Overview Travel Schedule Details Bay Area

When

Saturday, May 29, 2027
5:00 pm to 11:00 pm

Where

University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley
200 Centennial Drive
Berkeley, CA 94720

The wedding ceremony will take place in the Redwood Grove. The reception will be held across the road at Julia Morgan Hall (5-10 minute walk). There will be staff on-site to direct you to the reception hall.

RSVP

Travel

Watercolor garden path, car, transit, and flowers

Logistics & Arrival

The best way to get to the Garden is by car. We have 50 parking spaces reserved at the venue, from 4:30 pm to 11:30 pm. Please let us know if you intend to use a parking spot.

The Garden is also a 30-minute uphill walk from UC Berkeley's campus, if you are feeling extra adventurous.

If you are staying in Oakland or San Francisco, you might plan to take public transit to Berkeley and use a rideshare service to arrive at the Garden itself. The closest train station is Downtown Berkeley BART. There are also several AC Transit bus lines to UC Berkeley's campus. Please let us know if you have any questions about how to get to the Botanical Garden from where you're staying.

If you're traveling from out-of-state or out-of-country, the closest airport is OAK (Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport), but flights are often cheaper to SFO (San Francisco International Airport). Both airports provide easy access to Berkeley via BART (blue line from OAK, red line from SFO).

Watercolor garden path, car, transit, and flowers
Watercolor hotel key, suitcase, map, and flowers
Watercolor hotel key, suitcase, map, and flowers

Lodging

The Garden is fairly accessible from anywhere in the Bay Area, but the closest hotels are in downtown Berkeley close to campus. UC Berkeley offers a list of nearby hotels. Out of this list, some good options to check out would be

  • The Graduate by Hilton, Berkeley (1.6 miles)
  • Residence Inn by Marriott, Berkeley (2.2 miles)
  • Holiday Inn Express, Berkeley (3.7 miles)
  • DoubleTree by Hilton, Berkeley Marina (4.8 miles)
  • Hilton Garden Inn, Emeryville (5.4 miles)

The Botanic Garden is also not far from downtown San Francisco, if you want to stay in the city. Some good options our friends have stayed at in the past are:

There are plenty of great AirBnBs available in Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco. If you think you've found a place, but you have a question about the specific location or neighborhood, let us know!

Watercolor pocket watch with redwood leaves and flowers

Schedule

All events will be held at the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley.

5:00 pm guests may enter the Redwood Grove
5:30 pm Ceremony Start in the Redwood Grove
6:00 pm reception begins in Julia Morgan Hall
8:23 pm sunset! (the Hall deck faces West toward the Bay!)
11:00 pm reception ends in Julia Morgan Hall
Watercolor pocket watch with redwood leaves and flowers

Details

Watercolor gift, attire ribbon, shawl, and flowers
Watercolor gift, attire ribbon, shawl, and flowers

Gifts

We do not have a registry for this event.

If you would like to offer a gift, any and all gifts would be greatly appreciated. We would be especially grateful for any contributions toward our honeymoon - destination TBA!

Attire

The dress code for this event is semi-formal. The Garden has some gravel, uneven, or slightly inclined paths, in case that influences any shoe decisions.

Watercolor shawl, breeze, sunshine, and flowers

Weather

On average, in May, Berkeley reaches high temperatures of about 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 Celsius), and lows of 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 Celsius). It may feel quite warm for the ceremony at 5:00 pm, especially if the sun is shining. However, it can also get quite cool and breezy once the sun goes down, or if it is cloudy or foggy. It does not usually rain in May.

Overall, we recommend bringing layers!

Watercolor shawl, breeze, sunshine, and flowers
Watercolor Bay Area landscape with coastal and redwood details

Bay Area

If you're traveling from out-of-town, there is so much to do here in the Bay Area while you're visiting! Here are some suggestions for other fun things to do over Memorial Day Weekend.

  • Explore San Francisco
  • Visit Alcatraz Island
  • Wine tasting in Napa Valley / Sonoma County (only a 1 hour drive from Berkeley!)
  • Take a coastal drive along Highway One
  • There are plenty of wonderful seaside locations within a 2 hour drive of San Francisco, including Sausalito, Half Moon Bay, Monterey / Carmel, Santa Cruz, and Point Reyes National Seashore
  • Go for a hike
  • We have a lot of recommendations for hikes in the area! Some great places to go include Muir Woods, Mount Tamalpais State Park, the Presidio (in San Francisco proper), Angel Island State Park, and Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park. If you want to venture further afield, there are so many other wonderful places to get outdoors in California!
Watercolor Bay Area landscape with coastal and redwood details
Watercolor botanical garden map with redwood needles and flowers
Watercolor botanical garden map with redwood needles and flowers

About the Garden

As our wedding guests, you receive same-day admission to the Botanical Garden for free! We highly recommend taking the opportunity to enjoy the Garden's extensive collections. With over 34 acres to wander, we recommend budgeting two hours to explore as much as you like!

The Garden will be open from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm on Saturday, May 27. There will be a free docent-led tour at 1:30 pm.

The Garden grounds include areas of paved pathways, as well as unpaved paths that may be narrow, rocky, uneven, or steep. Check the Garden Map for additional path information. There are three accessible parking spots available in the main Garden parking lot. Pets are not allowed in the Garden due to the sensitivity of the plant collection. However, trained service dogs, per UC Berkeley guidelines, are permitted and must first check in and be cleared at the Kiosk by Garden staff.

Garden Rules for Guests

The Garden is a museum collection of living plants that are not to be disturbed in any way; they have been collected in the wild at great expense. Both soil and plants are delicate, and many are irreplaceable. Plant materials and labels, bed labels, benches, and potted plants must remain in their original locations. Stay to the paths -- no one is allowed at any time, for any reason, to enter the plant beds. Smoking/vaping in the Garden is strictly prohibited per UC policy.

Allie & Caio