Our garden venues (Grand Event, Classic Gardens and Intimate Gardens) are available for reservation seven days a week from sunrise to sunset.

York Auditorium is available for reservation seven days a week from sunrise to midnight.

When you are planning your reservation timeframe, make sure to include all of the time you need for decorating, catering setups, any other prep work and enough cleanup time.

Holidays may have some limitations.

*Special note*: If you are interested in an evening reception, we do allow reservations in our Grand Event Spaces to take place after sunset with a little bit of extra coordination and prior approval. We are happy to talk about it with you! Reach out to us at [email protected]

Since we are a part of NCSU’s campus, we do need to abide by their campus alcohol policy. We do allow private events to serve alcohol as long as it is limited to 2 hours, served by a professional bartender and accompanied by substantial food.

This policy applies to any and all alcohol service (including champagne toasts!). If you are just serving beer and wine the approval is all we need. If you are also interested in serving mixed drinks with hard liquor we would need an ABC permit included as well.

Once those qualifications are met, then it will need to be approved by our director. We are happy to work with you through this process! If you have any questions about any part of the policy, we are happy to talk you through it, reach out to us at [email protected]

We do not have any preferred vendors. You are welcome to work with the caterer of your choice. We just need to approve all vendor and catering plans in advance to make sure they fit within our policies. All food must be prepared offsite. Catering can be warmed up or kept warm onsite. Most catering methods are permissible (hot boxes, sternos, warming plates, etc).

If your reservation includes kitchen access (any reservation with room 109), please note, the kitchen is a staging kitchen only, not a prep kitchen. Groups can use the refrigerator, freezer and microwave. Use of the stove and oven are not permitted.

In order to protect our world renowned gardens, the plants and the living things in it, we do not allow any:

• Open flames which includes candles, sparklers and fireworks
• Confetti, basically anything you toss in the air or scatter on the ground, including grains, birdseed, glitter, or flower petals (real and synthetic). We are trying to avoid litter at all costs, even if it is “natural” or biodegradable. Full floral arrangements and bouquets are totally acceptable options.
• Balloons including balloon arches and helium balloons
• Tape or permanent sticking methods
• Staking anything into the ground (unless you have prior approval for the use of a tent rental company)

You are welcome to add decorations to the structures in any of our gardens as long as you are using non-permanent methods. We suggest using fishing line or zip ties.

Please help us protect our plants by avoiding placing anything in the flower beds or attaching anything to the plants themselves.

In York Auditorium all the above rules apply, but we also do not allow anything to be draped over the light fixtures or affixed to the walls themselves. Free standing structures, such as pipe and drape, are welcome.

If you have any specific decor ideas in mind, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected], we are always happy to discuss your plans and let you know if they fit within our policies.

York Auditorium comes with our 2x6 tables and our burgundy classroom style chairs at no additional charge. For most groups who are planning conferences, meetings or corporate get-togethers, these work perfectly! For weddings and parties, a more elevated aesthetic can be achieved by adding on the White Garden Style Vinyl chairs as a replacement for the classroom chairs (cost listed below).

All of our garden venues (Grand Event, Classic Gardens and Intimate Gardens) come as they are. We do not include any furniture in the cost of the venue, however, we do have various options available to add on. We offer the following furniture for rent on a first come, first serve basis:

• White Garden Style Vinyl: $4/chair
• 36 in Round Tables (can be high-top or low-top): $15/each
• 6 ft. Outdoor Tables : $15/each
• Bluetooth speaker with corded mic (two available, $50 each)
• 17' x 17' Master Tents: $500 for first tent and $250 for every additional tent (includes set up and tear down fee outside of your rental window)

If you rent the furniture through us, it will be set up by our team and be ready to go at the start of your rental period.

We are a rain or shine venue. Due to the nature of our garden spaces, we cannot refund based on weather. We highly recommend having a rain back up plan in place while pursuing an event with us. We have 4 tents available to rent that are 17ft by 17ft. Tents can be added up to a week before your event, however, since they are available on a first come, first serve basis we cannot guarantee their availability last minute. To be safe, we usually recommend adding them to your reservation from the start. Tents are $500 for the first tent and $250 for each additional tent. The chart below shows how many tents we can fit in each garden venue.

In our Grand Event Spaces, we also allow larger tents to be installed by outside vendors. These larger tents must be approved in advance. They must be installed by a professional event rental company and not by an individual. These larger tents are a great option because they let you extend your reservation past sunset! Just make sure to have proper lighting in place.

Other rain back up plans we have seen include: using an off-site reception venue, having personal umbrellas available for guests (clear umbrellas make very cute pictures!), or if you already have York Auditorium reserved as your reception space, use it as a built in rain backup plan.

In case of a weather emergency, the JCRA will be closed to reservations during status 1—3 adverse weather conditions as defined and announced by NC State University. In this instance, we are more than happy to help you reschedule your reservation. If rescheduling is not possible, we will refund 85% of money paid. If you decide to cancel your event, but it is not a university closure, then the cancellation is nonrefundable.

Venue

Tent Quantity

Great Lawn

All 4 tents, tents from outside vendors allowed

Gathering Lawn

All 4 tents, tents from outside vendors allowed

Rose Garden

All 4 tents

The Glade

All 4 tents

White Garden

3 tents

Boxwood Garden

2 tents

Asian Valley

2 tents

Rooftop Garden

1 tent

Japanese Garden

NO tents

Non-amplified music is always welcome in the gardens. For amplified music, we just ask that the sound stays within the space you’re renting. Most ceremony music and even most reception music is totally fine. If the music is too loud at any point JCRA team members reserve the right to ask you to turn the volume down to a more reasonable level.

In York Auditorium, amplified music and dancing are allowed, provided they do not interfere with any other events. A dance floor is required for indoor dancing to protect the carpeting. If your reservation includes the South Terrace, you are more than welcome to dance on that surface without needing to put a dancefloor in place.

The York Auditorium comes equipped with projectors and screens available in each of the separate rooms. You can connect to these projectors by connecting your own laptop using the provided HDMI cord. If you need an adapter, clicker, or other accessory, we recommend bringing them with you to use for your event. York Auditorium also comes with various microphones that can be used upon request.

Free parking is available on a first-come, first-served basis in the JCRA parking lot and along Beryl Road. Spaces in the parking lot may not be reserved for private events.

For guests with mobility concerns, or vendors/guests who are loading or unloading items, the brick circle can be used as a drop-off zone if needed. Please turn on your flashers and move the vehicle as soon as you are done with the drop off. Vehicles cannot stay parked in the brick circle for the duration of your event. Vehicles left in the brick circle are subject to being towed.

If you have a larger event and are concerned about parking, we recommend utilizing ride share apps, carpooling or arranging group transportation.

The JCRA's gardens are handicapped accessible via wide paths of various materials that are suitable for wheelchairs and walkers. The A. E. Finley Rooftop Garden is ADA accessible.

No, we do not offer any day-of coordination services. Once you arrive at the venue all the details should already be confirmed and set in advance. Whatever furniture and items you have rented from us will already be set up and ready to go. Of course if you ever have any questions our team members will be available at the front desk to assist you.

For most reservations, if cancellation occurs 60 or more days prior to scheduled event date for a garden reservation, or 30 days prior to scheduled event date for the York Auditorium reservation, 50% of money already paid will be refunded.

For NC State University clients, a cancellation fee equal to one hour's full rental rate will be charged for reservations canceled less than 30 days prior to the event.

For most garden reservations, we do not allow lawn games to be used. However, if you are renting one of our Grand Event Spaces, we do allow certain lawn games if they are approved in advance. Please note, we never allow bicycling, skating, skateboarding, roller-blading, kites or sporting games (footballs, soccerballs, frisbees, etc). Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any special exceptions or questions.

We are able to offer discounts to NC State University events (paying with an IDT) and some nonprofit groups. Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] if you think your group qualifies for a discount.