couple holds hands and exchanges wedding vows

Whittaker-Rocco Wedding

couple dances at outdoor wedding reception

Wang-Glickstein Wedding

wedding party assembles in front of tree line

Ream-Napolitan Wedding

couple exchanges wedding vows at outdoor pavilion

Quinn-Sproveri Wedding

father walks bride to wedding ceremomy

Father and Bride - Rose Garden Bower Wedding

decorative wedding signage

Sign at Wedding Venue

Chairs for Ceremony at Overlook Pavilion

Chairs for Ceremony at Overlook Pavilion

The Arboretum is a popular site for weddings, with hundreds of couples married here since 2009. Arboretum rental venues are available for wedding ceremonies only. They are not available for wedding receptions or activities associated with weddings other than the ceremony itself.

Alcohol may not be present or served at wedding ceremonies.

Please do:

  • Enhance your décor with free-standing props, such as pillars, podiums, arbors, floral containers, and planters.
  • Gather and remove all event-related materials at the conclusion of the event.
  • Ask the events manager specific questions in the early planning stages of your event.

Please do not:

  • Use adhesives or attach decorations to the Arboretum’s buildings, pillars, pavement, or plants.
  • Use decorations or materials that are not environmentally friendly, including balloons, confetti, streamers, pompoms, glitter, rice, and breakable vases.
  • Release live animals, insects, plants, or plant parts (including flower petals), as laid out in our Release Policy for Animals and Plants.

Photographers hired by Arboretum rental clients may take pictures of the wedding party and guests both in the rental venue and throughout the H.O. Smith Botanic Gardens. All photographers must abide by guidelines in the general photography policy pertaining to not blocking walkways or entering planting beds and water features.

Rental clients may bring the wedding party to the gardens for an informal walk-through prior to the day of the ceremony. If an Arboretum event, tour, or rental event is occurring in the venue at the time of the walk-through, the client will not be able to enter the venue until that event ends. Contact the events manager at least two weeks in advance to ask whether any other activity has been scheduled in the rental venue on the day of the walk-through. If the rental venue itself is not available for a walk-through, clients may gather with the wedding party at another location in the gardens to discuss the itinerary and staging of the ceremony.