Reader's Garden Cafe
25 to 50 Guests
Availability
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About
Located in Calgary, Alberta, Reader's Garden Cafe is a charming venue that specializes in creating beautiful weddings on its historic property. This is one of Calgary's best known cultural landscapes, offering stunning views and a commitment to the preservation of plants and natural beauty. This will be a lovely location to create a dreamy wedding!
Facilities and capacity
The facilities found at this garden wedding venue include a historic building surrounded by spacious green lawns and Reader's Rock Garden. These facilities are ideal for both private functions and corporate events and they have a capacity for up to 50 guests.
Services offered
Reader's Garden Cafe offers couples affordable services to plan a unique, stunning event. The wedding package may feature the following:
- Bridal suite
- Catering
- Bar
- Event rentals
- Food and beverage items
More information
What is the minimum number of guests required to book your venue?
25
How many event spaces or rooms does your venue offer?
1
Describe your venue:
Historic
Park/zoo
Restaurant
Describe the style of your venue:
City
Garden
Rustic
What kind of settings are available?
Indoor
Uncovered outdoor
Which of the following wedding events does your venue service?
Ceremony
Reception
Bridal shower
What event services do you offer?
Bridal suite
Catering / bar
What catering services do you offer?
Buffet
Cocktail reception
Dessert
Family style
Hors d'oeuvres
Plated
Server(s)
Stations
What bar services do you provide?
Bartender(s)
Cash bar
House wine
Liquor license
Open bar
Signature drink
Outside alcohol
What event items are available?
Furniture
Tables
What food and beverage items are available?
Barware
China
Flatware
Glassware
Linens
What transportation and access is available?
Parking
Wheelchair access
Do you have a site fee for wedding receptions at your venue?
Yes
What is the starting site fee for wedding receptions during peak season?
$301
What is the starting site fee for wedding receptions during off-peak season?
$296
Do you have a site fee for wedding ceremonies at your venue?
Yes
What is the starting site fee for wedding ceremonies during peak season?
$651
What is the starting site fee for wedding ceremonies during off-peak season?
$651
Which of the following are included in starting site fee?
Clean up
Parking
What is the average catering price per person for plated service?
$48
What is the average catering price per person for buffet service?
$58
What is the average catering price per person for stations?
$58
What is the average catering price per person for hors d'oeurves?
$28
Which of the following are included in the cost of wedding catering?
Cake cutting
Server(s)
Dessert
What is the starting price per person for bar service?
$9
Which of the following are included in the starting price for bar service?
Signature drink
Bartenders
Any other questions?
Request pricing2 reviews
Write a review
Rated
3.9
out of 5.0
-
![Dan]()
Dan B. Married on 12/08/2022Really cute venue, but so many challenges for a wedding and reception.
We booked our wedding at Reader Rock Garden, and our reception at Reader's Garden Cafe. We were really excited to book our big day at a favorite place of ours, and loved the idea of having the ceremony and reception all in one place. There were a few great things about Reader's Garden Cafe. The cocktails and the appetizers were really wonderful, and they were served out on the lawn, with nice little cocktail tables set up.
However, there were many challenges with the cafe. Logistically, our wedding was on a hot day, and there is no air conditioning in the cafe, which was something we didn't think of initially. If you book the bride's room to get ready upstairs, it is even more uncomfortable up there. Right from the start, the management of the cafe was difficult to work with and inflexible in almost all aspects of our reception. This included where we could have tables and our seating chart, whether we could provide our own wine for a corkage fee, whether we could have a projector and small screen inside the building, and other small things. They offered us a corkage fee, but later increased it on us after the wine had been ordered, and were very difficult to communicate with about why this had happened. We had to really fight for them to honour the original price they had provided us, and it was not a great situation. Ultimately, one of our guests had a cardiac arrest during our cocktail hour and the cafe did not have an AED on site. This has been rectified now by the City of Calgary, but it was a very bad situation.
It is too bad, because we really loved the idea of having our reception on site after our ceremony, and partnering with Reader's Garden Cafe for it. But, after the fact, we really felt like the cafe didn't have much interest in weddings, and were not eager to accommodate much of our day. A wedding is a stressful enough day without having to field so many constant, small issues leading up to it, and on the day of. I hope that others who decide to book here have a better experience than we did.Reader's Garden Cafe's reply:
Thank you for taking the time to write a review.
You are right that your wedding day happened to be an extremely hot day and yes, Reader’s is a historic building without air conditioning. I assumed, you are aware of that and didn’t indicate that beforehand. However most days, our ceiling vents and open windows allow a reasonable indoor temperature.
In addition, after increasing your guest numbers from originally about 20 ppl to 30-40 and finally to our maximum capacity of 52 guests was creating an additional challenge for both, room climate and space. I certainly made you aware, that utilizing our maximum seating capacity doesn’t let us with many options regarding table layout or additional equipment like screen and projector or seating chart.
As already mentioned, it was a really hot day and I felt very sorry for what happened on the lawn with one of your guests (cardiac arrest). I would have wished to have an AED available, but I don’t think it is fair to blame it on us. It would be desirable to have more AEDs in public spaces, but you probably won’t find many restaurants having those devices available. I want to thank the City, that they immediately reacted to this unfortunate incident and installed an AED in our building.
In one of our meetings I mentioned, that I try to avoid corkage fee, as our bottled wine is very popular with our guests over years and pricing is reasonable. When you still wanted to go with your personal wine, I made a mistake by mentioning a wrong corkage fee and asked you at our next meeting, if you would mind, if I correct this mistake in my summary (no price increase, just a correction). However, when you insisted on my original quote, I agreed, without long discussions.
We host weddings and private events almost every weekend for now 6 years and we love to serve and assist our customers, wherever we can. We are sorry, and want to apologize, as this did obviously not work the way we are used to with your event. We’ll do our best to improve and provide our valuable customers further on with exceptional service.
Are you interested?
Request pricingReader's Garden Cafe Real Weddings
Finka & Ryan
67 Photos · 19/Aug/2017
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