Josephine Butler Parks Center

We got married this year (2020) and worked closely with JBPC to be flexible with our needs. Given the multiple rooms and outdoor spaces, it made our guests (and us!) feel much more comfortable than being in one room. We did deal with some staffing changes during the planning process but our new coordinator stepped right in and made sure our wedding was pretty smooth. This venue is a classic in DC and everyone loved the charm of the space!

We could not have asked for or found a better place for our wedding reception. This venue is picturesque. We were able to save on decoration costs because the venue is just perfect as is. Malina was a dream to work with and answered all of our questions quickly. Our guests loved the space and still rave about it. I would HIGHLY recommend this place.

We got married at JBPC on October 26. We LOVED our wedding, thanks in large part to the fabulous venue. We had around 175 people for a seated dinner and used both the spaces on the second floor for dinner. We loved the warm, welcoming vibe of JBPC; we loved the Parks & People mission; we found it so easy to work with Malina and other JBPC staff that were helpful along the way. We can't recommend this venue enough.

We just got married at the Josephine Butler Parks Center this past Saturday night. It is a mansion right out of a fairytale. It’s so elegant. But it’s not stuffy or overbearing. It’s really welcoming. Meridian Hill Park (Malcolm X Park), across the street is DC’s best place for photos. When we were doing our photos we ran into 2 other wedding parties and 3 marriage proposals. Malina Eaglin was absolutely amazing. She is kind, warm, deeply knowledgeable, and really caring. She answered all of our questions and all of our parents’ questions. The venue has spectacular rooms with beautiful, classic decor. Beautiful large windows, Fireplaces, Tall ceilings, a Flowing grand staircase, and a grand balcony on the second floor overlooking the park. It also has a grand piano you can use for the ceremony or the reception. And there’s even a bridal suite on the third floor where the bride can get ready and spend some time with just her family and friends. This place is unforgettable. Make sure to put in your reservation a year and 6 months in advance. If everyone knew about this place, the wait for a wedding date would be 5 years.

The JBPC was the perfect venue, it's so difficult to list just one or two reasons why it worked so well. First: The location. It's central to so much that DC has to offer, and it across the street from one of the city's best parks. Second: The flexibility. JBPC gave us so many options for how to use the space - upstairs, downstairs, outside, front porch, balcony, it's all yours. Depending on the size of your wedding, there are so many ways to use the space for ceremony, cocktails, dinner, or photos. Malina was so easy to work with and was always available to respond to questions. Third: The look. The venue is stunning inside and out. So many great details really added to the elegance. Fourth: The price. This was one of the most affordable venues in the city for our wedding size (120). We actually ended up saving even more money because we only needed minimal flowers and decorations because we could let the beauty of the building itself shine through, and all the tables and chairs were included with the space. Finally: The values. It really meant a lot to us that booking at the JBPC meant that we were helping further their mission of keeping DC parks and green spaces clean and open. If we had to do it all over again, we wouldn't change a thing - such an amazing space for our big day.

The Josephine Butler Parks Center was a beautiful venue for our wedding! We appreciate that our wedding budget helped support Washington Parks & People and the nonprofits co-located at JBPC. We absolutely loved working with Malina on the event coordination and our guests had an amazing time.

We had a wonderful experience at our small (15 people, including 5 children + 1 large dog) ceremony here. The light in the south foyer was gorgeous and the rest of the building - inside and outside - was picturesque. So much so that we didn't need a lot of decorations. The staff was responsive, accommodating and knowledgeable. We were particularly excited that the Josephine Butler Parks Center was both in our local neighborhood and has a mission very much in line with our values. We couldn't be happier with the way our intimate ceremony turned out!

We had the most wonderfully fabulous wedding at JBPC! Everything from the set up to the end was perfect. We had so many options for set up and rain plans, and it was more than perfect. Our wedding was an August 2019 wedding with 160 people. We chose to use a preferred vendor, Timber Pizza, for our food. We hired a day-of coordinator (ANA Trio Solutions - shes the best), we used a local DJ, and we stayed at the LineDC hotel. We had a small bridal party but a LOT of family, and needed a solid, easy rain plan due to it being in DC in August. You CANNOT get a better deal, and a more beautiful setting for a DC Wedding. Tables and chairs, as well as a number of other items, are included in the rental fee. The rental fee is literally pennies in comparison to other venues in dc, and most of those don't include any other items. A+++ for value. The space itself is amazing - a historical DC building with roots and significance - with an amazing mission. It is amazing to help support them in their mission, while getting to celebrate your big day! When we first toured, I loved the building - it felt like it could mesh into a super formal wedding, or a casual wedding (that's what ours was). Two things that i was concerned on 1. could the space seat 160 people and would we have enough dance space, and 2. the yellow walls. On the first concern - can it fit our people and our dancing? ABSOLUTELY YES. The space was perfect for ceremony, cocktail, and dinner and dancing. We ended up having our dance floor in the foyer upstairs under the chandelier. It made it intimate, and AMAZING for pictures. It did sort of block access to the bar, but folks navigated that fine. For seating, we had 17 tables in the main two ballrooms, and one table on the dance floor that we pulled up pre-dances -- it was seamless and easy, our catering staff took care of it. The cocktail reception was a mix of outside under the portico and inside on the two floors - it was great for folks to have a seat if they wanted, get drinks, mingle, and sign in to our guest book. We had the ceremony outside in the garden area. With 160 folks, there was NO way to have everyone seated. Our ceremony was about 15 mins long, so we had 60 chairs placed, and had everyone else standing. it was the most magical thing to walk through a parting crowd of ALL your people. They closed in for the ceremony, then stepped back out for the recessional - it was PERFECT. For the concern on the yellow walls - Yes, they are a buttery yellow and you know what? it ended up being AWESOME. We chose all white tablecloths, with a sage green napkin. We kept our tables simple - fork, napkin, glass, and lemoncello glass. We didn't do centerpieces, but instead had table numbers with adoptable pets on the back. The other decorations we had were greenery (from costco) on the mantles with pictures of our loved ones' weddings, or folks we have lost along the years. We asked our guests to wear as many bright or sparkly colors as possible, so that filled the space right up. The yellow now just looked fabulous in the background. Malina was our coordinator, question-answerer, planning aficionado, and all around wonderful person who helped us navigate everything! She sent us floor plans and let me come tour several, several times. We talked through options and what would work, and what definitely wouldn't. All in all, we absolutely loved it and cannot recommend this place enough.

Beautiful space! All the fixin’s: kitchen, foyer with a beautiful set of stairs, terrace overlooking the park. We couldn’t ask for more. The staff is very attentive and took care of all of our needs.

Loved the venue, and overall things went really well. It was a little challenging at a couple of points when Makenzie left, and there were a few small hiccups that I don't think would've occurred if there hadn't been a change in coordinator. However, I do think that Malina has things well under control at this point and JBPC is a beautiful place to share your special day. We are still both so happy to have been able to get married in such a stunning venue.

Josephine Butler Parks Center was the perfect venue for us. The location is fantastic and the building is beautiful inside and out. We barely even needed to decorate and the photos look great. We did a cocktail-style reception for roughly 175 guests and the space worked really nicely, neither too big nor too small. Another major plus? JBPC has it's own tables and chairs! Our point of contact, Makenzie, was terrific. She was super responsive and easy to work with, so we never had to worry about venue logistics at all. We got tons of compliments on the venue and would definitely recommend JBPC (and Makenzie!) to any D.C. area couples looking for a fantastic venue at a reasonable price.

An absolutely stunning venue. For the price, and in NW DC, you can't beat this venue in term of space and elegance. The large balcony upstairs is an added bonus (it was a nice day so we had the bar out there, and most of our guests hung out there as well). There is so much space you never felt cramped. It also cut down on our decorations costs - we added a few frames to the fireplace mantels, but that was it! The space is beautiful in and of itself and doesn't need much else! The coordination support you get from the center is minimal (but perfectly pleasant)- so would recommend a strong caterer (we chose Main Event) and/or a wedding coordinator.

We absolutely loved having our 100 person wedding at the Josephine Butler Parks Center! Since we were getting married in March, it was important to us to have a venue where the ceremony and reception could be indoors without feeling cramped. The Parks Center was perfect because it is a beautiful old mansion that has a ton of space and does not need a lot of extra decoration because of all the beautiful details. We also really liked how it balances being a formal building without being stuffy, which really fit our “classic but irreverent DC” wedding theme. Makenzie, the events coordinator, was really easy to work with and was flexible with the rehearsal and bringing in decorations. Josephine Butler Parks Center is a really popular wedding venue, which means many vendors are familiar with it. We found the familiarity to be a huge bonus, and it really minimized the stress of organizing vendors and other wedding details. There are many reasons why we love and would recommend the Parks Center, but the best one is knowing that some of the rental fee helps support their work to make DC a better place.

My husband and I rented the Josephine Butler Parks Center for our September 2015 wedding. For us, the decision was partly sentimental; we got engaged in Meridian Hill Park and we love to go there on weekends. But even taking that into account, the Parks Center would have been our top choice relative to the other venues we looked at. It's a beautiful space that's flexible enough to accommodate a ceremony, cocktail hour, reception, and serious dance party; the Parks Center includes rentals like tables and chairs; and as a bonus, having an event in the space supports a host of terrific non-profits. Everything that happened after we rented the Parks Center validated our decision to have our wedding there. Makenzie Delmotte, the events coordinator, was wonderful, responding to emails incredibly promptly, being helpful, funny, and generally comforting in the lead-up to the day itself. The space just shone; we had flowers and candles, but didn't need to do much else to make things beautiful. The Parks Center staff took great care of our vendors and guests, and the transition between ceremony, cocktails, dinner, and dancing was seamless. Makenzie even left us a lovely note and got my parents their deposit back basically immediately after the wedding. I can't imagine a nicer place to get married in Washington.

The Josephine Butler Parks Center is an amazing place to have a wedding. The price is affordable, and the building is absolutely gorgeous. The entryway is a great place for photos, as is the new grassy area they have recently added to the side of the building. The interior is so open and full of natural light. As with any older building not originally intended for this purpose, there were some minor challenges when deciding which rooms to use for which parts of the reception. Totally worth the effort. The people who work in the building were very experienced and were able to advise us on how to use the space effectively. We ended up actually liking how the dance floor was a little bit separated from, while still adjacent to, the dining area. We felt like it encouraged more people to dance since it didn't feel like people seating in the dining area were gawking at them. It also allowed for people who were seated to be able to hold a conversation without having to shout. The balcony was an awesome place to situate a bar so people could enjoy a drink out in the fresh air. The Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park across the way is also a great place for photos, but be sure to get there early if you want photos by the fountains. We got there around 4:30pm and there were already three other brides waiting. We ended up finding other beautiful places in the park to take photos. I'm sure this is less of a problem in off-months.

What a beautiful venue, with its chandeliers, wood floors, and fire places, its a perfect venue to host a wedding. There are two floors with a lot of space available to use and all the tables, chairs, and A/V equipment are on-site. Its the best value in DC!

This is a beautiful venue!!! My husband and I wanted a place with character. The Butler center is gorgeous, classy, historic, and charming. Our friends loved exploring the gorgeous mansion during our reception. The terrace area overlooks Meridian Hill Park, one of the highlights of the wedding for our guest was spending time at the terrace. When you book the Josephine Butler mansion, you get to use all the space, first floor, ballroom, huge terrace, and a room across the ballroom (we used it for our bar, video booth and buffet). Their price is one of the most affordable in DC, right in the heart of the city, your guest can walk to 14th street for your afterparty (which we did). Wedding guest still talk about the beauty of the place. It photographs beautifully. The place has chandeliers, fireplaces, DC art, a grand piano thus decorating it was not difficult as it was already breathtaking. You get tables and the popular chiavari chairs for free when you book the place. Their wedding coordinators Mai and Abby are excellent, very responsive, flexible and kind. We received our full deposit back within a week after our wedding. Honest, kind, flexible and gorgeous! Go visit the venue, they hold weekly tours :)

The elegant, historic Josephine Butler House was once the residence of the Ambassador of Brazil. Now, the beautiful house serves as the headquarters for a non-profit called Washington Parks and People. Fees from our event in this special place will help fund the reclamation and advancement of dozens of DC parks, playgrounds, trails and community gardens! As the venue for the event we found an elegant setting for an amazing value. It helped that we booked during winter which is low season. The cost includes 2 event coordinators and access to dining tables, gold chiviari chairs, and a primitive sound system. We paid a minimal fee to have 2 of the fireplaces lit. It was a romantic setting full of understated elegance!

The people at this venue were great to work with (especially LaToya on the day of!). The location was perfect--close enough to public transit, across the street from a gorgeous park. The atmosphere was lovely and because the center is ornate enough on its own, we saved a lot by not having to do any additional decorating or worry about lighting or anything like that. The place was stunning on its own. The pictures of the venue on the website do not do it justice at all. Go see the site for yourself. It was perfect!

This is a charming vintage building that was perfect for our wedding dinner and reception of 90 people. The staff was super professional throughout the entire planning process, the building itself is beautiful and the outside balcony over looking Meridian Hill is absolutely picturesque. After checking into a few other venues, JBPC was for sure the best value for the price. They do have a small capacity, parking is limited and the building is not handicap accessible.

My daughter's wedding was held at the Josephine Butler Parks Center and we had a great time working with them. They really went above and beyond helping my daughter have the wedding of her dreams.

This is a gem of a place if you want to do your own wedding - if you're into the details - and like to save money. The house sparkles and gleams and would cost at least double the price at a more full service venue. I found the staff responsive and helpful - they really want you to have a good experience - but they work part time and they don't know how everything works - like the sound system they provide. This is fantastic, beautiful place and excellent value for money.

I Loved the Josephine Butler Parks Center. The Building looked very classy, we were able to use the front lawn for pictures, there was a beautiful staircase and a nice patio for fresh air.We were able to take beautiful pictures.;The Building looked very classy, we were able to use the front lawn for pictures, there was a beautiful staircase and a nice patio for fresh air.We were able to take beautiful pictures.The staff was very helpful.

The historic mansion is a great canvas on which you can put your own stamp given what you can afford to decorate with and rent for catering. It has a GREAT view of Meridian Park - springtime/fall - lovely. Also, the approx. $4k in rental fees is mostly tax deductible for a feel-good non-profit.;GET a wedding planner - their people, while meaning well, cannot 'put out fires' too well.