If I had the option to do it over again, I would NOT have my wedding here.
We married here 3 months ago, had our ceremony in the tropical Crystal Bridge Conservatory and our reception in the adjacent lobby. It was not worth what we paid, and ac...tively added stress to our big day.
PROS: You cannot get the beauty of the Gardens anywhere else. It's breathtaking; we hardly needed to decorate at all. Also there are many hotels/attractions nearby.
CONS:
1. Their Event Coordinator does not work weekends. Think about that for a second. We spent 9 months planning with someone who was not there on the day of. I found out the Coordinator wouldn't be there that day as I was getting ready for the ceremony, when the event manager for that day came in and introduced himself. There was no opportunity to meet with this person beforehand to sit down with him and the EC to make sure we were all on the same page. And that had some really bad consequences, for ex. the music in the reception wasn't turned on, so our guests awkwardly sat in silence for 20 minutes while WE fixed that.
2. The groomsmen were told to go to a separate part of the garden to get ready than where their dressing room was. We planned to use two dressing rooms upstairs above the Conservatory. The first groomsman to arrive was directed to go to a room in the BASEMENT of an adjacent building. We were getting married at the Crystal Bridge; they were directed to go to the Water Theatre - two totally separate parts of the garden. Also, this room was locked. The event staff member he talked to apologized (she was VERY sweet and helpful, it's a shame she was only a part-timer) and said the event manager had the only key. They had to find that manager every single time they left the dressing room, or they'd be locked out. When my husband arrived, he knew what the plan had been, and had a confrontation with the event manager, who said, "Oh I thought you'd prefer to get ready there so that you don't see the bride." We had First Look pictures... something that the Event Coordinator knew, but apparently did not get communicated to the event staff actually working that day. This cost us a LOT of time and stress.
3. You don't get much time in the venue. You can't begin setting up until after the Gardens close to the public for that day around 5pm. You also must be out of the venue by 11pm. So if your ceremony is at 7, you have 2 hours to decorate, then reception ends at 10, you have an hour to clean. You cannot set up the day before, not even for the rehearsal.
4. We did not get to rehearse the day before. In the Conservatory there is a large open space where your guests sit for the ceremony; during normal business days, that space is occupied by 4 large planters. We specifically asked if those would be moved so we could rehearse; EC said yes. On Fri, she refused to move them. She said the planters required a machine to move and needed to be there for the public during the day on Sat. On Sat evening, we watched a single person flip a lock on the planters and roll them out. It took 5 minutes to remove and replace the planters... they couldn't have done that during the one hour we had for rehearsal?
5. No designated/reserved parking for guests or wedding party.
6. When it began to rain, another couple getting married there asked to move to our space. They were told no of course, but this shows that there was no backup plan in place for them in the event of bad weather on their wedding day.