We’re curious by nature, and twenty years of standing at the edges of weddings has trained that curiosity on one question: what does this particular space do to the people inside it?

Usually we’re asking that about a ceremony site. With the Charmant we started asking it about a morning. A wedding party getting ready in a standard hotel room produces one kind of morning. Two beds taking up most of the floor, one window, and a bathroom mirror doing all the work while eight people take turns in front of it. A wedding party getting ready in a room with tall factory windows and original brick produces a different morning entirely. People spread out. Nobody’s waiting for the good corner, because there are several. The room stops being a place you’re stuck and starts being a place you’d want to stay a while.

That difference shows up in the photographs more than almost anything else about a wedding day, and it’s why we send couples here.

We walked this building before it was a hotel

The floors weren’t finished the first time we were inside. We were just curious, the way we are about most buildings, and we walked through it thinking what we always think, which is that somebody should get married in here. That was well before anyone was taking bookings.

The history is worth knowing, because it explains the rooms. The building went up in 1898 as the Joseph B. Funke Candy Company factory, with an addition on the east end in 1905, and it made candy until 1933. After that it spent decades as a furniture store, right up until 2013. Don and Roxanne Weber bought it, put around $30 million into a restoration that kept the maple flooring, the timber beams and the exposed brick, and opened it as a hotel in the fall of 2015. Even the name is a candy reference. Charmant was Funke’s premium line of chocolates, and it also happens to be the French word for charming.

The site itself is where La Crosse started. A fur trader named Nathan Myrick built a log cabin here in 1842, and there’s a plaque on the property that says so. The hotel picked up a MICHELIN Key in 2024, which is an award given for architecture, design and character rather than for thread count.

The light, which is the actual reason we recommend it

The light in those rooms is some of the best we get to work with all year. That’s not a small claim from two people who shoot most of their weddings outdoors.

It comes down to the windows. Factory buildings were built tall and glazed to work without electric light, and nobody who restored this one covered that up. What you get is big, high, soft window light landing on brick and wood instead of on beige drywall, which means the room contributes something to the photograph rather than needing to be cropped out of it. Getting-ready photos in a typical hotel room are an exercise in finding the one workable spot and staying there. Here we’re choosing between options.

One practical note we’d give any couple: the light is best in the morning and it moves. If your timeline has flexibility, earlier is better, and it’s worth asking us which side of the building your room is on when you book.

The suites, and why two of them matters

The suites are big enough for a full wedding party. We’ve done mornings here with one suite for the bridesmaids and another for the groomsmen, which solves a problem that wrecks more timelines than couples expect.

At most venues, one side of the wedding party gets the good room and the other side gets a spare bedroom, a church basement, or somebody’s truck. That means a photographer either splits up or drives across town, and one of those groups ends up with noticeably worse photographs. Two good rooms in the same building removes the whole problem. Nobody’s driving anywhere, both halves of the party get real light, and the morning stays in one place.

Four of the rooms are top-floor suites with a wrap-around outdoor balcony looking over downtown and the Mississippi. That balcony is more useful than it sounds. It’s an outdoor portrait location you can reach without leaving the building, which matters a great deal in a Wisconsin January, in the rain, or when the timeline has collapsed and nobody has twenty minutes to spare.

You can actually get married here

Most couples treat the Charmant as the place the morning happens and then leave for the wedding. It works that way, and two of the three weddings we’ve shot here did exactly that. But the hotel books ceremonies too, and for a small guest list it’s a genuine option rather than a compromise.

The Serenada is the room built for it. At 613 square feet it takes around 32 seated or 40 standing, and the hotel lists wedding ceremonies and receptions among the things it’s designed for. If your guest list is under about forty people, you can hold the ceremony and the dinner in the same building your guests are already sleeping in.

The Private Dining Room inside the restaurant seats up to 14, which makes it a good rehearsal dinner for a small party or the dinner itself for a true micro wedding.

The Rooftop Terrace has city views, gas fireplaces and canvas sails, and it’s bookable when the weather cooperates. Treat it as a warm-months option with a real backup plan, not as a guaranteed ceremony site.

The Parlour is the coffee bar on the first floor, and it’s where Lauren and Jeff got married. Exposed brick, more the feel of a cafe than a ballroom, and their ten guests sat at the tables. As far as we were told, theirs was the first ceremony held in the building since it reopened as a hotel. It’s the right room for a wedding of ten or fifteen. It is not the right room for sixty, and nobody should ask it to be.

It also works for engagement photos

Worth knowing if you’re not getting married here at all: the building is as good for an engagement session as it is for a wedding morning, and it asks a lot less of you.

The argument is the same one about the light. Tall factory windows, brick and wood, and a lobby with a two-story glass wall of candy company memorabilia in it. Put Riverside Park a block one way and the cobblestones out front, and a whole session fits inside two blocks without a single frame repeating itself. That matters most in January and February, when most of the outdoor spots we’d normally use are frozen or bare, and a couple still wants photos that don’t look like everyone else’s.

One thing to sort out before you pick a time: the hotel does want to know about photography happening on the property, and there may be a fee for a session if you aren’t staying there. Call the front desk or the events team first rather than turning up with a camera. We’re glad to make that call with you.

What’s within a block

Riverside Park is a block away, on the Mississippi, in the summer the International Gardens are spectacular, and in December it’s full of Christmas lights, which turns a dark winter evening into a portrait location instead of a problem. The cobblestone street in front of the hotel throws reflections back when it’s wet. The Freighthouse, an 1880 railway freight house on the National Register that’s been a steak and seafood restaurant since 1978, is a couple of blocks over and runs private rooms for groups from about ten upward.

The Nature Place, which is one of our favorite ceremony venues in the city, is five minutes away. That pairing comes up often enough that it’s worth naming: get ready at the Charmant, marry at the Nature Place, and nobody spends the day in a car.

Who this is right for

The Charmant is right for couples who care how the morning looks, for wedding parties coming in from out of town who’d rather be under one roof than scattered across three hotels, for anyone marrying elsewhere in La Crosse who wants a base with some character to it, and for small weddings of forty or fewer that want the whole day in one building.

It’s probably not right for a guest list over about forty hoping to hold the ceremony and reception here, for couples set on an outdoor ceremony with a guaranteed rain plan on site, or for anyone wanting a single venue package that covers everything from chairs to a dance floor. This is a hotel that hosts weddings well. It isn’t a barn with a coordinator and a rate sheet, and it doesn’t pretend to be.

Weddings we’ve photographed at the Charmant

• Lauren + Jeff’s winter micro wedding — ten guests, a ceremony in the Parlour after dark, and portraits lit entirely by Riverside Park’s Christmas lights and the hotel itself.
• Nora + Akram at the Nature Place — a multicultural ceremony blending Christian and Muslim tradition, with the morning at the Charmant beforehand.
• Maggie + Aksel’s Norwegian backyard wedding — bridesmaids in one suite, groomsmen in another, then out to family land in a coulee outside town.

Questions we get about the Charmant

Can you get married at the Charmant Hotel?
Yes. The Serenada is the main ceremony and reception room, taking roughly 32 seated or 40 standing. The Parlour and the Rooftop Terrace can also be booked, and the Private Dining Room inside the restaurant seats up to 14. Confirm current capacities and rates with the hotel’s events team.

How many guests can the Charmant hold for a wedding?
Around 40. It’s a genuine small-wedding venue, not a large one, and a guest list past about forty is better served elsewhere in La Crosse.

Is the Charmant a good place to get ready on a wedding day?
It’s our favorite in La Crosse. The tall original factory windows give some of the best natural light we work with all year, the brick and woodwork mean the room adds to the photographs instead of needing to be avoided, and the suites are large enough that a full wedding party can spread out.

Can the wedding party get ready in separate rooms?
Yes, and we recommend it. Booking two suites lets both halves of the party get ready in good light in the same building, with no one driving across town.

Can you take engagement photos at the Charmant Hotel?
The building works well for it, particularly in winter when outdoor locations are limited. The same window light, brick and woodwork that make it good for getting ready make it good for a session, and Riverside Park and the cobblestone street are both within a block. Check with the hotel first, since they want to know about photography on the property and there may be a fee if you aren’t staying there.

What’s the building’s history?
It was built in 1898 as the Joseph B. Funke Candy Company factory and made candy until 1933, then spent decades as a furniture store until 2013. A roughly $30 million restoration turned it into a hotel that opened in fall 2015, keeping the maple floors, timber beams and exposed brick. Charmant was the name of Funke’s premium chocolate line.

Where do you take wedding photos near the Charmant?
Riverside Park with it’t International Garden is a block away on the Mississippi. The cobblestone street in front of the hotel is good when it’s wet, the top-floor suites have wrap-around balconies over downtown and the river, and the building’s own interiors do a lot of work on their own.

If you’re getting married at the Charmant, or just staying there the night before, send us a note. We know this building well.

 

See the Charmant in winter in Lauren + Jeff’s micro wedding. The hotel is one of our picks for the best intimate wedding venues in Wisconsin, and it’s on our list of the best Wisconsin wedding venues. More of our downtown La Crosse work is on our La Crosse wedding photographers page.