Sunken Gardens

Sunken Gardens was a great venue, the staff was very easy to work with and responsive to my questions and for the price it really is an incredible deal. I will say that you should be prepared as they are very busy and as a result had another wedding booked the day of ours, which... Read More gave us limited time for setup so not the most DIY friendly location. They do have a list of approved caterers and require you to use their own, but I found their approved vendors fairly priced and great options.

Booking our wedding at the Sunken Gardens was a no-brainer. The gardens are absolutely gorgeous! Three months later, our guests are still talking about it. We did our ceremony on the North Lawn, cocktail reception in the Oak Pavilion, and dinner/reception in a tent on the... Read More Wedding Lawn. The entire event felt like a tropical dream! Sarah C. and Stacey F. were fantastic to work with in the months leading up to the wedding, and phenomenal the day of. They're calm, patient, and highly knowledgable. We felt the booking price was very fair for everything we received, and we saved considerably on flowers and decorations. We also had access to the Garden Room, and if it had rained, we could have moved the whole event indoors. It was a bit frustrating not being able to purchase our own wine/beer/liquor for the reception, but this is a city-owned facility, so we understood the rules. Overall, this is a wonderful venue, and I'd highly recommend checking it out!

Incredible location for a Perfect Outdoor wedding

We were just married at the end of October and the weather was PERFECT! Our ceremony, cocktail reception and reception were all outdoors. What a beautiful setting.. all the flowers were in bloom! Everything looked beautiful. We also used the indoor classroom to make a kid’s... Read More party room.. We had food and games in there for them and they had a blast! It was great to have the extra space for the adults in the courtyard. The staff was wonderful in coordinating and guiding us through everything.. and I must give a very special and warm THANK YOU to Natalie as she is the one that we had our initial meeting with and was more than helpful throughout our months leading up to the wedding and answered all of my questions and was a tremendous support. It was truly a magical spot to have our wedding!

Venue is gorgeous. If you have your heart set on this location, think very hard about exactly how you want your day to go -- photos, cocktails, "getting ready " room, etc. and then get them to agree to your conditions in writing before booking. In my opinion, the documentation... Read More between their wedding contracts vs. their brochures & what's published online is misleading. Some people here are very helpful. Some people here I hope I never deal with again. I wish I had looked into Earthscapes in Palm Harbor before we booked here.

Planning to have my wedding at Sunken Garden. Trying to make as affordable as I can. Can anyone recommend vendors? Thank you!

Beautiful Venue

Sunken Gardens was the perfect location for our spring wedding. We had our ceremony on the Wedding Lawn, cocktail hour in the Oak Pavilion, and the reception in the Garden House. Our wedding photos turned out so beautiful and romantic with the gardens as our backdrop. It was... Read More like a fairy tale. The staff at the Sunken Gardens was great to work with and very professional. Sarah was very quick to respond to questions I sent via email. They also made sure to have the tables set up the day before the wedding so I could decorate and not have to be stressed doing it the day of.

Beautiful Venue

Sunken Gardens was the absolute perfect location for my wedding. Most of my guests were coming from out of town, so we wanted to find a place close to things to do. Everyone loved the fact that they were so close to restaurants, bars, museums, etc. The garden itself was... Read More beautiful and I received many compliments for finding such a "gem" in the middle of the city. Most of my guests came early the day of just to explore the gardens. The North Lawn was the perfect size and the cocktail hour in the oak pavilion was beautiful. They also made the entire process very easy and everything ran smoothly. If you're planning on doing an ipod playlist for your wedding, however, make sure you have a back-up! Their system wouldn't recognize my ipod, but they were able to bring out some breakaway fender speakers that worked out just fine. My only real complaint- which isn't even real- is the ceiling in the Garden Room. They have this beautiful wooden paneling above the dance floor that's covered up by ducts and piping. It's just so odd and kind of an eye sore for photos. But in the grand scheme of things everything else was so great it didn't matter.

Our Dream Wedding!

Not only is Sunken Gardens absolutely gorgeous itself, the staff at this venue are absolutely amazing to work with. Sarah Carvalis, Natalie White, Stacey Faqua, and Barbara (so sorry, I don't know her last name) were just a few of the wonderful employees with whom we had the... Read More pleasure of sharing our wedding! We got married in the Oak Pavilion; we had a smaller wedding (~80 people) and loved the backdrop of the gardens with the brick layout extending throughout. My husband and I got engaged under an oak tree, so it was important to us to carry the symbolism of an oak with us into our ceremony. The Sunken Gardens Oak Pavilion was perfect!!! The Garden Room, where we had our reception, was perfectly sized and was VERY easy to decorate and make our own. The rest of the gardens, where we took our pictures, were absolutely stunning - greens, oranges, reds, purples, yellows.. any color of nature you can possibly imagine. Such a gorgeous venue! Sarah, Natalie, and Stacey were extremely attentive to all of my crazy questions throughout the process. They made planning this wedding (which I did on my own, I didn't have a coordinator) much easier and allowed me the freedom to do what I wanted with decorations, seating, etc. Barbara was our wedding day coordinator, who also worked with us at the rehearsal, and she was fantastic!! She was knowledgeable, professional, and knew exactly what she was doing - she made us feel super special and really adhered to our questions and needs. The rehearsal, ceremony, and reception were PERFECT, and we have the Sunken Gardens staff to thank for that!!

Amazing!

Absolutely wonderful. :)

Perfect Wedding

Sunken gardens was a beautiful place and truly made my wedding dreams come true!

Major issues handled gracefully

Sunken gardens had always been where I wanted to get married. The gardens themselves are beautiful, and the banquet room is unique with partial hardwood ceilings and a slight industrial feel. I was devastated when I saw the gardens just a day before my ceremony- the... Read More contractor that they had hired to re-vamp the drainage system had not kept his word of having the gardens "wedding ready." Parts of the lawn were torn up with substantial mud, patchwork sod in other parts. . . generally terrible looking. We had a few options, but I had my heart set on the wedding lawn. The ladies at Sunken Gardens worked with my mom to make the lawn as beautiful as possible, and re-routed guest traffic; no one even KNEW that the lawn had issues! My guests had a wonderful time, and I received several compliments on the venue itself. When booking your venue, remember that things *do* happen, and when they do, the people at the venue are going to be the ones who either fix it or make it worse. So glad for our decision to have it at Sunken Gardens!

Perfect Day and Perfect Wedding

We had our wedding in early March at Sunken Gardens, and were so happy we did. Everything was perfect - the venue, the staff, the weather. The staff at Sunken Gardens was wonderful - Sarah patiently answered all of my questions and offered up vendors when I needed help. Barbara... Read More was there the day of the wedding (in addition to another staff member) and was so friendly and pleasant that she put me and our families at ease. If I needed anything, she and the rest of the staff there was happy to help. The venue was so beautiful - we had rented out the entire Gardens and were happy we did. The flowers were beautiful and it was so peaceful. Our guests couldn't stop talking about how beautiful it was. We had our reception upstairs in the Garden Room and were happy we did. Our guests didn't have to go anywhere after the ceremony and could walk around and enjoy the Gardens. The view from the Garden Room was incredible - it overlooked the area where we had the ceremony. We would highly recommend Sunken Gardens to anyone. The only other thing I'd mention is that if you're a warm body, like me, you might want to consider having your wedding before April, as it does start to get warm outside....

BEAUTIFUL outdoor venue!

I LOVED using Sunken Gardens! They have three outdoor venues to choose from ranging in price and feel. They also have an indoor area to use for the entire wedding or for just the reception if you prefer. My husband and I chose the Oak Pavilion. It's a beautiful old brick... Read More area that is covered by the incredible canopy of a 200 year old oak tree. We were married in the morning and the sunlight through the canopy was beautiful and the breeze was cooling. We got married in October, so it was fairly perfect. At no additional cost, a wedding coordinator is provided for you. He or she handles your wedding from start to finish, helping you on your big day. Please don't think that this is a wedding *planner*. The coordinator is someone who will help you keep people going in the right order and make sure things go smoothly on the day of. The ONLY downside was the decorating. Because they do not supply a clean up crew, you have to figure out how you're going to clean up any decorations that you bring in. That may be difficult to do when you're the one getting married. They have a sound system in place that you can use as well. Since I got married in the morning, lighting was a non issue so I'm not very sure about how that goes. It's a DEFINITE option if you want an outdoor venue. I saw it and from the moment I laid eyes on it, I knew that it was the place I wanted to be married.

Outstanding

The staff that helped us for the rehearsal and the day of the wedding was absolutely amazing and so helpful, we could not have asked for better service to make our wedding day run smoother!!!

Sunken Gardens St Petersburg

Sunken Gardens was an absolutely beautiful venue to get married at. If you want something that is “Florida” but isn’t the beach, than this is the place for you. That and you won’t have the random dude in the Speedo watching your ceremony! The staff at Sunken Gardens was... Read More extremely easy to work with. We initially worked with Sarah C. to get our date and contract in order. She was very helpful and always quick to respond. The day of our wedding, Barbara and Stephanie were on site. They worked seamlessly with my day-of coordinator, and everything went off without a hitch! Well, there was one hitch, but I’ll get to that. Sunken Gardens did all of the set up and tear down for the chairs at the ceremony, the tables at the cocktail hour (Oak Pavilion), and the tables and chairs at the reception (Garden Room). They also provided a sound system for the ceremony and offered us speakers to use during the cocktail hour. The one drawback was that we had to go through the City for our alcohol (which is why I gave slightly lower marks in Service). We paid the gratuity up front and requested no tip jars on the bar. There was also an option to pay for the alcohol without gratuity and allow the bartenders to have a tip jar, but we didn’t want our guests to feel obligated to pay for anything. It turns out that while everyone was getting their pictures taken, the bartenders put out a big ole fishbowl for tips. When my day-of coordinator asked them to take it down, the bartenders gave her pushback. It would be one thing if only the bartenders were there, but the person we signed the alcohol contract with was present as well. Just keep an eye out if you decide to pay the gratuity in advance! But overall, our experience at Sunken Gardens was very positive. The gardens are such a unique place to get married. In addition, the Garden Room was a beautiful place for the reception. The windows are a real plus, particularly if you set up the wedding party table right in from of them; then all of your guests are looking at you and the garden outside. When we initially looked at the Garden Room, I thought the dance floor was in an odd place, but once you see the room set up, it will make perfect sense.

Tropical Wedding

Married: Sun April 10, 2011. http://stephanieasmithblog.com/?p=2553 I went with my fiance in DEC2009 on a "Garden road trip" around Florida-about 8 gardens from Tampa to Miami. Although there were lots of beautiful gardens, this felt the most "tropical" to us-and it had... Read More everything we wanted. I had the ceremony in North Pavilion, Cocktail hour on the wedding lawn, and reception on the Oak Pavilion. Everything was outside and our backup in case of rain was an inside location they had with a dance floor (which wasn't needed, yay!). It was pricey but to me it was worth it and I saved money on flowers (b/c the garden came with it!) and the chairs and tables didn't need that much decorations (again, the flowers were pretty enough and were covered with the venue). Sarah C. was great from beginning to end. I havent been to that many weddings (umm...2 my whole life) and didn't really know anything about weddings before I got engaged, but Sarah answered a TON of questions (even really minute) with a very quick response time. She doesn't answer her phone that much because she is a busy person, but it's better to email when asking questions when planning a wedding (then on the wedding day you can print all the Q's & A's just in case-you can't make assumptions on what is authorized and what isn't). On the wedding day the Vendor staff (Barbara and ?) were great. I barely noticed they were there but everything ran smoothly. I DID notice Barbara there during the ceremony because she did a great job at cue'ing everyone properly with the music (when we are all the most nervous). The only thing I would've changed was to have a day of wedding planner/family member not in party come early to double check that chairs/tables/ect were put out properly for peace of mind(my bridesmaids had to run around for tiny last minute stuff). But the venue puts out any chairs, tables, microphone & Speaker set-up, spray bug spray (there ARE mosquitoes when you're in a garden-even in April) that you request. Another thing, I was allowed in the Garden for free whenever I wanted. I came with the photographer one day and visited with my fiance a couple times. To me this was really cool, because the venue so peaceful-it was always a nice experience. The only other thing I didn't care for was I didn't get to chose my own bar service-I HAD to go with the city of St pete's bartender. I would prefer more options because it was sort of difficult talking to Richard when writing the contract up. But in the end on the wedding night the bar staff was professional and did a great job. This Venue was wonderful, I give it 5 stars because 1) I was extremely comfortable with them BEFORE the wedding while planning because they responded to emails and were professional and worked with me, and most importantly 2)they did a great job on the WEDDING DAY and did everything they said they would.

Venue and Staff

We had our wedding in April of 2011 at Sunken Gardens. We had our ceremony on the wedding lawn and had our cocktail hour in the Oak Pavilion. Our reception was upstairs overlooking the gardens. The staff was excellent and we also had a open bar for 5 hours that was fantastic.... Read More Sarah made sure that everything was just the way we wanted. Thank you to all of the staff that made our wedding event a 10!

Sunken Gardens of St. Petersburg

The Sunken Gardens was absolutely phenomenal for our wedding. Not only did our ceremony look absolutely breathtaking on the North Lawn, but the staff went above and beyond in giving us what we needed. Sarah allowed us to work in the Garden House setting up for hours the day... Read More before the wedding. Also, the coordinators on site were kind and helpful. They sprayed for gnats and mosquitoes 30 minutes before our ceremony to ensure our guests would be comfortable. They were kind, professional and very helpful.

Great Experience

Can not say enough great things about Sunken Gardens. Everyone who helped us with our wedding was very nice. Sarah C. originally showed us Sunken Gardens was very helpful, she was always quick to answer back emails and friendly too. Barbara and Stephanie (coordinators Sunken... Read More Gardens provides) were wonderful, friendly, and most helpful. I can't imagine our wedding going any smoother and a lot has to do with having the help of Barbara and Stephanie. Highly recommend.

Oct. 15 2010

Everything was perfect for our ceremony. It was perfect. The pictures turned out great. We just used them for our cememony.

Beautiful Venue

My small wedding at Sunken Gardens was nothing short of beautiful. Such a pretty venue at an affordable price! Barbara, the coordinator, was wonderful to work with. Everything was set up as it was supposed to be on the big day. I would recommend this to any bride that wanted an... Read More outdoor wedding at someplace other than the beach.

Sunken Gardens

The scenery here is just made for weddings and photo opportunities! The wedding coordinators are just amazing! They supply all tables and chairs (no added expense!) for both the ceremony in the park and the reception in the Garden Room. They are extremely helpful and... Read More accomodating. The Bar Manager, Dick, is just great! They also give you a day of wedding coordinator (Sweet!). They wil get all of your other vendor info and call them if their late so that the bride & groom don't have to worry about it (Woo-Hoo!). We rented the whole Gardens from 5PM-midnight for our wedding & reception and couldn't be happier with the whol experience. Awesome venue for a surprisingly reasonable price. This will pull on every romantic hearstring you have without completely killing your budget. $3250 for the whole gardens and garden room, 5PM-midnight. WOW!

Beautiful Sunken Gardens

This venue was everything I was looking for. It is an excellent place to take garden pictures. My photos were taken in the Japanese Garden portion and they turned out beautiful. The staff is very helpful and accomodating. They do require approvals for caterers that are not... Read More already approved on their list. Their list, however, included a good variety of caterers in every price range. They also have some decorating safety rules. My overall experience was great. I lived out of state and they were very easy to work with and well prepared.

Review for Sunken Gardens

We held our reception at Sunken Gardens. When guests arrived, they were able to walk all throughout the gardens. The bridal party and family were able to take pictures with a gorgeous back drop right at the front of the park. We were able to see and talk to our guests as they... Read More came in. The actual dinner and dancing was held upstairs in a loft-like room with a great view of the garden. It was a really beautiful place to have a reception. And the price was extremely reasonable. I would highly recommend.

Review for Sunken Gardens

I loved the wall that faced the gardens - It was the length of the entire room and featured huge windows that overlooked the greenery and tropical foliage outside. Since our wedding took place in the morning it was breathtaking and made for such a picturesque reception with... Read More the sun shining in! I also loved the lofty wooden ceilings - it gave the room a great presence.;As with many venues be aware that some of your back tables may seem like they're placed into a corner. Also the first entrance to the venue isn't visible by all of the tables so when doing your 'Grand Entrance' remember not to dance or do anything too memorable until you round the corner :)