Rotary Botanical Gardens — Attraction in Janesville

BRIDES & GROOMS BEWARE!!!! It's unfortunate that I have to leave a review like this since the gardens truly are stunning, however, special events are an entirely different experience. I just had my wedding at the Rotary this past Saturday (literally yesterday) and I'm still so upset I can't even enjoy the post-marriage bliss. Sheila, the events coordinator, is the most disrespectful, rude, horribly disorganized person I've had to deal with for my entire wedding...AND MY MAKEUP ARTISR BAILED ON ME! So the fact that she literally RUINED my wedding should say a lot. She's nearly impossible to communicate with. It would take her weeks to respond to important emails. On numerous occasions she tried to strong-arm my husband and I into changing our minds on what we wanted at OUR wedding! The ceremony rehersal on Friday was a disaster. She was incredibly rude to my family and wedding party. Instead of speaking like an adult she blew up at my mother and sister and I had an emotional breakdown. I cried so hard. And as the bride, I was crushed. I wish I could say the day of the wedding was better but it was not. She constantly hounded my mother, was awful to my wedding party, and honestly ruined everything. She tried to throw away our appetizers, was seen throwing away FULL beverages (we were paying for an open bar for our guests). Guests would put their drinks down to go dance and she would dump out the drinks and throw away the glasses, ultimately racking up our bar tab resulting in us paying even more for unnecessary waste. She spilled a beer at the bar and flicked the wet table cloth soaked in beer AT OUR GUESTS! The smoke alarms started going off in the middle of our reception and she went after our band for their fog machine. Guests exited the venue due to the alarms because she couldn't silence them without the fire department. She proceeded to yell at guest for having alcohol outside and then was extremely rude to the first responders who showed up. The fire fighters heard her yelling at guests for being outside! Cherry on top? She tried to get my mother removed from MY WEDDING because she was trying to correct the very obvious issues that occurred throughout the night and avoid them getting to me. The entire experience was unacceptable. Sheila's behavior is unacceptable. I cannot believe I'm sitting here the day after the best day of my life trying not to cry as I relive the memories of what she did to me and my guests. All 150 of my guest could feel her disrespect and rudeness. I will be speaking with someone about this. If you've made it to the end of my review I hope it serves as a good warning to anyone hoping to hold a wedding here. Save your money. Save the heartbreak. Find a different botanical garden to have your special day, because this one ain't it. Sheila will 100%...

It’ s a very beautiful spot to take pictures, and a very nice sight to walk around and enjoy but the woman at the front desk was very rude and harassed my family. First off, we got there a little later, but it was for pictures with the sun at a good time. When we got there the woman was already kind of irritated and giving attitude but we proceeded quickly into the garden. After being there for about 30 minutes, the woman was standing there watching us take our pictures. She wasn’t harming anyone so we just proceeded to take our pictures and move on. By the end of the session she was waiting for us to walk out of the garden and leave. Instead of nicely instructing us to the exit, she forcefully gave us the instructions to the exit and ended up arguing with us about how there wasn’t 5 minutes left until close while it was still only 6:55. When we finally got to the building to make our way out, my little brother had to use the bathroom so badly and had been waiting the whole time so that we had time to take pictures. She then told us he couldn’t use the bathroom and we had to leave the building now. We explained to her how my brother had to use the restroom and had been waiting. She angrily expressed how she needed us to leave and pushed us out the door. I’m literally talking push. Whole waking out the door she physically pushed my 7 year old brother out the door and then told us that we were being rude. my response was “for what? paying over $40 to take pictures?” This woman/worker whatever she is. She doesn’t deserve to work there nor have the privilege of harassing workers. I would never recommend this place to anyone just for the fact that you pay a lot to take pictures and get treated like unprivileged, non paying,...

We went to view the light show tonight and it was completely nuts and disorganized. Very little main parking with no one directing traffic. No line control to keep people from cutting in line, and no separate entrance for prepaid people which made the main entrance extra congested. (Honestly I don't understand why prepaid gets to skip the line and wait). We finally got in and no one was even working at the cash spot so we were just standing there waiting for someone to show up. Another person in our group parked down by the school and was waiting for the bus for an hour. They bus kept coming and dropping people off but not picking them up. Finally one of the bus drivers told them they were not picking up anymore people because it was too congested, so they had to leave after waiting that hour outside and driving 30 mins already to get there. When we walked through it was so congested we couldn't even get pictures or actually enjoy the lights. The exit and the entrance merge into each other and causing traffic jams. A bunch of lights were not even lit because they were burned out or something. Just a big disappointment and not worth the $5 per person fee. It would have been much better if they actually controlled the line and slowed the traffic coming in to have it less congested, and had more organization and a better flow to keep traffic jams down. They need to do something about the parking too, and if they decide to stop the bus they should have announced it so people knew instead of standing...