diff --git a/crates/catalog/s3tables/src/catalog.rs b/crates/catalog/s3tables/src/catalog.rs
index 3606fac99a..a6ac60bc79 100644
--- a/crates/catalog/s3tables/src/catalog.rs
+++ b/crates/catalog/s3tables/src/catalog.rs
@@ -448,9 +448,9 @@ impl Catalog for S3TablesCatalog {
             .await
             .map_err(from_aws_sdk_error)?;
 
-        // prepare metadata location. the warehouse location is generated by s3tables catalog,
+        // prepare table location. the warehouse location is generated by s3tables catalog,
         // which looks like: s3://e6c9bf20-991a-46fb-kni5xs1q2yxi3xxdyxzjzigdeop1quse2b--table-s3
-        let metadata_location = match &creation.location {
+        let table_location = match &creation.location {
             Some(_) => {
                 return Err(Error::new(
                     ErrorKind::DataInvalid,
@@ -467,16 +467,17 @@ impl Catalog for S3TablesCatalog {
                     .send()
                     .await
                     .map_err(from_aws_sdk_error)?;
-                let warehouse_location = get_resp.warehouse_location().to_string();
-                MetadataLocation::new_with_table_location(warehouse_location).to_string()
+                get_resp.warehouse_location().to_string()
             }
         };
 
         // write metadata to file
-        creation.location = Some(metadata_location.clone());
+        creation.location = Some(table_location.clone());
         let metadata = TableMetadataBuilder::from_table_creation(creation)?
             .build()?
             .metadata;
+        let metadata_location =
+            MetadataLocation::new_with_table_location(table_location).to_string();
         metadata.write_to(&self.file_io, &metadata_location).await?;
 
         // update metadata location