Boerner Botanical Gardens Reviews

We absolutely loved our wedding at the Boerner Botanical Gardens! We held our ceremony in the fragrance garden and the reception in the ballroom. Everyone commented on how dreamy and beautiful everything was at the gardens and venue. Our pictures in the formal gardens made the day even more special. Our 90 degree day was hot, but the inside of the venue was a cool oasis.

Yvette and Cheyenne were great to work with! They were very communicative and transparent. We appreciate everything they did to help make our wedding the best day of our lives!

Zilli helped us put together a picture-perfect wedding at Boerner. The food was the best we'd ever had at a wedding (no joke -- we wondered if part of it was the benefit of having the kitchen right next to the venue), especially the smoked gouda orzo and the pork. I don't even like pork! The staff was helpful and responsive every step of the way, and helped us customize what we wanted to customize, and make quick decisions on the stuff we didn't care so much about. We only had one proverbial fire to put out the day-of, and our Zilli coordinator just jumped in and fixed everything, no questions asked. Did I mention the orzo? Our flowers, our decor, our food, even the craft beers at the bar were custom for us and worth the price. The only thing that got a little $$ was the things they had to order from outside vendors (those adorbs bistro lights in the ballroom!) sigh.
My only mistake -- which would've happened at any venue -- was pitching my original wedding budget to the venue as what my TOTAL wedding budget was (like, dress and photographer and music and other non-venue things included), rather than my VENUE budget. So for anyone reading this looking for venues, remember this when you're asking for estimates. (Seems obvious in retrospect, oops. Ha!)
Anyway, Zilli was great, and the botanical gardens were great. 10/10 would get married there again.

I cannot begin to express, how much we loved our wedding at the Boerner Botanical Gardens. We worked with Yvette and Cheyenne, and they were so professional, amazing, wonderful and all around the best people to work with. From the start in meeting with Yvette, she incredibly thorough; any questions I had during the entire process she got back to us in a timely manner. She and Cheyenne were lifesavers during planning with Covid. (They were the calming presence I needed during the uncertainty of our venue, and any restrictions that were coming our way.) You definitely fall in love with the venue, but the support and people make it. The entire staff was so professional and kind during the actual wedding (from the Bar Staff, to the servers for dinner, top notch all the way through. I cannot be more grateful to them) Would highly recommend The Boerner Botanical Gardens for your wedding, it will not disappoint.

**Yvette and Cheyenne, thank you from the bottom of our hearts, you two are incredible humans! **

Zilli's catered our wedding at the Boerner Botanical Gardens, and everything was fantastic. From start to finish, everything was flawless. We loved all the food and received many compliments from our guests. The staff was friendly and professional. Amber and Yvette worked with us throughout the planning process and helped us customize a menu that fit our needs. We are so happy with our choice. We will never forgot how perfect our wedding turned to be, and we are so thankful for Zilli's great food and service.

We could not be more thrilled that we chose to go with a Zilli venue for our wedding. We held our reception at the Boerner Botanical Gardens and cannot say enough positive things about Amber and Yvette as our coordinators! Leading up to our wedding, Amber and Yvette communicated regularly, keeping us on a very organized timeline for planning. They followed up regularly and answered questions immediately. We could not be more grateful for how the wedding day turned out! The whole day was truly magical and came to life exactly how we had envisioned. The venue is fabulous because you can really decorate it according to your style. The timeline of the day was executed beautifully and smooth, thanks to all the magic going on behind the scenes. Not only is the venue stunning, but the food was beyond amazing. People are still raving about the food, that we had the best wedding buffet food they'd ever had. Thank you, Amber and Yvette, for helping us create the best day of our lives; one that we will always cherish and remember!

This is an absolutely stunning venue. We booked their banquet room and couldn't be happier. Lori and Margret were fantastic to work with throughout the whole process. They were responsive and quick with their communication. Nothing sat for long without a response or follow through. We had a rather large wedding and I was so impressed with their ability to plan and coordinate it all. They were extremely accommodating, making sure everything we wanted to happen, did. Working with the gardens and with Lori made the whole wedding process stress free. Their in house caterer, Zilli, was also excellent. Their food was absolutely fantastic. They do group taste testings, which was done really well. They have all of their food available for you to sample, we were then able to pick and mix and match based on our package. On the day of the wedding, the coordinator that was there was also fantastic. She was always around, but was never noticed. She made sure the day/night went smoothly and coordinated with everyone. I received many compliments from my guests on how beautiful the venue was, how excellent the food was, and even how fast the bartenders were! Zilli's and the Gardens are a top notch venue and I would use them over and over again!

Great price for the scenery! Honestly, what could be better than walking through a secluded garden on you wedding day. Jackie is incredibly flexible and assists in making your day YOUR DAY.

Boerner gardens is a beautiful place for a wedding any time of year and so many great picture spots. we did our first look on the bog walk and met in the middle it was very romantic. They have lots of sights to chose from and the hardest part was deciding which spot to pick to have the ceremony. It was very easy to work with the Milwaukee county park system people. thank you.

We had our ceremony and reception at the gardens for our September wedding. Everything was amazing. The gardens looked great, and there were so many great spots for pictures. We lucked out and the weather was perfect (it stormed the following 2 days). We worked with Alyson who was amazing and made sure everything ran smoothly, and took care of any issues or problems we had. She was great at giving us ideas and suggestions to help create our vision and giving us alternative options to make sure everything fit within our budget.

Beautiful venue! Alyson was great!

They cater many of the county facilities and they do a good job. The location was awesome and staff courteous. Bartolotta makes great food too.

The food was excellent, the service was as well. Very elegant service, we had a plated lunch for our reception. The staff were very attentive and willing to do extra set-up and take down to incorporate some things I did myself. I would very highly recommend them to anyone. The costs for a smaller mid-day reception are MUCH more affordable than for a bigger evening reception. Very happy with them!

The gardens were the perfect setting for our fairytale wedding. And the fact that the gardens came with Bartolotta services was a double bonus. We are STILL getting messages and phone calls about how absolutely perfect the reception was. They are professionally staffed with people to greet guests, serve food, and make sure all the vendors arrived. Everything went so smoothly, I didn't have to worry about it. They even helped us make our centerpieces and put them up. Our wedding coordinator went out of her way to help us in any way she could.
Even more, our bridal party was far out into the back of the gardens taking pictures and two servers walked all that way to make sure the bridal party was fed by serving appetizers on silver platters. It was so sweet!
The setting is beautiful, the atmosphere is elegant, and the service is professional. When I walked into the dinner hall after they had set it up, I cried because it was so wonderful. They even added some Cinderella touches that I didn't pay for because they knew I loved Cinderella.
The food was also delicious. This was another thing that we got incredible compliments on. Every plate was individually looked after and prepared. We had one vegetarian entree out of 200 guests and Bartolottas made sure to get her a pasta dish discreetly. Gourmet excellence!
If you want a classy (and worry free) wedding in a tranquil setting fit for royalty... Bartolotta catering at the Boerner Botanical gardens is the place to go!

Our wedding was absolutely wonderful. It’s was great working with Yvette and Cheyenne; they catered to our needs. The food, staff, accommodations; we were very pleased with everything.

I know that Boerner's contract with the current caterer (Bartolotta's) is ending at the end of this year, and so everything will change with the new catering group's contact. I would investigate if you are thinking about reserving them for a wedding in 2014 or after. However, that being said, it's a wonderful place to have a wedding.

Professional and accommodating staff, beautiful venue and excellent food!

The value of this wedding venue was amazing. We were able to save a lot of money having our ceremony and reception both at Boerner. Our ceremony was beautiful in the gardens behind the main center and the larger ballroom was perfect. Rachel coordinated every detail including all of the catering with Bartolotta Catering. Everything was delicious. Only a couple of minor hiccups, there was a large circle planting area that was bare with dirt - that wasn't planted between the ballroom and the ceremony site - would have been nice to have flowers planted there. Looked awkward. And there were supposed to be outdoor highboys so people could enjoy their beverages outside. But over all it was a great day.

We were recently married at the gardens, and it is an absolutely stunning venue. Margaret was really responsive and helpful, and the packages provided through Zilli are amazing -- the food was so good! We booked a bridal suite where we had hair and make-up done the day of, and this is a great option for a large bridal party who wants to change clothes and keep their belongings at the venue. We opted for mini-desserts instead of a cake, and I would highly recommend this! It is one of the only venues that had an indoor/outdoor option as well as parking for all of our guests. The staff was extremely attentive throughout the entire process. We really had the best day at a beautiful location!

Amber and Yvette were very helpful with planning and execution. The weather turned and we had to move the ceremony inside, but our guests were free to walk the grounds after the rain and got some amazing pictures in the gardens. Food was great as well.

Bartolotta Catering did a fabulous job on our wedding! The food and service were outstanding. They were flexible with our vision for the menu and even let us create our own dishes.

A wonderful place to have an outdoor ceremony. We could not have found a more beautiful place to have our wedding. The one complaint I have is the staff is sometimes slow to respond to phone calls or emails.

was so flexible after the domes closed last year

We used Boerner Botanical Gardens for our wedding ceremony and we LOVED our ceremony! We got married on the Shrub Mall Lawn and it was incredibly picturesque. Mike at the gardens was incredibly helpful and the staff was super accommodating to us and our families. They were a pleasure to work with . And because the gardens are county owned, its an excellent deal. We would recommend them to anyone!

Was given an idea of complete service and that didn't happen quite as described. Would recommend venue but must get your own day of coordinator too Forgot to set head table as discussed and shown on map. This was upsetting Beautiful ceremony amazing food

This is a mixed review because we had some significant issues with FBBG, but they did get resolved. My advice, make sure you get EVERYONE's contact information when you do your booking because the person we went through was let go and there went our contract too. FBBG was able to honor some arrangements and they did come through and help us with the rest of our issues, and everything turned out great. We had our ceremony at the gardens in September and it turned out to be a lovely sunny day! We were able to take pictures all around the gardens which was perfect and our guests loved it. It isn't the most cost-effective place to have a ceremony, especially if you have a lot of guests and need to have chairs. However, if you want to have a place with fantastic pictures, this is it.