Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary Reviews

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This venue was perfect for our wedding. It was beautiful with the flower gardens in full bloom. The reception room was the perfect size for our after party.

Very affordable in comparison to most venues, the coordinator is helpful and easy to work with. Loved the facility as well, spacious and had lovely scenery all around!

My niece and her now husband had their wedding and reception there. It was a Grand Experience, Breath Taking Scenery, Secluded area...It was the BOMB. Just enough room for the amount of guest they had. It was a little hard to find, but it was so worth it. HIGHLEY RECOMMEND

Bridal Henna had a beautiful job on for my bday party. I was amazed at how fast and intricate the work was. I loved the results. She was very nice . I would recommend her to everyone I know.

The inside/outside availability ws great in case of bad weather. Brenda was very helpful and flexible in giving us access. Loved the large science room where we put up a great pictoral presentation.

Heard is an amazing venue. It's excellently priced. I worked with Samantha for the entire processes and she's been a dream. We are still a few months out from the wedding but she truly made the processes worth it. Once the day is here I will update, but couldn't wait to give a shout out.

We love this place! Everyone including Brenda, Spencer and the main desk staff were very helpful, flexible and so nice. This place has the best scenery everyone that attended the wedding loved this place.
The venue is very affordable we are very pleased with this location

Brenda Hinton was our event coordinator at the Heard Museum. She was extremely helpful throughout all of our event planning process and was with us to help on the day-of. She assisted us with layouts, floor-plans, and coordinating our other vendors - and all of this was included in our rental of the facility for the day!

The value of the Heard Museum also can't be beat - we had absolute freedom with choosing our vendors (no site-recommended or required outside vendors) and it was extremely reasonably priced.

The location is also wonderful. We held our ceremony in Laughlin hall, where we stood in front of large glass windows that overlooked the back garden. Very beautiful. We also held our reception on-site at the Heard in the Science Resource Center (SRC). There was plenty of room in the facility for our photo-booth, two buffet lines, DJ w/booth, and 12 tables for guests plus our head table, cake table, drink table, etc. I thought it looked small when we first toured but we had plenty of room for everything. The SRC also has a great patio overlooking the back ponds of the Heard Museum, complete with small white Christmas tree lights lining the handrail - it was gorgeous on the patio looking at the sunset during the reception.

We held both our ceremony and reception at the Heard and it was beautiful! We had several photo ops and they were very flexible with us! The price was right!

Chairs and tables provided. Has a beautiful outside garden allowing for a simple but elegant atmosphere.

This is the place to get married at in North Texas! We only paid $1100, and that covered the cost of two locations within the museum, the Native Plant Garden where we held our ceremony and the Student Resource Center where we held our reception. The venue provides all the tables and chairs, and takes care of setting up and breaking down both. They also have an AV system all set up for you to use (PC compatible ONLY!!)
Getting married in the NPG was the most incredible experience. With the trees in full foliage and the gardens in bloom still, it was like a magical little canopy of greenery. Plus, with all the existing flora, we only had to buy flowers for the wedding party to carry! Our pictures look so amazing with all the foliage too!
The SRC was a great location for our reception. They have floor to ceiling windows and a large deck that all overlook the preserve. Another great thing is that they let you use any caterer that you want, professional or not. This is so huge, because a lot of venues that we looked at required that you either choose from a list of preferred vendors or your caterer must carry $1m in insurance.

The ONLY thing that I would warn you about is the event coordinator at this place. I'm sure she is a lovely person, but her bedside manner could use a little work. She is not very friendly, and at one point about a month before our wedding, she flat out told us that we could no longer have our wedding there, because we invited too many people. We had to explain to her that when we signed the contract, she agreed that we could set up tables on the outside deck for overflow, and that since we were not doing a sit-down dinner, it wouldn't be an issue. She then recanted her earlier refusal, and conceded to our request. It was probably the worst moment of the planning process, as we thought for sure we were going to have to find another venue available for our date and time with a month to do it. But it all worked out in the end :)

The venue is WONDERFUL. If you want a place with tons of natural elements, the Heard is the place. Our wedding was at the Natural Science Research Center. Tables and chairs are provided and they did a great job setting up before we got there. It may take some doing getting the coordinator to call back quickly, but overall, she was great!

We got married on 10/12/19 in the SRC and loved our venue! We had plenty of space to have the ceremony and reception. The view is spectacular. It is a very versatile space and allows for any vendors you choose. Only downsides are that it is non smoking, doesn't allow hard liquor, and only holds up to 90 people. But for the price, it was totally worth it.

We fell in love with the Science Resource Center the moment we saw it! It is a beautiful space surrounded by a beautiful backdrop! This was the perfect place for us, because we had looked at a few other places but they all had very strict rules about caterers, alcohol, etc. There was even one that stipulated who we had to order our cake from! None of that at the Heard! We were able to use vendors we chose, bring our own alcohol with no need for a bartender/security (it was a very small wedding, so we really didn't need either) and had complete flexibility. This was really important to us! Brenda is extremely nice and seemed to genuinely want to help out with different suggestions, etc. Overall we had a very pleasant experience and would defiantly recommend this location to anyone looking for a beautiful place that allows them to have complete flexibility in what they want for their own wedding!

The Heard is a fabulous place to get married! We had both our ceremony and our reception there. The Science Resource Center's deck overlooks the lake and beautiful scenery. Tables and chairs were provided (and set up for us!!) along with an audio system and projection system. There is also a nice sized kitchen and bar space for drinks. Our 50 guests fit comfortably in the Center with plenty of room to spare. Although it doesn't come with much else, the Heard is priced very reasonably. We looked for months and this venue had the best value. You are not limited in terms of catering and other vendors, which was a huge plus!! The only cons were that it was somewhat hard to get in touch with the facilities/events manager and we were told a little too late that we could have set up the day before (that would have helped a lot!). Other than that, the Heard is an excellent space to get married, especially for those who want to go the non-traditional route or want a nature-filled wedding. Oh, and we had our wedding during the day so the kids were able to go visit the museum if they got fidgety (moms loved it!).

The Heard is a beautiful place to have an event. We had our rehearsal dinner there in October. It is a great value. Our dinner was wonderful, and the back deck was a great place to dance and mingle. The woman you deal with is somewhat difficult to get in touch with just like the other reviewers said. She is very nice when you do get in touch with her. The lights were not on when we arrived, and it was too dark to see. They were on a timer and for some reason, no one could find the switches. That was a problem for the older folks trying to get up the steps. It was such a fantastic venue, so beautiful with all the windows across the back of the SRC, that it was worth the minor hassles. We were looking for a "Texas" atmosphere- it was great!

First of all, we love the Heard Museum and Nature Preserve...we have a family membership and will continue to be patrons!
We are so happy that we chose the Heard as the venue for our amazing wedding held on April 5th, 2014. We had rented the Science Resource Center for eight hours for the event. The deck provided a scenic and naturally beautiful backdrop for our ceremony. The violin music floating in the light breeze created such as surreal scene that was amazing to be a part of. The layout of the SRC was really conducive to directing guests for various activities (hallways as well as indoor and outdoor seating areas in the rotunda entryway) such as our cocktail hour while the wedding party was off shooting photos. Our photographer found so many amazing spots for photos with the wedding party as well as just the groom and I, and we really enjoyed walking the property as we took pictures. We have received so many compliments on the beauty of the facility and scenery!
A huge selling point for this venue was our ability to bring in our own catering without any additional fees, as well as our ability to serve beer and wine (no liquor, which was fine). The onsite kitchen was just the right size for use by the caterers, considering that nothing had to be prepared onsite. We appreciated the fact that there was also a standalone ice maker, very helpful! The bride and groom changing room areas were also a nice size and accommodated me as well a few members of my bridal party along with our make up artists and hairdresser.
As noted by other reviewers, the only drawback was that the event coordinator was often very difficult to get a hold of by telephone or email. However, once you got her on the line, she was very pleasant and helpful, and made a few allowances for us that we greatly appreciated! Our advice would be to make the drive out there to work with her in person, whenever possible!
Mr. and Mrs. Nathan and LiAnne Brown

We were in love with the Heard Museum. From the second we walked in we knew we wanted to get married there and the cost was perfect. Unfortunately, the event coordinator was less then ideal to work with. I went to the Heard Museum a few times after booking it and the lady never recognized me. You would think after spending all this money and constant contact with someone they would remember who you are. She also went back and forth on a lot of things she told us. The contact was minimal and she always had this attitude that I was bothering her when I asked simple questions. We were also informed that she had booked an event for the morning of our wedding. I don't know anyone that would set something up like that. The day of she was present and actually took care of everything pretty well. She showed back up at 11:30pm and informed us that we had to be out in 30 minutes and we did everything we could to be out of there in time but she was very rude and even threw some of our decorations away. I found that extremely disrespectful. Regardless of the event coordinator the place is too beautiful to pass up, definitely worth it if you have people to depend on and don't need to rely on the direction of the event coordinator.

The place was beautiful, the price was great. We found this place 3 months before we wanted to get married. It doesnt get many wedding so they dont have much to help you. unless you have a wedding planner and a staff, i would not recomand this place. i had 15 people helping me set up and we did not finish. the event lady, told me i could start setting up a day before, so i figured i would not need to hire anyone. i went when we had rehersal and brought people with me and she did not let us do it. so i couldnt hire anyone bc it was too late. it was VERY unorginazed and she disappeared 1/2 though my set up and i did not see her for the rest of the time. we didnt get all the tables we were supposed to get, so some of my guest ended up leaving bc they had no where to sit. also, there was another wedding and i had some of their guest walked down MY aisle when i was making my exit when we were announced husband and wife. so if you dont have NO PLANNER, dont come here. there is no possible way to get ready for a wedding of 150 in 3 hours before your wedding with just helpers (friend & family). You would have to hire a full staff to get it all done!! btw i only had 3 months to put a wedding together so i was stressed out!!! the garden and the actual place is beautiful though. i did get many compliments on the wedding, but some noticed how unorginazed it was. i was just glad it was done and over with.

After choosing this venue, we felt very comfortable with our selection. As it got closer and closer to our wedding date, we became concerned because we never heard from anyone. We had our reception and ceremony at the Science Resource Center, their largest and most expensive building on site. After visiting it for the second time, we realized that the venue it self was not clean. When visiting with staff while touring the venue, we were told that it would be cleaned. The outside needed to be powerwashed and there were many bugs in the windows. You could just tell that the place never truly received deep cleans. As for the professionalism of the staff, we dealt with Samantha S. She was not only rude to me when speaking with me over the phone a couple of times, but was rude to my family on the day of the wedding. Samantha also gave me a hard time about not stating we needed chairs outside for the ceremony when I repeated multiple times that we would be holding the ceremony on the deck. In the end, the wedding was beautiful and amazing, but no thanks to the venue and the employees. Some of my photos I will not be using because of the appearance of the filth of the building, inside and out. I would continue to look elsewhere if you are looking for an experience where you are treated with professionalism and respect for the celebration of your big day.

The main point of contact for rental is horrible. The reviews showed that she is hard to get in contact with. I had called twice with no response. When I called again, I left a message mentioning how the reviews stated that she was hard to reach and requested again. She called back stating that she was sick last week. I said I was sorry to hear that. She then asked how big our guest list was and when I told her our tentative list was 125, she said it was too big and hung up. I didn't even get a chance to say that we were willing to trim down. She didn't even ask if I wanted JUST the wedding there, which the website shows the amphitheater holds 525. She had decided that she did not like that I called her out on not returning phone calls. This is the first step in the process, picking the venue, and I am more than thankful that I will not have to deal with this woman throughout the rest of the planning process and during the wedding. It may be an great facility with reasonable prices, but having a rude point of contact is only going to make the stressful process of planning a wedding even worse. The museum needs to see what everyone has been saying about this point of contact and realize that she is causing them to loose business.