Garden House

When we were in the process of choosing a location for our wedding reception, in addition to wanting a place that was comfortable, visually appealing and a bit unique, my husband and I needed to know that the venue was well-​managed. I’m (surprise!) fairly Type-​A, and professionalism and communication is very important to me. Jilian, the Garden House’s wedding coordinator, was excellent. She was down-​to-​earth and funny, and the planning process went smoothly with her help. Our day-​of coordinator (whose name I have unfortunately forgotten) was also very sweet and helpful.
The space itself is beautiful. I could offer an inadequate description, but if you’re in the market for a reception venue, you’ll want to check it out for yourself anyway!

This is where we had our wedding last month! Originally, the ceremony was supposed to be outdoors in the park, but we were rained out at the last minute. Thankfully, our preferred backup plan worked wonderfully.
Usually, during the warmer season, if you get rained out, your back up is the tent that is attached to the Garden House. There’s no polite way to say this: tent is not pretty. We did not want to use the tent. When we first saw the Garden House, we knew we wanted our back up to be in front of the fireplace with the guests all at their tables. That’s what happened and it was perfect!
We booked the Garden House a year and a half before our wedding. When we met with Jill, she was nice, but sort of distant. We didn’t make a personal connection with her, but we connected with Look Park and the Garden House right away, so we booked it.
When we returned for a visit this past summer, we met with Jill to go over some details and it was like she was a different person! Warm and personable and she even seemed excited for us! Maybe she’s got a «sales» persona when she’s showing the place because most people don’t book??? Who knows? But the bottom line was that she was great to work with. On the day of the wedding, our on-​site contact was Mari who was very calm and also great to work with.
One thing we liked about the Garden House was that it’s a non-​profit. They fees we paid go directly to the Park, which is nice. The prices aren’t bad– they’re not rock-​bottom, but you can get a break if you’re a Northampton resident or you choose to have your wedding on an off-​day or off-​season. The Park is a beautiful place for pictures as well. They ahve a list of caterers you must choose from or pay a small fee. We liked this as it gave us some guidance– we are in the Boston area and know nothing about the caterers in Western MA. This at least narrowed our search!
I would highly recommend getting married or having an event at the Garden House!