About this vendor
Brimming with life and excitement, the Santa Barbara Zoo is a wedding venue and zoo located in Santa Barbara, CA. In addition to being the home of a number of animals, there are also gardens on the property to enthrall guests, complemented by ocean views. Such a dynamic location provides a setting to be remembered for your “I dos.” Throughout your wedding, you also have the assistance of an enthusiastic team of professionals that love seeing your nuptial vision come to life.
Santa Barbara Zoo is situated on nearly 30 acres of land and provides a plethora of exciting sounds and sights. The zoo is private as well as being a non-profit. Their aim is not only to educate the general public about the animals and wildlife in the zoo but also to aid global conservation efforts. Among the animals they help are island foxes, which only ten years ago were nearing extinction, as well as condors. The zoo also offers a number of programs that allow you to immerse yourself in memorable experiences while learning more about the animals.
Events can take place throughout the day at Santa Barbara Zoo, making it the ideal location for not only weddings but other related events as well. The team is adept at both sophisticated galas and casual events such as picnics. With such a flexible approach, they can help you host an occasion fitting to your wedding theme. As a fun and unique touch to your event, you can arrange to have a train ride for guests. There are also options for your loved ones to get to feed giraffes. The cuisine for your meal is provided by the experienced staff of the Zoo Catering Services by Rincon. Menus can be personalized to suit your wedding’s style as well as your tastes. In addition, these professionals can help you with your rental needs.
Amenities + details
Ceremony Area
Dressing Room
Handicap Accessible
Indoor Event Space
Outdoor Event Space
Reception Area
Covered Outdoors Space
Liability Insurance
On-Site Accommodations
Wireless Internet
Settings
- Garden
- Historic Venue
- Mountain
- Park
Venue Service Offerings
- Bar & Drinks
- Cakes & Desserts
- Food & Catering
- Planning
- Rentals & Equipment
- Service Staff
Awards and Affiliations
2011 'Best of Weddings'
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
Popular with couples like you
Check out our featured vendors.
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.016 reviews
We had our son’s wedding at the Santa Barbara Zoo, and it was absolutely amazing! The venue is gorgeous — lush landscaping, stunning views, and separate areas for the ceremony, coc...
ktail hour, and reception. We even got to feed the giraffe, which was such a fun touch!
A huge shoutout to our event coordinator, Aly. She was incredible — organized, calm, and so kind. She made sure everything ran smoothly and made both families feel special while keeping the focus on the bride and groom. We couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Thank you, Aly and Ricon Events!
Aly was my lifeline during this wedding planning process! Working with the Zoo and Events by Rincon was the dream wedding experience. Getting married here was every little bit of m...
y dreams and Aly truly made it happen. Not only was the event space beautiful, but the guests loved the giraffe feeding experience. My family will be talking about this wedding for years to come. The whole event was seamless, with ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception happening in areas very close by. People just had to move slightly up the hill. 10/10 would get married here again (but I found the love of my life).
I recently got married at the Santa Barbara Zoo this past month. And Kinsey, and Marc truly made all our dreams and wishes come true. Myself and my husband book the venue 3 years a...
go, and at the time we had no idea a global pandemic would delay our plans. But Kinsey and Marc acted quickly to ensure that our dream wedding would still be possible. Kinsey is one of the hardest working people I have ever met, she will go over and beyond to make sure you and your loved ones are well taken care of. Kinsey kept excellent communication with me throughout the planning process and made sure I was aware of every single detail. On the day of my wedding she was there by my side throughout the whole day with the big smile on her face. She was quick to help me and y husband in anyway needed, and made sure we were fed as well. She made us feel at ease and moments walking down the aisle it brought me great courage to look at her and hear her say "you got this", "you look stunning". I give my most highest recommendation to the Rincon team for their customer service and delicious food. Thank you for making our day so special and a memorable one for all our family and friends. I will forever think back on this day and smile
The Santa Barbara Zoo was the perfect location for our wedding reception in November 2021. The grounds are beautifully maintained, which made for stunning and unique photos. Our gu...
ests had a blast seeing the animals and feeding the giraffes; a few guests loved the giraffe feeding so much they went back multiple times! Guests also loved the bird greeting--we had a macaw and a tawny frogmouth. The tawny frogmouth, with its hilarious facial expressions, was the surprise hit of the cocktail hour. The event area is spacious and scenic, with mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. The zoo had something for everyone, and the relaxed, fun atmosphere helped us and our guests enjoy ourselves to the fullest. One minor issue was that one of the staff members driving the golf carts (guests had the option to take a short walk or ride a cart to the event space) refused to take our wedding party to the photo area when it was time to do so and became quite defensive when we inquired why. But this in no way reflects the quality of the venue or the professionalism of the rest of the staff, and we would absolutely host another event here.
Most beautiful and fun venue and delicious food. Angie is the absolute best and made the entire process easy and the day of stress free, she is priceless!
This venue is the best setting to have your wedding. We truly had the most amazing day. It was better than I could have hoped for.
So overdue on writing this review, my husband and I got married at the Santa Barbara Zoo in July of this year. The day was absolutely perfect. We had our ceremony and reception the...
re. The ceremony location looks over the beautifully green grounds with a peak of ocean and then the reception has the breathtaking mountains as a backdrop.
Also, I cannot thank Angie from Rincon Catering enough! She made the entire wedding planning process seamless and the day was flawless. If there ever was a problem, my husband and I never knew about it and you certainly could not tell. Rincon did an exceptional job. The food for dinner was made in the kitchen not 600 feet away and the quality showed. All of the staff were sweet, polite, and overwhelmingly helpful. We are so grateful to have had such a perfect day for our wedding and know Rincon, Angie, and the Santa Barbara Zoo are what helped make it that way.
We got married at the SB Zoo in Sept and it was just amazing. The venue itself is just gorgeous and the animals are a great touch! People love being able to interact with them duri...
ng cocktail hour. I initially worried it would be a garden off to the side and that it might smell like animals too much but it's more like a beautiful garden with animals woven in. They have a large kitchen so food was prepped onsite and there are plenty of bathroom facilities. They were able to let us bring in everything from a dance floor to special lighting and drapes. You can really make it your own. Only drawbacks are they do have strict rules about music, hours (hard cut at 10pm due to the city laws), have to use their catering company (who was great but not something you can have much control over if you already have caterers in mind), and cannot bring any of your own alcohol. But nevertheless they were awesome to work with, super responsiveness, and quite reasonable overall. Would highly recommend! It was absolutely my dream wedding:)
Guests loved our wedding at the zoo. Some loved the animal options, but even those less into feeding the giraffes or flamingling appreciated the privacy and views from the Hilltop...
.
We got married on July 5 at the zoo and it was amazing! Not only is a unique location, it really is beautiful- you could see both the mountains and ocean from our reception site, n...
ot to mention lush palm trees. We had a group flamingos come to our cocktail hour and "flamingle" which our guests love (they are so soft and pretty!) and made for awesome pictures. Also, we did some photos by giraffes and meerkats that kindly agreed to pose perfectly behind us. Amazing. Rincon Catering, which does their event planning, set up the space beautifully for the reception, which was a lot of fun. All in all, they were really easy to work with and made for a really memorable wedding! Highly recommend!
We just got married in July at the Zoo and it was an incredible location, one that my guests will never forget. There is so much space and the views of the ocean and the mountains ...
are spectacular. I felt like the staff really cared about making the event as seamless as possible. Angie worked her tail off and deserves an couple of assistants to ease the load she deals with every weekend, but she worked so hard and really made the day wonderful. Food was fantastic as well!
It was such a perfect location and an amazing staff. So beautiful!
Everyone is still talking about how gorgeous and unique our wedding was! We decided to pay for the giraffe feeding which was a hit!! I absolutely loved our venue!
the zoo is unique and beautiful, many people said they had never been to a wedding anywhere like it.;they need to update the bathrooms (i think plans are under way to do this.) al...
so, it's not really a budget venue.
The Palm Garden with the view of the ocean was beyond compare for a ceremony site. The Hilltop, with its views of both the ocean and the lagoon, was also beautiful. The maximum c...
apacity is something like 2500 people, so it can truly accommodate large wedding parties.;The Zoo is open every day of the year. Set up cannot begin until early afternoon, when patrons are still present, and weddings cannot begin until after 5pm. This worked for me, but if you want an afternoon or morning wedding, this is not the venue for you.
Contact
500 Niños Drive, Santa Barbara, CA
Santa Barbara Zoo