Thunderbird Chapel

The only beautiful indoor wedding venue in OK that gives you the perks of an outside wedding! Those windows! We had our wedding here in August last year! What a truly beautiful place. The staff did absolutely everything. They made my wedding day a breeze, so I could truly relish its magic! Such an amazing place I almost want to keep it all to myself! I find myself wanting to return, just to feel the magic of that day again.

I was told I could invite 130 people to my reception and 120 people showed. Trust me when I tell you that the reception hall DOES NOT accommodate 120 people comfortably, much less 130. There was no room to dance or move about the room. I also learned that a table and 10 chairs were pulled so 7 of our guests ATE DINNER IN THE CHAPEL. Completely unacceptable! We had place settings so imagine how those guests felt when they found their name on the table card and then there was NO place for them to sit. And as I think back on it, I remember seeing guests standing in the hall and I was thinking to myself why are they standing there? I thought to myself that it had to have been because it was 80+ degrees in the reception hall and they were getting some air, but that was a whole different issue. I am appalled and completely embarrassed. We had many people that came from half way across the country to be with us on our wedding day to celebrate and guests were treated so disrespectfully and I didn’t even know what had happened until a week after the wedding. I cannot imagine what they do about the reception space to accommodate if they actually DO have a full house of 130 because it was incredibly uncomfortable with 120. I guess the answer to that is that they just don’t and then you find out later. It’s money over quality here. If you must choose this venue for whatever may compel you to do so, invite 90 people or less. If that doesn’t suit you, find a bigger venue — this place is NOT meant for more than 90 people! Don’t let them tell you otherwise!

Everything about this place and the people who work here is incredible. We look and many venues, and not only was Thunderbird Chapel one of the nicest ones, it was also half the price or less. Sharla and staff were so, so personable and stayed on top of all the calendar deadlines and details.
***On the wedding day my cake did not arrive– Thunderbird staff liaised with the vendor, and when it turned out the vendor was not going to make it, the owner of the chapel went out and bought another cake at a local bakery. They did not charge us a dime for this.***
These are people who actually care about your wedding, and want it to be as wonderful as it is in your mind.
To Thunderbird Chapel:
You guys are consummate professionals and genuinely kind people. Thank you so much for caring for us and making sure I didn’t have to worry about a single thing on our wedding day. You went above and beyond every step of the way and made us feel right at home.
Thank you all so much!

I can’t even say enough great things about this chapel (: to start off with, it’s in a secluded location. With it’s own parking. The property has lots of BEAUTIFUL oak trees All over the property.
I first came here for my friends wedding. When I walked into the chapel, I knew that’s where I would get married. Beautiful wood floors, a BEAUTIFUL large window, and lots of windows and natural light.
I am getting married here in august. Sharla is awesome, and has been great about emailing me and calling me back, and answering all my questions. I love how this venue has a beautiful reception area too, also with lots of window and beautiful wood floors. They also have a very nice courtyard. They offer catering, and allow you to serve alcohol for a small fee. They also supply plates, glasses, silverware, and the table décor (like cloths). I looked all over and I didn’t find anywhere I loved nearly as much as this. It’s perfect!

I can’t say enough good about Thunderbird Chapel and the staff that runs it. My wife and I had our wedding there on Oct. 26 and it went off without a hitch. The location is great, being tucked away in the trees just off of highway 9. We personally loved the large open windows that allowed you and your guests to view the natural look of the outdoors while remaining comfortably inside w/​elegant décor. Since we chose to be married in the fall with the leaves changing color and it cooling off, this was important to us. Though we chose not to go all out and decorate the chapel with our own colors, flowers, etc. I’m certain that any customization request we had would not have been a problem.
Which brings me to the big reason we loved this venue. The staff at the chapel decorates for you in the chapel and reception hall, cleans up both very efficiently and quickly, and handles all the wedding and reception coordination. They work with your photographer and whomever you’ve chosen to decorate a cake for you as well as your florist and DJ if you have one (we didn’t). The staff themselves are very kind, helpful, and informative. You are reminded many times of your arrival and departure times. This is especially helpful if you are married in the afternoon time slot… which we were.
It’s worth noting that they do offer their own catering, which we used and were quite pleased with, and offer to work with an outside certified caterer too… though for a per person fee added on. It wasn’t unreasonable at all though. Everything went so well during our wedding that we ended up being an hour ahead of schedule. Since we were driving 7 hours to Galveston for a cruise honeymoon, this was good news to me.
TL;DR: It’s a fantastic, elegant venue for an unrivaled price for all the service, atmosphere, and help you receive. There’s more I could say, but at some point it becomes less of a review and more of a misplaced blog post.

I had the pleasure of helping a friend with her wedding at Thunderbird this weekend. I had never been to an event here and I was so impressed. The chapel itself is a beautiful way to bring the outdoors in with huge windows alongside the chapel, which was built to accomodate the old-​growth trees that surround it. Across a beautiful courtyard is a large reception hall, bride and groom dressing rooms large enough to accomodate a group, guest restrooms, and a large catering kitchen. Add a fair amount of close parking and plenty of parking on the grounds, and you really have a wonderful place for a wedding or other important ceremony.
I also love that this little place is far enough out of the city to make it feel like a destination, but close enough that you can easily have guests stay in Oklahoma City or Norman and enjoy all the amenities of a nice hotel, good restaurants, etc.
I feel like I can review this part fairly as well, since I was helping all morning leading up to the wedding, but the event staff was helpful, polite, and efficient. They were well-​staffed to handle a group of our size, and had thought of everything. When I help with special events, I roll with a kit with everything from zip ties and flash drives to power strips, duct tape, and all manner of other things, but I didn’t need it at all. They had it all figured out and I just got to enjoy myself. If you’re planning a wedding or other large-​scale event, I think you should check it out.

After what felt like an exhaustive internet search to check out all possible ceremony and reception venues, I seemed to keep coming back to Thunderbird Chapel. I didn’t have a home church with a building suitable for a wedding and the idea of holding the ceremony and reception at two different locations didn’t appeal to me as most of my family and other guests would be coming from out of state for the wedding. Once we finally narrowed it down to a place that could host both ceremony and reception, Thunderbird rose to the top. We visited and fell in love. The chapel’s soaring ceilings, wood interior, and windows looking out onto Oklahoma greenery were simple and natural but very elegant. The attached reception area had room for everything necessary… tables, chairs, buffet line, and a dance floor! The package included a day of the wedding coordinator, décor & clean up in the reception area, and a $ 300 cake voucher at one of three vendors. There were no strange and unnecessary things in the package to up the cost (things we saw at similar places were ice sculptures, limos, chocolate covered strawberries… nice but not necessary).We booked immediately without visiting any other venues and began the 11 month countdown to our wedding. The staff were very responsive to phone calls and e-​mails and had great insight for all of my questions. Leslie was especially helpful and fielded my stressed out calls the week of the wedding about random things like whether she thought there would be a tornado on my wedding day. The rehearsal the day before the wedding was run very efficiently and yet was still fun. On the day of the wedding, I felt a great sense of peace and excitement as soon as I got to the chapel because I knew everything would be ok from there on out. Our coordinator was careful to check in with us about all the details and helped everyone know where to be when. The décor in the reception area was just as we had asked it to be and looked lovely. I was so glad that my female relatives didn’t get stuck staying up till midnight working on table décor! The only hitch in an otherwise perfect wedding was that our recessional song was begun too early and drowned out a special benediction written for us that was being read by our pastor. It was likely due to lack of very specific communication with the sound tech about the exact moment it needed to start, but he played it again at the right time and we skipped down the aisle in glee. We did not use Thunderbird’s catering service because my husband and I are both foodies. I was not impressed with the menu choices, so we used an outside caterer. However, a friend who was married here used their service and said the food tasted good. It would probably be a good choice for budget conscious brides who aren’t as interested in a super cool menu. Because we used an outside caterer, we had to pay $ 2 per person. However, this covered the use of the dishes, silverware, and glasses from the chapel so it wasn’t a big deal to us. The Thunderbird Chapel wait staff seemed to be interacting well with our caterer’s staff, and there were plenty of people to refill drinks or clear plates. Two things that I was a bit worried about were the strict space restrictions on guests and the time limit of five hours. However, each of these turned out fine for us. Thunderbird Chapel can only seat 130 people and charge a fee per person above that. I was so worried that we would be close to or above our limit. But as all the wedding experts tell you, there were people who canceled on us in the last week or two and then quite a few no shows the day of the wedding. So we were well under our RSVP list of 120 guests. Also, we had the chapel from 5 – 10 on a Saturday night with the wedding starting at 7:00. Although we had the option to purchase another hour, we hoped we would be able to squeeze everything into our allotted time. By choosing to see my groom before the wedding, we breezed through our post-​ceremony pictures in 20 minutes and had plenty of time to eat, greet, and dance before leaving about 9:40pm. The staff were wonderful and helpful with anything we needed, including bustling my dress. Our deposit was waiting for us when we got home from the honeymoon, which was a pleasant surprise. Overall, I would recommend this venue for anyone who is confident that 130 spots would hold their nearest and dearest family and friends.