San Diego Zoo & Safari Park

Our wedding at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park was absolutely incredible! We had a small guest count - only about 60 guests, and so chose the Harusi Lawn/Longhouse at Tiger Trail venue combination. These locations were perfect, absolutely stunning, and so very us. We added the animal encounter to our cocktail hour and did not regret it! Our guests were raving about it and the animals we got to learn about were incredible! We highly recommend adding this encounter if it is in your budget, because really, where else will you get to have this amazing private animal encounter as entertainment for your wedding? It was a beautiful educational experience and so special for everyone.
We had the amazing opportunity to work with Alyssa as our point of contact for the venue and could not have been happier. She was extremely detailed in her answers and always prompt in her responses. We appreciated her working with us to have our dream of a boba vendor at our wedding as well - also another aspect our guests seemed to love! We had a bit of a kerfuffle at the very start of our inquiry into having our wedding at the Safari Park, as the original coordinator we had been in contact with suddenly stopped working there right as we were trying to finalize our wedding date. Luckily we were swiftly taken care of - we were contacted by the Safari Park with a call and then promptly by email and got everything straightened out. Alyssa was placed as our venue coordinator and immediately got the ball rolling again. We are very grateful for her!
We also want to shout out the venue staff - from the waitstaff, to the bartenders, to the shuttle drivers. Everyone was so lovely and nice - our guests had a great time interacting with them. During dinner service, the staff were all so kind of quick - we really are so grateful for every one of them!
Overall, we highly recommend having your wedding at the Safari Park! It is such a unique and amazing experience - plus profits will go back towards animal conservation. So not only are guests having a good time, but every guest invited is also helping the park and the animals. The gorgeous venue locations and the fact that we could include an animal encounter during our cocktail hour was so extremely special. Because the whole park is already so gorgeous, minimal decor was needed - really, if you wanted to save money and you were at the Harusi Lawn venue for your ceremony, you could probably pass on florals with how gorgeous it is! We opted to enhance with some gorgeous florals, but I can definitely see it working without any as well. We also were very lucky in that the tigers remained out of their covered homes the entire night! So our guests got to see them up close all night long (the tigers chose to chill right next to the windows by the dinner tables). We love what the SDZ Wildlife Alliance stands for and does, and what a fun way to be a part of that!

Couldn’t ask for a better wedding. Nikki was the absolute best, she even got our guest popsicles at the last second since the ceremony was a little hot. If you’re looking for a fun, memorable place to get married than this is the spot. We didn’t even look at other venues.

As a teacher who has planned events, I thought I could plan a wedding without a planner. Although this was foolish, our wedding went smoothly because of Alyssa Good's organization and communication. Alyssa was our San Diego Safari Park coordinator. She helped us plan the menu, set up safe transportation for our guests, and do everything from finding the best bakery (Twiggs) to finding a perfect first-look spot. Weddings at the zoo include website and invitation language ideas, detailed timeline templates, and planners detailing the decor, ceremony, and reception setup. Alyssa gave us table sizes to pick from, and layouts with color choices. Not only was everything perfectly laid out and clear to understand, but Alyssa was always so supportive. She conferenced with me over the phone when I was worried about our florals, and she helped me get a hold of our musician when he had not returned calls.
On our wedding day, Alyssa and her whole team made everything perfect. Jerome (our helper at the rehearsal dinner) helped us with carousel photo ops, and a driver helped me with my bouquet and overskirt when my bridesmaids were missing. Another worker geeked out with us over our binturong cake and hugged us at the end of the night, thanking us for how well our wedding went when in reality, they are the people who made our wedding perfect.
We did an animal encounter experience add-on for our guest, which was adorably unique. We had an anteater, a porcupine, two macaws, a tortoise, an armadillo, and an echidna friend at our wedding. The experience was educational and interactive, and our guests loved it. Some of our best wedding pictures are of us giggling and adoring the cute critters at our reception.
The zoo staff are loving and caring people. They made sure we had appetizers and drinks on our table when we were busy so we would get to eat. They reminded us to eat too! (The food was fantastic, by the way, and all our guests raved about the 24 braised beef short ribs and the pistachio salmon) They ensured my mother-in-law had a glass of wine when she missed cocktail hour to take pictures. They were just kind.
The venue itself was beautiful. We were married in the Mombasa Pavilion among beautiful strokes, pelicans, cormorants, and swans. At twilight, bats swooped around the lagoon, creating a magical backdrop for nighttime dancing. It was perfect, and we can't recommend our venue or the zoo team enough.