Denver Botanic Gardens

re everything in place and ready to go the day of. In addition to being a beautiful venue the pricing is very reasonable as well.

y timeless. I would recommend the Botanic Gardens to any couple!

repared. Such a value and our guests were thrilled with the surrounding and loved walking around and enjoying the grounds throughout our event. Five Stars!

ork with throughout the planning process. Book early, as summer weekends were almost booked up when we paid our deposit more than 10 months in advance.

rave enough about how gorgeous the setting was.

we wouldn't have known to think about. Our guests continue to rave about the venue, the beautiful sunset and the weather which thankfully was not too hot with some cloud cover. Although there were other guests around (and we had some difficulty finding privacy for a first look), the gardens are big enough to where you can find spots throughout the day and evening to sneak away if you want more pictures without others in the background. Highly recommend!

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edding and I loved the woman that helped me, Amanda. However, by the time our wedding came around, she had moved on and I was really frustrated with the communication and support I received in the two months leading up to our wedding. It took two to four days to get answers to small questions (e.g., what can a flower girl toss?) (answer: nothing). It's impossible to reach anyone at the special events office via email or phone. My phone call and voicemail was never returned, instead, the person helping me emailed me back after a few days. If I call, extend the professional courtesy of calling back. I was anxious in the weeks leading up to our wedding and I felt the service at the Gardens made my wedding anxiety worse. Trying to coordinate multiple vendors and determine final details would have been so much easier if the staff could manage their email! I also felt that the rules changed between when I signed our contract and when we actually had our wedding. The information I was provided was "being updated" but it's not clear when new rules take effect. So, we would probably chose to book the Gardens if we did it all over again, but I would recommend two things: (1) use a wedding planner to coordinate with the Gardens and (2) ask if the rules are current and when they might change. If there is something you really want for your wedding, make sure you ask if it's allowed when you are interviewing and get it in writing. (We didn't have a reception at the Gardens, so didn't have any food, drink, or catering - so much easier!). Benefits: we didn't have to do any decorating and our damage deposit was refunded quickly.

ens. However, I think the gardens needs to reassess their facility rental policies, especially if they are promoting weddings at their venue. Weddings are celebrations, and you can expect them to be celebratory. There are lots of restrictions in the contract, and if you have any creative ideas, I suggest you ask before getting too far along into the process. We were allowed only 30 minutes of amplified sound, for which we had to pay $650 by using the company they have an agreement with. Absurd price, don’t you think? We requested more time and were given the “good news” that we were allowed an extra 10 minutes for “spoken word”. Evidently, they would have just faded the sound out if our 40 minutes were up. We used part of the time for our ceremony, and then cut some reception speeches out to prevent this from happening, which was quite a disappointment. They also don’t allow most of the typical send-offs, and even the other creative ones we came up with instead. We ended up handing out bubbles, which actually turned out nicely. It seemed like the two venue sales associates we worked with were really intent on making sure we had a tame event and more interested that we follow all the rules rather than enjoying our time. We had a string quartet for the ceremony, a harpist for the cocktail hour, and a 4-piece string jazz band for the reception (two guitars, stand-up bass, and violin). Yes, amplification would have been nice for the reception, but the cocktail hour and ceremony were quiet enough that everyone could hear the music. The bridal dressing rooms are classrooms in the basement, so expect cement walls and fluorescent lights—not ideal. The room they sent us to at the front desk wasn’t even unlocked and the staff member we had been working with didn’t show up until late, so we took another open room. It was nice that we were able to choose our own vendors, and bring in our own alcohol. The gardens are beautiful, of course, especially in August, and the tent was perfect in that we had no worries about the weather. I loved our wedding day and had a lot of fun, and I think all our guests did as well. I just think if you’re going to be handing out brochures for wedding venue space, make sure you take into consideration all that weddings entail.

to use their kitchen and bar, which always ends up in a huge price mark-up. We really didn't need many decorations or flowers because the venue is so beautiful that we felt that anything extra would take away from the natural beauty of the gardens. The staff was easy to work with.

ate. Other than that, the view is wonderful! Not sure I would recommend though :(

ng process and great with communication. We would highly recommend checking this place out! Thank you to everyone at the Gardens for helping us have such a perfect ceremony!

also worked directly with the planner and caterer to make everything go smoothly. The gardens only allow 4 caterer option unless you want to pay the extra fee. We chose Footers and it was great. Amanda (Gardens) and Jamie (Footers) work together a lot and made that coordination so easy. This setting is so pretty and I would recommend it to everyone!

and people to make sure no one interrupts your wedding, and nothing more than that. Everything else costs extra and you have to coordinate things yourself. When we chose the Denver Botanic Gardens, we were under the impression that we could pick our own caterers to save some money and have music for the duration of our event. This was not 100% the case. When we got ready to book the caterer, we realized in the guidelines that there is a hefty fee for using your own caterer, which made it cost prohibitive to do this and save money. So we ended up going with their select caterers and bartenders and it was much more expensive. The Botanic Gardens don't do any set up or tear down either, so we had to pay for and set up our own linens, and ensure that we had bartenderers/caterers that did all the set up and tear down. This was very different from the full service we got with our reception. For the sound, we were restricted to one hour of sound and we had to use their specific sound company which cost us several hundred dollars. It was a really outrageous cost for one hour of sound but it is your ONLY option if you want to amplify your vows. My husband and I felt like we were both told something different about the sound but then realized just a few months before the wedding how expensive and limited it would actually be. It was at a time when our budget was already set so it was frustrating. Also, a back-up venue for rain is not provided unless you pay a NON-REFUNDABLE deposit that rivals the cost of getting married there in the first place. We were lucky because our reception venue gave us a back-up venue at no extra cost. If this is important to you, definitely keep in mind you will need to pay more! The one other thing that was really frustrating is that we had dirt at our venue at the walk through - all down the aisle and where people would be standing. We asked for it to be cleaned before the wedding so people's dresses don't get dirty and were told that they don't have any control over the cleaning schedule and it may or may not be cleaned. We were also told they were Gardens first and an event place second...which essentially sounded like the events werent as big of a priority. We were pretty shocked by this since they are truly a business first and foremost with many, many, many events going on. With all that being said, the downtown Denver Botanic Gardens downtown are beautiful and we loved our wedding space. We got married in the new All American Selections Garden and had a small cocktail hour there before our reception. The actual day of was fantastic and we loved how beautiful it was. It also felt very private and they did a good job of keeping people watching us at bay. I am not writing this to say don't get married here - really I just think other couples should have an accurate picture of what they will have to do and pay for themselves if they go with the Gardens. I also hope the Gardens reconsiders some of its policies . It ended up being a ton of work and costing us quite a bit more than we expected. But in the end, it was beautiful!

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p talking about how beautiful the space was. Because of our surroundings, we saved a lot of money on decor and flowers. For obvious reasons, there are a lot of restrictions that come with the venue, but the on site coordinators are very upfront about these from the beginning, which makes it a lot easier to set up other vendors. The price is quite high, but for how beautiful the space is and how easy they make the day, it was absolutely worth it for us.

ed the grounds, and from then on she was our Chatfield contact and ended up being our Day-Of-Coordinator. She. was. AMAZING! She answered all of my questions throughout the year long planning process (no matter how silly). Once we got closer to our date, she met with me multiple times to discuss details, vendors, timeline, etc - there was no detail too small - she wanted to know about every piece of our day, and ultimately she played a huge part in helping me pull off my dream wedding! The day of the wedding she set up both the ceremony and reception spaces to perfection with all of the intricate details we had talked about. I never once questioned if the spaces would be what I envisioned, and her and the Chatfield team made them more beautiful than I could have even imagined! She kept folks in line, on time and took the reins so that I could enjoy my day and not be stressed! More than anything, she was an absolute pleasure to be around on one of the most important days a girl has! I would HIGHLY recommend Michele! We are so grateful that we had such an organized, professional and genuinely nice person to help us with our big day! THANK YOU MICHELE!!!!

for the public that specializes in beautiful plants and exhibits. It's a huge missed opportunity for DBG in how they de-prioritize and treat their large event clients. The price is very reasonable ($1,500 - $3,000 based on garden, to use the site for up to three hours). We were sold right away based on the cost and the beauty of the site. The customer service however, was terrible. I honestly would have preferred to pay more and receive a higher quality of customer service and accommodation. We were told at our initial walk-through that we would have a back-up site in case there was rain. At our final walk through we were told that wasn't the case and we didn't have anything. We got upset about it (as we probably wouldn't have booked there if we had know there was no back-up for rain - c'mon, this is Colorado!) and they did end up holding a space for us at the last minute. My 90 y/o grandma needed a wheelchair to get around the gardens and when we asked to reserve one we were told they are issued on a "first-come, first-serve" basis, which is fine, but if you have people paying you a lot of money, is it really so hard to set aside ONE wheelchair for your client, or even give us the option to rent it? DBG only provides the set up of chairs - NOTHING else the day of. They are very clear about this up front, but it does cause some hassles. The chairs were dirty, and thank goodness we had a family friend coming to set things up and she made them clean the bird poop off the chairs. They do no other set up for you all all, they don't even offer it as an extra option. Based on my experience with my reception venue, and in talking to others who have gotten married, you can typically drop off all of your items and decorations, and the venue event staff will do it for you. This is not the case at DBG. Third, they don't allow amplification in some of their gardens (including the one I used) so the obvious choice for music is some sort of string arrangement. It's standard that these groups need tents while they are performing for shade and in case there is any rain. DBG doesn't have any tents for rental or anyone available to help set up (seriously? The tents are about $100 to buy and they could charge that much for set up/tear down and rental - PER EVENT!). My bridesmaid's husbands ended up dealing with the tent for me. It's not as if I just expect DBG to do these things, I would have PAID for it, but it's not even an option. I wish I had known this before booking my ceremony here. So my overall review is that the site is indeed beautiful, and makes for wonderful pictures and a great, unique guest experience. However, I wouldn't recommend having your event here unless you have a super wedding planner to take care of all these details I just mentioned, and to deal with their crappy customer service. If you're a DIYer set on the gardens, just be prepared to overcome a lot of obstacles and do some problem-solving and utilization of friends and family so you can make sure your day is as perfect as you imagine it to be.

hris Warford and Michelle Wilcox were both very helpful and accommodating. I had many questions throughout the process and I never once felt like an annoyance. Overall, I feel we had a great working relationship and was satisfied with the outcome.

is well worth the price. The scenery for the ceremony is beautiful. The reception area with its white lights around the barn is picturesque. And the whole atmosphere makes for a really great party. Communication with the staff was spotty at times, our coordinator left the company only three months before our wedding, but our new coordinator was great and everything ran smoothly. Also, the mosquitoes here are pretty vicious, even in September. I was getting bit up while giving my vows, but that's the exchange you make for drop dead gorgeous scenery. If you want a rustic vibe that's not too far away from denver, BG at Chatfield might be the location for you.

pposed to start and Michele handled it wonderfully - it stopped right in time, they dried off the chairs and got us out there virtually on time. Also, the new tent site is so pretty with the large tree lit up with twinkle lights and the new deck. Everything was beautiful.

hedule our rehearsal friday before our saturday wedding at 10:30am because they had a event there on friday. Our package was from 1-11pm so we had from 1-3 to set-up! Not enough time for friends and family to set up and make a 3:30 ceremony. I highly recommend a coordinator there are too many details that come up to worry about! There isnt even water unless you pay your caterer to bring it in! We had to negotiate water! Be prepared to negotiate and get atleast 3-4 caterers quotes! there will be a lot of extras they dont go over in the first appointment.

is is where we had our cocktail hour and it looked great! Our package included a white tent, which they set up and tore down and chairs and tables etc. We also had a detailed meeting with the site coordinator which was very helpful for lay out and details. If you get married here though, be prepared to be pretty much on your own the day of. I'd suggest hiring a private day-of coordinator. We had to get a lot of our family members and friends to help us out during the wedding. Because of this, I only gave the Service 3 stars. My sister had hired a private coordinator for her wedding and it seemed to make things go much smoother. I'd definitely choose this venue again in a heartbeat!

trictions and strict rules for every little thing. I had problems with them since day one until the wedding day. Big no for that place!!

Events are obviously not the main focus of TBG so we didn't feel like there was a sense of urgency to get our event planned. If you are looking for someone who is going to make you the center of their attention, this is not your venue. However, if you are more laid back about the details or have enough time to take your time, they do get back to you and it eventually all comes together. One of the perks of having your big day at The Gardens is that your guests have full access to all areas of The Gardens as well as the kid's garden area across the street during your event at no charge. This is great bonus that we didn't expect. Mitchell Hall is the largest rentable space within TBG and it definitely cleaned up well once we decorated with white pipe and drape all around the room. Without those rentals, the room would have been drab. In addition, you will likely need to rent tables (if the 8 included banquets aren't enough and/or if you want rounds or pubs instead of banquets...which you will) and chairs or chair covers since their chairs that can be included at no cost are definitely in need of an upgrade. We were able to rent their onsite dance floor for $250 which was a great bargain and there is a stage in Mitchell Hall where our band could play without having to rent any additional set up for them. There is also a screen & projector (if you want to show a video or slide show) and house speakers for the band/DJ all included at no extra cost, which was great. It was not cheap - approx. $1000 / hour - but for our 4-hour reception, it was worthwhile considering all the additional perks. There is a balcony off of Mitchell Hall so our guests were able to go outside if they wanted to. Though no smoking is allowed within The Gardens obviously, they could watch the sunset or cool off from the dance floor on the balcony. They only allow certain caterers onsite so ensure that your caterer is approved before moving forward. Catering By Design is the recommended caterer (who we went with and loved) but there are 3 or 4 others who are now allowed as well with only a few slight limitations (i.e., some parts of the kitchen are off limits to non-CBD caterers). They encourage creativity and have lots of recommendations if you'd like to incorporate unique things into your celebration. They definitely met our expectations and we are are glad we chose The Gardens as our beautiful reception location. After it was all over, they were so sweet to give us a membership to The Gardens as a wedding gift - definitely a very thoughtful touch!

more effort on my part. The "actual number" of guests that each site claims to hold is pretty tight. We had about 90 under the Terrace tent that claimed to hold 200, and it filled the tent space well, even though we had to rent additional tables to set up the space. The staff was nice enough, but sometimes not very helpful and short, almost snippy with answers.

utiful! I heard many of our guest comment on the wedding ceremony at the Botanic Gardens, that they would suggest it to their children or friends! Loved it!!

ere was a new place to take amazing photos. We would highly recommend the Romantic gardens and the helpful staff at the Denver Botanic Gardens to anyone who is ooking for the perfect location without the hassle of having to decorate. No one could decorate a venue to the same standard of what the Botanic Gardens has to offer on a daily basis. Thank you for making our wedding perfect! Gerard and Dawn

that seemed nice. When viewing them in person, however, they did not meet my expectations in what I saw in photos online. Denver Botanic Gardens was great. The service was everything I needed. Their staff answered any and all questions in addition to helping us with outdoor weather issues. If you're looking for a garden space in your next wedding, look no further.

rushed, non-responsive to emails and wasn't into simple courtesies such as “thanks” or “hello” on the phone or email. For what they charge, this does not help you feel confident that the service will be right for your actual wedding. They don’t provide real event oversight for your ceremony and basically just put some chairs there (that are not necessarily in super condition). There were miscommunications about numerous issues and we had nearly the same experience with their preferred caterer. While we initially planned to have our entire reception there, we ended up only doing our ceremony there. Once I finally told them how unsatisfied I was, the manager called and was very nice, accommodating and apologetic. I should be clear that while it was a tough process, they did ultimately make it right - they really tried to fix a bad experience. All that said, if you choose the gardens (and maybe have someone willing to deal with them for you), don’t expect great service but just enjoy the place. We ended up having a really magical ceremony there and don’t regret it. You simply cannot take away the beauty of those gardens.

all busy these days, but while you are with a potential client, and then a verified client, i think people should take a bit more time. be courteous of the huge day they are planning with you! Also, while I as the bride and my bridesmaids had a room to finish getting ready in, there was no where to hang my dress, and the "gift" i received, was a free beverage from the cafe, and thing of potpouri... Who the heck uses potpouri anymore??! And I know weddings are not cheap, but after the spending the amount of $$ we did there, I would think we may get something a bit nicer. Maybe something with more thought put into it.

have to use their preferred vendors for everything and they are outrageously priced compared to their competitors and don't necessarily provide better service. Our caterer in fact was one of the most expensive in town and made NUMEROUS mistakes on our wedding day. The penalty imposed by DBG for not using them? $10 per person which would have amounted to almost $1,000!

s and the access to the gardens. It's difficult to get your event scheduled there but totally worth it, especially for the price.

or the ceremony. For the price I paid to rent the venue and for such a pretty place, I expected to have prettier and cleaner looking chairs for my wedding. Besides that, eveything else was great.

ator and staff were very patient with our questions and requests. Our guests still haven't stopped commenting on how wonderful their experience there was. I can't even imagine having a better experience than the one we had here!