Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden Reviews

This botanical garden right in the heart of Portlamd was absolutely beautiful. Our guests are still talking about it.

This Venue was perfect! It held all of our people comfortably to dance, photo booth, eat, drink, and play games. The coordinator was wonderful! Couldn't have asked for anything better.
We did have to bring in the crew for set up and take down but that was made clear and we were ready.

The garden was the perfect place for our ceremony. It was beautiful and set up perfectly. We rented the chairs from the garden which made set up and take down a breeze. We didn’t have to worry about anything!

Rachel is the venue coordinator for Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens and she is just as nice as can be! She was extremely helpful during the entire planning, day of, and follow-up process. She responded immediately to emails and always answered all of my questions. The venue itself is absolutely gorgeous and was the setting of our dream wedding.

We had our wedding here in August. Many of our guests said it was the most beautiful wedding that they have ever attended. The lush garden setting with the backdrop of the water was gorgeous. We were nervous about the weather because there isn't an indoor space but we lucked out with 80 degrees and sunshine. We were married in the Meadow site and had about 120 guests. There was plenty of space for our ceremony, tables for dinner, buffet, a bar, a dance floor and lawn games (corn hole!) The atmosphere of the garden allowed people to feel relaxed and enjoy their time by exploring the beautiful scenery. This was the first wedding venue that we looked at and I instantly knew it was perfect for us. The garden supplied the tables and chairs (for a small fee) and we rented the other equipment. There are bathrooms at the meadow site and electrical hook ups and a separate service entrance, however there is no on-site kitchen but our caterers did not have a problem with this.
Rachel, the event coordinator, was wonderful to work with. She was always available to answer my questions and concerns about details and logistics. She made me feel so at ease about the whole process.
Definitely take a look at the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden when looking for venues. It is a unique and beautiful outdoor wedding space.

We absolutely ADORED having our wedding at this site - for the price you will pay you will not find a more unique and gorgeous venue, in my opinion. I had done a lot of research into other venues in the area, but this one topped them all. The flexibility and easy communication between the event coordinator and I was very helpful. I would recommend this location to anyone looking for an outdoor venue site.

We loved having our summer wedding at Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, in the meadow site. The gardens are beautiful and the meadow was the perfect setting for our afternoon ceremony and reception. The venue is very affordable and we were were able to bring in any vendors we liked. The site contact Rachael was always responsive to questions. We also loved that the venue was accessible by public transit and had ample parking across the street at Reed College. For anyone looking for an outdoor venue in Portland that's beautiful, low-key, and highly customizable, this is a great spot!

I have visited Crystal Springs many times over the years and often thought about how lovely it would be to have a wedding there. I assumed it wouldn't be affordable, so I never looked into it. Last year, my partner and I got engaged, and I decided that I might as well look into it. I am so glad I did -- it ended up being reasonable. My partner and I met Rachael for a site visit and fell in love! The Meadow Site had everything we wanted! The garden was so lovely, with a wide open lawn overlooking a beautiful lake. Walking through the park to the site is nothing short of magical. There are countless spots for photos -- the whole garden is gorgeous.

We had our 65-person wedding in mid-August and everything, including the weather, was perfect. We didn't need an arch because the perfectly angled trees provided a natural one. The bathrooms, electrical outlets, and service entries were all next to the site, so that was convenient as well. Rachael was easy to work with and always quick to respond to my emails. We ended up renting tables and chairs from the venue, which was convenient. All in all, the venue was perfect, and I am so glad that we live close by and can visit as often as we want to relive the day!

Photos by Alexandria Monette Photography

What a lovely place to get married. The Woodland Garden was a perfect fit for our 75 guest wedding. From the event by the lake to dancing on on the lawn it was wonderful. The only small complaint I have is that they watered the lawn the morning of the event so the grass was soaking wet. In the end, it wouldn't have been any different if it had rained the night before and it didn't detract at all from the fantastic day. Extra bonus, there's not one bad place to take a picture in the entire garden.

We chose to have our ceremony at the woodland site of the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden and could not have been more thrilled. The peninsula of the woodland site was protected from other garden-goers. It has absolutely stunning views of the spring and lake. Our guests described it as "a magical forest," and we received numerous compliments regarding how beautiful the venue was. Additionally, the grassy meadow was the perfect size for our 110 guests- it didn't seem too small or too large. The only potential downside was working with the Party Pros as the preferred rental company. Regardless, I would highly recommend the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden to ANY Portland (or non-Portland couple) seeking a venue.

Crystal Springs Meadow Site is a beautiful venue for an outdoor ceremony and reception! The gardens provide a natural beauty that makes decorating nearly unnecessary, though completely possible if you want to glam up the space (Crystal Springs Events page on Facebook provides lots of example photos of both options). I asked many questions and always received a quick response. The reason for 4 stars on flexibility is that they have some strict rules- you have to be out by 10pm (this wasn't a problem- we just had our event a little on the early side) and you have to work your rehearsal around events on other days. 4.5 stars for value because it is just that: PUBLIC. For any other public park, you would not spend nearly as much money to reserve space for an event....I know, I did all the research on Portland Parks. Of course, Crystal Springs provides better scenery and layout than most! We loved our wedding celebration outdoors in this beautiful space. We highly recommend this site for an outdoor wedding in Portland!

Two quick issues: our guests were supposed to be parking over at Reed, but there was an event happening that day and Reed didn't allow it. That's an issue that should have been worked out ahead of time but wasn't. The second is that as a public park, there are rules that cannot be bent (such as no alcohol, etc).

Other than that, the venue was brilliant. We had an early-ish wedding at the beginning of May, but the entire park was absolutely gorgeous. The site can either go casual or super fancy, which is great. Rita, the coordinator, was easy to get a hold of, and responsive to any questions. Tables and chairs can be rented from the garden at low cost with high convenience. Again, overall, it was an absolutely gorgeous place to get married and I'm so happy we chose it.

This was a wonderful venue for our wedding ceremony. It seemed like a good value for the money. Rita, the event coordinator, had some quirks but was generally a nice person. She sent us a lot of strange mail after we booked the garden for our ceremony, and she never spelled our names right. :) It worked out fine overall though. They let us into the gardens free as many times as we wanted to go in before the wedding.

I had my wedding here and it was straight out of a fairlytale!! I will say there was a few communion errors that caused some headaches in the wedding planning proccess but the day of, the garden was stunning and everything went off without a hitch! Just be sure you are very clear with the coordinator and contact the college across the street yourself regarding parking, their calendar is inaccurate and private events don't show up, very frustrating. But the space itself is stunning! And the lighting at 4pm in May was just right not have nearly every guest shaded!

Our wedding was magical here! Our guest loved the setting. The staff was helpful with set- up the day of. We had a fabulous time!

We recently held our wedding ceremony at the Rhododendron Garden and were incredibly frustrated by and disappointed with the experience, especially with the Gardens' event coordinator. She was very difficult to coordinate with or get information from and was extremely inflexible when we had requests (like removing dirty stacks of chairs from a room which we were promised the use of for our ketubah signing). The park itself is gorgeous and the photos worked out well, but for the amount of money we paid, the services were sorely lacking. The only time we saw the coordinator was when we arrived for set up, but she was nowhere to be found later in the day and did not offer to receive deliveries or anything that other venues routinely assist with. Very, very disappointed. Thankfully our reception was at another location.