Japanese Friendship Garden San Diego

When my husband and I found out that the garden was available for wedding events, we knew we wanted to book our reception here. Not only is the garden incredibly beautiful, this place holds significant to the both of us. We met in high school in our Japanese culture club and had our first field trip as well as performed events here.

Anna, the private events coordinator kept an open communication with us mostly through emails. We continued to update her on our chosen vendors and any questions we had she answered in detail. She also helped us schedule a day and time in the garden before opening hours for our engagement photo session. She truly went above and beyond to help our event run smoothly along with the rest of the JFG staff. Our vendors were able to set up earlier than we originally booked and members of our wedding party could drop off the decorations before our ceremony which took place off site.

We had our reception at the Lower Garden in the Inamori Pavilion and added the shuttle service for our guests. They enjoyed exploring and taking photos in the garden and stated it was the perfect place for us to celebrate our marriage. Thank you for making our dream a reality!

The Inamori Pavilion & Lower Gardens at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park is an incredibly beautiful & special place to have a wedding. With guests visiting San Diego from the East Coast, we wanted our wedding to be somewhere special to San Diego. Balboa Park is undeniably a San Diego gem, and the JFG is by far our favorite offering. The Earth Bridge provides a breathtaking setting for an intimate outdoor peaceful garden ceremony, and the Inamori Pavilion provides the perfect indoor / outdoor elements for a reception with a unique & stunning esthetic along side the koi pond. The Lower Gardens were open exclusively to our wedding guests to explore and admire for the entirety of our event, which the venue allows until midnight. Christina, Anna and the private events team at the JFG were so kind, patient, professional and easy to work with hrough multiple postponements from the start of planning our wedding in early 2019 to finally celebrating July 3, 2022. Thank you for being a part of our special once in a lifetime day!

I'll be very honest, I booked my wedding at a very awkward time. I inquired before the pandemic with one coordinator, only to put planning on hold about a month later. But by the time they opened back up, the initial coordinator had retired and they had an intermittent coordinator who I talked with and made most of the arrangements with until they hired an official coordinator, Anna. But the whole time the transitions didn't affect my service. A beautiful venue, too.

I will say this, when you plan your event, remember it's a museum first and a venue second, so there a lot of things they don't have that a traditional reception hall would have such as a clean up crew. They do provide brooms and such but keep in mind you should prepare a group of trusted guests or even hire a crew to clean everything up after your event. It's also imperative that you give your guests precise directions. Some of my guests did get lost, even after I gave them the address the venue suggested, because they relied on Google maps to get them there, only to end up at the very front entrance.