Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens

If having a unique wedding with one-of-a-kind photo opportunities sounds like your dream wedding, the Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens may be perfect for you. The lush setting made for amazing photos. We did our first look and bride/groom photos in the Asian Gardens, wedding party photos in the bamboo gardens, and opted for the extra photo ops with the penguins and at the carousel (absolutely worth it - these are some of our favorite photos!). We held our ceremony and reception at The Range of the Jaguar, and everything was gorgeous. We loved that this area has a fountain and string lights around all of the trees. We also opted for the giraffe feeding during cocktail hour, and the guests really enjoyed this. The zoo has its own catering company - Catering in the Wild - and we really enjoyed our buffet selections. We chose the rosemary and peach glazed pork loin and rustic mushroom chicken as our entrees and they were delicious. The zoo catering manager/event coordinator arranged for us to have a free tasting about a month before the wedding, so we could be confident with our selections. One small downside is that there is not a dedicated space at the zoo for the wedding party to get ready, but this was not a concern for me. We got ready off site and arrived at the zoo ready for the first look. Another tip is if dancing is important to you, we recommend renting a dance floor like we did. It was an extra expense, but worth it since otherwise we would have been dancing on cobblestone. Finally, if you choose the zoo as your vendor, you have to use the company that they are contracted with for bar services - Anthony's. We would have preferred to handle drinks ourselves separately, but it was not a big enough deterrent to make us want a different venue, and Anthony's did a great job, but they were pretty expensive, more than we ever expected to pay for drinks. Overall, depending on what your priorities are (and your budget), the zoo can be the perfect venue like it was for us!