The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens

I worked with Cara, the event coordinator, to plan my August wedding at the Cummer. She was very responsive and quick to send over contracts, make changes and answer any questions I had. Cara worked with us to set up our ceremony in one of the lower gardens to accommodate 150 seated guests. She had all the speakers and microphones set up for our ceremony and went over everything with us during our rehearsal. We had our reception in the Terry Gallery and also utilized the Ubilie Loggia lobby area for cocktail hour. We used the recommended catering company, Chef's Garden. Jenn from Chef's Garden and Cara have planned many events together so they know what they're doing. The food was excellent and they were easy to work with. The plated dinner was served quickly so we could get on with our party. The whole event ran smoothly so we were able to enjoy ourselves. I didn't have to do one thing on the wedding day because of my awesome vendor team! I always dreamed of getting married at the Cummer and it was everything I imagined and more!

The Cummer was absolutely perfect for our April 2019 wedding! Even with the Italian Garden under construction (which I was initially pretty worried about), it was absolutely gorgeous. Cara was wonderful to work with and was so patient and helpful with all of our questions! We were planning from out-of-state, so it was so helpful to have a venue coordinator who was so responsive. Guests loved being able to view the galleries and everyone was astonished by the beauty of the gardens. We had our ceremony angling toward the oak on the lower tier, with the reception on the upper tier. With 145 guests, we thought the upper tier might feel tight with all the dinner tables as well as the stage and dance floor, but it wasn't tight at all! The Chef's Garden was amazing as well, and since they are the mandatory caterer and an expensive budget item, that's important to consider with a wedding at The Cummer. Mark Grandin does mandatory lighting and he did a great job too. We just went with simple cafe lighting outdoors and nothing else, which looked great! The only concern with The Cummer is that you can't put up a tent for a reception so if you are planning to have everything outside it's slightly risky, and you also have to make a weather call a couple of days in advance. We were so lucky to have perfect weather, but the possibility of having to move everything inside was definitely on my radar that week, so just make sure you're okay with your rain plan! We can't recommend The Cummer highly enough and we wish we could get married there again and again! We can't imagine getting married anywhere else!

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is such a beautiful place in Jacksonville. There are some restrictions and certain guidelines regarding what can be done for your wedding, but nothing that wasn't unreasonable (it is a museum after all). We loved that there were no surprise fees or no peak months/seasons. The event coordinator, Cara, was always quick to respond to any questions we had and was so helpful throughout the planning process. I had always dreamed about having my wedding outdoors and surrounded by greenery, and the gardens at the Cummer were absolutely gorgeous. A big plus for us as well was that guests were able to explore the museum while during cocktail hour (but no drinks within exhibits). We had such an amazing experience with the Cummer Museum and everything went perfectly. All of our guests couldn't stop talking about how beautiful the wedding was.