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San Diego Botanic Garden Reviews

San Diego Botanic Garden

San Diego Botanic Garden

Encinitas, CA
4.6 out of 5 rating, 40 reviews
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Reviews

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    Maggie Sent on 10/05/2020
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    Picturesque venue - great experience!

    We had a great experience with the beautiful SDBG. We are from out of town and had dreamed of getting married here. It is BEAUTIFUL, and there are endless photo opportunities throughout the garden. Lita was so wonderful to work with. She was flexible and helpful knowing we were not local, worked well with my local mom and our planner, was very professional and followed local safety protocols with COVID 19. When we needed to move our location of the ceremony within the garden to accommodate our party size while maintaining social distancing, they were so understanding and helpful. Such a great value for the service and visuals. We did not realize that the garden was closing at a...
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    Rachelle Sent on 10/06/2010
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    The Walled Garden was a perfect location for our ceremony. We only added rose petals to the asile way and orchids to the arch and it looked beautiful!
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    Kelly Sent on 07/30/2019
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    Beautiful venue, great experience!

    We loved having our wedding at the San Diego Botanic Gardens! It was such a beautiful venue - we hardly needed any decorations because of the beautiful greenery. We also were very impressed with Lita Dantes. She was very quick to reply to emails, always friendly, and always answered my abundant questions! She was also flexible with ideas and plans, even though there were certain rules/guidelines we had to stay within. We also appreciated that we were allowed to visit the gardens several times before the rehearsal to visualize where everything would go, meet with our photographer, and do a walk through. During the actual wedding day, the SDBG staff was excellent at setting up chairs/tables for our use. It was a huge help that we were able to use their tables & chairs!
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    Ashley Sent on 03/03/2018
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    San Diego Botanic Garden is absolutely beautiful! It was the first venue I saw and I fell in love right away. It was perfect for our intimate, romantic outdoor wedding last fall. The Gazebo Lawn lit up at night looked like a dream!
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    Laura Sent on 10/23/2017
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    So here I am, a wedding planner of 7 years and it's finally my turn to get married. Well, once you are in the industry you become a bit jaded but I had only one place in mind - the SD Botanic Garden. This place is so beautiful and the lush greenery, waterfall, intimate garden setting and artwork inspired me to create and have the wedding of my dreams. It was perfection. It is def a blank canvas which can be hard for some but worth it. Also, Lita is the coordinator there and she is a pleasure to work with. She is nice, responsive, professional and does a great job with the couple and vendors. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
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    User1764850 Sent on 08/14/2014
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    This was my first choice for a wedding ceremony and reception. It was the most perfect day. When planning, they were available for any questions. Though they provide a list of approved caterers, having never done this, the list was very helpful and we found one that met our needs and budget. Everything was ready and prepared when we arrived on our wedding day. SD botanic gardens is a great place for a wedding and reception.
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    Janelle Sent on 05/12/2014
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    This venue was absolutely perfect! The wedding support team was very helpful, however there were times when it was challenging to get a hold of the wedding coordinator until the few weeks before the wedding. I think its because most weekends they're booked Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a wedding. They may need 2 staff to manage weddings specifically.
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    S And Sent on 03/11/2013
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    If you are looking for a beautiful garden location for your wedding in San Diego, The San Diego Botanic Garden is a must. The natural setting of the gardens are simple, perfect and everything you want to make your day picture perfect.
    From the beginning, Jennifer (the wedding site manager) was so very helpful throughout the whole process. She answered all my endless emails promptly, and followed through with misc requests. She was so great!
    Our wedding ceremony was held in the Walled Garden, and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day in March. It was a warm 79 degrees that day, and every location throughout the gardens proved to be picture perfect and then some.
    So don't look elsewhere and pay for a garden in a hotel setting, get the real deal.
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    Natalie Sent on 09/24/2012
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    The walled garden and gazebo lawn were absolutely perfect for our wedding! I feel so lucky to have found such a gorgeous and affordable venue. : )
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    Valerie Sent on 09/20/2012
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    Excellent experience for my husband and I and all of our guests!!! I recommend having your wedding at the gardens :)
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    Nicole Sent on 09/19/2012
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    We held our wedding reception at the San Diego Botanic Garden and could not have imagined a more ideal setting for our event. We used the Lawn House Garden for the cocktail reception and the Gazebo Lawn for the main reception.
    Our experience with their staff was wonderful. Booking the venue for our event was seamless. The site coordinator was very patient and was happy to spend time with me on the phone listing the available dates and times as we determined which would be best suited for our event. The new wedding site coordinator, Jennifer, started shortly before the wedding but jumped right in and helped us immensely in the busy weeks leading up to the big...
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    Kari Sent on 09/05/2012
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    The hardest part of the wedding planning process (for us) was finding the right wedding venue. We would think that we had found "the place" that we loved AND fit within our budget, but then we would discover hidden rules or fees, or we would be stuck having to use the venue's bar tender or catering services which were often very expensive.
    The SDB garden made it soooo easy for us, I just wish we had found them sooner! They were affordable, beautiful, and allowed us to use all of the vendors that we wanted to use! No hidden fees. Our guests had an amazing time and can't stop talking about it. If you're looking for an outdoor wedding with a "backyard" feel, then this is the place!!!
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    Ian Sent on 01/27/2011
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    We had a great time shooting at the Botanical Gardens, the walled ceremony site was a real pleasure to shoot at and just having the grounds to ourselves was a real treat. Highly recommended. \r\n\r\nYou can see our shoot here:\r\nhttp://www.iangrantphotography.com/photography/wedding-photography-gallery/san-diego-botanical-gardens-wedding.html\r\n\r\n-Ian Grant Photography\r\nwww.distinctphoto.com
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    Natalie Sent on 08/24/2010
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    amazing and beautiful wedding!!!!
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    Annie Sent on 03/12/2010
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    It was an absolutely beautiful location. The staff was pretty hands off but still helpful. We had a wonderful day and everything went off without a hitch.
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    Anna Sent on 01/14/2008
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    The Quail Botanical Gardens was a gorgeous venue! Carla, the wedding site coordinator was so nice, and it was really easy to plan my wedding and there was plenty of time to decorate and clean up before and after the reception. I love the photos I have of my husband and I in the beautiful gardens!
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    Kirah Sent on 11/04/2019
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    Beautiful Garden Wedding

    The SDBG is absolutely gorgeous, and was the perfect venue for our wedding. We wanted an outdoor venue for the ceremony and reception, and the ability to hire vendors of our choosing, and the garden met all of our needs. We had a lot of people travelling from out of town and the venue was a hit with people from all over the country, and visitors loved being able to stay in Encinitas for the weekend. Lita, the venue coordinator was very helpful and responsive to all of our questions. The only negative was that there are strict sound ordinances in Encinitas so all music needs to end at 10pm, so no late night festivities. We are excited to be able to continue to enjoy our wedding venue as garden guests in the future!
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    Michelle Sent on 08/05/2019
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    Lovely venue

    This was my fiancées pick for our wedding and it ended up being perfect. We got married in July, which I don’t recommend because it was hot during the day, but at nighttime it does cool off.

    They had rules that they have to abide by per the city so if you’re looking for a late wedding, they cannot accommodate that.

    The walled garden is so intimate and the gazebo lawn is perfect for that romantic outdoorsy feel.

    Lita is also great. She answered any and every question I have.

    I wish they had was air conditioning in the room you would wait before walking out. There isn’t a bridal suite for the girls/guys to get ready so that’s another bummer.
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    Rachel Sent on 04/08/2017
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    We had our wedding at SDBG and everything was beautiful, could not have asked for a better venue for the price. Here's a summary of the pros, and the few "things to note" for other brides interested in this venue:

    Pros: Lita was great and very responsive; good price with lots of location options throughout your event; tables and chairs included if you like, which they will set up for you; provide a list of preferred vendors but you can use other vendors if you like

    Things to Note: while there's tons of flexibility for vendors, there is pretty much only one lighting company that works with the Gardens and they charge a lot of money...so just...
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    Carli Sent on 03/28/2014
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    San Diego Botanic gardens was a lovely place to have both our wedding ceremony and reception. There are a few locations within the garden to choose from and all are beautiful.
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    Olivia Sent on 08/09/2013
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    I made a list of about 10 venues to look at, but in reality, we only physically went to 1 venue (one, can you believe it?!) and made contact with another before realizing it was useless and that we had fallen in love with the SDBG. It was just beautiful all around, if you choose the Walled Garden for the ceremony, you can also get the Herb Garden and Gazebo Lawn for the cocktail hour and reception. The price is pretty reasonable does not really change based on month, but is dependent on if you have an afternoon or evening wedding so we were able to have a Saturday evening wedding in July or what most places might charge...
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    User934146 Sent on 09/14/2012
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    Jennifer Bergen did a fine job coordinating our wedding after only a few weeks as a new employee. She offered effective solutions to several challenges that popped up at the last minute (switching location of ceremony when original choice was muddy), locating a microphone when the officiant lost her voice). The Manager On Duty, Andrew, was responsive, cheerful and efficient. Everything went perfectly.
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    User941577 Sent on 09/05/2012
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    The Gardens were so beautiful and peaceful. They were the perfect place to have our wedding! Carla (venue manager) was so helpful and great to work with throughout the whole process
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    Heather Sent on 04/29/2014
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    We completely fell in love with the San Diego Botanic Garden when we went there, and knew it was the perfect place for our laid back garden wedding. We were married in the Walled Garden, cocktail hour in the Herb Garden, and reception on the lawn near the Gazebo. When we booked, we were working with Jennifer, who we were not impressed with. She bailed on us during our first visit there and we saw her giving another couple a tour as we walked around by ourselves. Since we really liked the space, we ended up coming back and getting the full tour from her even though that would have usually turned us off a venue. During our engagement,...
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    Shayla Sent on 09/10/2012
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    We rented the Lawn House garden for both our ceremony and reception since we had a small wedding party. The location was gorgeous and provided everything we needed to make our celebration successful. The cost included admission to the garden so we got great photos in between the ceremony and reception and our guests got the treat of roaming the gardens and taking in all the beauty. Parking was easy and plentiful, the staff was responsive, and they were willing to work with us on our choice of caterer.

    We only had two issues with the whole process. One, despite sending them a graphic of our desired layout, they didn't set up our tables and chairs the...
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