Fullerton Arboretum Reviews

This wedding venue is truly a dream. When planning my wedding I was searching high and low for outdoor venues and I’m so happy the arboretum popped up on my list! Tiffany was so helpful throughout all of my planning and promptly answered any questions I had along the way. Although the venue has a preferred vendor list, you are able to go off of that list to book other vendors, as long you get approval and the specific requirements needed from the venue. The venue details everything out for you to make planning, booking vendors, and communication a breeze! Our wedding was in May 2023. Peak spring time, and I can’t begin to explain to you how breathtaking the scenery was. Every inch of this venue was a beautiful backdrop for pictures. All of our guests were in awe and kept complimenting us on how beautiful the venue was. Truly the best decision we made! So happy we had our wedding here

This venue is a dream-come-true! We got married in early October last year. The venue is stunning! Both the ceremony and reception locations are stunning and magical, it was everything I dreamed of and more. The staff were so helpful, friendly, communicative and professional. They were so prompt with all their emails and meetings, and put us at ease the whole time. I would highly recommend this location to anyone who wants an absolutely gorgeous and fun place to get married. People still tell us how impressed they were with the sights of this place, and say it was one of the best venues they've been to!

I loved this venue, it was beautiful and the staff was extremely helpful at making the day go perfectly! I would suggest that you get an additional wedding planner who has more experience. I did this and it made the day so much smoother.

We got married next to the arbor in the Fullerton Arboretum. It was truly a fairy tale. : ) It was summer and the arbor was green and blooming, so beautiful. I got ready next to the arbor in the old fashioned home. It was so sweet to be able to walk out the back door with my dad onto a path filled with flowers that led up to the arbor. We waited for our first look to happen at the ceremony and the set up allowed for it perfectly. The coordinators there were so very helpful and caring and helped make our wedding truly memorable and beautiful. I'm so thankful for them.

We just had our wedding here August 29, 2014. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I am so happy with our decision to have it here. Our wedding coordinators Donna and her husband Dave were really great. There were only a couple hiccups, but nothing major. There were ants getting onto the guests tables and the sweets table, but after all it is an outdoor venue in an arboretum, so nature comes along with that. Dave helped my mom get some powder down to try and help the situation and the best part is, I knew nothing of it, till the next day. For some reason, ants got on all the tables except our sweetheart table. LOL, It was meant to be. The other hiccup was at the end of the night, in our contract we had one hour to clean up afterwards and Donna tried to rush us out after 30 miutes. I get it she's tired, but I just had to take the contract out(yes, I had it with me-an entire binder with every single wedding detail) and then it was fine. We were almost done anyways.This was sort of disappointing because we had tipped her $50 earlier in the evening. Overall, even given the small hiccups, I still give 5 stars because I feel like my day was so perfect and beautiful!

Beyond beautiful. Our wedding at the Fullerton Arboretum was nothing short of breathtaking. Besides the given beauty of the place, everyone there is wonderful to work with. Ginger works with you on all your questions and needs prior to the day and she is just a wonderful person to speak with and work with. Then the day of we had an incredible hostess who genuinely cared for our guests needs as well as our family & bridal party. She made sure the golf cart was there and ready for any guests who couldn't make the trek to the lake. This was one of my biggest concerns about the venue but I had nothing to worry about. They took such good care of all of us! I was beyond impressed and happy with my experience and all our guests have commented on the beauty of the surroundings. The reception at the Pavillion area was wonderful! The space was huge to accommodate our 280 guests, who later said they felt like they were on vacation. It did feel a bit like an oasis paradise - warm summer night, soft lighting in the trees, gorgeous surroundings! It was just perfect.

Oh my goodness, this must be the best kept secret! The most beautiful place you could possibly have an outdoor wedding and reception. Excellent service and facilities. I received many many compliments on this venue. Most guests had no idea this place even existed, but they DO NOW! I can't imagine having a better place for the most important day of my daughter's life.

The Fullerton Arboretum was a fabulous venue. We got married in mid-September and the flowers were blooming. The older bathrooms are a bit dingy so we had them locked and sent guests up to the newer bathrooms in the museum building. It was a short walk from the reception area, but totally worth it. I heard so many positive comments about the outdoor setting. I would recommend this location for both the ceremony and reception.

The Fullerton Arboretum is an amazing garden to have a wedding. Not only does it provide for a beautiful ceremony and reception site, but the grounds produce gorgeous wedding photo's. Our wedding was in May and it turned out to be the perfect, not too hot or too cold, day. We got married in the arbor which was in full bloom and the arboretum had even planted new flowers the day before. Just perfect! We had our reception on the lawn and it was perfect as well!

Some of the downfalls are they do ask for you to use certain food vendors - but we thought the selection was great and in fact the people we wanted were on the list so it worked out perfect. They do only allow wine and beer - but I think it saves money and it was still plently for our guests to drink.

Everyone at the arboretum was extremely helpful and our day of wedding coordinator was so nice! I would definitely recommend the arboretum to anyone who wants the perfect garden wedding.

This is Such a beautiful place to be married, Patty and elizabeth were amazing, and helped me through everything.

The Fullerton Arboretum was great!! The perfect venue and backdrop for our garden wedding. Ginger was always flexible and rapidly answered our questions during the planning process, and our event coordinator, Barbara was awesome! She made sure everything stayed on time and ran smoothly.
Our ceremony under the arbor was gorgeous and picturesque. Even with 170 guests, we made it work and everyone had a seat! It was the wedding I always dreamed of, and I'm thankful to the Arboretum for making it happen!

We had both our ceremony and reception here and it was beautiful. The recommended party planners the venue gave worked well with us and our day had great weather, Thanks for the memories!

We had such a beautiful wedding! The convenience of ceremony and reception being close together was so appreciated, but they’re each their own outdoor, unique areas so it made each part of the day exciting! They do have some strict policies on what you can bring—absolutely no pets, flame, sparklers, rice, or confetti (even if it’s made of flowers, which was a big bummer to me). Aside from that, the day was exactly what we hoped for. So many guests commented on how perfect it turned out!

Fantastic venue - I highly recommend this place. The rental manager, Liz, was very easy to work with and helpful in answering questions. It is a beautiful place and not incredibly expensive. The only reason I have not given 5 stars on flexibility is the fact that there are certain rules that must be followed due to it being an arboretum so there wasn't flexibility in everything - but it was nothing that prevented me from planning the event that I wanted. We had a beautiful ceremony overlooking the lake. Everyone loved the venue and we saved a lot on decorations because the place was so incredible on its own.

All the details and helpful vendors made our day so memorable for our family and friends. It’s nice you can pick your own catering and bartending service. Photos in the garden are amazing

The beautiful Fullerton Arboretum will give you that outdoor wedding vibe without roughing it. Event coordinator Ginger Ivy will both "tell it like it is" and gush over your details with child-like enthusiasm: she's the best combination of upbeat and organized. The rental fee might seem a little steep considering nothing is included (not even tables and chairs, etc) but remember that you are supporting Orange County's largest botanical garden and Cal State Fullerton's mission to bring appreciation of plants to the community.

After being let down by West Ridge Golf Club by being told they could no longer accommodate our ceremony after we had agreed upon so...I was frantic and in tears so my fiance at the time found the Fullerton Arboretum. I called Liz Gilson and she was very sweet and helpful. Throughout the months until our wedding she was very timely in responding to our calls and emails. She worked with my wedding planner and florist and helped them a lot. Our wedding was beautiful under the arbor and things went smoothly. Also, there was a bridal room with a nice little bathroom, water and AC which is what every bride needs. I would definitely recommend the Fullerton Arboretum to any bride!

This venue is absolutely beautiful! No need for much decoration since it is naturally gorgeous. Sometimes a bit slow to answer emails but the day went very smoothly.

Our wedding was this past June at the Fullerton Arboretum. We had booked over a year in advance and used the site for our ceremony and reception. Everything turned out gorgeous and many people today still comment to me how beautiful our wedding was. This venue is perfect for the all outdoor couple who can handle doing everything yourself. They are a large catering list to go off of and even though it isnt listed pretty much all of downtown Fullerton's restaurants can be uesd. The bar service (cocktail concierge) from their list was outstanding. The coordinator Marie is extremely nice and very helpful. Never even being in a wedding myself prior to this I was very worried how the rehersal and acutal wedding would go and she did an amazing job at orchestrating the events. The only trouble I had was the timeline they give you for setting up. We booked for the longest amount of time (6 hours) and the ceremony was to start at 530pm. We were told that all of our vendors could not come in to set up until 3pm!!!!! This was a huge issue for us and my mother in law was our florist/decorator with friends from our church helping. I later found out that it was because they were worried that since the Arboretum is open until 4pm to the public that our items were not going to be kept under supervision. After a long talk with the event director Liz and telling her we will take full responsibility for our things did she finally agree to let us come early to set up. If you have outside vendors and no family taking big parts in your wedding then this is a great vendor for you! Our family stayed at the Marriott and they have a shuttle you can book that will take guests back and forth for as long as you need.

Plannign was great, very flexible on rehersal time. Day of "coordinator" was very pushy and in the middle of things. I wish she would have stepped back a little and let me have that special time with my girls and my mom. Ceremony only venue, it was gorgeous though, I got TONS of compliments!

At the time of our wedding they only let you work with three catering companies of their choosing, which turned out to be fine, but if we wanted something really extravagant or especially unique we would most likely not have found it.

They do not allow liquor, only beer & wine, which is not really a problem.

Their wedding day coordinators were really helpful to get everything rolling on time.

I wanted an outdoor wedding and this was perfect! It has a few different locations - I used by the lake - it was absolutely beautiful! Loved it!

We had a major snafu with our wedding date, and Liz was great in taking care of it. We got along with Liz great from the start and then had to change our date and she did everything she could to help us even though we were being cahrged $1500 to change our honeymoon flights! She went above and beyond in that arena. NOTE: Do NOT bring any of your own hard alcohol in to the Arboretum, and my mom almost didn't get her deposit back because of it. The lady who baby-sits outside the little hosue while the bride is getting ready is very "mother hen"-like and reminded me of a drill instructor, so just be mindful of that. Otehr than that, it's a gorgeous venue and as long as you have a dry sense of humor, you'll get along with Liz (events coordinator) just fine. :)

I held my ceremony at the Arbor and it was beautiful. This site is quite expensive, especially since nothing is provided, just the space, but it all turned out well. The do have a coordinator for the day if you need one. The nly complaint I would truly have is that you can only use the vendors they choose, which makes it much more costly since you have no choice but to use their vendors, and obviously they are going to charge more knowing you cant use any one else. But other than that, everything turned out amazingly and the staff there were great.

The site is beautiful and we didn't stop getting compliments about the site. And leading up to our wedding day, the coordinator was great! However, day of, was disorganized. I didn't know who was in charge, my bridal changing room was locked and they kicked us out earlier than orignally told. So all in all, above rating.