“Chabot is an awesome and unique place to have a wedding or other event. We had our wedding ceremony outdoors by the telescopes (the planetarium was our backup rain location). Our cocktail hour was in the museum (second floor of Spees) and our reception was in Astronomy Hall. Since Chabot is in the middle of a redwood forest, there are lots of great places for photos. Chabot looks so cool that you don’t need many decorations. And the public telescope viewings on Saturday night provide an awesome activity for wedding guests who don’t like to dance. Our guests thought the venue was awesome. Perhaps the best thing about Chabot, however, is how helpful the staff is. Samantha Stevick, the Associate Director of Events, was particularly amazing. She was on top of everything and gave us so much helpful advice and good vendor recommendations. If she wanted to start a side business as a wedding planner, she absolutely could do it. It’s also great that you can pick your own caterer so you’re not stuck with some venue’s boring food. There were enough great options on Chabot’s preferred caterer list that we went with one of them, but we could have paid a bit extra to have any caterer we wanted. We were strongly encouraged by Chabot to choose a preferred caterer as the caterer has to do all of the set up of tables, chairs, etc. (for ceremony and for reception) in addition to food. The caterer can only do setup starting at 5pm when the museum closes, which does not give them much time (our ceremony started at 6pm), so it helps to have a caterer who is experienced with the venue. We went with Blue Heron and we really loved their food; they also did a great job with event setup. Note that if you go with Chabot, the biggest expense of your wedding budget will be the caterer as the caterer will provide all of the setup and furniture for the event in addition to food and drink service. Therefore, if budget is of concern, I would recommend getting a rough quote from one or more of Chabot’s preferred caterers prior to booking the venue so that you can get an idea of what the rough cost of the venue + furniture + setup + catering would be. Worth noting: Chabot has strict rules about fire and anything that could make a mess. Candle flames must be two inches below the glass. No sparklers. No flower petals, glitter, rice, bird seed, etc. But it’s worth it, it’ll just force you to be creative. We had our flower kids use bubble guns (a suggestion from Samantha) instead of flower petals.”