Davis Island Garden Club

What an absolutely beautiful venue for a wedding. We had a wedding with 150 guests and it was just the perfect size. We were able to have a full sit down meal inside with a dance floor, dj, cake cutting, picture booth, gift table and more. The outside covered patio provide an amazing space for the cocktail hour, second bar and live band later in the evening. The backdrop of the Hillsborough River and downtown Tampa make for a once in a lifetime experience for any of your out of town guests. The flexibility of the space allows you to create any type of ambiance to match your personality and having the venue for the entire day allows all of your vendors that ability to not be rushed and create an amazing event experience. I highly recommend this venue if you want your guest to experience an unforgettable event.

The Davis Islands Garden Club is a beautiful venue to have a wedding. The scenery is breathtaking in photographs. The Garden Club grounds are well maintained. Michelle James, the Davis Islands Garden Club event coordinator, is a pleasure to work with, very friendly and a very sweet person. She was quick to respond to emails or phone calls and was available to meet whenever I needed her to. The Garden Club does have strict rules which must be adhered to perfectly or portions of your deposit will not be refunded. A bit of criticism is that the white garden chairs are an additional cost, and the person renting the facility is responsible for set up, tear down, and proper stacking and placement in the closet. The venue was the perfect wedding location for an outside ceremony and in-door reception. See our pictures here: http://12-1photography.smugmug.com/Wedding-Photography/davis-island-garden-club/13386435_CUdbH#974309446_GiMEN

The Davis Islands Garden club is a beautiful venue that you can certainly make your own. We had our ceremony outside on the canal...it was perfect. The patio is fantastic for a cocktail hour. It was large enough to hold our guests, a photo booth and live entertainment. We couldn't have hoped for a more beautiful setting. Be prepared to purchase all decor and furnishings separately including the ceremony charis, curtains and cushions for the patio benches.

Beautiful venue for an outdoor wedding with an indoor reception. There is a great covered patio area for a cocktail hour. The back area of the Davis Island Garden Club has such a beautiful view of the bay and downtown Tampa.

When I became engaged, there was no question that I wanted to get married at Davis Island Garden Club. There is not a single venue in the Tampa area where you can get the views of water, garden and downtown and the privacy that the DIGC offers. I do think that DIGC is a little pricey but in the end I would have not changed a thing. Make sure that if you want DIGC, you book right away. We did have to change our dates 3 times due to the popularity of it. (We did book 14 months in advance!)

This is absolutley the most beautiful venue to have a outdoor/Indoor wedding and reception. The grounds are well maintained and the view is great. They have a great gazebo for the ceremony.

The setting outside in front of the gazebo was fantastic for the ceremony and the large covered patio was perfect for our cocktail hour. I love that you have the whole place for the entire day and night, it provides a very intimate location for a ceremony and reception. Plus, since the place is a blank slate any color combo looks great and you can add a lot of details yourself. The coordinators there were always very prompt at answering any of my questions leading up to the wedding. This was the perfect place for our wedding!The only criticism I have is that the white folding chairs should be included in the cost of the rental instead of extra, since you do have to set them up and take the down yourself.

The Davis Islands Garden Club was my perfect wedding venue. It allows you to be as creative as you want because you have the freedom to do pretty much anything you want (given obvious limitations). You also can bring in any vendor you want, making it as personal and unique as you want it to be. When seeking a venue, I wanted somewhere I could have both my ceremony and reception at the same place, I wanted it to be unique (not just a hotel ballroom) and I wanted it to be cost efficient. Davis Islands Garden Club is all the above, and my guests seemed to really enjoy it as well!

We loved DIGC the moment we saw it! You get a mix of nice garden scenery and city lights that night. Although it is quite pricey for what you get, we are still happy with our choice! I wish more of the clean-up was included. Michelle was great and always willing to help when asked. The inside of the garden club is bland, but you can easily dress it up with lighting and a dance floor. We used events by Amore to help with those things along with our catering!

We got so many compliments from guests on how nice the venue was. It really is such a blank canvas, and our team was able to pull of a vision and spruce things up a bit! Like another bride commented, for the cost, it would have been nice if the outdoor ceremony chairs were included-- and I also feel the rental cost for the drapes and bench cushions were way too high. Overall, I loved the flexibility of the space and the location.

Davis Island Garden Club had everything that I wanted for our wedding. The gorgeous setting outside with the gazebo, the channel and the downtown Tampa skyline provided us with AMAZING pictures! I absolutely loved the covered porch with the wrap around bench! I was great having everything in one place. We received so many compliments on the venue. You can definitely create the wedding of your dreams at the Garden Club. Just make sure you clean up EVERYTHING to get your full deposit back :)

The Bridal Coordinator was very easy to work with and for the money you couldn't ask for a more beautiful setting. If weather permits I would have all events take place outdoors there. The natural landscape is just beautiful. We were married at 6pm and the sunset was about an hour later. It was perfect!

Highly recommend this venue! It's beautiful and everyone was very helpful!! Michelle was helpful and we are glad we chose this venue!

The DIGC provided a gorgeous backdrop for our wedding reception. The venue is truly a unique place; a beautiful place with a very affordable price tag. Highly recommended! Just make sure you follow their guidelines; they truly take care of their facilities.

The venue was beautiful and our event went smoothly, however I was on my own as soon as I arrived to set up. Our wedding was on the fourth of July so it may not reflect the typical experience. The garbage dumpster was overflowing and visible from the street (nice touch for my wedding) the person who let me in kept saying "this is not my job" and "someone else is supposed to do this" very unprofessional. My contact person was at the other coast and semi-available via phone to answer questions or solve my issues with the venue. All in all the staff was much more interested in renting their additional accessories to us than actually providing the service that I paid for. Again the grounds are beautiful and the facility is fine just don't expect it to be run like a business...

DIGC really is an open canvas with a lot of flexibility. Whether you want to be inside or out, or a combination on the large back covered patio, this is an excellent location. Full of beautiful views and yet very private, this place offers it all at a fraction of what others have. With the right people this place can trullly take on any look or transformation and yet still provide the best of environments.

The Davis Island Garden club is and ideal reception location for weddings of 175 guests or less. If you wish you can have your ceremony there as well looking out over the bay in the white gazebo. It has a large kitchen if you or your caterer need the space for preparing the meal. A must see while planning a wedding or large gathering!

I had always envisioned my wedding being outside, but a June wedding outside in Florida? Woah! I thought I was out of luck, but then I found the Davis Island Garden Club; a wedding venue that allowed me to have my ceremony outside overlooking the water, dinner inside and dancing under the stars (via the porch). Like others have mentioned this is a hidden gem. Im glad I did not settle for any other venue. Michelle is great to work with and this venue allowed me many unique opportunites to have a creative wedding that was everything I had imagined!!

Do not visit the Garden club with out a wedding coordinator!!! The on site coordinator simply reserves your date, and in our case didn't do that correctly! We found out 4 months before our wedding that our date had been double booked. Luckily we were able to move from Saturday to Friday. They would not allow us to book a rehearsal until the last minute, incase they could make some money from someone else. When we arrived at the rehearsal half the sidewalk was dug up, less then 24 hours before our wedding. Thank goodness our coordinator was on top of it, and called them that night to make sure it was going to be fixed.The site is beautiful and reasonably priced, but I would only recommend if know you will be hiring a wedding coordinator.

Such a beautiful venue!! I was taken away with the views of the water and downtown tampa! Having our ceremony and reception there caused for beautiful pictures and a beautiful wedding! We had planned for a outside ceremony, but because of the rain we had to move it inside, which ended up to be so romantic. The Davis Islands Garden Club is a perfect place and location to have a wedding. Not only because of the views and the feeling of having a garden wedding on the water, but because they are fair with their prices and extremely professional.

This venue was not flexible at all. I wanted to drop off some of my decorations the night before and they wouldn't allow it. I had to get up at 5 in the morning to make sure I had time to transport all of my decorations. They did not answer my phone calls or emails when I had questions. Then when they did finally answer my phone call they were rude on the phone. At the reception the men's bathroom did not have any paper towels. The guys were all using the same towel to dry their hands. That is disgusting! The venue kept $50 of my deposit because they said there were straws left behind in the kitchen. The only thing this place has going for them in the view. The customer service is atrocious. I would never recommend this venue to anyone!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful location for a Spring wedding. Little to no shade for ceremony at the gazebo, so make sure your vows are short! Building seems plain at first but dresses up well. Garden was a huge hit with all who attended!

We booked the Davis Islands Garden Club for both our outside ceremony and ballroom reception. Michelle James, Event Coordinator, is the sweetest, easiest person to work with. We actually almost booked a venue in Lakeland first, but the representatives I was talking to weren't as friendly from Day 1, and I didn't want to deal with that during the entire planning process. After having met Michelle and toured the Garden Club, we decided that would be our best bet. It's a beautiful waterfront property. www.digclub.org Best of luck!

I chose Davis Island Garden Club as my wedding venue! The venue/staff was amazing. In response to a comment below on the price of the cushions being too high, I can recommend a great company that does the cushions and drapes for a much better price for the same quality. Call Keli at 727.437.8617. Her pricing includes delivery, set up, and pick up!

The Garden Club was absolutely perfect for us. It allowed us a space where we could have our ceremony, cocktail hour and reception all in one place. The price as compared to other local locations was great and you can't beat the location. Additionally, Michelle was great! She was helpful and had such a happy and personable manner. We are so grateful that we were able to have our wedding there, it was absolutely perfect!

Davis Island Garden Club was beautiful and affordable. The view is unbelievable and you get a lot for your money!

We chose to have our wedding and reception at the beautiful Davis Island Garden Club. It was everything we imagined and more. People were taken aback by the natural beauty of the place. We didn't have to do much to decorate at all. The layout was perfect for entertaining, and it provided the intimate feel we wanted without limiting the space.

Davis Island Garden Club is a gem. It is a beautiful venue on the water that is affordable. It is basically a blank canvas so you can do so much with decor. My guests were mostly from out of town and raved about our reception location! I would recommend it to all future brides.

The Davis Islands Graden Club provided us with a beautiful venue for wedding and reception. It was just right for our 100ish guests that attended out wedding. I really don't have any cons for this venue at all. I only have wishes for what would make it better for the money. I felt that for the money that the outside chairs should have been included with the fees, rather than additional. Otherwise, everything provided by the venue was outstanding. All of questions were answered in a timely manner, we had many opportunities to visit the venue before our event in order to plan by seeing the site. I would reccommend this venue to anyone. We had a fantastic experience. Thanks, Michelle!

The venue was beautiful. We had some initial issues with our booking date/contract. We didn't get the original date we had chosen for the wedding, through no fault of our own. Michelle James, the coordinator at the venue, misplaced our original contract, and re-booked the date for someone else. We had a few clerical errors with checks making their way through to them (some were the mailman's fault, some we suspect were just disorganization). Otherwise from these few issues, we loved the venue, and would definitely book there again for an anniversary party or other event, albeit with a little more preparation next time.

The Davis Islands Garden club is a real gem. They are so affordable and have beautiful water views and offer both a ceremony and reception site. They are extremely flexible, allowing clients to bring in their own alcohol (which saves money), and also allow the use of the outdoor space - which is VERY important if you've been dreaming of an outdoor reception but cannot find anywhere that will allow you to do it. Plus they have indoor space which can be used as backup if it rains, or used for the reception if you want an indoor reception. It's close to downtown hotels and activities for guests, and allows all outside vendors. I recommend this location again and again!!

DIGC was beautiful and we were so glad to be able to book this location. It looks unassuming but it is gorgeous inside and the water view was a great look for our pictures.

BEAUTIFUL site, was worth the price! was right on the water gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous!!!!! would recommend it to ANYONE!!!

The Davis Island Garden Club (DIGC) had everything my fiance and I were looking for: price, location, flexibility and class. When we began the budgeting process, the largest expense was alcohol and food. What we found with DIGC was that we weren't bound to an exclusive catering/alcohol contract. We were able to find our own caterer (who supplied bartenders) and buy all of our alcohol at retail price (this saved more than you can imagine)!We had both our ceremony and reception at the DIGC. The weather was absolutely amazing and made for a beautiful ceremony. We were married outside by the gazebo which is located right near the water (the channel that leads to the bay). The DIGC has white formal outdoor chairs, but charged $2 per chair. This did not include setting up and taking down which we were responsible for. The DIGC also has a covered patio attached to the rear of the building (in between the building and Gazebo). We held our cocktail hour outside under the patio before the reception. It was also a great location after the dinner for folks to gather and drink.Inside the building, the DIGC has a large commercial kitchen. They also supplied the tables and chairs for the reception. I opted for chair covers, not only because I had always envisioned them, but because the chairs are fairly basic and a little beat up.The DIGC has both advantages and disadvantages depending on how you look at it. Once you get the keys in the morning, you are on your own. There is no one watching over you telling you what to do or not. Other than setting up the tables and chairs in the main building, everything else is your responsibility. Setup and breakdown were the biggest details. My fiance and I hired a wedding coordinator, www.weddingsbygeorgia.com, to take care of all these details. Without Georgia, we would have been left with a lot of work which would have cut into the celebration itself. We absolutely loved the Garden Club and recommend it to everyone who wants to save some money without sacrificing class.

This is a fabulous location for an incredible ceremony and reception. The views are beautiful, the location is great, and I enjoy officiating at weddings there. They are great!

Every time I shoot at Davis Island I get fantastic photos that magically show up on the back of my camera! Gorgeous views of the water, a fantastic gazebo, beautiful intimate hall - what could be better?

What a diamond in the rough. I love working at this venue. Michelle is a pleasure to work with and the lovely gardens make a great backdrop to the event. There is so much you can do to transform the club into a showstopper.