Venue Shopping: Garfield Park Conservatory

After seeing prices to the Botanic Garden, I saw that many people suggested the Garfield Park Conservatory. Since admission is free (with suggested donation), we decided to walk around to get a glimpse of the space. Unfortunately, the space is currently under construction so we weren't able to see it in all of its glory but it was enough to see that the space is not for us.

The rental fees are located on their website which is appreciated: https://garfieldconservatory.org/about-us/room-rental-information/rental-rates/ It's definitely much cheaper than places like the Botanic Garden or The Peggy Notebaert. Pictures can be deceiving since the park has whatever is growing at the moment. I first became interested because I saw images like this (see below). I imagined my wedding to be very nature-y with beautiful flowing plants coming from the ceiling.
Photo from Garfield Park website

When we actually walked through the room, there was barely any plants. Although there were a bunch of lovely flowers, they were in separate vases making it seem like I was in the Garden section of Home Depot. There were no hanging plants and the room seemed very bare. When we were walking through the room, there was a huge blue tiled piece in the middle. It looked pretty tacky and DEFINITELY seemed out of place. Not my style although it looked fine in photos (there used to be photos on the website but it looks like they took it off).

The Jensen room connected to the Horticulture Room was plain. You can use if you need to but it's bare and doesn't offer anything that matches the Horticulture's nature effect.

All in all, I feel like this space is too unpredictable to know exactly what you'll be expecting the day of your wedding. That is the risk you take with nature though so it's something to consider for all nature/garden venues. I also found myself sneezing quite a bit while I was there and I don't even have many allergies.

I think my garden venue shopping has come to an end...


Comments

  1. Casual ObserverApril 28, 2018 at 2:21 PM

    One person's opinion. This is a dated review of course since it is from 2014 and the Horticultural Hall space is now (April 2018) outfitted with pretty lush permanent plantings. Regarding the "blue tiled piece" it is a morrocan design fountain and is very classic and certainly neither tacky nor out of place by most peoples estimation. The attached plain meeting room is not typically used for the actual wedding reception but only for staging caterers. There are no hanging plants now so the roof structure is unadorned but that is part of the conservatory look. The great benefit of the venue is the ability to rent all of the conservatory 9for an extra fee) which gives reception and dinner guest a pretty neat tropical garden like experience no matter what time of year.

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