My husband and I got married at Hoyt Arboretum Stevens Pavilion and I wanted to share our experience to help those thinking about having a wedding at Hoyt Arboretum as well.
Also, it’s already been 4 years (!!) since our wedding! Has anyone found a way to slow down time yet? Asking for a friend.
Hoyt Arboretum Steven’s Pavilion Wedding
Where is Steven’s Pavilion?
Steven’s Pavilion is located within Hoyt Arboretum, the area is about 2 miles from downtown Portland. Hoyt Arboretum is very popular for hiking, so you’ll often see folks in the area.
Here’s a map of the area. As you can see, there’s about 40 parking spaces.
How to reserve Steven’s Pavilion for a wedding
You can book your wedding reservation online, by calling 503-823-2525 or by visiting the Parks & Recreation office in person at 1120 SW 5th Ave.
When booking a wedding at Hoyt Arboretum, you will choose between three areas:
- Stevens Pavilion, also known as the Picnic Shelter (our choice)
- Wedding Meadow
- Redwood Deck
Stevens Pavilion Rental Cost & Details
Our rental included all-day exclusive access to Stevens Pavilion, the small meadow behind the pavilion (where we exchanged vows) and ten picnic tables. Outlets were provided as well.
The cost of renting Stevens Pavilion for one full weekend day (8am to 9pm) is:
- May through October $596
- November through April $300
Upon reservation, you must pay a nonrefundable application fee (around $120) and a refundable deposit of $250.
There’s an optional refundable key deposit of $100 as well. The key deposit provides access to the electrical outlets at Stevens Pavilion. We took advantage of the key deposit because we plugged in string lights. When the key was returned, we received our full refund without any problem.
Stevens Pavilion can host 100 guests and is ADA accessible. A restroom with running water is available just across the street at the visitor’s center.
Atmosphere of Stevens Pavilion
Rustic and cozy. We didn’t take enough photos during our wedding because we didn’t hire a professional photographer (sorry about the iPhone photos!).
With that said, the one adjective our guests used most often was “rustic.”
My mother and aunt decorated the arboretum with vintage lace and white cotton table cloths. If this were a Disney movie, I’d be the nature princess focused on staying within budget. The woodsy feel of Stevens Pavilion fit the bill!
Tip to the wise: Costco’s deals on flowers is hard to beat. Really hard. I paid $250 for flowers and had enough for 12 table bouquets plus bouquets for two bridesmaids and myself.
Wedding Seating at Steven’s Pavilion
We decided to go with white seats for our aesthetic. I’ve seen folks do benches and make that look great as well so whichever you decide will probably be fine.
Our concern with the benches is that the ground is somewhat uneven in the meadow so chairs seemed logistically easier and the white against the green meadow looked nice.
Food catering at Hoyt Arboretum
We opted not to hire a caterer because we wanted to keep things as simple as possible.
In an effort to keep our wedding intimate and low key, we decided to create a large charcuterie board for our guests. And it worked really well for us!
But if you’re more inclined to feed your crew – go for it! Heck, go all out and get a food truck. What’s more Portlandesque than that?
If you plan to hire a caterer or food truck, it’s important to note that onsite sales to guests are prohibited.
Essentially, the host is expected to pay for the caterer and meals. I suggest calling Portland Parks & Recreation if you plan to hire a food truck for all the details!
Serving alcohol at Hoyt Arboretum
We served bottled beer and wine at our wedding. We had to purchase alcohol insurance ($100 through Parks and Recreation). Note: hard alcohol is prohibited at Hoyt Arboretum.
Tip to the wise: We ordered beer through Costco and wine through Trader Joes and felt like absolute pros! Highly, highly recommend.
If you have more than 50 guests in attendance (like we did) you will need to purchase alcohol insurance as well. It’s a painless process!
Parking at Hoyt Arboretum
Our guests had to pay to park during the ceremony and reception. Parking is $2 per hour, $8 max per day.
We weren’t able to reserve parking for guests which was a bummer but it’s a small detail in the grand scheme of things. If you feel so inclined, you can put a family member in charge of paying for parking or something.
Oh! Lest I forget. Parking is limited. A lot of our guests were visiting from out of town and used Uber which worked out very well.
Sound system at Steven’s Pavilion
A lot of folks have reached out asking about the sound system we use. We relied on this portable speaker with microphone. It worked like a charm!
For music, we hired a local cellist and didn’t need any technical equipment. She brought her own sound system, which kept things easy on us.
Would we do it again at Steven’s Pavilion?
Yes, in a heartbeat! We couldn’t have been happier with our wedding at Hoyt Arboretum Stevens Pavilion and would easily re-do it again.
Our wedding felt so right for us, with the rustic beams of the pavilion and the towering redwood trees that shaded us from the noise of the world. It was perfect for these two nature nuts.
Further Reading
- Pros and Cons of Living in Portland
- Local’s Guide to Powell’s Books
- Portland Rose Garden Guide
- 6 Portland Nicknames & Their Questions
Please let me know if you have any questions about getting married at Hoyt Arboretum, specifically Stevens Pavilion!
From one happily married couple to another, I’m more than happy to help.
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Until next time,
Antonina
My fiance and I put in an application to have an intimate wedding here in October since our wedding in June had to be cancelled due to CoVid-19. One question I have is about the “quite parks” condition. What was that like having no music?
That’s a great question and I’m sorry I missed it in the post! We actually hired a cellist to play out our wedding (I think we paid $500 for 4 hours). It was very intimate and great and she packed up before quiet hours started! It worked out flawlessly.
If you’re interested, I could dig around for the cellists contact info, highly recommend her!
I am interested to get the contact information for the cellist you used! I am getting married at Stevens Pavilion this summer and haven’t seen anyone with such low prices!
Hi Caitlin,
Congratulations! It is a really lovely venue 🙂 I’ve copied a link to the cellist’s website here (Jennifer) – https://bridgetowncello.com/
Not sure if her rates have gone up since our wedding but she was phenomenal!
Cheers,
Antonina
My fiance and I put in an application to have an intimate wedding here in October since our wedding in June had to be cancelled due to CoVid-19. One question I have is about the “quiet parks” condition. What was that like having no music?
That’s a great question and I’m sorry I missed it in the post! We actually hired a cellist to play out our wedding (I think we paid $500 for 4 hours). It was very intimate and great and she packed up before quiet hours started! It worked out flawlessly.
If you’re interested, I could dig around for the cellists contact info, highly recommend her!
Hello! We are actually getting married here in July! This is an awkward question, but do you know the dimensions of the picnic tables? We are trying to order linens. We might have to just head down there with a tape measure….
Also, is it true the picnic tables will not move? In some images I’ve seen it looks like they have been rearranged, but on the official website it says the tables are not able to be moved. What did you do?
Thank you!
Molly Grace
I have this same question! Did you ever figure it out? Unfortunately, I’m not in Oregon until the wedding so there’s no way for us to go out there. Any chance you found this information out? They don’t know when I call either and suggested measuring ourselves but i have no way of going until two days before the wedding and need to order linens! Any insight is helpful!
Hey there! My fiance and I booked the Stevens Pavilion for our wedding in September, but after visiting this past weekend we’re really concerned about it being way too noisy for the ceremony. In the short time we were there, there was a lot of noise from the nearby road– cars, trucks, a motorcycle without a muffler– and quite a few people, dogs, etc. walking by on the nearby trails. Any thoughts on your experience with noise? We’re reconsidering everything because of it…Thanks for your thoughts!
Hi Megan,
This is a great question! We didn’t have any trouble with excessive noise with the exception of one instance – a plane flew overhead right when we exchanged “I dos.” To be honest, it was funny and broke the ice very well for all in attendance. Apart from that, noise wasn’t an issue.
If it helps – our ceremony started at 5pm. We were so happy with how the wedding turned out!
Ok great! Thanks for your thoughts. That definitely helps!
Ok great! Thanks for your thoughts. That definitely helps!
Heyya!
Your wedding looked beautiful!! My fiancé and I are hoping to have our ceremony and reception at Stevens Pavilion next summer. 🙂 A few quick questions – were you able to have your rehearsal there the night before? And did you have to do all of the set up the day of the wedding? Additionally, were you able to use a sound system so the ceremony vows and reception announcements could be on mic?
Hey Indira!
So glad to hear you’re thinking about having your wedding at Steven’s Pavillion!
We did not have our rehearsal dinner there, we actually had a rehearsal dinner at a different park. I believe we had Steven’s Pavillion reserved for 1 day, so we couldn’t show up the day before. It worked out just fine!
Yes, we did all the set up the day of the wedding. Our ceremony started at 5pm, so we started setting up around 9am. It was really fun because we had all of our closest friends helping us out. It was very relaxed and enjoyable and every was part of our special day.
We used a speaker and a microphone and it worked flawlessly. Our friends made speeches using the mics. For music, we hired a cellist and didn’t need additional sound.
Let me know if you have any other questions!! 🙂
Hey!
I absolutely loved this post! I am considering booking ceremony and possibly reception as well at Hoyt Arboretum. I have a few questions for you, what were the quiet hours for the park? And how much did you spend on the charcuterie? It looks so impressive and beautiful, we had the same idea in mind but didn’t know if the cost would compare to other food once said and done. Do you know if other guest tables can be brought in to supplement the stationary picnic tables?
Thanks so much for taking the time to read
Love,
Lifelong Portlander
Hi Meg,
Thanks for the kind words!! I’m not entirely sure on the quiet hours but I think they start at 9 or 10pm?
The charcuterie was SO much fun for our guests! We spent around $2,500 for 80 folks and there was more than enough to go around.
And yes, other tables can be brought in! That’s what we did (we also brought in tents to hang lights and just in case it rained).
I hope your wedding runs smoothly! I think of ours so fondly, Hoyt Arboretum is a great place to get married! 🙂
Hello! I recently checked out this venue and was disappointed with how much graffiti was on the building. Did you have this issue and did you cover it with any decor? Thank you for your time!
Hi Shannan,
I think the uptick in graffiti is somewhat new. We didn’t have graffiti during our visit, I suggest reaching out to the folks at Hoyt Arboretum (they’re so easy to work with) and asking for their advice!
Hi,
I’m hoping you can help out! I have booked the redwood deck for our ceremony and have been considering adding on the pavilion as our reception spot. I noticed you said you used a small Bluetooth speaker for music. I thought we weren’t allowed to have any amplified music. Is a small speaker allowed, just not like a DJ/sound system set up? If so, this solves soooo much! I can’t imagine a party without music and we would like to have a first dance of course.
I am wondering what you did with the waste too. Did you just haul it out at the end of the night? Seems somewhat a bummer to an end of the wedding haha.
Thanks!
Hi Danielle,
Yes, we made sure our small speaker was allowed before purchasing — but we only used it for vows and speeches. I suggest calling the lovely folks at Hoyt to triple-check that you can use it for music too.
As for the trash, I totally agree, it’s a bummer to remove, but we did have to take it out. We had a close family friend collect it for us at the end of the evening and it worked like a charm. If someone has a pickup truck, simply have them toss the bags in the back — super quick and easy!
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions!! Would love to see photos from your wedding too!
Antonina
Hi,
What a lovely wedding! I, too, am getting married at the Stevens Pavilion this summer and had very similar concerns as other commenters. I went and saw the space yesterday and it looked like they had locked the tables in the spaces. Were you all able to move these tables to configure them how you wanted (even though the site says you can’t)? And as far as music goes, we were hoping to use a sound bar and have some dancing… did you all use some sort of amplifiers even though you only had a cellist? That’s really my biggest concern is that we wouldn’t be able to have music (which I can’t imagine having a wedding without). We’re having a very small wedding so we won’t need a microphone but I’d still love to be able to play some music!
Thank you so much in advance!
Approximately how many feet of stringed lights did you need to light the stevens pavilion?
Hi Rosemary — THESE are the lights 😉
Could you tell me how many feet of lights you used to light the pavilion? I can’t seem to find dimensions on the website and the Parks office wasn’t sure of dimensions.
Hi Rosemary — we used 4 boxes of THESE lights! Hope this helps. 🙂
Hi Antonina.
Your wedding looks beautiful! We’re wanting to string bistro lights under the pavilion like you did and wondering about the logistics of doing it. Are there already nails or something to hook them on? Did you need an extra high ladder, or would a normal stepladder work? Are electrical outlets close to the beams?
Thanks in advance for any advise you can give us.
Elaine
Hi Antonina!
Your wedding was beautiful and this article is what helped me say yes to requesting the stevens pavilion!
I have a couple of questions if you are able to answer them!
1. How many people were able to sit at the picnic tables? Did you get additional tables for you and your wedding party and food?
2. Do you have pictures or suggestions for the ceremony in the small meadow part to the pavilion? I saw some pictures with benches but others with chairs and was wondering if it is a blank slate that you pick what seating or if it comes with benches! I would love to see any pictures of the meadow that you might have!
Thank you so much!!
Hi Chloe,
Thanks so much and congratulations!
1. At each picnic table we were able to seat about 10-12 people which was sufficient for us. We did bring extra tables for the food and drinks.
2. I just updated the post with some extra photos of the seating arrangement we opted for in the meadow. We ended up going with white chairs because we liked the look and we’re uncertain about how benches might hold up given the uneven ground.
Hope that helps!
Antonina
Hello, this is lifesaver. I loved they way you did it and I’m not ashamed to say that some of those ideas are definitely going to be on my wedding too :).
I have one questions tho, if you don’t mind can you share which caterer did you hire, what was in the menu and costs please? Also did they bring their catering acquirement?
All looks absolutely gorgeous
Hi Nana,
Thank you so much for the kind words! Believe it or not, but my mom did the catering! She’s not a professional caterer, but she bought everything and displayed it like you see in the photos. All credit goes to her. 🙂 My husband and I paid for the food and the total came out to $3,000 (with wine + beer that we purchased in bulk from Trader Joe’s and Costco).
Hey Antonina! I am not sure if you may still get this – but just in case!
I am curious how you hung the drapes pictured in your last photo. Did you use the wooden beams or maybe added additional hooks? They are beautiful and we are hoping to borrow your idea!
Thanks so much,
Monica