Albuquerque Garden Center — Attraction in Albuquerque

We recently rented out the Albuquerque Garden Center (AGC) for my daughter’s wedding which included an outdoor garden ceremony, cocktail hour in the Japanese Pavilion area, and an indoor dinner/dance reception. Throughout the planning process, our point of contact, Laurie, was generous with her time and accommodating. We were able to repeatedly visit the venue to ask continued questions and map out details of how we would decorate and utilize the various spaces of the facility. She not only worked cooperatively with us, she and her staff coordinated well with the various vendors for food, beverage, music, décor, etc.

The day of the event, we had all-day uninterrupted access to the venue from 9am-midnight which afforded us plenty of set-up and take-down time. AGC provided rotating staff to be on-site throughout the 15 hours, as well as two security personnel for the duration of the event itself.

The AGC gardens and grounds are beautifully and painstakingly maintained, the large reception hall (Pinon Rm.) perfectly met our needs for the indoor portion, and the facility includes two different kitchen prep areas, small but well-appointed restrooms, and an additional room (Patio Rm.) with small counter and sink that served perfectly as a hair/makeup/dressing area for the bride and her attendants.

Although we furnished our ceremony/cocktail hour/reception (i.e. round dinner tables, bistro tables, and padded garden chairs) primarily through outside rental companies, the AGC package includes access to stackable indoor chairs and rectangular folding tables should they be needed. Table linens are available for a nominal fee. In addition, the AGC made available for our use several painted wooden tables and benches that we used for purposes such as a memoriam table and the guest book.

It should be noted that the AGC has some stringent guidelines in its contract related to safety and security which, though we tried to clarify the salient points with our guests the day of the event, still led to some confusion. The most impactful of these related to “traffic patterns” between various areas of the facility. Food/beverages served in the Japanese Pavilion must remain in that area. Likewise, food/beverages served in the Pinon Rm. must remain there. For our event, security personnel could only oversee one area or the other. Therefore, during the outside cocktail hour access out of the pavilion/garden area was literally locked. Guests could not exit the garden gate to the front parking area nor access the building at all (including restrooms) and, once we did allow indoor access, we needed to quickly vacate the outside area. Another contractual consideration is that disposal of all trash at the end of the night (including restrooms) must be gathered by the renters and disposed of in the parking lot dumpster.

To their credit, the on-site staff the day of our event – Gigi, Brenda, and Debbie – were all personable and willing to help where they could, right down to lighting votive candles on the dinner tables and helping with trash take-out at night’s end. The security personnel were pleasant, as well – gracious in their reminders to guests who sometimes absent-mindedly would start to exit the reception hall with a cup of lemonade or piece of cake. Even one of the gardeners there on the morning of the event, Jen, offered up her heartfelt...

I used this location for my wedding and was the worst place to have a wedding ceremony. Most of the guest and family only remember the staff (Debbie) being rude and dictating the whole event and constantly chasing down guest at the event with issues. We felt she was somewhat discriminating towards my family because of our race. She made us take out the bathroom trash and wipe down the bathroom counters. The venue has a kitchen but its non functional the sink was clogged and the refrigerator could no be used and we got blamed that we clogged the sink because of the food that was seved.The service was incredibly bad we ended our wedding a hour early and left with such disappointment that we had chose this place to have the wedding we had long...

I just had my wedding here a few days ago and it was spectacular! :) The people with the Albuquerque Garden Center were super nice! They stayed in the background and would check in to make sure that everything was going smoothly. They answered any questions that we had that day easily and were super helpful! The garden center was beautiful! Easily fit over 100 people between the ceremony outdoor area and the reception indoor area. They were flexible with me and worked with me. I couldn't pass up the price either! I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful place and a more wonderful venue than the Albuquerque Garden Center for...