For Outdoor Weddings: The Dallas Arboretum

A Great Place for a Formal Event

Our daughter was married this summer, and she wanted an outdoor wedding. After spending hours online, her choice for her special event was the Dallas Arboretum. It was a good choice! Let me tell you a little bit about the Arboretum.

The Arboretum is owned by the City of Dallas, and is run by a board of directors. I wish I could tell you how long they have been in existance, but that portion of their website is down. It is a perfect place for any formal event! They rent the gardens for weddings, receptions, concerts, ceremonies, and other public events. Their website has a calendar of events, showing their schedule of outdoor concerts. They also feature summer camps and children's field trips.

They have 13 different gardens, and a Gazebo (where our daughters wedding was). Many of these gardens feature pools, fountains, waterfalls, and outstanding flowering plants. The Palmer Fern Dell garden is a supberb garden featuring 90 varieties of ferns, trees and azaleas. It's a veritable oasis! There is a paved pathway that weaves it's way through the Arboretum.

Something is always blooming here, no matter what time of year you visit. Flowers are blooming even in the middle of winter, since the temperatures are quite temperate. Among the gardens you'll find: Begonia, Caladium, Canna, Coleus, Crape Myrtle, Zinnia, Geranium, Gomphrena, Hibiscus, Impatiens, Lantana, Marigold, Mealy Cup Sage, Mexican Brush Sage, Mexican Heather, Ornamental Grasses, Penta, Petunia, Summer Phlox, and Verbena.

We rented the Gazebo Garden for our wedding, which was nice since it protected us from the hot June sunshine! There is a VIP room available that we rented for the bride and bridesmaids to change into their gowns. It was much smaller than I expected, and cost us $100 for 2 hours. The Gazebo was $350, with a $250 deposit needed in advance. Both the gardens and the VIP room reservations need to be made early! They do not allow you to change clothes in their public restrooms, so unless you come dressed, you have to rent the VIP room. Their website says is not available for rent on weekends. Our wedding was on a Monday.