We had an amazing wedding day at Glen Echo Park! Guests and vendors alike raved about the experience, and we couldn't be happier with the service provided by the GEP team (especially Mikea, who worked with us from day one to set up and execute a perfect day, and LaShea, who was there on our wedding day assisting with everything we needed and keeping spirits high!)

The scenery at Glen Echo is amazing - you hardly need to decorate to have a fabulous and beautiful day. We held our ceremony in the Cuddle Up pavilion, which was so fun and unique, and our reception in the Bumper Car Pavilion. The Bumper Car Pavilion had heaters in place, so even on a chilly March evening, it ended up being perfect and comfortable. Our photographer was spoiled for choice when it came to locations, and our guests enjoyed meandering the park taking photos as well.

If you love interesting architecture, national parks, history, or design, and are looking for a semi-outdoor, semi-wooded wedding destination that is nevertheless easy for your guests to get to, Glen Echo is the spot. It's also great if you don't have a ton to shell out on a venue, because the National Park status makes it very affordable.

The experience had a few hiccups, but I think that's to be expected with any wedding. We booked the venue over a year in advance, and over that time period our coordinator quit, which meant we had to work to make the vision we'd executed with coordinator #1 make sense to coordinator #2. (Glen Echo only accepts approved caterers/vendors, but we really wanted to serve pizza / keep food costs low. Coordinator #1 said we could hire a pizza vendor and just have an approved caterer on site to oversee compliance with venue policies.)

Our new coordinator worked with us to make it happen and ultimately we got everything we were hoping for. In retrospect, though, you may not want to get married here unless you're ok with the approved caterers. It wasn't always easy to do things the way we did.

All that said, this venue is a photographer's dream, it was accessible, it was breezy. There are multiple locations on the property for your reception, ceremony, cocktail hour, whatever. We had our rehearsal dinner there the night before as a potluck-style picnic and that was really great, too (although heads up: We asked for approval of our rehearsal date many months in advance and were granted it, then in the months and weeks leading up to the date we were told the date may or may not be booked by someone else. Basically, it seemed like they can't hold that date for you, you only get it if no one else books. This was really nerve-wracking, so for peace of mind, you may want to just go somewhere else.)

My fiancée and I wanted privacy, and were nervous because it's a public park. We were so caught up in our wedding, though, that I could not tell you if a single stranger walked by. I literally never thought of it once! I was so caught up in this idea, and then never considered it night-of. Just in case that's something you're nervous about!

We were also nervous the sound wouldn't be loud enough to really get a dance party going, because we were told the rule was you have to be able to stand in the parking lot and not hear the music. We never tested that, but our music was LOUD and people got down. So don't worry about that :) They also let us store a harp and lots of decorations there overnight on Friday, decorate all morning Saturday, and use some of their fun stage lights to make one area of the Bumper Car Pavilion PINK! The overhead twinkle lights were too dim for our photographer, so we had to turn the pan lights on, and these didn't provide the best ambience (not terrible, just not ideal). I'd recommend testing your lighting out ahead of time and talking to your photographer about it, if it's something you care about.

Ok, that's it! Recommend it highly, it was very unique and SO convenient, yet felt secluded and woodsy. Ample parking, too! Leave plenty of time for pictures, we had an hour and it wasn't enough to capture all the cool parts of the park.

We always loved Glen Echo's bumper car pavilion as a potential venue and were psyched there was an opening we can snag after we got engaged. Laura was awesome to work with--super helpful, responsive, and easy going. She guided us through the prep and drop off the days leading up to the wedding, and made sure everything went so smoothly on the day of. We have gotten so many compliments on the fun, quirky, beautiful venue, and it was truly the dream wedding we'd hoped for!