Mount Coot-tha Botanical Gardens

Held a ceremony at the Mount Coot-tha Botanical Gardens on the weekend at wedding lawn one. Beautiful location, very natural setting but unfortunately I must advise other celebrants that it is not very practical.

I for one love brides to have a long bridal walk with their bridal party and the bridge beside wedding lawn 1 allows this. It is also extra special as the groom is permitted glimpses of the bride as she comes through the trees, enhancing the anticipation I guess.

The ground where you would your ceremony is on a slope so no chairs for signing etc. Unfortunately the slope places a dilemma as to where the celebrant should stand during the ceremony. If you stand behind the bride and groom you will be lost as you will be much farther down the hill than they. Luckily for me I am tall so I was able to stand behind and conduct the ceremony. The only other option is standing in front, this would be ok if it was a very small bridal party but if it was a large bridal party say 4 groomsmen and 4 bridesmaids then you would appear to be towering over everyone as you would be on the high side of the slope.

I must also recommend you use a microphone on the day, no matter how few you have to conduct your ceremony in front of. The running little stream behind poses a threat to your volume and since all your guests are uphill from you your voice is lost to the grass at their feet.

My mistake last weekend, albeit, everyone still thought it was a magical ceremony was that with only twenty guests I went with the option of no microphone and had to strain for the whole ceremony. And I have a big voice.

Last but not least, it is a long way for the bridal party to walk from the carpark. They are almost exhausted by the time they get there.

Otherwise it is a wedding photographers dream with so many beautiful locations to take photos.

My advice would be to give wedding lawn 1 a miss and arrange to come back and take your wedding photos there.

Be aware of the slope!