Landmarks Society Art & Garden Center

If you are considering having your wedding here I suggest you reconsider. While the location is beautiful, the staff and policies make this a very challenging and unwelcoming venue. Before we signed our contract the salesperson did a great job selling the place. She boasted about all of the great attributes and told us how wonderful it would be to have our wedding there. But once the contract was signed and the deposit paid, the person couldn't even remember our names or who we were when we made appointments to return to see the space. She had to be reminded each time we met that we had already secured a date and paid a deposit. The whole thing felt very impersonal and unprofessional to me. [NOTE: this person was new and replaced the woman Barbara that many people mention in past reviews.] As the date of our wedding approached things got progressively worse. Rather than make us feel excited and at ease about our upcoming wedding we were being barraged with new warnings and restrictions which caused stress and anxiety for our family. We were told that we we would need to bring in more bathrooms to accommodate our guests (even though our guest count of 100 people had never changed), we couldn't play amplified music after 8:30pm (a change in policy), we needed professional valet or shuttle services rather than use UBER or do our own shuttling (something we were never told), and that our DJ had to be "licensed and professional" (whatever that means). The way in which the barrage occurred (both in attitude and timing) was very off-putting and unprofessional in my opinion. The day of event was no better. The on-site docent was brusque and unwelcoming from the very start. A number of our guests also mentioned how unfriendly she was to them that day. The first thing she sprung on us when we arrived was that we couldn't have amplified speeches. Were our maid of honor and best man supposed to shout above the passing traffic in order to be heard?! This person even took the liberty to move our speakers/PA at one point without asking permission. She was rude to some of our guests, especially the children, and by 8pm she was already starting to pressure us to wrap things up. We had just cut the cake and served desert (and also paid to be there until 10pm!) Overall, she was awful to deal with and should consider finding another profession. This venue may seem attractive because of the location, but honestly it's not worth the $4500 (or more) unless you're having a small day-time gathering with a much older crowd. It's amazing to me how they began to shift the burden for additional expenses to us in order to make their venue seem more attractive (i.e. bring in more toilets, get professional shuttle drivers, etc.) Other cons are that they are located on a busy road, there is no refrigeration, there is major car noise from the street below, there is very little parking, neighbors complain about noise, the grounds weren't properly landscaped before our event, you cannot access the location without an appointment, limited electricity, and they charge extra for set-up and breakdown time. They market themselves as a venue for up to 150 people, but unless you intend on serving food that needs very little prep time and have an extra five thousand dollars to put into rentals don't believe it. With so many beautiful wedding venues in the Bay Area it's just not worth the hassle to deal with the many obstacles presented at this one. Good luck.