Massachusetts Horticultural Society

Jen Courtney, the Functions coordinator at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, was a joy to work with. Even when we were not yet "clients" in our early stages of wedding planning, Jen treated us kindly, with professionalism, and promptness. The venue itself is breathtaking - guests will enter off of Route 16 in Wellesley to a long, winding drive lined with Elm trees and finally arrive at the parking lot where they can walk to any number of places where your Ceremony and Reception take place. We had both our Ceremony and Reception there and it was extremely easy for our guests - as well as for me planning it! Booking with Elm Bank is costly - don't get me wrong - but it comes with a dedicated coordinator (Jen), who yearly updates a list of only the best (seriously, they have all brides audit the vendors each year and only the best make the 'cut' to the next year) vendors listed and available for working with you on your wedding. This means that you will have your choice (and a big choice - there are tons of options!) of caterers (the biggest influence on your day) that know Elm Bank, Jen, and have done many events at the venue in the past. this also includdes trusted limo/transporation vendors, florists, design/up-lighting vendors, DJs, and an online group of current and previous "Elm Bank Brides" who can give you insight as to what to do, etc. Our wedding was in October and we had beautiful foliage and didn't do anything in terms of flowers for our Ceremony (in the Italianate Garden). The Hunnewell Carriage house is the most charming place to hold a Reception; our guests "oooh'd" and "ahhhh'd" at the entire venue all night long and we are still receiving compliments for how nice it was and well it highlighted New England (since most of our guests were from California and Minnesota). All in all, Elm Bank is a fantastic wedding venue - especially if you want to have your Ceremony & Reception in the same location. Jen is a fantastic point of contact!

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society is a stunning place to hold your wedding and reception. My fiance and I are not religious people at this point in our lives and so decided we should have our wedding ceremony outdoors. We could not have picked a more perfect New England venue than Elm Bank! Our guests were shuttled from downtown Boston through picturesque Wellesley and into the Reservation - during beautiful fall foliage. The grounds are immaculately maintained and inviting. The functions staff, namely Jen Courtney, are great to work with - Jen is extremely responsible, responsive, and helpful with all things wedding planning. It also helps that Mass Hort keeps a list of trusted caterers and other vendors on hand, and they actually re-evaluate the vendors EACH YEAR to ensure that couples getting married at Elm Bank are getting set up for nothing but the best in terms of service. I loved that as a venue, I simply paid a fee to them and had a reliable and trustworthy point of contact through the process - from there, we basically got to do whatever we wanted! We hired our caterer, brought in our own alcohol, rentals, DJ, florist, you name it - they had a list of prior partners on hand for us, but ultimately we could have chose whomever we wanted. The only down side is that the cost is a bit much for "just" a venue (especially if you are going to be doing the Ceremony in a church, say, and the Reception at Elm Bank). However, the ambiance is so remarkable and memorable for your guests, and as a couple, you will be treated with utmost respect, attention, and professionalism that it made the cost burden a lot more bearable. You and your guests will have great memories of your event at Elm Bank!

I got married at Elm Bank this past Saturday. As we sit in the airport waiting for our honeymoon flight, I'm still marveling at how wonderfully the day went. Before, during, and after the event, Jen was a joy to work with. She was consistently responsive with all questions, large and small. I have been consistently impressed by the value - it's pretty impressive that all of the gardens plus the Hunnewell building were included in the rental! The grounds and property are very well-kept as well - everything looked organic yet immaculate the day of the wedding. I can't imagine having our wedding anywhere else!

My husband and I recently had our wedding at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and we cannot say enough great things about this venue. First, the grounds are absolutely beautiful and incredibly well kept. The gardens really have an elegant, yet whimsical feel to them, which we fell in love with. We had our ceremony in the gardens and our reception in the carriage house, which had a/c and really high ceilings, and looked modern and recently updated. There was also a really nice tent attached the carriage house, where we put our bar, and were able to set it up similar to a lounge. They were great about having us bring in vendors to decorate both the carriage house and tent just as we wanted it. The tent was also a great back up plan in case it did rain, but fortunately we were able to have the ceremony outside as we had planned.

Secondly, the Functions Manager, Jen, was absolutely wonderful to work with. She was super responsive, sweet, and very easy to get in touch with. Jen was very knowledgeable about many different vendors in the area. I always felt that she made it a priority to address any questions or requests we had in a timely manner. She went above and beyond to make things easy for us in terms of our planning!

The day of the wedding, there was a staff member there to assist. He was so helpful throughout the day between bringing older guests around from ceremony to reception in golf carts and different things that arose. He was willing to help with whatever we needed!

This was the perfect place for us to have our wedding! Our guests seemed to love it too! Throughout the wedding, our family and friends kept coming up to us and asking us how we found this place, telling us how much they loved it and how beautiful and unique it was. Our experience with this venue was amazing from start to finish! I would most definitley recommend the Massachusetts Horticultural Society!!

This site is a gorgeous place to have a wedding reception. We set up the Honneywell building, the tent attached, and the space right outside the Honneywell building in a lounge type of seating - with couches and Indian Khattlas everywhere. It was really picturesque.

Throughout the process of trying to pull this vision of a wedding off, the staff at MASS Hort - particularly Jenn Courtney - was phenomenal. Jenn is really accommodating and will try to do her best in helping you achieve your vision. On a number of occasions, she helped hook us up with the right vendors and even called them back to ensure everything was in order. This is not what typically venue vendors do, unless they are being paid. Jenn has a really respectful and humane way of dealing with you; and that's not often the case in this kind of business.

I would do a wedding at this venue a hundred times over.

We couldn't have been happier that we chose to have our wedding at Elm Bank! It is SUCH a special venue - our guests are still talking about how gorgeous and special it was! We were a little nervous that with 225 guests it would be a tight fit, but everything fit perfectly. We held the ceremony in the Italiante Garden and then seated guests in both the Carriage House and tent for the reception, with the band and dance floor right in the middle of the Carriage House. It didn't feel crowded at all - except, happily, on the dance floor! Elm Bank does take a little more effort and cost than a hotel or another full service venue because you do have to bring everything in - but it is 100% worth it to have such a special wedding! We also can't say enough about Jen Courtney - she was so organized and responsive and just such a pleasure to work with!

I can’t say enough wonderful things about Elm Bank and Jen Courtney! The venue speaks for itself…we wanted a very quintessential “New England in the Fall” location and Elm Bank certainly fit that bill. The ceremony could be basically anywhere on the grounds, and there were different options available due to the unpredictable nature of New England weather. Jen took accommodation and patience to a new level. There are so many unknowns and so many vendors to deal with for a wedding like ours (in a tent…in October) and Jen took the reins to ensure everything went smoothly leading up to, during, and after the wedding weekend. Our wedding was sandwiched in between a weekend of torrential downpours and a (very) early snow storm and they made all efforts to make sure there was no mud or dirt or leaves near the spaces we were using. Jen allowed us to bring items the day before the wedding to store on-site and leave them there until the day after the wedding. Everything she, and the staff, did to help made a tented wedding for 200 people seem manageable!

We just had our daughter's wedding at Elm Bank and there aren't enough superlatives to describe what a beautiful site this is to hold a wedding. From our first visit to the wedding weekend, the functions manager responded to all of our questions and followed up in a timely manner. We had a fall wedding and the grounds were a glorious backdrop to our outdoor ceremony. We had a large tent in the Maple Grove which was the perfect site for the vision my daughter had for her wedding. However, I have been to Elm Bank during every season and the grounds are always beautiful. There is ample parking and it is easy to find from anywhere in the Boston vicinity. We had out-of-town guests at two nearby hotels.

Elm Bank is a beautiful landscape of gardens, flowers, plants and green space right in the middle of Wellesley, MA. Jen Courtney worked with me as the contact person; she was awesome, always quick to answer my questions and get back to me with details and info. It is a beautiful setting and they are very flexible with how you use all the space. lots of parking, lots of room, convenient to nearby hotels, access for handicapped people, and a great staff who took care of everything. Amazing place for a wedding!

Great venue with lots of options! Perfect for any size wedding from 50 people to 200. Jen Courtney is the event coordinator and was wonderful - super helpful and responsive - always willing to help out and be creative. All of my guests raved about the venue and how wonderful everything was - we used the Italianate garden for our ceremony, the children's garden for cocktails and the carriage house for dinner and dancing. Just a great venue with lots of history and charm.

We were so happy to have our daughter's wedding ceremony and reception at Elm Bank on Sept. 4th. It really was the most beautiful, perfect place to host a wedding, and was exactly what we wanted, after looking at 15 possible wedding venues. We were also lucky with the weather, which was also perfect for the outdoor ceremony and cocktail hour. We loved the variety that Elm Bank offered - ceremony in the Italianate Garden, cocktails and appetizers in Weezers Garden, dinner and speeches in the Carriage House, and dancing, dessert and bar in the tent. It worked so well to have the band, DJ and dancing in the tent, which is attached and open to the Carriage House. That way, people could back and forth between the two spaces, for either quiet conversation or loud music and dancing.
Jen Courtney at Elm Bank was a pleasure to work with from beginning to end. She dealt with all our questions and concerns in a most timely manner, and was happy to go along with our requests and suggestions. We had a few tense moments with Hurricane Irene, which hit Elm Bank exactly one week before the wedding, and knocked the power our for a number of days. However their staff and volunteers were on hand to do a major cleanup of the grounds and everything was beautiful for the day of the wedding. The staff were accommodating as well, staying a little later than anticipated when we had a delay with our shuttle bus. Someone even offered to open the Carriage House up the next day, so we could return to pick up a number of items, so we wouldn't have to take everything directly after the wedding.
I agree with the other reviewers that the Carriage House building does need to some decorating, and additional lighting to create the look you want, but it was easy to do with flowers, candles, colorful table settings, and of course, enhanced lighting and swags hung from the ceiling. Also there are a number of additional costs on top of the standard rental fee, so we suggest asking about these so you know what you're getting into.
All in all, however, I would totally recommend Elm Bank as the perfect spot for an indoor/outdoor wedding!

We loved having our wedding at the Mass Horticultural Society. We got married in July and the gardens looked SO pretty and well maintained. Everyone that attended our wedding couldn't stop talking about how beautiful it was. We used the carriage house with the tent on the back and had the cocktail hour in the gardens. Worked out perfectly! I was afraid of rain and wanted to have a venue that provided a rain back up plan and Elm Bank was perfect! We did not have to worry about rain, but it was nice to have the AC in the carriage house on that hot day. Jen was great to work with. She was very responsive and knowledgeable when ever I had a question or concern. She went above and beyond to meet my parents the morning of the wedding to get the flowers that were being delivered. It was very nice to work with someone who I had full confidence in and I knew that she would make sure everything went smoothly the day our our wedding. I would highly recommend Jen and this venue to anyone looking for a garden wedding!!

Elm Bank at the MA Horticultural Society was an absolutely beautiful place to get married. Lovely locations for pictures, ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. Jennifer was fantastic to work with, always responding quickly and very helpful. She put us in touch with the other couple getting married that weekend and we were able to share some of the costs (dance floor, chairs, decorations). Also, we had a pretty good plan B in case of rain, which was key for our outdoor ceremony & cocktail hour. Initially I was a little concerned about dinner in the building and dancing in the attached tent, but it actually flowed together very well and there was plenty of room for our 150 guests. Downsides - guests have to drive or be driven there. Also, our initial caterer wasn't on the preferred list, so we had to change caterers. Overall these were small things and didn't detract from our wedding day. If Elm Bank is in your budget, definitely check it out.

We had our wedding at Elm Bank. The cocktail hour was outside in the gardens and the reception was inside the Hunnewell Building. We received so many compliments for having it at such a unique and beautiful location. The grounds were incredibly well kept up, and we could not have been happier with our decision. It made for some gorgeous photos! The staff was also incredibly helpful and such a joy to work with!

Jen Courtney is amazing to work with. Not exactly a bargain when you factor in needing lighting/flowers/dance floor, etc, but a gorgeous venue and couldn't ask for more professional service with Jen.

Elm Bank is an amazing venue- close to Boston, yet unique and fun. The gardens are gorgeous, the function manager Jen is great to work with and really helpful, and there is a lot that a bride can do to add her own personality and details into the event space there. We had an incredible wedding at Elm Bank, and wouldnt change a thing!

The grounds and buildings at Elm Bank are absolutely stunning, private, and have a very New England feel. Our wedding took place on a perfect fall day and it could not have been more beautiful. Our ceremony was in the Italianate garden and the reception for 210 people was inside the carriage house and its attached tent. We held the cocktail hour on the patio in front of the carriage house. The carriage house is a blank slate inside and you are able to create whatever feel you want - it really is a magical place! Jen, the event coordinator, was an absolute pleasure to work with, very responsive, and answered many questions and worked with several vendors for us. The on-site staff the day of our wedding were courteous and professional. You have the whole reservation to yourself and all day, which makes for a relaxing, private, and fun evening for you and your guests. The only downers for us were that we were unable to use school buses or 50 passenger charter buses to shuttle our guests to and from the wedding because they are too heavy for the bridge that you take into the reservation (we rented several 30 passenger buses instead) and the day of our wedding one of the lights on the outside of the carriage house was out, which I didn't notice until I saw our pictures (very minor of course). All in all, I could not have imagined how perfect our wedding turned out and I would say the setting had a lot to do with that.

When I was looking for a reception venue, I wanted something more personal than a hotel or a run-of-the-mill function space. MassHort, with its beautiful, expansive gardens, stately carriage house and convenient location relative to Boston and the suburbs, fit the bill perfectly. I fell in love with the look of the place, but the service is what made the experience so wonderful. Jen Courtney, the events manager, was solicitous, thoughtful and above all always available to answer questions, assuage concerns etc. So many of our guests commented on how stunning MassHort was, and what a nice departure it was from your typical reception site. I would recommend MassHort to any bride.

As the mother of the bride and my own wedding coordinator, it was very important that I could rely of there being no last-minute difficulties -- because it would be very hard to deal with them personally. Based on my meetings and interaction with Mass Hort manager Jen Courtney, I was entirely confident that all would go well, and it did. Everything we had agreed to was done as requested, and I would happily recommend Elm Bank to another family. This review gave a "4" not "5" on Value only because the rental was, in fact, quite costly. For our family, however, the beauty of the place and the pleasure of our guests in being there made this a worthwhile investment.

This was our dream venue. We had an amazing time and the gardens were beautiful. It is expensive, and the cost is mainly for the basics (not including the dance floor or nice chairs). We had good luck with pairing up with the wedding that was scheduled for the next day, and shared the costs of extra lighting. Overall, it was a great place to have our reception!!

Elm Bank was not only an exquisite venue for our wedding, but the staff were a pleasure to work with and accommodating in every way! We recommend 100%!!!

We LOVED it! Thank you for everything!

Elm Bank was a fantastic venue! The well manicured grounds were a major selling point. The venue has multiple spaces so you can create several different looks for your cocktail hour, dinner, and dancing! Jen was a huge help and was very accomodating of all my requests. I Highly recommend Elm Bank!

I used to play soccer at Elm Bank, so when my parents suggested I get married there I was skeptical. But, when I went back and looked, I knew it was the place for our wedding.

It is a little expensive, but the grounds are well worth the cost. The gardens are absolutely gorgeous. It really is the best of both worlds, since you can have very distinct places for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. Each venue is equally as beautiful as the next.

From the first meeting with Nancy (who is no longer there) and the tour of the grounds, I knew this was where I would get married. The flowers, gardens, layout, flexibility - it was all a perfect match!

On the day of my wedding, there were some worries that it would rain and due to the rain on the day before the wedding and finiky new england weather, some of the flowers on where I wanted to get married had died and Masshort was MORE THAN FLEXIBLE to move the ceremony to trial grounds which proved to be extremely intimate and beautiful.

I ended up hiring a wedding planner because I don't do well with a blank canvas - especially since Hunnewell building is exactly that - a blank canvas - if you are creative and want a blank canvas, this is the place for you!

My wife and I are so glad that we came upon Elm Bank at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society when researching potential wedding venues. It was a true gem that we did not realize was only 20 minutes from our door! Our wedding this past June at MassHort was absolutely wonderful. We held our ceremony in the Italianate Garden, our cocktail hour in Weezy's Garden, and the reception in the Hunnewell Building. We couldn't have asked for a better location! The grounds were immaculate and our guests were very impressed with the reception facility. I would highly recommend Elm Bank at MassHort for your wedding!

A special thanks to coordinator Nancy Sitta for facilitating everything at the location and making sure the event went off without a hitch!

Steve & Shana Siegmund

We had our cocktail hour in the beautiful gardens (great backdrop for a ceremony as well), dinner was in the carriage house and dancing and dessert in the tent! It was so fun to have use of all the different spaces and made for a unique wedding! And the pictures are stunning!

Mass Horticultural Society's Elm Bank Reservation is a stunning venue to host your wedding at! Not only are the gardens breathtaking, but the Hunnewell Building and tent are fantastic. We have catered many weddings at Elm Bank, and each one was unique! The "blank canvas" that the tent and carriage house present will make any color scheme or decor theme work! The large windows and doors help to bring the outside in, and make photos unforgettable. Working with Jen Courtney is a joy, any bride would be lucky to have her wedding at Elm Bank!

Elm Bank is a charming and absolutely memorable location for both your ceremony and reception with
Oh ! So many options.
You can't beat the choices for photography, ceremony with an ever evolving visual display of flora & fauna. Surely a top choice for lovers of the fresh outdoors who seek to avoid the "ballroom" experience.

I recommend the services of Massachusetts Horticultural Society to make your Wedding Day that very special day you always wanted,that will be remembered and cherished by you and all your guests for many years to come. ~~ Angela Neik, www.calligraphybyangela.com Dallas Calligrapher

Elm Bank is an oasis that is hidden away from busy Wellesley. It has that European garden design, much like Versailles. Discover this one of a kind venue.