Wedding DJ at Riverbanks Botanical Garden in West Columbia, SC

The Space

Riverbanks Botanical Garden opened on June 10, 1995, on 70 acres along the west bank of the Saluda River, built after the site sat essentially unused for more than 100 years and then developed following a $6 million bond issue in 1994. The grounds hold real history underneath the plantings: stone ruins of one of South Carolina’s first water-powered textile mills, from the early 1800s, and the site where General Sherman’s troops camped and shelled Columbia during the Civil War.

More than 5,700 species of native and exotic plants are arranged across named themed gardens, the Walled Garden, Bog Garden, Asian Garden, Dry Garden, Shade Garden, and Old Rose Garden among them, plus a Native Forest with walking trails along the river. The garden has been recognized nationally, named one of ten gardens that inspire by Horticulture magazine and one of twenty great public gardens in America by HGTV.

Capacity & Layout

The Botanical Garden’s outdoor ceremony area holds a maximum of 200 chairs, and Riverbanks overall hosts weddings from 15 up to 500 guests, so the Garden campus works well for ceremonies and receptions at the smaller to mid-size end of that range. The Walled Garden itself is a 34,000 square foot space enclosed by an eight-foot brick wall, with a 300-foot canal running through it lined with cascades and pinwheel fountains, giving it a formal, contained feel unlike an open lawn.

The Magnolia Room is the Garden’s indoor reception venue, available for four-hour rentals at $1,750 during peak times, and it sits close enough to the ceremony area and Walled Garden that a couple can move guests between outdoor and indoor spaces without a long walk. For a natural, amphitheater-style ceremony, the property also has a 2,000-seat grove setting, though most weddings will use the smaller, more intimate garden spaces.

Amenities

All ceremonies must take place one hour after the Zoo and Garden close to the public, which means 6pm in fall and winter and 7pm in spring and summer, so the event effectively has the whole garden to itself once it begins rather than sharing the paths with daytime visitors. Music at the Magnolia Room has a set curfew of 11:30pm, worth building into the reception timeline from the start.

Catering runs through Riverbanks’ exclusive on-site caterer with customized menus, and bar service ranges from full bar to beer and wine to cash bar or specialty cocktails, all handled in-house. Waterfall Junction, a 3-acre children’s garden with tree houses and splash zones added in 2016, gives young guests somewhere to go during a long reception, and on-site parking is available near the Garden entrance.

Location & Getting There

The Botanical Garden sits on the West Columbia side of the river, connected to the Zoo campus by an 800-foot bridge, and the whole property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a distinction covering the Riverbanks site since 1973. Guests attending a Garden wedding are on the opposite bank from the Zoo entrance, so directions should point clearly to the Botanical Garden side.

Between the enclosed, walled formality of the Walled Garden and the open lawn of the outdoor ceremony area, a DJ setup shifts by exact location: the eight-foot brick walls of the Walled Garden actually help contain and reflect sound back toward guests, while the more open ceremony lawn and amphitheater grove need speakers aimed carefully outward since there is no structure nearby to bounce music off of.