Venue Shopping: Botanical Gardens

Every week we will be visiting a different potential site for the wedding ceremony and/or reception. We’ll be keeping track of the pros and cons of each on the blog, and we welcome your suggestions, comments and advice. While much of Buffalo is falling apart, there are still some great hidden treasures and much potential.

This week’s adventure brought us to the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. This is the first venue that Gabby contacted for information and it showed a lot of promise.


(click to enlarge all photos)

Here's the rundown:

Pros
- Pretty
- Benefits of outdoor wedding, without being subject to weather
- Photographs well
- Includes admission, stuff to see
- Tandoori’s on catering list
- Includes ceremony

Cons
- Expensive
- Small reception space
- Not really a space for a raucous party
- Wet, humid
- Not actually as nice as photographs let on (dirty, rusty, peeling paint)
- Construction going on outside (project won’t be done by wedding date)
- Expensive catering list
- South Buffalo sucks









We had actually found this room set up for a wedding reception. So I guess here's sort of what it would look like.


And even on a rainy day, it was so nice outside.






In closing:
It's a fantastic space, with a lot of character.
It's cozy and impervious to bad weather.
But we definitely have more options to consider.



Sincerely,
The Joe