Pittsburgh Botanic Garden

PBG is an absolutely stunning location to get married at. The grounds are well kept, clean, and even individually catered to your group (the staff trimmed up greenery just to suit our wedding party!). It is also extremely convenient to have the ceremony and reception all in the same location. This was accessible to all of our guests and made transportation very straightforward. The PBG staff are ready to transport the bride/groom and photographers around the garden grounds for private photos, which made leaving and rejoining the party quick and easy. PBG does require you to individually hire catering and equipment, which allows your wedding day to be highly customizable but can also be overwhelming if you are doing this on your own (depends on how much work you want to put in!). They are also pretty flexible on different customizations you want. The only thing we wish went differently was the communication with the vendor - leading up to our wedding weekend they were quick to communicate via email or phone. However, on the rehearsal and the day of we felt unsure of what to expect. For example, when we arrived for the rehearsal our wedding group was left outside for 15-20 minutes without access to the venue and no information on why our rehearsal was starting late. When we tried to contact the team their phones were not picking up, and a staff member in the adjacent office for horticulture told us to our faces "we can't help you." The late start was because of vendor coordination - which we totally understand, but not knowing why we were waiting outside in the sun for that long was upsetting. Once we had access, we were not given any information on how the rehearsal would run, and it wasn't until at least 20 minutes late from our start time that the event managers interrupted our officiant to let us know that they would handle the logistics and cues. Once we had the direction it went smoothly, but similarly on the day of our wedding we were not told that the staff would assist with our entrances which led me (the bride) to panic about 15 minutes before our entrances until we were told that it would be handled. I feel that the PBG events team could easily smooth this out with an emailed outline of the rehearsal plan and what to expect on the day of, or to reach out with a day-of contact number.

Absolute gem of a venue! They made my vision for a garden wedding come to life. The day of coordinator and team were highly organized and we received multiple compliments from guests about the kindness of the staff as well as the natural beauty of the venue. PBG will forever hold a special place in my heart…thank you for making my wedding day magical.