Memory Garden

Stunning venue! They’ve changed the staff-​Eugene was PHENOMENAL and incredibly helpful throughout the entire wedding planning process.
We had our wedding reception here and everything was just perfect.

Perfect as a wedding venue, but can be an issue for those with limited access. Private events remain private with closed gates but if you are unfamiliar with the place, finding the entrance to your event after it starts can be difficult. State park run, they do an excellent job keeping the brick and sand free of debris and animal feces. The gardens are lovely during most of the peak event season. Use their recommended event planners-​they know the place well and create magic with speed and class without killing your budget.

I attended a beautiful wedding here recently and it was gorgeous. They have a beautiful fountain with koi fish and beautiful trees. Our group is a pretty rowdy one and the staff had a great sense of humor. The walls did a pretty good job of blocking wind. There are a few surrounding businesses, none of which seemed bothered by our rambunctious group. There is a hookah bar across the «alley» that is open late for party guests that want to continue the party after the reception is over.

Beautiful site! Very nice location. BUT… caution to all brides
Be prepared to navigate the State Park system management and document every encounter with the office staff. My daughter tried for months to obtain the proper paper work and fees unsuccessfully and was treated rudely by office staff for their mistakes.
When my daughter took a caterer out to view site, because it was not one of the few overpriced caterer favorites of the office staff, the caterer was also treated by staff with distain and disrespect.
The whole experience was so stressfully we decided not to chance a potential horrendous wedding day event and cancelled. My daughter sent a very nice email letting the office staff know, which was met with a par for the course snarky rely.
Too bad, with the condition of the state parks budgets and recent political issues one would think that all state parks would be eager to show some kind of customer service, but not here.

I photographed a wedding here and loved it! It’s a beautiful space and it’s considered a state park, so it’s not too expensive to rent!
There is a large space that the ceremony takes place in. It is switched out during the cocktail hour and doubles as the dinner area as well.
My only complaint is that the tree shade could be better! There was lots of dappled light on the B&G during the ceremony!

Got married here, I love it. It’s affordable as far as wedding venues in Monterey bay go and it’s lovely. HOWEVER, its is run by the State of CA which means they will take every opportunity to add hidden fees and charge you extras, and the catering companies will not tell you.
I was also annoyed with the Monitor, Maurice, that told us we could leave and everything was wrapped up then charged us 2 hours of over time and of course you can’t do anything about it. Also he was rather intrusive in our ceremony, talking to guests and even talking to me when I was trying to visit with my guests not him.
If you’re getting married in the summer ie June and July have a back up for rain, caters can help you with this if they are a reliable company. We got married in September when it typically doesn’t rain and it did, but Grapes of Wrath made it work and the rain passed we started late and the garden is perfect.

I just got married at this venue, and honestly, it was fantastic. Like other reviewers have mentioned, you get nothing but the venue space when you pay for it, with a few other perks–
1) The park ranger will be onsite most of the time in order to lock doors, assist vendors in finding power outlets, and to facilitate the drop off and pick up of supplies directly to the venue. This was not something we planned on, and it was nice to see.
2) The venue is extremely cut-​off from the noise of the outside world. Aside from the occasional jet flying overhead, we heard no sirens, no traffic, and no rowdy groups of people going by during the ceremony.
That’s really about it in terms of perks. The flowers were amazing and add an element of elegance to the whole thing. Overall I would highly recommend the venue to anyone else.
One word of warning– the summer weekends book FAST there, so if you’re thinking about summer wedding, pull the trigger quickly when you’ve chosen a date, and have a couple backup dates in mind.

I came here for a friends wedding in June. It was beautiful. The flowers in the gardens made for great backgrounds for their photographs as well. Also a decent amount of room in the gardens so you can have a good amount of guests. Would definitely recommend it for anyone considering having an even in Monterey.

Came here for a wedding over the weekend. What a beautiful spot. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a venue for a wedding or banquet.
Parking is great too with a reasonably priced garage very close by. Its also within walking distance of the wharf if you feel like getting a seafood fix.
Nice flowers and fountain, enclosed area.

The Memory Garden is a beautiful venue, especially when all of the flowers are blooming. I was a guest at a recent wedding, and very impressed by the location.
It’s tucked away from major foot traffic, so your private event remains fairly private. I understand that the regulations are not very strict; you can choose your own caterer and bring your own alcohol.
There are a lot of great places to take pictures, but understand that photography is a bit tricky on a sunny day. There are a lot of places that become sun-​dappled, so expect some interesting shadows in your photos or be aware of this issue and plan accordingly.

Wow, 2 hundo, 2 hunny, 200^th review on Unilocal.I thought I would be way over this by now, but I figure 200 deep, I’m in it for the long run. 200 is for my favorite cousins wedding venue.
My first impression of Memory garden was at the wedding rehearsal. To be honest, I wasn’t so impressed. It was a garden, and the space was nice, but I just wasn’t wowed. What I forget about wedding venue’s is, the magic doesn’t happen until everything starts filling up. The tables, the flowers, the plates, glasses, and of course all the beautiful people.
The very next evening when we arrived for the wedding, the venue was transformed. The garden came to life. The caterers were doing a great job setting up the area for the ceremony along with the tables for the reception. Memory garden makes for a gorgeous outdoor wedding. The lighting in the trees is a great touch once the sun goes down as well. The garden is enclosed from four sides, so although you are located in bustling downtown Monterey, the atmosphere is private and personal.
One thing to note is, Monterey is Monterey. The weather is unpredictable and really warm afternoons and evenings are few and far between, so plan accordingly. The venue did do a great job at providing heat lamps to warm up the area. All in all a beautiful and unique venue.

Review #200 is for my wedding venue.
Beautiful. Memory Garden is located right in the middle of historic downtown Monterey and it’s just such a great outdoor venue. It’s got tons of flowers and plants already so you can save a bit if $$ on that. It’s a fairly large sized area inside the garden itself, able to seat the maximum occupancy of 180 very comfortably.
Not only is it great inside the garden, but there are so many other wonderful places to take pictures and such right in the surrounding area. Nique and I are very outdoorsy people and we wanted to have both the ceremony as well as the reception outdoor, so this venue was perfect for us. The old fisherman’s wharf is not more than a 5 min walk away and is packed with tons of free samples of delicious clam chowder.
Memory Garden is really affordable, we ended up paying under $ 2,000 for the rental for 12 hours, including the monitor, the insurance, and the $ 500 refundable deposit. After searching around for outdoor venues, that was one of the best deals for a place as nice as this.
The single best piece of advice that i can give is go with the Grapes of Wrath as a caterer if you are thinking of doing your wedding here, they have experience doing weddings and receptions at this location so they know their stuff. For more on that, see my review of the Grapes of Wrath.
Memory Garden is simply an amazing place to have a wedding. Our wedding was amazing and i am so happy that we chose MG. In retrospect, the only thing that was stressful about this venue was waiting to see what the weather would be like. Fortunately for us, the weather was great with the exception of about an hour of some pretty strong wind.

Looked at Memory Garden as a possible Wedding venue in Monterey. You can find extensive information on this place on the Here Comes the Guide wedding site, but it’s kind of confusing. The «main caterer» for this venue put up the venue on Here Comes the Guide site, but are pretty clear that they are not the owners or the exclusive caterer. So here is the lowdown.
The venue itself is part of the Monterey State Historic Park at the Custom House Plaza in Monterey. It’s an enclosed garden area with 8 foot high adobe walls so it is private from the public. It is attached to the «Custom House?» but you do not have access to the house itself. You are only renting the «garden» area. It is completely outdoors and capacity is about 500 persons, though we talked to the caterer that was setting up that day and they mentioned that 250 – 300 is about the max if you plan on mingling areas, dance floor, etc.
The garden itself is owned and operated by the California State Parks, so you pay a nominal rental fee of $ 750 for first 4 hours and $ 125 for every hour after. You must pay for a monitor (state park ranger) $ 30 per hour & a peace officer $ 50 per hour too.
Pros:
1) Nominal fees for a large capacity venue and beautiful old adobe outdoor setting w/​fountain huge magnolia trees, flowers etc.
2) No catering or alcohol restrictions: hire your own, BYOB (though be aware if you in the DIY category liability insurance & alcohol permits are required… usually a good caterer will help you with that).
3) Huge 5X16 BBQ available for cooking.
4)It’s really like having a destination wedding… Monterey for heaven sake!!!
Cons:
1) You are just renting the venue. They provide virtually nothing else… tables, chairs, dance floor, EVERYTHING needs to be rented and brought in!
2) Limited dressing area (though many hotel steps away), electrical and after dark lighting… but the little lights in the magnolias are lovely!
3) Parking not provided, though plenty of paid parking all around the area.
4) Kind of confusing to find venue for guests… maps, directions and parking info would be a MUST.
Overall I really loved this venue… but there seemed to be such limited info on it. I did some random Google searching just on name as a wedding venue and saw a couple of great wedding sites that couples had set up with information for their guests. The biggest deal for me about this venue is the no restrictions on caterer and alcohol. Most State parks are strictly beer and wine only, which ruled many of those venues out for me. Being able to bring your own bar/​bartenders could cut costs considerably. Also having the option to utilize the caterer that you want can be another big cost savings. FYI, main caterer «Grapes of Wrath» looks like it has a pretty good alcohol policy. You can BYOB and hire their staff to serve it. I will say since they seem to do a lot of business at Memory Garden they seem to know the venue inside and out… so they really know what to bring, what will work seating and set up wise. They were actually setting for a 200 person wedding when we went by to see the site. I would feel pretty confident utilizing their services, but if you have a fair number of people that are willing to help you coordinate things and help out you might be able to have a lower cost DIY wedding there. I’m considering it… and would love to hear from anyone that has done a wedding or been to a wedding there.