Garden at theYbor City Museum State Park

This venue is gorgeous! I recently held my wedding ceremony and reception here. I had about 125 guests and still had plenty of space. It is a great bargain, but it does not come with tables or chairs. You still have to pay extra to rent theirs or find your own venue (which is what I did). I also rented a tent because there is no covering over the area. On my wedding day it was pretty windy, so the tent kept the guests from getting leaves in their food.
The venue is somewhat limited time wise because they do not allow events to start until 5:00 pm. Book in advance! No Saturdays were available even though it was about a year before my wedding day.
The park rangers are super helpful and accommodating. They answered all my questions and helped me with anything I needed.
I marked of half a star because since it is a public park, you have to collect your own trash and dispose of it. They no longer have dumpsters that you can use, but I was able to know about it ahead of time so I could prepare.
Overall, this is a lovely venue that is a good price, but you have to plan ahead and prepare for the rules and restrictions they have, since it is a public park.

The garden is absolutely beautiful! We had our wedding here and had an amazing time! My only complaint would be dealing with the staff. It can be difficult to get responses in a timely manner. There is a high turnover of coordinators and you can tell details and information get lost. I was told to provide my own garbage bags and garbage could be disposed of in specific trash containers on the garden’s property. The day of my wedding Regina Ervin told my coordinator we could not dispose of the garbage there. We ended up having to bag all the garbage and put it on a U-haul until my husband and I could take it to the dump to dispose of. After my honeymoon I called the garden to confirm that was indeed the process. Regina thought it was the process however the Ranger confirmed that garbage could be disposed of there. So on my wedding night I had to figure out how to get rid of nasty garbage because of Regina’s incorrect information. This seems to be a pattern and it seems as if the garden coordinators can’t communicate or coordinate things with the Rangers for things to work smoothly. This error was clearly Regina’s fault and did very little to rectify the problem. I had to demand that she just do the right thing as I felt I should be compensated in some way for having to dispose of the garbage when that should have been included in the rental fee. When I asked about my deposit being returned, Regina couldn’t even find anything to show that I had paid the deposit in 2011. I had to dig through my records and provide copies of the money order since the garden did not have this information on file. As per my contract, it states deposits will be returned within 2-3 weeks after the event. When I asked Regina about this she told me 4-6 weeks is their policy. That may be the new policy but my contract was never amended to note this change and my contract is the one that is in place that states 2-3 weeks. She wanted to argue with me over this and give me the run around…as of no

We have nothing but good things to say about this venue! It was exactly what we were looking for when we considered having a wedding - a ceremony, cocktail hour and reception space all in one! Gena was a pleasure to work with and made everything so easy by always promptly answering emails and phone calls. The only thing is that since they do try to maintain the grounds there are some restrictions as far as what can be done at your event and also the time limit the night of the event. However, this was all minimal compared to how wonderful it was to have it there. We had many out of town guests who raved about the Old Tampa charm that the venue had! Truly a great choice!

We were thrilled to find this great park and appreciated the value. But the communication among staff here is bad. Trying to get ahold of them was hard:"She doesn't work past noon" and "She doesn't work xxxdays." No messages relayed. So it was hard to get our few questions answered. They told us we could rehearse at a certain time the morning of our wedding. We showed up to rehearse, and the park was filled with a yoga class. Not a huge deal, but we had to push the whole day fwd an hour. It's like the staff just doesn't communicate with each other. Getting our deposit back was challenging. We called to ask about it 6 weeks after our wedding. Finally got someone on the phone and were told that 2 months is normal (fine). We gave them our new address in the same conversation. Our address change was NEVER passed on--typical. The check finally arrived (thankful for USPS fwding), & they'd docked us an extra $80, no explanation or itemized list. We'd followed the rules of the venue contract religiously & worked closely with the ranger that night. He'd given us the thumbs-up in the end. So why the withholding? Turns out our caterer (who was great) must have accidentally grabbed two Garden coolers, so we were charged. No one EVER called us or sent written reason. They just docked us money for coolers we don't have + waited nearly 2 months to send the deposit. (WHY did they have coolers outside during our wedding?) So we can't figure out what happened because it was so long ago. And learning why we were charged took days of phone tag, as usual. They don't care that they sent the check to our old place in Tampa, when we live in DC. They don't care that they charged us money without giving a reason until we pestered them to find out. They just don't care. I wish I could rave about this place, but I don't like how they do business once you've committed to them. Fortunately, my wedding was perfect, so I choose to focus on that part and not let this poor service ruin a memory :)

Beautiful location, dont need a licenses for anything or license and insured workers so we were able to save lots of money!

Absolutely beautiful, and a joy to work with.

Absolutely beautiful venue at a great price. Everyone is really nice to work with and helps with any questions you have. I loved the look of the venue as well.

I couldn't recommend this venue more. Bryan Jeffers of the Museum Society answered every question I had in a very timely manner. The rental price was extremely reasonable, especially considering it came with tables and chairs.

There are some restrictions for decorations in order to preserve the gardens (they're historic), but Alex, one of the Park Rangers with whom I spoke frequently, was always very helpful and nice answering every question I had and making suggestions for how I could get the look I was going for without breaking their rules.

I got so many compliments on how beautiful the gardens were, especially at night. You do have to be out of there by 11:59, so if you wanted to party later than that then you'd have to look somewhere else. On the plus side, since it's in Ybor, there aren't really noise restrictions.

We chose Ybor Museum Garden for both our ceremony and reception because the combination of location, ambiance and cost are unbeatable! I can't say enough about Brian, who in charge of the garden rentals. He was always readily available to answer my questions, as were the amazing park rangers who are in charge of the garden's care. The oak trees were in full bloom a week before our wedding and I was concerned the yellow pollen pods would be everywhere...covering the charming brick, clogging the beautiful fountain... but the day of our wedding the place was "sparkling". I highly recommend the garden at Ybor Museum, if you are looking for an outdoor venue in the Tampa area.

The cost is not much, but can add up when you are adding a second venue cost for the reception. Still - well worth it! I had always envisioned a garden wedding and luckily mother nature was in my corner. the Rangers at the part have been wonderful about letting me in to plan, measure, photograph and ask questions throughout the months leading up to the wedding. They take pride in that garden and they do everything in their power to make it perfect for your wedding day. It just felt like a beautiful, friendly and happy place. Plus, it has a ton of history. I only dealt with the Museum Society (Bryan Jeffers) a few times via email mostly, but he was always very responsive and informative. Most of my communication was with the park Rangers. If you want an outdoor space that is not tropical or beachy, I strongly suggest it. It look s like a wonderful place to ahve your reception too if it's the right time of the year.

We held our wedding reception at the garden of the Ybor City Museum. The price was great - you have to handle everything yourself, but it was worth the effort. The space is magical! We received so many compliments on how beautiful the garden was and how unique it was (we had tons of candles lit, which added to the beauty, too!). Check out this little hidden gem!

We an outdoor ceremony here followed by an indoor reception down the road at the Don Vicente. The garden is very cute, we used the half closest to the museum so the fountain was behind the officiant, and the bridal party entered through the gate at the street. The garden provides basic white plastic chairs. There is a covered wooden bandstand in one corner for use if the reception is being held there as well.

The ceremony was in June, and we rented a tent through our planner at the last minute as it had been raining all week. It didn't rain that evening but I'm glad we had the tent anyway as it provided shade for the guests.

This is a really cute little garden located in the ybor historic district.
The rental price and everything added together is less than $750.
We had a buffet style reception there.
They have a little kitchen.
The staff over there are helpful and nice.
This is a wonderful location for outdoor cozy wedding style.