Riverbanks Zoo & Garden

Riverbanks Zoo & Garden, located in Columbia and home to more than 2,000 magnificent animals and a beautiful botanical garden, is considered one of South Carolina's most unique venues to host your special day!

Spaces for Hire

Situated in the Botanical Garden, the chic Magnolia Room is one of our most popular ceremony-reception spaces, as it breaks out onto a bricked garden terrace that overlooks cascading waters, uplit foliage and seasonal flowers. This space holds 140 guests for an indoor banquet or 200-350 for a more informal gathering. As a more rustic alternative and located on the Zoo side of the Saluda River, the Ndoki Lodge is ideal for wedding receptions also. This oval space boasts high-beam ceilings, panoramic windows, African elephants as neighbors, and a capacity of upto 170 for a banquet or 350 for a reception. Finally, as a ‘wild card’ option, Riverbanks also proudly lends some of it’s unique Animal Exhibit spaces, such as the Birdhouse or Aquarium, as a pre-dinner cocktail hour space or for the wedding reception itself!

Food & Drink 

Riverbanks Zoo is proud to partner with one of the zoo and hospitality world's most innovative event specialists, SSA Inc. They are the sole event caterer at Riverbanks and are actually based on Zoo premises. This ensures that all elements of the event process run smoothly and efficiently, and that our staff can help you through every part of the planning process.

SSA's executive head chef, Adam Milledge, is happy to tweak or create new dishes just for you and is proud to support SSA's core values of sustainability, helping local farmers and showcasing cuisine of the highest standard.