Lakewold Gardens
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Address
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12317 Gravelly Lake Drive SW
Lakewood, WA
98499
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Phone
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(253) 584-4106
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Lakewold Gardens offers a tremendous visitor experience. The 10 acre garden estate is a haven of gardening delights, historical features, statuary, and architecture. The Wagner House is a beautiful Georgian-style mansion which is situated amidst the ten-acre gardens. The Gardens and House are available for weddings and company functions, including but not limited to: meetings, retreats, conferences, company parties, and banquets. Lakewold Gardens is registered as a historic site, both nationally and with the City of Lakewood, WA, and is recognized as one of the outstanding gardens in America.
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User rating: 
"Beautiful venue with many hidden costs"
Puyallup, Washington
November 1, 2009
Our daughter recently got married at Lakewold Gardens. The ceremony and reception was held there. The Lakewold Gardens estate is a beautiful, serene setting but there are a few things we didn't research that you need to know before booking a wedding there. Because the estate is in a residential area, parking is limited. If your event hosts more than 80 people, you are required to independently contract with a valet parking company to park cars for your event. Lakewold is upfront about this requirement and will not honor your reservation if you do not make arrangements with the valet company. What we didn't to know is the valet company charges per person, not per car. This head count is confirmed with you caterer so you don't get to fudge your numbers! The company we used were very professional and it is a really great service for your guests but it is expensive ( the company adds a mandatory 15% gratuity) The valet expense adds to the overall cost of your venue because if you have over 80 guests, you are required to provide the service. The other thing to consider is Lakewold Gardens cannot accomodate large events (large meaning 100 guests and over) without tenting. Tents are expensive. Tent canopies and pole wraps and patio heaters and sidewalls and tent lighting is all extra. Lakewold does not own their own tents nor do they arrange this for you; you are required to reserve and contract with an independent tenting company through your caterer. Lakewold Gardens like many venues have their own list of caterers you must choose from but they are all exceptional and reputable companies. Lakewold requires the caterers to manage and coordinate all of the contractual and financial affairs for the venue...we found this to be at times confusing because you never really knew who was in charge. Lastly and most importantly, you need to be aware of Lakewold Garden's time frame for your event. You are assigned a six hour "allottment" for your event. Because Lakewold Gardens is open to the public, your event has to be scheduled "after hours." Your six hours has to include your setup and decorating, your event, and your clean-up. All events need to be done by 10pm (no music after this time) and you must have the facility cleaned and you need to be out by 10:30pm. They are NOT flexible. Did I mention they are not flexible? With what we now know, we would have never had our event at Lakewold. We had an ambititous event design we planned for a year; we asked to purchase an hour before our 6 hour event time began so our vendors would have time to set up but the executive director denied our request. We then had to reserve rooms at a Tacoma hotel so our daughter and fiance and their bridal party had a place to get ready before the 5:30 ceremony time. More cost. The bridal party and families were not allowed on the Lakewold premises before 4pm..our photographer had exactly one hour for wedding photos. Vendors were frantically setting up as our guests arrived. Our event was just too ambitious for this venue; we had to hire many extra people to meet Lakewold's unforgiving time frame. If you are planning on a very small intimate summer wedding that doesn't require tenting and valet parking, this may be the venue for you. Hire your own event planner because Lakewold staff is there srictly to enforce the estate's rules and regulations as a non-profit public garden..they are not available to help you plan the details of your event. Because this is an historic site, there are many restrictions and rightfully so. If you have your heart set on a large wedding with elaborate event design, this is not the place for you. There are too many restictions and we found the staff very inflexible and distant. If you are set on choosing this venue, surround yourself with VERY reputable vendors who have experience working at Lakewold Gardens..only very accomplished vendors can withstand the extreme regulations required at this venue. When all was said and done, with what we spent on the venue, required valet parking, required tenting and hiring extra people to setup and cleanup within the six hour time frame, our venue expenses were outrageous...more that what we would have paid for a beautiful Seattle hotel venue . Do your homework because sometimes even reading the fineprint is not enough.
This is the subjective opinion of an independent reviewer and not of Decidio, Inc.
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