Lakewold Gardens Reviews

Lakewold Garden, In Lakewood, WA. Great location for the wedding. Timing and everything were perfect this day. Timeless memories were made. History was made. It's a day that will never be forgotten.

Lakewold Gardens is an AMAZING venue.

I had my wedding there a few weeks ago, the property is very open and provides trails, fields, and gardens where guests can wander and explore to enjoy its beauty. The view is amazing as well since you have a view of the lake from the Wagner House.The staff is really nice, Susan the wedding event planner is really responsive and helpful with your questions and planning. Call, email, or write this staff and you will get a response quickly.

If planning a wedding there, it has to be an evening wedding due to it being a public garden until 4 pm. That was perfect for my July wedding since the sun is out longer and it was an outside ceremony. My guests also loved the valet that is provided with the event, it made it even more formal which i loved!!

I would definately choose this venue again! It was absolutely beautiful and the staff was amazing.

Top notch venue. The staff was great and the everyone loved the scenery. Perfect place to get married and have the reception

Had a wonderful wedding at Lakewold Gardens. It is such a beautiful venue, to be both in a garden and next to a lake, with all the grounds for guests to explore. Everyone had a great time. The Lakewold staff were so helpful and knowledgeable about what things might work well; notably Sue Steen, who worked hard to make our day a success :)

Lakewold Gardens is the most beautiful venue in the area. My wedding was a English tea party theme. With the house and the gardens it was the most perfect wedding I could have ever imagined. They really take care of their land and the people are so friendly and helpful. My husband and I were not that picky on the day we got married. All of their weekends were booked in August so we just asked them what days they had available. Fortunately, they had Friday the 16th available so we took it. As soon as I saw the place I knew that was it and I wasn't leaving until we had a day. I would recommend this venue to anyone. It is just so beautiful. Go see for yourself!

I live in Arizona and pick Lakewold Gardens site unseen. It was the best choice I had made. The grounds were beautiful and the service was excellent. The price was a little much, but it was all worth it. I had a wonderful wedding.

Lakewold Gardens is beautiful and the staff is super great to work to work with. Everyone raved about how pretty it was! My only critique is that they are very unflexible on timelines, which I understand to an extent, except I couldn't get over why we couldn't take photos on the grounds before the appointed vendor delivery and arrival time. It would have saved us a lot of transportation and setting up worry if we could have done this. But it is a beautiful venue and Susan was a pleasure to work with so no complaints there, it's literally the only issue that I couldn't really get over. But all in all they make that timeline work so don't worry about your vendors not getting things in on time even if it does seem tight, they were all set up (even my florist with my crazy large order got all her stuff set up) and gone by the time the ceremony and reception started. My only suggestion to Lakewold would be to invest in new chairs that come with the venue.

Lakewold Gardens is a beautiful venue. It looked absolutely perfect on my wedding day and Susan (in charge of events) is very nice to work with. With that being said, they are NOT flexbible with timeframes, rules, decor, etc. If you have a specific vision, it must work within their policies. They only have 4 caterers that are allowed to cater at the venue. It is a pricey venue, but a truly beautiful setting for a spring, summer or early fall wedding. My photos turned out beautifully. I recommend Lakewold Gardens, but make sure you read all the details in your contract so you know exactly what you can and cannot do.

Horrible wedding venue. This is the first and only negative review I have ever written. Prospective brides and grooms, please read below as I wish I had been warned:

The “Rentals and Events Coordinator” is quite possibly the most difficult, irrational, and disrespectful person I have ever dealt with. This woman will speak to you in such a condescending, dismissive tone is actually difficult to describe without using expletives. I wish I had been warned before signing any agreement here. I can, and will happily delete this review if I hear that she is no longer in this position.

From a logistics standpoint, the number one issue is her timeline. She will frequently deviate from the contract via email. She creates the strictest artificial limitations/rules. She intends on staggering the vendors arrival, and threatens a $100 fine for every vendor or guest that arrives early. This is a privately owned, public garden. Despite the $4,500 rental fee, she is committed to keeping it open to the public until about 15 minutes before the ceremony begins, to collect every $10 admission fee. After returning our security deposit, she accused my volunteers/vendors of “Intimidating” her garden guests while they set up.

Ironically, as someone who works at a garden, her number one gripe is with florists. She does not and will not allow any florist onsite before 2:00pm, and will not allow ceremony set up until after 3:30. Assuming guests arrive at 4:30, that’s ONE HOUR of set up time.

At one point this women addressed my caterer/chef as a “Fancy Chef or Whatever” using finger air quotes, in a condescending and sarcastic tone to his face.

In a separate conversation, she told a racist story about a “Korean” family who recently had a wedding there. She alleged that one of the grandparents had brought a plate of sushi without the caterers knowledge, then preemptively expressed concern that my wife’s Asian family cannot do the same. I was at a loss for words.

About a month before the wedding she demanded that we share our the receipt from our rental company. She then reviewed that we rented too many chairs. She would only allow that we rent 90 chairs for our 90 person wedding. We intended on renting 100 to have extra seats for cocktail hour, spares if there was any damage, and two extra place settings to honor members of the family who passed away recently. She did not budge, in fact she threatened that we cancel our wedding and suggested that we find another venue if we were unable to send her a revised copy of the rental invoice.

Her most obscene behavior took place at the end of the wedding night. She found me (the groom), the moment before the send off, to lecture/scold me on rules that were broken throughout the night. I can say with certainty that I look forward to never seeing her again, and advise you to consider my advise.

Horrible service provided by this venue, and only because of our incredible wedding planner who spent hours helping these people understand what it means to host a wedding, did our wedding even happen here. These people are extremely unprofessional, insanely disorganized and are after money alone. They tried to make us change our ceremony time long after we had sent out invitations. They tried to change our wedding end time at the last minute. It was as if the contract we had signed meant absolutely nothing. They tried to change SO many things at the last minute—things that had been detailed in our contract and are incredibly important, involve many parties, and things we would have considered dealbreakers had we known. Again only because of our wedding planner’s tireless efforts and profound experience did we avoid a hellish wedding. To boot, they kept our entire security deposit for a ridiculous reason that was not a part of our contract. We followed all of their rules but because a water glass (brought by their staff) left a mark on a table, they decided that was grounds to keep our entire deposit. Do NOT book this venue. Go elsewhere!! The stress, anxiety and disappointment are not worth the gardens. It’s a shame, because the venue itself could be such a gem for weddings.

I arrived at Lakewold last July excited for my wedding. I was taken aback to be greeted by Lakewold's event coordinator who yelled at me for 15 minutes because my vendors arrived early. (They were nervous about the short window allowed for setup. The event coordinator had privately given them the okay to arrive early!) She works under the fear of a boss who micromanages the staff and lacks people skills. The venue has too many restrictions. The staff lacks the creativity and resources needed for your wedding or special event. If you want a beautiful setting with courteous, knowledgeable, and professional staff, the Tacoma Golf and Country Club is the place to go!

Very very disappointed! We had our wedding there and I still have nightmares about it. Every vendor we brought that said that this is a last time they will do a wedding there and they will not recommend it to anyone. The manager was very unpleasant to work with. At the day of the wedding they went agains everything they promised. They will slap you with so many fees not only so they keep your security deposit but even more.