event captain, Luci, came to find us before all of our events (cake cutting, first dance, bouquet toss, etc) to give us a heads up so we didn't accidentally skip anything because we were talking. They told us when we first met with them that they enjoyed throwing fabulous parties for people and that's exactly what happened. We took advantage of their 'Shoestring Sunday Wedding Special' so we were able to get an absolutely fantastic venue at a sweet price. The reception was so unique and well coordinated, our quests will be talking about our wedding for years to come.

Amazing Amazing Amazing. We did our Ceremony at the Loring Pasta Bar, then went to the Varsity Theater for the reception. Everyone and everything was perfect. My husband and I are in the industry and tend to over critique, but there was no need. Our Captains, Todd & Cherise, were incredible with helping us with timelines, and decorations, music, and food. They were a pleasure to work with. Jamie was also just a wonderful person to work with. Not a thing went wrong. All of our guests said it was the most fun they've had in a while, ESPECIALLY at a wedding. Not to mention the food was so yummy. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't change a thing. Thank you so much for everything, our special day was incredible.

I recently had my wedding reception at the Varsity. I was looking for something that was different and would really wow people and the Varsity delivered. The service we received was amazing, the evening was stress free and so much fun. Our wedding was two weeks ago and people are still talking about it. The price is great (they don't up-charge for alcohol like more reception venues do). We had an open bar (top shelf included) and actually received a check back because we didn't drink enough (with 200 adults in attendance). The staff has an superb eye for detail and do more of the decorations themselves (all included in the price). If you're looking for a traditional type venue this might not be the place for you, but I promise the Varsity will not disappoint!

The food for our wedding came from the Loring Pasta Bar.....AWESOME!!!! Usually you go to weddings and get the same old "wedding food". Not here, the food is made fresh as people eat it. You get a wide variety of apps, salads, pastas, and entrees for the price. I would recommend them to anyone.

The Loring Pasta Bar and Varsity Theater were phenomenal for our wedding ceremony and reception. The venues were beautiful, the staff was professional, the food was excellent, and everything was handled for us. Our guests were blown away! I highly recommend both venues.

Beautiful venue, exceptional staff! The Varsity Theater will provide you with a truly magical wedding reception. You may pay a bit more per plate then other venues but you will save money in the end because you don't have to spend a dime on centerpieces, linens, & decor. The atmosphere/character of this venue is beautiful just by itself. All linens and candelabras are included in the fee, and the food catered from the Loring Pasta Bar is amazing. Lucy, one of the wedding coordinators is the top notch! She goes out of her way to make your wedding reception the very best! Whether you have a band, DJ or bring your own ipod, your guests are sure to have the time of their lives.

I am so happy that we chose The Varsity as our reception venue. It is such a unique, gorgeous, and FUN venue. My coordinators were so great on the day of making sure that everything ran smoothly and everyone had a great time. We have received so many compliments and comments from guests that our wedding was the best wedding they had ever been to! If you are going with The Varsity - get a live band!!!!!

Everyone at the Loring was wonderful and extremely helpful during our planning process. They helped with timelines, order of events & were on top of every detail.

We had so many compliments on our ceremony location (the loring pasta bar) and our reception location (the varsity theater) - both were absolutely gorgeous!

The main thing that I really appreciated was that once we had told the folks at the Varsity & Loring what we wanted, we didn't have to worry about it on our wedding day. Everything happened just like we wanted it to.

We were having second thoughts the week before the wedding as the Loring & Varsity are a bit higher than we really wanted to pay, but the wedding was so seamless it was well worth every penny.

I only gave them a 3 for "responsiveness" just because it would take a day or two to hear back with questions via email or phone. However, once we did hear back from them they were fabulous, polite and answered all of our questions.

My husband and I had a pretty long engagement - almost 2 years - but we knew right from the beginning that we wanted to have our wedding at the Varsity Theater. My first contact with Loring/Varsitiy Catering and Events was incredibly helpful in the preliminary processes, providing information and quotes and answering questions, so the process of reserving the venue and paying the deposit was very smooth. However, there was a very long gap in communication between securing the venue and planning the actual wedding and because there was some turnover in staff, there was some confusion. They also don't allow you to do your tasting or start meeting with your event coordinators until about a month before the wedding and I was raring to go much sooner.

However, once I started communicating with our event coordinators, things were great. We worked with Liz Nahm in the early stages of planning and she was incredibly helpful and flexible while we worked out the confusing details from the staff turnover. Kimberly Seymour was our main contact and main coordinator and once we met with her (and Ali Goldberg, who was our ceremony coordinator at the Loring), my husband and I started to feel much more confident that everything was going to be amazing. Indeed, Kimberly did a great job of getting in touch with my other vendors to prepare and directing the staff to help set up the other small decorations that I had put together (photo booth props, escort cards & wedding favors).

The only issue with the ceremony at the Loring was that the sound system kept giving feedback and it was distracting and hard to hear the officiant and my husband and I as I read our vows. I was so in the moment that I didn't really care, but some of our guests complained about that. We had attended a wedding at the Loring the week before our own and at that one the sound wasn't even working for half the ceremony, so I would advise testing out the sound system during the rehearsal.

The Varsity Theater is by far the coolest venue for a wedding reception. I have received nothing but rave reviews for the cool factor as well as the food. People cannot stop talking about how great the food was. I am very happy with the service I received and highly recommend The Varsity Theater site and event staff.

The Varsity Theater is beautiful and the staff is accommodating. If you want a place where you don't have to worry about the details, this is a great venue. The price tag is somewhat high, but really worth every dollar you will spend. They will take excellent care of you!

We fell in love with the Varsity theater because the decor and ambiance is dramatic yet inviting, and since it's already so lavish, it didn't require a lot of extras (flowers, decorations, centerpieces, etc) that we didn't want to spend money on. The staff is great, although you may have to chase after them for an answer sometimes. I got the feeling they may be a little understaffed at times. But on the big day, they were right on target with everything we needed. This is a great venue that includes everything - technician, wedding planner, caterer, decorator - all in one. The techs were wonderful to work with and the catering is done by the Loring Pasta Bar, which I probably don't have to tell you if you're familiar with Minneapolis is hands-down fabulous. Our day was perfect and a large part of that is because of the venue. We'd do it all over again if we could.

This is a stunning reception venue. What I liked most is that I did not need to spend time or money on decor. Their standard linens and table decor are gorgeous. We had a live band and it felt like we were at a concert. My only complaint is that our coordinators were difficult to reach and slow to respond, but when it came to the day everything went smoothly and according to plan, with little effort on my part.