JC Raulston Arboretum Reviews

Working with this venue was so easy! They were responsive and the value was well within our budget.

Beautiful venue! Event coordinator was extremely flexible and kind and helped us to make sure everything was exactly the way we wanted it for our big day! I would highly recommend!

This venue is perfect for a smaller wedding 70-80 ppl. Gorgeous grounds and Chris was great to work with!

We had our ceremony in the White Garden, reception in one of the conference rooms, and took pictures all over the garden. The staff was helpful, flexible, quick to reply, and ready to make our day perfect. The pictures came out BEAUTIFUL and the weather was great. They are very affordable, which allowed us to splurge on things that we really wanted. If I could do the weekend over, I'd book here again! I 100% recommend booking here.

Look no further than JCRA. The staff was very helpful in coordinating our needs. Set up timing was exceptional and delivery items were all handled by the JCRA staff. We had a wonderful experience and were very fortunate to have good weather. We recommend using Holland Rent-All for larger items as they are just a few blocks away and very familiar with JCRA and their staff. We used JCRA chair rentals which were very reasonable. All in all we would not have done it any other way. JCRA was affordable, organized and certainly very memorable.

J.C. Raulston Arboretum is a beautiful place for a wedding. We had our ceremony in the Finley-Nottingham Rose Garden and the reception at the York Auditorium. Having both events on site was easy for our coordinator to manage and convenient for guests. I didn't get to meet Amanda, the rental coordinator, in person, but she was very prompt in answering my questions over email and helping plan the chair and table layouts. All the tables and chairs were set up and ready by the time our reservation windows started, so our coordinator and caterer were able to get started on time. You can reserve the individual gardens and rooms in hour-long blocks. We were told and our contract said that amplified music was not allowed in the gardens, however, we saw a few weddings that did bring in speakers and microphones. The Arboretum is a beautiful, budget-friendly, and easy venue for a wedding!

Our experience at JC Raulston Arboretum was fantastic. We have a small wedding so used the intimate space of the white garden with gazebo. The venue was perfectly set up ahead of time and essential no decorating was needed as the garden provides its own decoration. The rental coordinator did change between the time of putting up deposit and the event and as a result the response time via email was a little delayed at one point (approximately 1 week for response) but this improved to same day response time as the event got closer. The arboretum as a whole is absolutely the BEST venue for photos and we were able to go all throughout the gardens with our photographer after the wedding to get some amazing shots.

My husband and I couldn't have asked for a better spot to have our ceremony. Emily and the rest of the team were extremely helpful, answering any questions we had regarding their venue. I was even able to call the day of and ask them to add additional seating and to set up an area for our guitarist. They truly made the day stress free. We choose to have the ceremony in the White Garden, which is a perfect location for a small (we had 75 people in total) ceremony. The natural beauty, stone path, and gazebo located in the garden meant no need to decorate. Our guests enjoyed every minute they spent in the gardens.

If you want an inexpensive outdoor wedding, I highly recommend JC Raulston Arboretum! We had our wedding ceremony here a few weeks ago and it was stunning! They have their own chairs that you can rent and they will set them up for you which is very convenient. They also have a large conference room that you can rent as a backup rainy day option (although it is not the most attractive). I am so happy that we chose to have our ceremony here, as the pictures were absolutely stunning. I don't think you can find a cheaper option that is this gorgeous, highly recommend.

The arboretum was beautiful for our June wedding. We held both our ceremony and our reception here, which was perfect for our older and out of town guests. Our taste was simple, so we did not decorate our ceremony site with anything. They provided and set up chairs for a $1 per chair. All tables and chairs for the reception held at the education center were included in our hourly rate. I will say that having a wedding planner to coordinate everything will make your event run very smoothly. We had no issues; it was a great value, allowed us to bring our own caterer, and was perfect for a simple celebration. Pictures at the gardens turned out beautifully.

The surroundings are beautiful. But as for the reception area-the building- we had to deal with our trash (a constant that we had to think of throughout) and the air conditioning did not work. We tried doors open to cool off and door closed. Our icing on the cupcakes melted.

Raulston Arboretum is a beautiful place for a wedding, BUT beware. Faye is the contact person for the Arboretum and she is very nice, however is very, VERY unorganized. She did not make feel comfortable, at all, during the process (especially when she wasn't sure if we had paid or not and could not find our file). We were aware that there was one wedding with a reception the same day as our wedding, however later she added a third wedding without informing us. If you have been to the Arboretum, you're aware that this is a small place and having three weddings is very difficult to do (especially if you want photos there afterwards). We had to pay and provide our own chairs and received no discount for not having access to their chairs due to the first wedding. Also while taking photos afterwards, she asked when we would be finished because the another wedding wanted to get married in that same spot. Having the ceremony here was truly a headache.