Bronx Zoo Wedding

I have nothing useful to add since I didn't even know you could host a private event at the zoo, but that's fucking awesome!

We've done several weddings there, and we just love it. They have an in house caterer who is wonderful, and the setting (of course) is fantastic.

I'd do it, for sure!

That sounds so cool!

I think there's a poster on here who is currently planning her wedding there! I can't remember her name though

Thanks everyone! So many people seem to love the idea and one of my colleagues have been to several non-wedding events there and highly recommends it. So far, we're looking at the Zoo, Prospect Park Boathouse, and Brooklyn Botanic Garden as our top 3 venues (we have one more tour somewhere else so that could change things a bit). We seriously love all of them, especially since we recently had tours at all three but we've been talking about the Zoo way before we even started planning!

@Kate That's awesome! I don't know how much exactly will be donated to WCS, but I assume it depends on how much the overall package costs. Also, the caterers are in-house, as Celia mentioned. Just wanted to know what people thought of it.

Oooh Botanical Gardens are also magical, tough choice!

I would 100 percent be down for a zoo wedding as a guest. Or an aquarium wedding. They both sound amazing! Basically just fuck yeah to animals

Me!! I'm getting married there in July. We're going to a tasting in March; they invite all the couples for the year. As far as I know, the venue fee goes to WCS, but catering costs go to (obviously) catering.

I'm happy to answer any other specific questions you have! Love the zoo!

I've worked at all those places. The Botanical Gardens is lovely, and the caterer there is great too.

But I do love the zoo.....

I don't know anyone who's gotten married at the Bronx Zoo but I do know someone that got married at the San Francisco Zoo and it was beautiful!

How exciting for you!!! I hope you go with it so we can all see your pictures!

@BookcaseHat Yay! Congratulations! That's really awesome.

Do you mind sharing which catering option you went with? Buffet, plated, or duo plated? We were also told that we could add a menu option to plated for a little more, which is kinda where we're leaning if we do decide to go with the Zoo.

Also, are you concerned about any animal smells at the ceremony site? The ceremony would be so short that I almost don't care if it does smell but I'm also thinking of my guests and those who might not be feeling sitting near the rhinos and komodo dragons haha.

What's your favorite part of the venue? Mine is absolutely the cocktail hour through the Madagascar House and outside by the Sea Lions! It seems like such an amazing experience for guests!

@Cattie - we're going with buffet, mostly because FH likes the option to have seconds, haha.

Having been to the zoo a lot, I'm honestly not worried about animal smells. Unless it's raining, we'll be outside, and I really don't think it's that bad.

And yeah, I'm super excited for cocktails by the sea lions. It's also just such a beautiful place.

I really wanted to get married at the San Diego Zoo, it was out of budget for us. If it is your budget, then go for it! Freaking love it! Also it has Celia's double stamp of approval

@BookCaseHat Thank you so much! That's super helpful. Your wedding will be amazing and I hope you post pics!

Also, thanks everyone! This is such a hard decision because the places we looked at are all so great. We have one more venue to look at and then we're going to think about what we want to go for. I'll update you all when we finally seal the deal with a venue!

This sounds like an amazing spot for a wedding!! Good luck on deciding!!

Love that idea! I grew up in NY, I remember we took a school field trip to the Bronx Zoo in 6th grade. My friend threw a rock at a pigeon, and a bag lady chased him! He had to sit on the bus while the rest of us went in. That dumb shit. lol.

Haha @Jay Farrell That's hilarious!

My partner Michael did a wedding there last year and a peacock strutted up the aisle after the bride and then proceeded to march back and forth in front of the bridal party during the whole ceremony! It was amazing.

I was actually a guest there too; the wedding was in the (at that time) brand new monkey home. We were inside a glass bubble, the gorillas were outside and they actually watched the ceremony. It was screaming cool.