Venue with a beautiful rooftop & downtown location
The Milwaukee Athletic Club was started by a group of people that got together as a club and built the beautiful downtown building in 1917 from the ground up. The original purpose was for house club functions – like social gatherings, athletic events, and a hotel space and it stayed that way until they went public for events in 2010.
Recognized as one of the best city clubs in the nation, the Milwaukee Athletic Club is a multiple Five-Star Platinum Award recipient. Members of the MAC enjoy not only the benefits of a gracious clubhouse in the heart of Wisconsin’s largest city but also a modern facility fully equipped with surroundings conducive to business, social engagements, and events.
The Interview
Meet the Milwaukee Athletic Club Event Professionals!
Marie Johnson – Wedding and Events Manager, Nadia Olker – Director of Sales and Marketing, and Deanna O’Loughlin – Sales Coordinator
NADIA
What’s your adult beverage of choice?: I’m a classic Cosmo girl
What’s your junk food of choice: Cupcakes
What’s your favorite animal?: Dogs
What music makes up your favorite playlist? OR the best concert you’ve ever been to?: It’s an impossible questions for me. I’m a huge music person. I went to 2 concerts just last night. I go to live music all the time. I like weird obscure music that nobody knows. Right now, I’m listening to a lot of indy-alternative-folk. I go through phases.
Tell me about your family & friends – what do you like to do together?: Definitely music first for me. Any live music, [we like] to go see. And I have a really big family, so I spend a lot of time with them too.
MARIE
What’s your adult beverage of choice?: Amaretto Sours
What’s your junk food of choice/guilty pleasure?: We are pretty into junk food here. We share a snack cabinet.
What’s your favorite animal?: Baby rabbits
What is the best concert you’ve ever been to?: I just saw Janelle Monae. It was amazing!
Tell me about your family & friends – what do you like to do together?: I’m such a TV watcher. I know I should be embarrassed, but I’m not. I also spend a lot of time with my family at the pool during the summer. We also are going to a lot of concerts.
DEANNA
What’s your adult beverage of choice?: Moscato
What’s your junk food of choice/guilty pleasure?: Ghirardelli caramel filled Chocolate Squares
What’s your favorite animal?: Panther
What is the best concert you’ve ever been to?: The Beach Boys, I’ve been 2 or 3 times at their concert with my dad, he loves them.
Tell me about your family & friends – what do you like to do together?: I like to travel. Last year, I took my dad on a cruise for his Christmas present. We went to the Bahamas. That was his dream – to go on a cruise. I also like to relax at home after a big wedding day.
A view from the MAC rooftop
What type of couples are drawn to the Milwaukee Athletic Club for their weddings?
We have the best of both worlds here. The Grand Ballroom is so elegant and so extravagant. It is a very classic timeless feel, kinda has the Great Gatsby feel to it since it was built in 1917. Then we also have the rooftop element which is very modern, it’s got an exposed brick, Edison lights and an incredible view to downtown Milwaukee. It’s an open-air rooftop which there are not too many of. Between these two aspects for a wedding, we kinda hit both ends of the spectrum. People who looking for really classic and elegant and people who are looking for something a little bit modern.
Favorite trend you are seeing for weddings this year?
Nadia: I love the mix of metallics. People are mixing up brushed gold with silver, and antique brass. I love that effect.
Marie: We’re seeing a lot of lush greens. It pops very well. People’s instinct when they come to the Grand Ballroom is to go with all the blush and gold tones, but that pop of green contrasting to that makes such a high impact.
Deanna: I have a lot of the fall weddings coming up, and they are using maroon flowers with a lot of greenery. It fits so well into this space!
One thing every bride or groom should know before their wedding?
I would say it’s very important to have a coordinator on site that is assisting you. There a lot of wedding that are kinda do it yourself and that can be great. But you have to be so hyper organized. And it’s really stressful when it all goes down the wire a few weeks before the wedding. That time frame is when we really step in to assist the bride and groom. Just relax and know that we are taking care of everything here.
What’s your favorite dish on the menu?
We love our food. Our chef is honestly incredible here. I’ve done a lot of weddings in Milwaukee and this is honestly the best banquet food I’ve ever experienced, it’s really amazing.
Nadia: I would probably go with the fillet. It’s always cooked perfectly here. You don’t even need a steak knife.
Marie: I’m always so impressed with the food we have here. The presentation of it – it’s very approachable for people but at the same time, there is always something a little extra in there that keeps it from being super basic or bland. Our beef short ribs are very good. It’s got really great cranberry sprouts and sweet potato, always so satisfying and cooked perfectly.
Deanna: I think that goat cheese gnocchi is really good and presented very well. We have 5 or 6 vegetarian options.
What services are available in-house?
All food and beverage is in-house. We also have day-of coordinators on staff. The event manager is basically walking couples through complementary menu tasting, all the way up the day of the event and present the whole time, assisting with the set-up and breakdown. We also have hotel rooms on- site and we offer shuttle services.
Fabulous features of The Milwaukee Athletic Club
A lot of people are really surprised that we have hotel rooms on-site. And I would say that there is so much event space here. We include a separate room for a cocktail hour inside, and then guests move into the ballroom for dinner, so they get to experience a lot of different parts of the club. People can have a ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception all on site. People can have that much versatility within the building. Each one of the spaces here has its own historical context. You walk into one room and it feels completely different from another.
What is your favorite thing about weddings at the club?
Marie & Deanna: The best part is seeing how it finally comes together, working with the couples for months, pouring over a lot of small details, helping to calm them if they panicked, helping them to make decisions if they don’t know which direction to go. To see how all that comes together in one big day, to see how happy everyone is and to get experience each wedding individually is a great reward. It makes it feel totally worthwhile. It’s fun to be a part of it.
Nadia: I’d say my favorite part of the wedding here at MAC is standing at the door, whether it’s a grand ballroom wedding or the rooftop, and listening the guests gasp as they enter. This building is still such a hidden gem in Milwaukee, not a lot of people have been here. So when the guests come into the room and it’s beautifully set for a wedding, we get to hear this: “Oh my gosh, it looks amazing, I didn’t know it was here.” It’s really fun to experience that.
The Beauty
When discussing why we love photographing at the Milwaukee Athletic Club, our photographers were super enthusiastic. The view from the rooftop was a main draw – its light and dramatic city vantage points are unlike any other venue in Milwaukee. The location alone is amazing – you can wander around the Brew City’s downtown for a variety of photo locations all nearby. But inside, the ballroom casts a soft, warm light from their huge chandeliers and frescoes for an old world, romantic touch.
Learn More!
Read more about a Milwaukee Athletic Club wedding here!
Contact Nadia Olker: nolker@macwi.org or 414-274-0633
Follow them on social media!
You can always contact the Front Room Studios team to learn more about weddings at the Milwaukee Athletic Club or our wedding photography and wedding videography.
Call us (414) 294 – 0080
Email us at info@frphoto.com