Wedding at lost Dutchman state park

Hi Jessica! I found two reviews for the park from WeddingWire couples and a few on The Knot:

WeddingWire Reviews for Lost Dutchman State Park

The Knot Reviews for Lost Dutchman State Park

Hey Jessica,
I’m getting married at Lost Dutchman in a few months (I think..lol). It’s a beautiful place but it’s also kind of tough to plan there. There’s been some real complications with permitting and Tonto (the park backs up to the national forest so if you want to be anywhere past the fence and have seating or an arch you need a permit). You can reserve space through the park but also will need the permit from Tonto. I applied for mine a year before the wedding only to find out 2 months before the wedding they aren’t doing permits right now so I’m stuck scrambling. If you book here just make sure to constantly check in with them! Good luck!

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Hi! Were you able to get it worked out to get married here? If so, which site did you get married at? I am trying to figure it out and it's confusing!

Lindsay

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Hi Lindsay,
I did get married here about two months ago! We did the Saguaro day use area. I've included a picture of our spot. It cost about $250 ish to rent the site and then I rented furniture and paid for florals. I had an on site day of coordinator, an officiant and a photographer. Overall it cost me around $1500 I think. Have you been to Lost Dutchman before? It borders Tonto National Forest and there is a fence dividing the two. They offer sites on the state park side but you can go past the fence to take pictures if you like, you just can't put furniture there. I recommend going there in person and talking to a ranger, that helped us understand things a lot better. You will also need all vendors who bring anything into the park (think furniture or flowers) to provide a COI - certificate of insurance with the parks name on it. I am adding my vendors below as they are approved at the park already. My biggest piece of advice is- if you get married here have a day of coordinator. Our coordinator Heather was there the whole day and made sure everything was set up as we planned. If you have any other questions let me know!

- Wood-n-crate designs (furniture)
- Simply beautiful florals and events (flowers)
- Weddings by Heather Renee (wedding coordinator)
-Lexi Wyatt Photography
-Joyful Union Officiant

Best of luck!

View Quoted Comment Omg thank you sooooooo much! That was so helpful. How many guests did you have? Did you do reception here as well? Or somewhere else?

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Of course! We had about 40 guests. We didn't do our reception there we had a small house party that we catered after but you can host receptions there. You essentially rent the space for the whole day!

View Quoted Comment Oh and how was the parking situation??

View Quoted Comment Do you feel the space would be big enough for reception? Just dinner tables (3-4) , no dance floor etc

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100% big enough for tables. You basically have any flat surface that's open in that area and there is a ton. I think some of the areas have big ramadas too. They let you book more than one sometimes as well (not sure if that's still the case). So for parking i've been there a bunch and sometimes when it's packed they stop letting people in. I had asked the ranger if that would be an issue and she didn't think it would but I was nervous. We ended up bussing people in and I think we only had 3 cars of people drive and park. They had no issue but I think it depends on how many people you have. There were 3 other weddings at the same time as ours and when I got there at 4:30 there was no issue with anyone getting in for parking. Not sure how it would be in April though.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for your insight & time! I’m planning on a Thursday wedding in the evening so hopefully the parking won’t be terrible. I’ve reached out to a few of the vendors. 💕

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I went to look at the site yesterday but no rangers were available (I think because of the holidays/modified schedule). So you guys were able to use furniture/arch as long as it wasn't on the other side of the fence, correct? I just want to make sure before I pay for the site

It looks like you guys had your set up a little past the 2 small ramada areas?

Lindsay

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Yep as long as it's not past the fence and as long as they put Lost Dutchman on their insurance. They need to have a policy that covers up to 1 mil in damages (which is pretty common for business insurance)..It's just incase someone damages a cactus. Correct! If you're facing the Saguaro Day Use area our site was a little to the left of the Ramadas.

You can kind of see from here where the Ramadas are behind us if that helps.

View Quoted Comment What time did you have your ceremony? I am looking at this October there, which sounds like what month you got married! Also if you have any leads on a Vrbo where you can have dinner at after the ceremony please message me! Thank you!

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Hey Ali,
We got married an hour before sunset. I googled when sunset was and then set our wedding time for an hour back. For us that was 5 pm. It ended up being great for pictures which was the goal. The picture I've included is what the sky looked like right before the sun set.

We had our dinner at our house, so I am not able to help you with airbnb spots but you can also do dinners at Lost Dutchman I believe.

Hope it helps!

View Quoted Comment That picture is absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for your tips!

What did the furniture cost you?