Deanna
Wedding: 3/24/12
We chose to have our wedding reception at the Oregon Garden Resort in the Orchid Ballroom. We also reserved 11 rooms for our out-of-town guests. We were so pleased with the outstanding staff and their superior service for the entire event. The staff went above and beyond to make sure our experience was the best it could be. The ballroom was set up exactly as we had hoped, the food was delicious, the bar service was outstanding, and the overall attentivness of the staff was amazing. Our guests were commenting all evening on how pleased they were. We were treated with the utmost of professionalism. It is outstanding service such as this that will keep us coming back and recommending this facility to our friends, family, and business acquaintances.
maggiln
Wedding: 7/23/11
At the Oregon Garden Resort you will find that everyone is happy to help you celebrate your day! The staff was very easy to communicate with, and they were very flexible in accommodating our needs. You will not regret having your wedding at this beautiful venue!
Lisa
Wedding: 7/9/11
The Oregon Garden Resort was a wonderful place to get married. Having the ceremony site and venue in the same location was perfect, not to mention our guests could stay at the Resort as well. Make sure you reserve the Bridal Suite & Getting Ready Room for your wedding. The food was great and they were willing to work with our guests who had dietary concerns. Tina, Peggy and Scott were very helpful during our planning process and the day of the wedding.
My only issue with the Oregon Garden Resort was in the salon and the lack of responsiveness, professionalism and flexibility by the Salon Manager. If you are planning on having your hair, make-up or nails done for your wedding, go to an outside salon or having them come to you.
AmeliaDark
Wedding: 9/25/10
Ok, I need to make a note about my scores... These scores are solely for the person we worked with in "planning" our wedding. We had a different crew help us the day before and the day of the wedding and they did an AWESOME job; I would give them all 5's... But for my overall experience leading up to the wedding, I would not give them high scores. The person we worked with was un-professional and you could tell she did the least amount of work possible to get the job done. She brought up issues that we told them about the day we rented the venue (one year before our wedding) the week before my wedding. I'm sorry, but as a bride, I don't need the added stress the week before my wedding over something that they knew about ALL YEAR! The person who does their weddings is not a "warm" person and does not make it a special experience for you and your fiancé. She was horrible at returning calls and always wanted to send e-mails; I'm sorry, but face to face and over the phone is way easier. Then when I called her out on matters, she stopped sending me e-mails or talking to me, instead to started contacted my fiancé. 9 out of 10 times the bride is the one planning the wedding, so going to the groom does not seem beneficial at all. I would strongly recommend this place for your wedding (as it is a beautiful place), but I would say please wait until Tina no longer does the weddings there.
Stephanie
Wedding: 8/13/10
Just last month my husband and I got married at the Oregon Gardens and we would like to tell all brides: DO NOT USE THIS VENUE!
In addition to being very pricey, the billing is very shady and management is very poor. Not only did we overpay in advance for food, we also paid in advance for cases of wine and champagne with the understanding we would be refunded for what was unused. At the end of the reception, the bartender told me how many bottles had been used and that I would be refunded (about half of what I paid for); we are STILL battling to get our money back.
Tina, the Garden's event coordinator, who had been very difficult to get a hold of throughout the planning process, did not show up to the rehearsal to cover last minute details as she said she would. There were also several “over looked,” lost, or mishandled events during the planning – such as the lost wine order, mischarging the honeymoon suit, and charging but not reserving the bridal party get-ready room. Tina also over-stepped her bounds many times throughout the evening, including yelling at the bride about there being a wedding cake in the freezer right as I am lined up to walk down the aisle. Absolutely unacceptable etiquette.
In addition to suspicious business practices, the gardens were left a mess by staff the day of the wedding. If it hadn't been for the amazing Groom and Groom's men, the whole day simply wouldn't have happened. In dress blue uniforms, decorated in metals and fresh home from war, these men had to clean scum out of the man made reflection ponds, pick up large piles of debris left in the middle of the wedding aisle, and pick up buckets of gardening tools left in the seating area. The groom's men had to scramble to set up the bar in the garden as guests arrived and serve them water at the designated start time, because the bar and its supplies were still in boxes and the paid staff was nowhere to be found. The groom’s men also had to set up the tables and chairs in the reception area when garden staff unloaded the truck and left them there, despite having had a meeting and mapping out table placement with the on-site coordinator Tina, who assured me her staff would set them up according to the specifications. In a pile and unusable were not a part of my directions.
Additionally, there were no working lights in the any of outdoor bathrooms, half of the lights in the reception area were not working, and the water fountains were not turned on. I'm not sure why we paid over $2500 (plus an additional 18% gratuity) to rent this facility if its basic amenities weren't even working. It would have been a quick fix had any one checked it at all prior to the event.
Using the Garden's on site catering was mandatory and at the upper-high end of catering menus. Food was mediocre and was serve-yourself buffet style. After the wedding, I had more than one guest tell me that when they went up for seconds they were told, "No. This food is for the servers." That is completely unacceptable to tell guests!
After talking to Oregon Garden management after the event, none of the issues above have been resolved. Management gave a very flippant response to these issues. If they continue at this rate, they will run themselves into the ground.
I'm so grateful to our amazing wedding party that went above and beyond the call of duty to pull our big day off. Had it been left to the care of Oregon Garden management and staff, our day would have been a disaster!
Caitlin
Wedding: 8/1/09
I had my wedding at the Oregon Garden and Resort on August 1st. We held a welcome party in the Wedding Garden, the ceremony in the Silverton Market Garden, and the reception in the Bosque. All of the events were catered by the Resort and all of our out-of-town guests stayed there.
Positives: The location is beautiful, service is friendly, things went smoothly, the staff is very accommodating and helpful, Christine Bradbury (events coordinator) is a lot of fun and knows what she is doing, the rooms are really nice and comfortable.
Small negatives: Christine Bradbury can be difficult to get in touch with, my reservation for the wedding suite & getting-ready room got lost, and the card keys for the rooms kept getting de-activated.
Overall though, small things will always go wrong when there is a big event held somewhere. And, the Garden staff was really helpful in trying to deal with the little problems. For example, Christine comped a room for us to get ready in and let us use the salon space for makeup & hair due to my lost reservation.
In the end, all was well and the event was a blast, so I recommend the Garden both as regular hotel and a great place to host parties and other events.
mlbestwick
Wedding: 10/18/08
We were one of the first weddings at the Oregon Garden Resort and I they treated us great. They were really great in terms of making sure we had everything we needed for our band and all the special details that made our wedding wonderful. The food was fantastic! After the wedding everyone kept telling us how much they liked the buffet.
SgtLsWife
Wedding: 6/20/08
We got married on the Garden Green and had our reception in the Pavilion. The Oregon Gardens were really easy to work with, and made sure everything was set up as requested so the other vendors could do their job. I worked with Jessica, who gave me her cell phone number and always got back to me within a few days. It's also nice that the Gardens includes the tables, chairs, etc. which makes things so convenient. It's also a place where a lot of vendors have worked before, so they are familiar with it. If you're looking for an outdoor wedding venue with a "wow" factor, this is it!
dolphinangel81
Wedding: 8/27/06
This was such a goregeous place to get married!! I loved the fact that the reception site was just steps away from the ceremony. Also my guests could wander the gardens if the chose to.