Reviews for Royal Botanical Gardens
Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 rating
4.0 out of 5 rating
29 reviews
80% recommend it
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Featured
![Kelsey]()
Kelsey L. Sent on 26/09/2022A Dream Wedding
I honestly may run out our space if I write everything but I will try my best to summarize.
There is not one negative thing I could say about the Royal Botanical Gardens! We had our ceremony in the Rose Garden tent and our reception in the Auditorium with 125+ guests.
I knew I wanted my wedding at RBG. So much so, we didn't even look anywhere else. They were amazing from day one to provide us with answers to every question we had, especially during the uncertainty of planning a wedding during the pandemic. Our wedding coordinators were fantastic at addressing any concerns and changes we wanted to make.
We went with the Botanical Package and the food and wine options were top-notch - a real gourmet experience. Our guests loved having a meal selection, especially the vegetarians!
Everything was PERFECT - the décor, the meals, the serving staff, the coordinators (day-of and leading up to), etc. It was a dream come true. Our guests especially loved every aspect and gave so much praise to the beauty of the venue.
If you're still looking for a breathtaking venue that will produce the most gorgeous backgrounds for your wedding photos, this is the place!
Thank you RBG and staff for everlasting memories - truly a dream come true! -
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![Andrea]()
Andrea Sent on 28/06/2024Horrible wedding day
*RBG WEDDINGS REVIEW*
It has taken me quite some time to bring myself to write this review from a point of informing people rather than letting my emotions get the best of me. My husband and I booked the RBG as our wedding venue for 2020. We should've taken a hint from our coordinator at the time who highly recommend we consider other venues for comparison as well before making our final decision to go ahead with the RBG. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we had to scratch our initial wedding plans at the RBG, have a small backyard wedding, and reschedule our big celebrations with our loved ones for 2022. Over the years, we went through 3-4 different Coordinators and when it was time to finally go ahead with our wedding plans they changed a lot in terms of how they ran their weddings, the costs, and the perks that came with having our wedding there. Though they agreed to keep some of the things in our contract the same, other things they refused to honour.
Our rehearsal is where we really started to get a glimpse of how our day was going to go dealing with rbg wedding staff. The day og our rehearsal, the ceremony coordinator couldn't make it to and there was a sub sent in to replace her. Unfortunately I had an emergency with my 9 month old and I couldn't make it right on time. Although we had discussed all details with them prior to the rehearsal and had a whole document about how things were going to go, when everyone showed up the coordinator REFUSED to go through anything without me. I tried to tell her over the phone that they need to start without me as I already know what I'm doing and the rehearsal was mostly for everyone else and she refused to do anything until I got there. We were able to go through it once and she said we had to leave because others were coming.
Our wedding day was unlike anything we would have ever imagined.. our main coordinator had to be away and yet again we had a replacement. From the beginning of the day, vendors were arriving to set up and noone knew where to direct them to set things up. When the guests started arriving, they weren't directed where they needed to go either. One of our guests asked if there was a wedding happening there and the receptionist said they didn't know... let alone direction them where they needed to go. When we arrived after the ceremony, there was no coordinator in sight. We had previously booked a private room to use for our baby if needed and we had to idea where to find it. After walking around for quite some time trying to find our coordinator we stumbled across the room and was able to access it. The whole time our MCs, DJ, and other vendors were trying to find her and they couldn't locate her anywhere, having to figure things out for themselves and ask security for help. This continued throughout the night. As the food was coming out, I realized the food wasn't labeled as it was supposed to be since we had a lot of people with allergies (we had buffet style meals). I had to send one of the servers to find the coordinator because 2 hours into the reception starting she was still nowhere to be found and we had no idea who she even was. She finally came out, no apology for anything, acknowledged she was the coordinator filling in, and disappeared in the back room/kitchen again. The whole night we had to chase people down to access the projector, dim the lights, turn on the lights for the cake, and so many more things that they should've been there for.
We were SO excited initially to have our wedding at the RBG but the wedding staff are so disorganized, and simply did not care to be there and do their job on the day of our wedding. Our views on the RBG have shifted so much and we really wished we had taken the advice of our initial coordinator and looked somewhere else.
Unless you have your own wedding planner so you don't have to deal with any RBG staffing bs, please save your time, energy, and money. Our wedding day was an absolute disaster trying to deal with staff there from start to finish.
At least we have beautiful pictures in the gardens. -
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![Kate]()
Kate Sent on 04/07/2023You do it for the Gardens
When my husband and I first viewed the RBG we were completely captivated by the gardens. It was an easy yes for us to book our ceremony there. We paid everything up front as payment is due when booking.
From the time we booked to the time of our wedding we still had over a year. In that time the lady we were working with I guess moved on and we only found out about this 3 months prior to the wedding, and that was because I reached out to add more time for our ceremony. Then I was Informed. My partner and I were satisfied with the RBG - we just didn’t like how with the new people we were working with elements previously promised were changed. For example, the RBG only allows a certain number of people to stay and take photos- if you want more than the allocated number it is $11 / person, we were told we had to purchase liability insurance or else the wedding could not take place, and we did not have access to take photos whenever we wanted that day you have to book a timeframe.
Now, the RBG was gracious enough to honour our original contract and keep to what we were told during our booking process. It was just stressful on the time between being told all the new rules and them checking if they could honour what was previously told to us. If you choose them just make sure you keep a record of everything in writing.
Otherwise, we had an absolutely perfect ceremony and everything worked out as it should. We did enjoy our experience overall and time there. -
![Margaret]()
Margaret M. Sent on 24/05/2023Fabulous venue
Got married at the Rock Gardens at the RBG - such a beautiful venue for the courtyard wedding and receptionRoyal Botanical Gardens's reply:
Hello Margaret and Tosh,
A big congratulations to you both! Thank you for hosting your special moments here with us at RBG. We wish you both endless happiness and hope to see you around the gardens again soon!
Kindest Regards,
Amanda Horvat & Brookelyn Archer -
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Shannon O. Sent on 08/03/2023
Beautiful Rock Garden
We got married last September at the RBG. We chose the rock garden for our reception. We fell in love with the venue and the gardens immediately and this is why we chose it for our wedding. When it comes to the communication with the planning this venue was not to our satisfaction. We found it extremely difficult to reach anyone by email and phone at times. Prices that were given to us at the time of booking were not always honoured when it came down to picking things like extending the night by an hour along with open bar and the rental of the projector screen. It was double the cost from our room rental to extend the night by 1 hour and the price per drink per person was not worth it. Sadly we had to end the night at midnight because of this.
Luckily we were grateful they honored our food package that we chose at the time of booking and had in fact been updated after we booked. We wish we tried more of the food we were picking at the taste testing. We didn't get to try the late night food options either as they ran out of time which was unfortunate, so we had to pick blindly. They do not set up anything in this hall example centerpieces or any kind of decor. You will need to hire someone to do that for you. There is also no bridal suite or lockbox which we were disappointed to hear. Regarding the menu for vegans and vegetarians, we had an extremely hard time dealing with this issue. We had 1 vegan guest and 10 vegetarians. They would not accommodate our 1 vegan guest that we had. We either had to pick all vegetarian meals or all vegan meals. It was a nightmare dealing with this issue. Same went for the children's meals. You had to pick the same for everyone. Also they charge a meal for kids of all ages. My nephew who was not even 2 years old at the time was charged for a kids meal which in my opinion kids under 2 should be free. Make sure you tell them the guests who will not be drinking as their price will be lower then people who will be drinking; this was not mentioned to us and I was glad I asked (if you got the package with open bar). This hall does not have dimmable lights which is a disappointment for the first dance and father daughter dance and also throughout dinner. You would think they would have them. Pretty important. It's either all on or all off. Our Wedding cake came out very late at 1130. I had to go into the kitchen to ask them where it was. It's like they forgot. It was just sitting there ready to go out. A lot of the guests were leaving at the time and didn't get a chance to eat it. We also didn't hear the late night station announcement which they were supposed to do. I recommend upgrade to coloured napkins and runners for your cake table and welcome table. They really do make a big difference.
All in all the venue is beautiful, the grounds are stunning, we were happy with our wedding as our guests were but there were some downfalls like I mentioned above that we were not happy with. On the side note, Anna is wonderful to deal with.Royal Botanical Gardens's reply:
Hello Shannon,
We appreciate you taking the time to provide a thorough review of your experience at Royal Botanical Gardens and we are very glad to hear that enjoyed the venue.
I will be sure to pass your compliments to Anna. While on the subject of our team I am excited to share that we have new management, new product, and new procedures to provide exceptional experiences. Thank you for your detailed notes, I will be sure to share with our team.
Wishing you and your partner all the best.
Kindest Regards,
Brookelyn Archer
Manager, Sales -
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![Jigisha]()
Jigisha P. Sent on 20/10/2022Wouldn't recommend to brides-to-be
We decided to go with RBG when we visited the venue shortly after we were engaged in August 2021. We had 2 ceremonies planned because my partner and I are from different cultural backgrounds. It took them almost 2 months and repeated emails to respond to us with a clear answer as to whether we would be able to have both ceremonies and reception in the Rock Garden. They responded back (2 months later) with a quote of 8k extra if we were to have both in the same space. This should have been the first indication of how things are run with RBG. We ended up choosing to have the ceremonies in the Rose Garden Tent and reception in the Rock Garden.
From start to finish, RBG was my biggest stressor with wedding planning. Their response times were abysmal, with lack of preparation for meetings on their part. We had been quoted a certain amount for harvest table rentals which they tried to increase by about 50% in the lead up to the wedding. Prior to this we had to repeatedly ask for a final price estimate which I now realize they seem to delay on purpose to hike up prices. I wouldn't personally blame any single person but I would say the event department does seem badly managed.
On the positive side, working with the ceremony coordinator Amanda Horvat was lovely. She is very organized and helped everything move smoothly.
All in all, our wedding day was wonderful because I hired a wedding coordinator to smooth the processes of the day.
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