What a lovely space that the caretakers get to call home and be able to Host Couples for the Most memorable evenings- Weddings, Social Events, Celebrations of all kinds, and amazing Sunset Cinema evenings. Set on a stunning 32 acre property, Elmwood Gardens is a picturesque venue with abundant amenities and features....like an amusement park for adults and children alike for a great time. Amazing package deals happening right now and very professional staff. read more

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Pamela is wonderful! We had a private dinner for my birthday and the food was phenomenal! We also had some other meals catered, everything we had was outstanding. I've already recommended to several friends and can't wait to go back! read more

I really do not know how to put into words how absolutely amazing our wedding at Elmwood Gardens was. My husband and I were in awe at the amazing work by Michael, Morgan, and the wonderful staff at Elmwood. We are still hearing about how beautiful everything was! We had originally booked the venue under the previous owners, but the new owners exceeded our expectations! All day and night before the wedding it was pouring rain and all day the day of the wedding it was also constantly raining. My husband and I were certain that we were going to have our wedding inside instead of outside as we had intended. Michael said that they had really good luck with weather but I didn't believe him up until about 3 hours before the ceremony when it stopped raining and stayed cool and beautiful. I was so happy we were able to get married at the Wedding Walk where we fell in love with Elmwood Gardens. Morgan was our Day of Coordinator and that woman is amazing! She has such a calm and sweet demeanor that helped me stay calm, cool, and collected all day! She also has the BEST handwriting I have ever seen! She did all the writing on the chalkboards and even on the sign that my nephew carried during the ceremony. She was such a fun and sweet person, I wouldn't have wanted anyone else to be my Day of Coordinator! Michael was also fantastic! He went above and beyond to give us the perfect day. He even had the staff set up for the ceremony inside AND outside incase the rain subsided. He made sure we had everything that we needed and stopped by on occasion to give updates and check if we needed anything. He has such a fun personality and made sure I got everything my little heart desired. The bar tender we had was also fun and sweet and kept the drinks comin'! OH MY GOD, THE FOOD!!!!!! I was in heaven eating that amazing food. Chef Pamela came up with our menu and it couldn't have been more perfect! We will never forget our wedding day at Elmwood Gardens. I could have never imagined or dreamt of a more perfect wedding! I would like to give a million thanks to Michael, Pamela, Morgan, and the fabulous staff at Elmwood Gardens! The new owners of Elmwood Gardens are most certainly different than the previous owners, and of course the overall wedding experience will be different. They are definitely still working out the kinks and adjusting to the clientele here in East Texas, but we have no doubts that they will be exceedingly successful in the future. The owners and staff at Elmwood Gardens are hard-working, dedicated, and eager-to-please, and they will bend over backwards, if need be, to make your event special. If you're looking for an amazing venue with a hard-working, dedicated staff and owners, this is the place to be. read more

CLASS ACT! Michael Yatvin and his AMAZING caterer's - Samantha, Jenny and Becc ... turned my husband's retirment party into our BEST PARTY EVER. Impressive excellence! Scrumptious appetizers... attentive team... and NO worries. Very impressed! :-) HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY.... Diane S. read more

Michael has been the absolute most amazing person in helping us get exactly what we want AND MORE for our perfect wedding day! He generally responds within just a couple of minutes when I have a question or even if I'm just saying hi and telling him something about my day. When I first received a message from him reguarding Elmwood Gardens, I immediately felt that he truly cared that we were able to achieve everything we dream of for the wedding. He was very understanding when we had to bring our son, Kye, to our tour of the venue and even included him in the conversation. Kye enjoyed acting like one of the adults and even started trying to take over for Michael, which he thought was adorable. Michael is extremely accommodating and caring. He checks on us to see how we are doing every week. He has simply been the most amazing person, without him, I would probably have to wait a couple of years for a ceremony or get married at a place I wasn't happy with. He has made the impossible, possible in our near future. A beautiful ceremony with a gorgeous reception and at a cost that doesn't have me hyperventilating. Thank you Michael for all you have done and continue to do to make my (our) dream wedding come to life. read more

WELL this is the second time I've had to post this because the owners deleted it somehow. Gotta love how they don't want the word getting out that Elmwood's fabulous reputation under the previous owners is now tainted by the unprofessional behavior and attitude, as well as the unfulfilled promises of the new owners. I booked my wedding with the previous owners in early 2015. Had the wedding a few weeks ago. The venue was the best in East Texas under the previous owners, the new owners had changed things. We were told that they would clean up, the new owners told us it would be taken care of. Well, it was not. My family spent over an hour cleaning the reception hall and taking fabric down from the Wedding Walk, my father missed the majority of my reception because of this. The owners' dogs nudged open reception hall door while decorating, one biting my ankles, other pawing at me to play. We locked the doors once we got them out so decorations wouldn't get messed up. On the wedding day, the dogs were running throughout the grounds, coming up to the bridal cottage- where my dress and bridesmaids dresses were, causing us to stop hair and makeup to close doors and shoo them away so they wouldn't damage the dresses. My dad had to track down the owner and ask him to put the dogs up. Dog poop throughout the grounds, one of my guests stepped in it at the entry of the Wedding Walk; my photographer & husband had to help me watch for it to not ruin my dress or shoes. The wedding started, NO COORDINATOR. I had emailed owners multiple times months prior to the wedding to ensure a coordinator would be on site as stated in the contract. Also had a meeting with the owner and was told I would have a coordinator a month prior to the wedding; a family friend had to step in 10 min. before the wedding started to direct. When guests made their way to the reception hall it was extremely warm. ACs had not been turned on and were locked-so again we had to track down the owner to turn them on. Owner spoke poorly of my caterer prior to the wedding, I had a great caterer. Grooms cottage relocated, no window coverings- guests saw my husband change out of suit to leaving clothes; bathroom was also wide open with a glass door. Owner speaks down to you, as a client I received no respect. Very stressful experience. PS on weddingwire.com they lied in their reply to my comment. Take responsibility for your actions people. This is ridiculous because you are RUINING MANY brides' wedding days by your actions and behavior. Treat your clients like they should be treated, with respect. read more

I toured this venue and would advice anyone to stay far, far away. The previous review is completely believable based on what we experienced on our tour. The owner is prideful and his dog was biting my ankles the whole time. Terrible. read more

DO NOT BOOK! Property has been sold to unprofessional owners! The bride booked the venue prior to it being sold so when we were told it was under new management, we went out to visit again. The man was pleasant but unprofessional (unorganized, did not have any of her information, kept letting his dog bite us, etc.) We returned yesterday morning to set up for the evening. We arrived at 11 and parked where we had previously been told to. [Insert all the crazy wedding problems] and the bride was starting to feel the pressure when the owner comes out and yells at us for parking where we did. I told him I'd move it and went back to helping solve the current problems but then he starts talking about why she can't park there and yada yada yada, to the point I had to raise my volume a bit and repeat that I would move it as soon as I possible. The bridesmaids arrive and we go into the dressing room which is a thousand degrees. There was a window AC unit in both rooms and one fan, none of which had been turned on for us. I walk to the office because the bride is hot and the caterer hasn't had time to set everything up yet and I knew bottled water was in there. I asked the owner for water for the bride and he begins to lecture me on how that's not his job, that's the caterers' job, that they have water but he isn't supposed to give it out (he's the owner though). So I tell him that's fine and inform him that the bathrooms in the reception hall are not functioning and THAT is something that is his responsibility to take care of. If you've seen pictures of Elmwood Gardens, you know that the drapery is important to the venue's charm. We had confirmed TWICE with the new owner that we would have access to the ladder on the property. When it's time to hang, the owner informs us that we can't use his ladder. It's there, but we can't use it and won't give a reason why. The bride was heartbroken but accepted it. I was just plain mad. It honestly seemed more like power play more than anything because she had chosen to purchase her fabric from someone else due to the venue's insane price markup. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was great (thanks to Lisa from Adalante catering - honestly a godsend who fixed everything that went wrong). When it was time for dancing, the owner came out of the office and over to where we were and was pretty creepy about taking pictures on his phone. Several guests asked me who he was and why he was taking pictures of them. As the maid of honor, I was asked to tell him to stop because there was someone there who was uncomfortable being in pictures that weren't going to belong to the bride and groom. I went to tell him but he had walked back across the field into the unlit office which felt like the beginning of a horror film to me so I informed another help to keep a lookout. All-in-all: BEAUTIFUL PLACE but the new owners are awful, uncooperative, mean, and unprofessional. read more