Garfield Park Conservatory
A 1908 Conservatory on Chicago's West Side
Garfield Park Conservatory is one of the largest conservatories in the country, a run of glass houses on Chicago's West Side that opened in 1908. Jens Jensen designed it as "landscape art under glass." The Fern Room wraps a lagoon in ferns, the Palm House is full of towering palms, and the Desert House is all cacti. For events, Horticulture Hall seats 300 for dinner or holds 400 for a reception, and the bluestone patio outside takes the same numbers.
Andrea and Kunal came here for portraits on their wedding day, February 29, 2020, and the photos on this page are from that afternoon. They stood at the edge of the Fern Room lagoon, walked hand in hand under the palms and the glass roof, and took wedding party photos with her bridesmaids in plum and his groomsmen in light gray. Their ceremony and reception were at a loft elsewhere in the city, so the conservatory gave them a garden in February.
Kristin and Tyler stopped here for wedding party portraits too, riding a trolley over on the way to their wedding at Bridgeport Art Center.
Planning a Garfield Park Conservatory Wedding
The conservatory works two ways. For a full wedding, the Park District rents the entire conservatory for an evening, from 3:30 p.m. to midnight, and there's a two-hour window from 5 to 7 p.m. for a ceremony on its own. Catering comes from the Park District's preferred list, the wedding cake is the only outside food allowed, and evening events include Park District security. Wedding portraits need a photo permit from the Chicago Park District, so we apply for it early.
Winter is the conservatory's best trick. A February wedding like Andrea and Kunal's still gets green, sunlit photos under glass. Plan portraits for the middle of the day, when the light through the roof is strongest, and build in the drive from wherever you're getting ready. The conservatory is on the West Side, not downtown.
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