If you’re looking for an event space with an intriguing history, natural light, and pure uniqueness, Machine Shop in Minneapolis might be the perfect fit for you! This versatile venue has an amazing team that is always great to work with. We interviewed the venue’s Sales Manager, Sheridan Wagner, to give you an inside look at this unique Minneapolis venue.
How old is your building, what is its history and when did you start doing events?
The Pillsbury A-Mill was once the largest working mill in the world, and our building was an integral part of its success. State of the art, modern equipment was produced and repaired within these walls. Reopened in 2016, this historic machinery shop has been carefully restored with the specific needs of a high-end private event space in mind, keeping the original 1916 architectural details intact, while introducing modern luxury in this industrial space for all types of events. Just as the Pillsbury machine shop was an important player in establishing Minneapolis, Historic Machine Shop is a cornerstone for the city of Minneapolis, as a host of extraordinary and glamorous events.
What do you think the best feature of your venue is?
Our movable truss that goes down the center of our ceiling! It offers our clients endless decor options and our vendors easy access to creating ceiling installations in our space! It also is a cost saver since the client/vendors don’t need to rent a lift.
What do you think is the biggest challenge of working in your space, and what are some best practices for it?
I think the biggest challenge is our booking schedule as we want to ensure our clients get the proper attention leading up to their day. Often at booking I am making sure to make note of the clients request for something like a rehearsal in the space and just wanting to make sure we are able to get things on the calendar for our clients to get their vendors in the space to chat through all the options for decor and other elements of their big day. We are usually pretty booked up throughout the entire year so making sure to get ahead of that with our clients and getting things on the calendar for them to come in the space and plan!
What do you think is the perfect number of guests for your venue, assuming everyone will be sitting at a table at one time? What is the benefit of having this number of guests?
Since we are a dual level space and have so much flexibility with set up options we really can accommodate a large range of guest counts. We have hosted beautiful intimate weddings of 50 and large weddings of 300. We have even had some receptions get up to 350-400 guests!
What is the most interesting thing someone has done at a wedding at your venue?
We love animals at Machine Shop so we get to see a lot of our clients’ pets in the space! Typically we are seeing dogs but we have had two llamas this past Summer greeting guests and a mini horse was a ‘flower girl”.
Do you require a professional planner or day of coordinator at your venue? Why or why not? If you don’t have one, or have one that doesn’t do a good job, how does it affect you as a venue and the wedding as a whole?
We do require a day of coordinator. We can’t stress enough how helpful those planners are and how necessary they are when hosting a wedding. They do so much for the client and aid in helping our venue manager/staff make sure the day goes off without a hitch!
Are you booking this unique Minneapolis venue for your wedding or event, but you still need your planner? You’re in luck! Our team loves working at the Machine Shop and would be happy to chat with you. Send us a message to see if we’re the right fit!
