Lawrence Hall of Science
Berkeley, CA 94720
(map) Phone: 510-642-2275
Reviews for Lawrence Hall of Science
My now-husband and I wanted to get married in Berkeley, as the city is very special to us. We also wanted an outdoor ceremony. We were deciding between the Rose Garden and several picnic areas in Tilden. We took a trip to Tilden and surveyed the larger sized grounds. During the outing, we basically decided on TIlden - then thought to visit LHS since it was nearby. We stepped onto the Lower Lawn (where the weddings are held), and the deal was sealed. This HAD to be our wedding location.
Emma, the event coordinator, was such a pleasure to work with. She was so accommodating, always responsive, let us know when she's be on vacation, and gave us plenty of information about preferred vendors, can/can'ts, and how to obtain a certificate of insurance (required to rent the venue).
We were able to use the lawn for our rehearsal the day before, stored a portable piano in a classroom overnight, had ample time to set-up, bathrooms were available to our guests (usually such a problem for outdoor weddings!), and the view is one of the best in the bay!
In additional, all of our guests got free admission to the museum, which was so much fun! After the ceremony, the bridal party went to the upper lawn to take fun portraits around the sundial!
Last, but not least, the venue was very affordable. LHS made our wedding so memorable, fun, with just the right amount of nerdiness! :)
This was a beautiful place to have a wedding. You honestly cannot beat the view from here. We looked all over Berkeley for a place that was available and was a large enough venue - and would be willing to only hold the ceremony here. As soon as we looked around, we knew this was the place for us and asked for a contract before we left.
Emma is the events coordinator at LHS and was a dear. She always had a cheery demeanor even though we were a little late in our meetings with her (which I felt horrible about - never misjudge the traffic on University Ave!). She was always quick to respond to our questions and e-mails which was much appreciated.
Weddings are actually held on the lower lawn outside of the building away from the main thoroughfare. I know my mom was a bit apprehensive about us having an outdoor wedding, but once she saw the site with a pine tree in the corner (so lucky!) and piece of a 1000 year old tree (1000 - even luckier for the Chinese!) she was sold.
Another thing that was awesome about LHS was that all our wedding guests were able to view all the exhibits for free that day which helped take care of the big time gap between our ceremony and reception! The one catch with an event here is that you have to take care of your own chair and table rental. I used a company off their list of past rental vendors and it turned out great.
After the wedding we had some fun going through LHS in our wedding clothes taking pictures. The Science Park and the view made for some beautiful photos. The special exhibit for the summer was "Engineer It" which couldn't have been scripted better for two engineers who went to Cal. :)
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