Garden Wedding Ideas

Our featured "Garden Wedding for Two" venue is the Azalea Inn & Gardens, located in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia, near the famous and lovely Forsyth Park. The Inn offers colorful, year-round gardens, with 10 rooms for up to 23 guests -- just in case you decide to bring along any family or friends. You can reach them by calling 800-582-3823 or 912-236-2707, or by emailing them at Azalea.Inn@comcast.net.

Almost every major city has a botanical garden which offers walking paths, as well as educational programs. Did you know that many of these botanical gardens allow weddings on their grounds? Here are a few you might be interested in:

Desert Botanical Garden
1201 N. Galvin Parkway
Phoenix, AZ
dweisz@dbg.org

The Desert Botanical Garden is a world away from what many people imagine a botanical garden to be. After all, it is a desert botanical garden featuring cacti and succulents, herb and wildflowers.

There are a couple outdoor garden sites available for your wedding, including: The Herb Garden, which is rented for evening celebrations only with a maximum capacity of 75, and rents for $2,000 for 5 hours; and the Binns Wildflower Pavilion, for day or evening weddings, with seating up to 125 people, renting at $1,700.

There is also the Pratt Ramada, located at the highest point of the Garden, which can accommodate up to 20 people, and rents for $600 for evening weddings only.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden
1000 Washington Avenue
Brooklyn, NY

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden was founded in 1910, and is a perfect place for your garden wedding, featuring more than 10,000 different kinds of plants from around the world. You will find magical sites for your ceremony in this 52-acre garden oasis, including:

>> The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, with mirror like waterscapes
>> The Cranford Rose Garden, where tens of thousands of fragrant roses bloom in summertime
>> The Osborne Garden, featuring cascading fountain, crabapple trees and azaleas

Currently, the fee for rental of this garden is $350 for up to 50 people. For information on small wedding ceremonies without a reception, call 718-623-7220. Do note that all ceremonies are stand-up. For larger, catered weddings and receptions at their conservancy, The Palm House, call 718-398-2400.

The Alaska Botanical Garden
4601 Campbell Airstrip Rd.
Anchorage, AK
Phone: 907-770-3692

You'll love the Alaska Botanical Garden, which features northern horticulture and native plants, which are on display throughout their 110-acre spruce and birch woodland property. They have no reception buildings or greenhouses, so all weddings are held outdoors, and limited to no more than 150 people. Also note that, with bear activity in the area, only champagne toasts are allowed - no receptions with food. You wouldn't want to have any uninvited bear guests to your wedding, now, would you? For more information you can email them at garden@alaskabg.org.

Jared Coffin House
29 Broad Street
Nantucket, MA

The Jared Coffin House was built in 1845 as a private residence. Today, Jareds Garden, at the the Jared Coffin House, is the perfect place for your Nantucket garden wedding. Jareds Garden will hold a maximum of 30 seated guests, more if guests are standing.

The Jared Coffin House was named "Best Place for a Wedding - Best Inn" by readers of Cape cod Life, as well as named "Best Inn, Best Garden" in a Best of Nantucket Reader's Poll in Nantucket Today.

You can email them at salesoffice@nironline.com, as well as visit their website at jaredcoffinhouse.com.

The Historic Broetje House
3101 SE Courtney Road
Milwaukie, Oregon
503-659-8860

This 1889 Victorian classic estate is located near Portland, Oregon and comes complete with two garden gazebos, a water tower, and 100-year-old Sequoia Redwoods. The Broetje House provides weddings and receptions for groups up to 150 for either indoor or outdoor events.

The Broetje House also offers a Honeymoon suite and three other rooms for your guests. They can arrange or refer you to ministers, photographers, florists, and any other wedding service provider you may need.

Sweet Home Plantation
Pine Mountain, Georgia
706-628-5729 or 706-881-7344
Bwest@sweethomeplantation.com

Sweet Home, on Sweet Home Plantation, is an 1840 Greek Revival Cottage, surrounded by 100 acres of gardens, fields and woods. Just 8 minutes from Callaway Gardens, Sweet Home boasts wisteria-covered pergolas, a large summer pavilion, a 3-acre lake, Gothic Gazebo, and gardens of boxwoods, magnolias, camellias, and dogwoods.

Barr Mansion and Artisan Ballroom
10463 Sprinkle Road
Austin, Texas
events@barrmansion.com
512-926-6907

Barr Mansion has been hosting weddings for over 20 years, and offers several gardens, including a garden of roses, hollyhocks and bluebonnets, a Zen garden and the "Garden of Eden" with an exotic, tropical feel. They also offer the Artisan Ballroom, made from wood from a barn built in the 1770s, with an indoor waterfall and grotto.

Las Vegas Weddings at The Grove
8080 Al Carrison
Las Vegas, Nevada
866-645-5818
info@lasvegasweddingsatthegrove.com

That's right, Virginia, a garden wedding in Las Vegas! Las Vegas Weddings at The Grove offers outdoor weddings on over 3 acres of gardens, with a gazebo which holds up to 50 guests, next to a babbling brook. Not the Vegas wedding you typically think of, now is it?

There is also an almond orchard wedding location, with one and a half acres of mature almond trees and sweeping lawns.

They offer several different packages, starting at $299 for the "No Frills Wedding Chapel Package" which includes an indoor or outdoor wedding for up to 25 guests, as well as an officiant to perform the ceremony. Their highest-priced package is the "Almond Orchard Wedding Chapel Package" for $800, which includes more frills such as a wedding cake, limo, photography, etc., for up to 50 guests.

Take advantage of the following clearance sale on wedding supplies, with discounts on such essentials as:

"Just Married" clothing and flip-flops

Wedding candles

Snow globe "save the date" magnets"

Bride's workout DVD