UPDATED: Wedding Venues in Columbia, SC: The River Banks Zoo Botanical Garden

Today, my fiance and I explored the River Banks Zoo and Botanical Garden as one of our choices for a wedding venue in Columbia, South Carolina.  I will say from the start that this place is beautiful even in November.

This will be the view you'll have during the ceremony.

My fiance originally called Sallie Jean Jackson to schedule an appointment (you can get the number off the website).  She said that usually the time must be around 11:00.  That was good for us.  The day we went we made a huge mistake by driving to the Zoo.  The botanical garden is actually located across the river.  If you head down I26 toward Lexington medial center get off on the 378 exit, head pass Rush's restaurant , then take a left down Botanical Parkway, then you will run into to it.

After parking we walked through the whole park to where the visitor center is and the location of the Magnolia Room. The garden can only be described as breathtaking.   We were greeted by Ms Jackson.  She was full of smiles and handshakes.  Jackson then gave us a beautiful tour of the property.  My words will not do this place justice so please look at the pictures in the post.  After the tour, Jackson sat down with us and gave us a wonderful folder filled with not only their prices but of brochures for Hotels, a vendor list and even a place downtown to learn more about planning a wedding.  The folder was a touch of class and extremely helpful.  Ms Jackson also seemed sincerely wanting to assist us in every manner. The rental fee is $1,500 plus chair rental. This seems like an appropriate, fair price.    I was thoroughly impressed and my fiance was sold as a venue for the ceremony.

I would urge you to go see this place for yourself.

With approximately 3,000 square feet the Magnolia Room is a perfect spot for a small to medium sized reception.  The best part is that they have a lovely outdoor dining area along with an indoor. The indoor isn't that big, but it is definitely not small.  I am more accustom to attending receptions in huge reception halls that are probably too big for the event.  So please take a look at it for yourself, because I will admit that I don't know what a good size is.  According to Jackson, they can accommodate 120 seated guest and 250 in a cocktail style reception.   My amateur opinion is that this place is perfect for a reception for 100 guest or less.

The only downside of using the Magnolia room for your reception is that you have to use Riverbanks Catering.   They have a $4,500 minimum not including a mandatory 29% more in fees, gratuity and taxes.  So the minimum is around $5,805 not including any alcohol.  This gave my mother-in-law to be a sticker shock.  The $5,805 will cover around 100-115 guest.  That breaks down to about $58 if you have only about 100 guest.  If you have around 75 (like we most likely will have) the price is around $78 per person not including alcohol   If you want cocktails at your reception the open bar fee is $21 per person. This brings your total up to about $99 per person if you have a guest list of only 75 and brings your grand total up to $7,380 for around 75 guest or $7,905 for around 100 guest.  So for your true grand total, including the ceremony (and chair rental) it would be $9,705 for 100 guest or $9,030 for 75.  This also does not include your cake, music, flowers, and lighting. So as you can see the price rises quickly when you add your reception.
 If you buy your own alcohol they charge you a corkage fee of $6.50 per person, but this includes all mixers (soda, tonic, etc), set up and service. Also, all of the alcohol prices include public safety personnel  for the event.  

Another unfortunate downside to this venue is the earliest you can have your ceremony is around 6:30 p.m. in the winter and 7:30 p.m. in the summer.  You have to have your ceremony after the closing of the park which is at 5:00  in the winter/fall and they will allow guest to come in at around 6:00 and the park closes at 6:00 in the summer and guest are not allowed in until 7:30.  This blocks you into having a sunset wedding. I wonder if they make more revenue from the extra hour of being open versus the revenue they would make from more people choosing to rent this venue.  So keep in mind the allowed times of the ceremony when looking at this or any other venue.

For your out of town guest the good news is that this location is close to the airport.  There is ample eating places in the area and my fiance made a joke that if an accident happen your are right by the hospital.   The only drawback is that the hotel choices are limited when you compare your selection to downtown Columbia.  Nearby there  is a Homewood Suites (a Hilton chain) and Holiday Inn & Suites.  Both of these appear to be very nice and would probably suit the average guest.  The Holiday Inn even has a Sports themed grill  called Sporting News Grill.  We didn't check it out but that would add some extra entertainment to your guest's stay.
To conclude  every aspect of this venue is to encourage intake of the wonder of the garden. While browsing the garden it is too easy to get lost in a daydream of a pleasant sunny day, with the sounds of a string quartet whispering in the wind, along with the visuals of your future wife in a beautiful dress .  We wanted to stay a little longer and probably could have gotten lost in our day dreams for over an hour.  This is without a doubt one of the prime venues in Columbia and probably South Carolina to have your ceremony.   The garden sells itself.   It is too bad that they have limited themselves with the mandatory catering.  This may not be an issue if you have a larger budget then we do, but a small wedding reception of 75 guest or less at this locale is a little pricey, but the ceremony would be absolutely breathtaking.

UPDATE: We did decide to go with the River Banks Zoo, but what we have discovered is that there are tons of hidden fees that they don't tell you until they hand you a contract.  Be Prepared to pay 33% in taxes and administration fees.  So in other words if your catering bill cost $6,000, you will end up paying an additional $1,980.00.  Also, you have to pay 50% of the total bill for catering two weeks after signing the contract.  This was never brought up during the sales pitch nor at our meeting with the required caterer.  

Overall, the botanical garden is beautiful and they try to market it as an inexpensive venue, but the more you dive in, by the time it is too late you'll will find yourself paying thousands more and paying months sooner.  So if you are on a tight budget of $20,000 for your wedding, you may want to look elsewhere.   We probably should have done that.  The River Banks Zoo Botanical Garden is not a inexpensive venue unless your budget is north of $30K.