This venue is beautiful, however, as many beautiful venues-it comes at a cost. The venue more pricey than I was able to afford, but very accommodating and nice to work with.

From the moment I saw photos, I knew I wanted to be married in the beautiful courtyard and it did not disappoint. The venue staff are very accommodating and help with all the details. It is also incredibly helpful that catering is provided by an in-house vendor. The ready rooms are absolutely gorgeous and very comfortable and inviting. My husband and I could not have been more pleased with the day. The parking structure adjacent to the venue used to be free but became 3 hr max paid parking 2 weeks before our wedding so we were worried about our guests needing to leave mid-wedding to move their cars but we didn't hear a single word from guests about having any difficulty with parking.

Such a gorgeous place to get married, in the heart of San Juan Capistrano. My only complaint is they charge for anything extra - even down to plastic vs glass cups for drinks! And you cannot start getting ready on site until 10 am, unless you want to be charged more for them to come early. But overall everyone had an awesome time. They do your rentals for you which is nice because they send you what has been used and what is available and are very responsive - I swear my mom and I called them randomly like once a week. The garden is beautiful and intimate, the inside has been gorgeously re-done. Perfect for our day!

The moment we walked into Franciscan Gardens, I knew this was the place we would be getting married! My now husband was very kind in letting me take the reins in most of the planning, and I wanted to have a garden feeling outdoor wedding. The tall greenery of this venue is breathtaking and once the lantern lights go up, the centerpieces glowing, it was honestly the most perfect setting. Melissa and Haley were both very helpful and instrumental on helping us get everything finalized and making revision after revision to the contract. The final meeting to pick all of the little details went really smoothly, they were there for the taste testing, and made sure to answer all of our questions and concerns along the way. As far as the catering… We still have people telling us this was the best steak they had ever had at a wedding! During the tasting we were suspicious how they could make all of the food taste as delicious as it did for just the two of us for over 100 people but I must say ... Read morethat it was (all bias aside) probably the most delicious menu ever! The catering and bartending staff was perfect and even dedicated one waiter to the bride and groom for the whole evening to keep us boozed up and partying all night without having to stand in line for a drink or a bite. Thank you everyone!!

First I wanted to get married on a beach until I came to this venue. It was perfect, and magical. The space was perfect and there is not much more you have to do to make it a beautiful wedding. I wanted to keep it simple and it still turned out incredibly beautiful. The backdrop for pictures when you’re standing at the alter is breath taking! The hanging lanterns are a perfect touch! You can’t beat beautiful fountains as a decoration. But I can’t tell you how many people came up to me after to tell me how amazing the food was! I was beyond pleased with everything! Sarah also is so fun to work with. She caters to you and makes sure that every one is happy. She’s professional and easy to work with! I would do it a million times over at this venue if I could!

My husband and I had our wedding at Franciscan Gardens last month and it was everything that we dreamed of for our big day! Melissa and Haley are SO organized, sweet, and knowledgeable. They truly made the entire process from the initial planning to the little details of our day fun and stress free. It was really nice to have a venue that gave you a vendor suggestion list to choose from if you wanted. All of our vendors except one were from that list which made it easy because they were super familiar with the venue. I loved every single second of our wedding and HIGHLY recommend Franciscan Gardens as a venue. You will not be disappointed!

This was the perfect venue for us! Beautiful rustic gardens, perfectly manicured for our ceremony and cocktail party with an urban type loft for the reception. The best of both worlds! Melissa was a dream to work with and the food was well, amazing! Definitely NOT banquet food. This venue created a magical experience and the comfort the staff provided was excellent. We would highly recommend this venue.

For our wedding, my husband and I wanted to find a venue that could host an outdoor reception, had a bridal room to get ready, allowed a live band, and allowed a reception that ended at midnight (other venues with outdoor space did not permit a reception ending past 10 due to noise ordinances). Franciscan Gardens checked all the boxes and had offered several additional perks. One of the best part of picking Franciscan Gardens was working with Melissa and Haley. These girls are professional, responsive, and have the sweetest personalities. My vision involved renting furniture and decorative pieces from several different vendors. At FG, all of the rentals are coordinated through the venue. Essentially, I just had to tell Melissa and Haley exactly what chairs, chargers, chandeliers, etc I wanted and they made it happen! Having the venue in charge of rentals saved us the trouble of having to reach out to several companies and coordinate services. As many previous reviews have mentio... Read morened, 24 Carrots is the exclusive caterer for Franciscan Gardens. For hors d'oeuvres, we selected mini grilled cheese served with tomato soup shooters, coconut shrimp lollipops, seared ahi on crispy wonton spoons, and pulled pork sliders. For our dinner, we started with an arugula salad, and served a duet of filet mignon and shrimp with broccolini and potato gratin dauphinoise for dinner. Every single food item was AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS and had the most BEAUTIFUL presentation. Since my husband and I currently live in Chicago, we wanted to bring a taste of home to our wedding. 24 Carrots was gracious enough to make mini Chicago style hot dogs and pass them out as our late night snacks. Every detail down to the bright green relish was spot on! All in all, we are so thankful that we chose Franciscan Gardens as our wedding venue and we could not have asked for a better experience. THANK YOU Franciscan Gardens for making our dream wedding possible!

We had our wedding at Franciscan Gardens in March 2017 and we honestly could not have asked for anything more! Working with Melissa and Haley was a breeze, from the initial meeting, to the tasting, to the day of. They were both so sweet and helpful at every meeting and throughout the entire planning process. The venue is gorgeous and is right around the corner from The Mission and Los Rios street which provided the perfect backdrop for all of our photos! Their staff was incredible on the day of and our wedding went off without a hitch! We are so thankful we chose Franciscan Gardens as our wedding venue. It was the perfect day! xoxo

Franciscan Gardens is managed by 24 Carrots, who was able to take our vision and deliver an experience better than we ever imagined. The food was perfect, the service was excellent, and the staff leading up to the wedding were responsive, helpful, and great to work with. We are so happy we went with 24 Carrots and highly recommend the beautiful Franciscan Gardens venue. It was perfect for our size wedding (90 people), not feeling too spaced apart or too cramped. If anyone is considering getting married in San Juan Capistrano, they should take a look at Franciscan Gardens and speak to the wonderful people at 24 Carrots!

Franciscan Gardens was the BEST place to get married!! It was the only venue we toured because it has everything you could ever need! The venue was beautiful on our big day with greenery everywhere and a beautiful courtyard to house our about 100 guests for the wedding ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. The bridal suite and groom's lounge upstairs were perfect and spacious for getting ready and holding all of our things during the ceremony and reception. Melissa and Haley were absolutely amazing throughout the year of prep and planning! They were always so easy to get ahold of and quick to respond with any and all questions and changes that I had. The details meeting two months prior helped to make sure everything was going to go smoothly. 24 Carrots, the catering service associated with the venue, has the most delicious food I've ever tasted!! It was the best! All our guests kept coming up to us raving about the appetizers, food, and s'mores station! We were so happy with our big... Read more day here and know you will be too!

My husband and I fell in love with Franciscan Gardens on our first visit. It was everything we were looking for in a venue: outdoor, private, and beautiful!! In addition to the gorgeous space, the catering company 24 Carrots owns the venue and has a kitchen onsite with the amazing food. The menu options are extensive and fully customizable which we loved. The bridal and grooms suites on site are also The professionalism of the staff was also excellent from the timelines of the setup to the attentiveness throughout the evening. My husband and I always had our glasses full and they were constantly checking up on us to see if we needed anything. We had 160 guests attend and people were constantly telling us how beautiful and intimate the space was, I couldn't imagine a better venue for our wedding!!

Franciscan Gardens was everything we wanted in a wedding venue and MORE!! First, the venue itself is GORGEOUS! When our guests were dancing under the Italian lights and stars it felt magical! The tall green shrubberies (which made for AMAZING wedding pics) made it feel like you were in wine country but you’re right in downtown San Juan Capistrano. The bridal and groom suite were also a huge selling point for us because it eliminated having to get ready somewhere else and then transport the entire wedding party to the venue. The bridal suite had ample room for my 5 bridesmaids, my mom, hair and makeup team, and myself. Second, throughout the wedding planning process Franciscan Gardens and 24 Carrots were true professionals and a joy to work with. Hayley and Melissa were WONDERFUL and always so quick to respond to any of our questions. We found the fact that Franciscan Gardens works exclusively with 24 Carrots to be a HUGE convenience from a planning perspective. 24 Carrots really r... Read moreoles out the red carpet with their menu tasting. Their tasting room is so cute and elegant! It made our menu tasting a fun and memorable experience. Finally, on the day of the wedding the entire staff went above and beyond to ensure our day went off without a hitch! The food was delicious!! This is not your average wedding food! We served the chicken picatta and the hangar steak-both were phenomenal. The entire wait staff and bartenders were so attentive, accommodating, and friendly to all our guests. We are so happy we chose Franciscan Gardens for our special day and 24 Carrots was the icing on the cake!

I wish i had fully understood before i booked how they up charge for everything . Even down to a high chair at the reception. If you're a bride on a budget i would not recommend as their rentals are pricey! I am a DIY girl , a work a deal and contact every vendor to to get the best price kinda girl and this did not go over well with the venue. Food is top level but they dominate every aspect of booking vendors and rentals. There was a lot of miscommunication as far as what i could do myself and what had to go through them which ended up causing riffs. Towards the end of the process when the wedding came i felt like the coordinator wanted nothing to do with us. I was not greeted at all on my wedding day by the venue staff, in fact i had to hunt down the coordinator while getting ready because other people were touring the property and taking pictures of the bridal suite while we were in there. That was the only time i saw the site coordinator the entire day. I had MULTIPLE guests com... Read moreplain to me about a very rude and unprofessional bartender. My dad paid extra in our contract to have beer be poured into pilsner glasses and not served in the bottle (and yes there is a fee for that). When my dad noticed people carrying beer bottles during the cocktail hour, he went to inform the bartender about the upgrade for the glasses and her snippy response was, "well that wasn't communicated to me and people like to drink their beer from the bottle" Not only was it not her place to decide that but it was so frustrating that she wasn't told in the first place when we paid extra for it! At the end of the night staff walked around with huge trash bags throwing away everything in site. We had to stop them from throwing away leftover favors. In the process my custom Cake toppers were lost, as well as wedding cards. When i emailed the coordinator to let her know she re-informed me that they were not responsible for lost personal items. The cards i understand but not the toppers.