Olbrich Botanical Garden

Olbrich Gardens was a beautiful place for our wedding. It does require a lot of putting things together yourself but was fairly affordable. An example is chairs, they are not provided so they must be rented externally (most companies charge $3.25 a chair) Pros: My guests approached me to tell me how beautiful everything was, there was never a dull moment, staff is very friendly, the coordinator was amazing. Cons: Shutdown is fairly early, everything and everyone has to be out by 11:00, no exceptions. This made it difficult to get everything cleaned up in a timely fashion. If you plan on having the reception there, you have to book the 4-7 time slot for the ceremony so just be aware that you won't be able to start your wedding until 4:30 at the earliest.

We used Olbrich for our wedding reception after a destination wedding prior. Initially, we were attracted to the relatively low cost for rental. The rules at Olbrich are fairly strict - can't hang decorations, no confetti, strict times, etc. And I can understand them for the most part but they are a little intense about it. The fact that you have to be out of there by 11 pm also puts a damper on things. I was most frustrated at the fact that there was not good communication about the sound system. I feel we made it clear that we were planning on NOT having a DJ and it appeared that it wouldn't be a problem to just hook up a laptop, iPod to the sound system when we first toured the space. Later on near the time of the reception when inquiring more about this, there apparently is no way to hook this up to their archaic sound system. Needless to say, the sound/music did not go well. After the fact, I did contact someone from Olbrich and her response was that she ALWAYS has people come in to test music beforehand if they are planning on not using a DJ. I felt this was completely not the case and not relayed to us well. Her email back to me was also very defensive. Other than that, I think Olbrich is beautiful and turned out fine for our event.

I used Olbrich Gardens for the reception. The event planner was helpful. Guests enjoyed the gardens. The vendors were familiar with the location and didn't need a lot of help. There were things they didn't have - like a digital projector or parquet dance floor that I might have liked or had to provide. Also there was a construction project taking place outside that was not attractive. It was inconvenient not to be able to access the reception hall until the day of the wedding. In general I was pleased.

Well, the fact that they start filling up a year and a half in advance should give you a pretty good idea of how great they are. I was pretty flexible on all other aspects of my wedding, but I refused to compromise on this. I knew I wanted my ceremony and reception at Olbrich and I was willing to wait. They open up their calendar in March for the next year, so I booked my September 2012 wedding in March 2011. It was worth the wait. I was married in an absolutely stunning setting (at no cost beyond the chair rental - tons of flowers already there!) and my guests and strolled in to our reception immediately after the ceremony. While they are somewhat strict on the rules (only a few caterers to choose from, no personal decorations allowed inside or out, etc.), I was perfectly happy with everything exactly the way it was. And while I did not price it out against other venues, I paid a very reasonable $1500 which included the use of the outdoor garden for the ceremony, space indoors in case of rain, my reception space (including tables, chairs, microphones, etc. - all equipment you might need) and use of the garden for photography. Olbrich was outstanding in every way and my wedding day was exactly how I dreamed it would be!

We chose to have our ceremony in the Olbrich Botanical Gardens because of the beautiful backdrop and scenery they had to offer. During our engagement, we would frequent the gardens for long walks and it was exactly what we envisioned our wedding to be like. The staff there was great! The day of our August 4th ceremony, we had severe thunderstorms and rain almost the entire afternoon. The coordinator explained that she would hold off on calling it as close to the ceremony start time as possible, which was 5:45pm. At 5:10, as I looked outside and saw huge black clouds, wind and rain/hail, I knew we were going to have to start setting up chairs to have the ceremony inside. I was extremely bummed out as I had dreamed of a garden wedding for two years! At 5:30 as we were starting to line up, the storm cleared and the sun came out. The coordinator said if I wanted to move it back outside, we could and everyone immediately ran to start wiping off the chairs outside in the garden for the guests to sit on. It was great!! We had to push off the ceremony start time a little but to have our ceremony outside and to be able to have our photos taken outside was a dream come true. I would recommend this place to anyone looking to have an outdoor ceremony. It's gorgeous!!!

Our wedding was more than I could have imagined. A big part of that was the venue. We had both our ceremony and reception at Olbrich Botanical Garden in Madison, WI. Our contact at the garden was Patty, she was so organized and checked in often. She was friendly, helpful, and gave great advice and tips! The other staff at the garden the day We had a list of caterers for cocktails and dinner that we could choose from. The list is short and was seen as a downfall - but the choices range from top of the line plated dinner to buffet from a local co-op, so it ended up being just great. There is only one business who hold the liquor license to serve, which is a bit limiting. However, they were great to work with, as well. The outdoor space for the ceremony was just amazing...all of the natural floral and plant surroundings were perfect. It is set back and away from the main path, so there weren't a lot of people walking through the ceremony to sneak a peek. We have some wonderful pictures from our ceremony and afterwards taking pics outside in various places in the gardens that we will cherish for many years to come. The indoor space we used worked perfectly. The getting ready room was a great place for us (bride, groom, parents, flower girls) take a breath and relax a bit before the wedding. We did some first looks by parents up there and it worked perfectly as a private space. The reception space was so spacious and worked really well for cocktails, dinner, and dancing. The staff at the gardens set up all the tables and chairs and did so according to a drawing that we had to complete prior to our wedding day. I am so pleased with our choice of wedding venue - it was perfect for us. I am so thankful we had so much help from Patty and our guests left the wedding and reception pleased and with many wonderful memories.

The day was great, outdoor botanical gardens were beautiful. Photos turned out fantastic. However, we were one of three weddings on that one saturday. they do not have chairs available to rental at the facility for their outdoor event garden. I had to order from an outside vendor and spend additional $ on delivery/pickup which was completely unnecessary. That was my only complaint. again, beautiful place and photos turned out amazing.

olbrich gardens was a wonderful ceremony venue. i loved the indoor location as well as the outdoor. we ended up having an indoor wedding due to heat, and it worked out just fine.

The gardens are GORGEOUS and the guests loved it, and the photos turned out beautifully. However, they have strict rules that they strongly enforced (inconvenient ceremony times, number of guests, etc.). They did not have much ceremony stuff to use so I had to rent/buy my own (chairs, table, etc.). We only used them for the ceremony. I would do it again in the end, it was a perfect location for me.