Wedding Photographers & Videographers at Bayfront Convention Center, Erie

A wedding at the Bayfront Convention Center puts your celebration right on the water in Erie, with Presque Isle Bay on three sides of the building. The best wedding photos here happen out on the Sunset Terrace, a large outdoor space that looks across the bay toward Lake Erie. Plan your portraits for the hour before sunset and your photographer and videographer will have the water and the evening sky behind you.

This is the largest banquet venue in northwest Pennsylvania, so it suits a big wedding reception best. The Grand Ballroom hosts events of up to 1,000 guests, and the Great Hall can seat 2,000 for a banquet. For a smaller crowd, there are 15 meeting rooms that hold anywhere from 25 to 385 people, which can work for a rehearsal dinner or a wedding-weekend brunch. The terrace is a natural place for cocktail hour while you finish your pictures.

Food comes from the center's own culinary team, led by an executive chef, and there is a dedicated wedding menu. Your guests can stay close by, too. The center connects to the Sheraton Erie Bayfront Hotel and the Courtyard by Marriott Erie Bayfront, with nearly 400 rooms between them, so nobody needs to drive after the last dance. In a room this size, ask where the band or DJ will set up and where the toasts will happen, so your wedding videographer can plan for clear sound.

• Contact the event planners early to check your date and see the floor plans.
• Walk the terrace and your reception room with your photographer before your wedding day.
• Ask about photo and video guidelines and parking when you visit.

A little about the Bayfront Convention Center

The Bayfront Convention Center opened to the public with an open house in August 2007, and the attached hotel followed in April 2008. It is run by Erie Events, the group that also manages several of the city's other event venues.