U of M Matthaei Botanical Gardens

ure and she and her staff ensured that our event went smoothly. Our guests also commented on the beauty of the setting. It's great to know too that we'll be able to return to the gardens when we want to remember our special day. I highly recommend Matthaei Botanical Gardens for a memorable wedding ceremony!

m at the Gardens really put their effort into making sure it went as smoothly as possible. And, obviously, the venue was absolutely beautiful. Definitely snag a June date if you can! The only thing I will mention as needing improvement, and this is something another commenter has mentioned, but the form to fill out information on the rehearsal and day-of is very gendered, which didn't really work well with a nonbinary and trans man couple who were doing everything we could to avoid gendering everything. That could definitely use some updating. The staff and space were lovely, though, and gave us memories that'll last a lifetime for us.

team for your help making sure all went smoothly.

like we got what we paid for. I would strongly caution any future brides from booking them as a venue, and if you do then understand that you will not receive the full services you pay for. The Facility Rentals Coordinator, Michelle, was tremendously frustrating to work with. She was rude, difficult to get ahold of, and did not provide any of the support the week-of that was promised (a phone call, rehearsal coordination, replies to emails, etc.). Additionally, per our contract we reserved the conservatory from 4:30 to 7 pm for our private event. However, the signs on the door said that our private event only went until 6:15. There were dozens of people swarming the conservatory during our photos after the ceremony and our photographer had to repeatedly ask them to move. Fellow LGBTQIA folks: we opened the link to the questionnaire and were deeply disheartened and frustrated. Despite having several recent communications with Michelle, and my partner speaking to her on the phone when we booked, Michelle still sent us a childish, confusing questionnaire that identified us as Bride and Groom. We were so frustrated that we responded, ‘There is no groom!’. Michelle never replied nor acknowledged this oversight. The last email we received from Michelle was the Tuesday before our wedding. We confirmed that our officiant would be guiding the rehearsal and asked some questions about what time people could arrive to set up chairs. Michelle never replied. She never responded to our questions, responded only once to our day-of coordinator who also emailed her, and she never reached out to schedule the week-of phone call that was in our contract. On Friday we were standing in the conservatory, rehearsing for our ceremony, and Michelle literally walked right through our rehearsal. It looked like she was showing another prospective couple the space. She didn’t stop to greet us, introduce herself, or ask if we needed anything. Instead, she completely ignored us and walked another couple literally right in between my fiancée and me. We arrived on the day of our ceremony and were waiting in the get-ready room when someone knocked at the door at around 5:15. It was Michelle, who offered us a brief congratulations, then said that she was showing a prospective bride the facilities, and could she show her the get-ready room?! My fiancée and I were standing there, in our dresses, panicking, 10 minutes from our ceremony and she wanted to interrupt us to show the room to a future client?! I was truly stunned. After the ceremony we did family and bridal portraits in the conservatory. However, due to the wrong time being posted on the doors, there were people in the Conservatory much earlier than the 7 pm time stated in our contract. In short; Michelle was the most frustrating part of our wedding planning process. This experience was not worth $1,500 since we did not receive the coordinating support nor the privacy we paid for. If you have other alternatives, I will strongly encourage you to go elsewhere.

fell in love with MBG during our first visit and were so happy to get married there - our guests loved the gardens and walking around after the ceremony.

ave everything flow smoothly. Communication was outstanding. After the ceremony there were numerous spots for pictures with family and the bridal party.

ngs around at the last minute. Everything was perfect. I couldn't ask for a better day.

y. The auditorium was the perfect size for our reception (75 guests).

r ceremony in Ann Arbor. We built our own arch/chuppah from birch wood that looked great--unfortunately the Gardens didn't want to keep it for future weddings. The ceremony felt intimate, and the guests enjoyed walking around. They do have a backup in case it rains (auditorium or Conservatory) which fortunately we didn't need. When it did start raining after our ceremony, we were able to take photos inside the Conservatory (giant greenhouse). We enjoyed working with Linda from the beginning. She was very responsive and helpful. She does favor a rather traditional ceremony style and is not shy about expressing her opinions regarding the ceremony. Just remember that she is just giving suggestions and you can ultimately do what you like. Overall this is a fantastic, beautiful venue.

ding up six months. Linda, the wedding coordinator, was so accomodating of those circumstances and worked with us to find a new date. Our wedding ceremony was outside, in the Gateway Gardens, and I was so impressed with how the backup wedding coordinator (I'm sorry, I forgot her name!) shooed uninvited "guests" out of our ceremony, kept things running on time, ran notes from me to my DJ. Our wedding had many guests that told us they loved the location. Thank you for a beautiful ceremony and reception site!

g (36 guests) and it was perfect! Thank you!

itional cost which was a very nice touch. The only complaint that I had is that you have a small time window for your ceremony, which does not allow you to comfortably fit in the ceremony and pictures. We were very rushed to fit in time for our pictures after the ceremony. Otherwise, this was a beautiful site for an outdoor garden wedding.

vided by staff there. My wedding is in winter but I wanted a lot of greens, their indoor Conservatory was perfect with plenty of tropical trees and plants. The coordinator not only provided all the information and help we need for our ceremony but also recommendations for photographer, music, flower, officiant and many more. It saved us a lot of time researching for these services. In the end, our officiant, photographer, cake and flower are all from the selected lists provided by Linda. At the ceremony, the staff at spot did everything she could to help. I can't ask for more and I'm so happy to have had my ceremony here.

Eden. Was so lovely. The accomodations are nothing fancy, but if quaint, romantic, and beautiful are what you want, then I would definately reccommend. The cost for the ceremony is $900. No receptions are held here.

f. The cleanup at the end of the night is your responsibility, the set up is yours, and the chair set up for the ceremony is yours too. They do not have an onsite caterer, so you hire one yourself. It didnt go so bad for us, simply because we had a lot of help from family and friends. It just would have been nice to relax instead of feeling like we were working on our wedding day. The staff was very nice. Very laid back.

Burdette. He did ours and we received many comments on how personable he was, and very respectful. The weather was very warm that day, and they provided water to all the guests and complimentary umbrellas. It was beautiful, and I highly recommend this place!

will be setting up the chairs yourself). Next, there are tons of restrictions about what you can and can't have in the gardens AND super-tight restrictions on time (2 hours total for setup, seating, ceremony, pictures, and tear down). Last, and worst of all, they are disorganized and almost completely unaccommodating. Overall, you will spend too much money and go through too much trouble just to get good pictures in the garden when there are many other cool places for pics!

hough I would have to figure things out myself and they were just there for the grounds, but as it turned out they were super helpful! We had a girl (Kelly Ann) who walked us through the rehearsal the night before and then was instrumental in making the day-of procession go smoothly - she also cued and collaborated with our musicians. You do have to bring friends to help set up and take down chairs for the ceremony, and the we (the bridal party) got caught in construction and I thought we would never make it there in time to tell our friends how to set up the chairs, but Kelly Ann instructed everything and I was extremely relieved when I got there to find out my tardiness was no issue :)

arden. There are a few different areas to have your ceremony and plenty of spots for gorgeous pictures. The timeline for the ceremony is a little short but it was definitely doable. We even left about 10 minutes early. The ladies there were helpful with keeping everyone on the timeline and even letting everyone know when they needed to start walking down the aisle. It was so helpful to have the assistant there throughout the ceremony. I would recommend this place to anyone looking to get married or do engagement photos!

e had our reception in the Auditorium inside, and everything was set up, fit perfectly and looked great! My only complaint (and it is a tiny one) is that we had three different people handling our event, and at times, it seemed like they all had different information about what we wanted. The wedding went off with very few, very small hitches, and was well worth what we paid.