Cleveland Metro Parks Zoo Reception???

sarahr2012

Has anyone had their reception at the Cleveland Zoo?? I'm just beginning my wedding planning ( with a tentative date of October 5, 2012). We're looking for reasonably priced with both catering and reception. From what I've seen on their site, it's 1200 rental fee, but nothing on food and alcohol (other than no outside caterers).

JKohio

We looked into them, but discounted them quickly. They were above our budget. It would have been super-cool though. It's been so long that I don't remember pricing. Hopefully, someone with more recent experience will chime in. FWIW, our budget for the whole wedding shebang was $15k, with about half of that for reception-related stuff.

031107

I will be attending a wedding their in July in the Primate Cat area.  I have no clue what the cost, but I am sure it will be one of the coolest weddings I have been to.

Megaphone2752

Our wedding is going to be there on July 9th! We're really excited about it! The staff as been awesome to work with! We moved away from Cleveland in July, but they let us do our food tasting and everything before we left. They are also very quick to respond to e-mails and it's been a really great experience so far.
 It is $1,200 to rent the Primate, Cat, and Aquatic building for the night. Cocktail hour is in the aquarium part of the building beginning at 7:30pm after the zoo closes. We're having a seated dinner which runs about $25 a plate. The bar is pretty pricey. It's $16.00/person for the first two hours and then $4/hour for each additional hour. We're going to do a total of three hours for $20/person and have it close during dinner to save a little bit.
I would highly recommend going to take a tour and talking to the staff! They'll be able to get you a specifc estimate right away. Good luck!

ixisarahixi07

Thanks. I plan on checking it out

feadorr1

Here is the link to their catering website, prices are included in the pdf:

http://www.clemetzoo.com/visit/groups/catering_aramark.asp

I know I'm having my wedding reception at the RainForest in Dec 2012, and yes it is pricer than your "typical" hall or banquet center, but you can't beat being surround by the animals and plants during dinner and dancing!  In my mind, you pay for what you get.

Hope the link helps!

ixisarahixi07

Thanks that is definitely going to help!

PolarBearFans

My husband and I really wanted that location but it was out of our budget with the rental fee on top of the food and beverage and if I remember correctly there was a minimum too that was not supported by our small wedding plans. Our budget was $10,000 for everything except photographer. We are from Columbus so we had to factor in a longer hotel stay. We ended up at House of Blues downtown so we still got the unique wedding but within our budget. The room we used only holds about 100 people for a seated dinner so not for everyone but fit our 80 person guestlist perfectly. We stayed at the hyatt across the street in the old arcade. If you contact the zoo they will send you their price lists and packages. I think it will be an amazing location.