The Toledo Zoo

Having our wedding at the Toledo Zoo was the best decision we made for our special day. My husband and I chose to have a wedding at the Toledo Zoo because it was special to us as we went there on our first date. We decided to have our ceremony in the formal gardens and the reception in the Aquarium. Both these locations were beautiful in which to have a wedding. We worked with Gina Lambert over numerous months to create what we wanted for our vision. The zoo staff had everything under control and was prepared down to the smallest detail when planning/executing our wedding. The zoo staff showed remarkable professionalism in all our interactions and worked with us to create every aspect that went into our special day. We went to their hosted wedding tasting six months before our wedding day to allow us to try all the food options, meet recommended vendors, and talk with the staff. This made choosing aspects of our wedding so easy when planning and during our final details meeting. Another great part of having a zoo wedding is you can add many different things to your wedding package like late night snacks, animal demos, etc. We added the aquarium touch tank and a penguin animal demonstration that our guests absolutely loved and talked about all evening. The week of our wedding, the zoo communicated with our vendors all the details to make sure they knew when and where to go in the zoo, eliminating some of our stress. The ceremony rehearsal went smoothly with a staff member greeting us at the door, helping us bring in our decorations, and walking us through the details of the ceremony. On the day of the wedding, our day-of coordinators, Kasey and Samantha, were phenomenal at helping with set-up, tear-down, and asking us what we needed throughout the entire night. They made our day run so smoothly with so many moving pieces involved allowing us to enjoy our wedding worry-free. I couldn't imagine having gotten married anywhere else. I would highly recommend the Toledo Zoo for your future wedding or other events as they are a phenomenal vendor to work with. Thank you to Gina, Kasey, Samantha, and all the zoo staff who made our day so perfect!

We recently were married at the Toledo Zoo in October and I want to share a few pieces of information that might be helpful for upcoming Brides and Grooms! 😊 First off, the venue was GORGEOUS one of the best venues I have ever seen and truly made our day so magical! If you are someone like me and want to make the dance floor a nightclub, note that lights are hard wired so we could not shut off the lights and make it more moody! When initially had our walk through at the Zoo we were in love with the venue and knew right away this was the place we wanted to have our reception. There were so many elements that we knew would make our day perfect with all the add-ons you could do! With that said, the person we initially worked before her departure, that we could do a lot of the elements to make our reception fit us, however after she had left we had gotten news that a lot of our requests were no longer going to be met. Lack of Communication I think we were in a different position than most people will be because when we first started our time with the wedding coordinator, she was very helpful with questions we had. We booked the next week and were so excited to start planning! However, we hadn’t had much communication with her after that and before the taste testing we were told she had moved to a new role outside of the zoo and we were put in contact with another coordinator. During our taste testing we had worked with another individual at the testing who answered all of our questions regarding the set-up times and when we could come in to do this. She told us we would be responsible for all set up and tear down with no help from the staff whatsoever, which put us in a very difficult position as we didn’t have any one to utilize for this. I quickly had to find a day of coordinator to help support our needs. We also were told after booking our late-night snack that we could no longer have outside vendors for food brought in which through a wrench in our initial plans and budget. We then had to set up a meeting with the head of sales due to the miscommunication we had been getting through the entire process. This being said, we discussed all the discrepancies, and they were able to help us coordinate the mess that we had been in. We were so appreciative of their help in resolving these issues and were told the people we had worked with let go for these reasons. I felt so upset knowing we were getting told wrong information from the beginning. Getting in early If you are someone who would like to get in early and decorate do not choose the zoo. They had scheduled an event the day of our wedding and were unable to get into the venue until 2PM, while our ceremony was at 2:30PM, our reception started at 5. This to me was completely unacceptable. Most venues you reserve the full day bit at the Zoo you do not, so be sure to read your contracts and ensure this is a place that you feel makes most sense! Animal add-ons: Something they did not tell us was that if you book the animals there may be chances of them being taken away. While I am ALL FOR animal safety there was a lot of missed communications from the teams as to what the animals can and can’t do. If you do the giraffe add-ons there are whether restrictions so if you are having an October wedding like us they cannot be out under 55 degrees. The sloth had gotten agitated and had to be removed only 15 minutes into our reception so please note – it is at the handlers discretion of what to do. Just be aware of ALL the information before you do the add ons. During our reception we paid for the carousel during cocktail hour and the never had it running during the time we had wanted it. While they were able to put it on during dinner majority of our guests missed our first dance because they just opened it at a random time with out consulting us. Alcohol add-ons We had added alcohol add on since they did not have some of the pieces we wanted. We added high noons for my husband and a bottle of tequila for myself, keep in mind the markup was almost 3x the pricing of MSRP. They started handing our Husbands alcohol out to guests because they failed to inform the bartenders of this and they couldn’t find my bottle of Tequila until 9:30PM, which I was not allowed to take with me so I told them not to open it since there was no way I could finish it in that time. Lastly, we about getting the glow lights out of the packaging before placing on the dance floor and we were ensured that they would take care of it. When we dropped the décor off on Thursday I specifically asked if they wanted me to remove them from the plastic wrap and they said they would but never did so the dance floor was covered in plastic wrap which makes a hard clean up for them. Overall, some of these may seem so small but we had asked many questions to make sure we knew were getting exactly what we wanted when we had spent so much money there. While our wedding day was so special there were many things, I wish we could have done differently. OVER COMMUNICATE. I cannot stress this enough. Even though I am very much a type A person, be sure you are communicating your expectations and needs and even if you do, keep telling them because they had missed so much on our day. Be sure you are all on the same page and if you are to use them, be sure to get a wedding planner to help support day of elements. I hope these help someone in the future!

We are so glad we had our wedding at the Toledo Zoo! All of our guests commented on how amazing our venue was and we got the most amazing pictures! The food was also so delicious! The staff (especially Gina and Alex) were very attentive, knowledgeable, and professional. In the weeks leading up the the wedding, Gina responded so almost all of my emails within half an hour. Additionally, as an LGBTQ couple, we found all of the staff to be incredible inclusive and professional! Overall we would 100% recommend having your wedding at the Toledo Zoo!