With a history of hospitality, Meadow Brook Hall is Michigan’s most beautiful wedding venue. The entire estate was built with an eye for entertaining, from its 16 lush gardens to the two-story Gothic-inspired Ballroom. This special blog series showcases the unique areas and entertaining spaces that have played host to breathtaking weddings and unforgettable celebrations across the years.
Open the arched wooden door just west of Meadow Brook’s stunning façade and step into our very own secret garden—a beautiful and lush area filled with bright blooms and cascading blossoms. Although the English Walled Garden and Rock Garden aren’t exactly a secret, they do combine to create an enchanting space that feels secluded and special.
The English Walled and Rock Garden are some of the most beloved outdoor spaces across the estate for visitors, volunteers, brides, grooms and spouses-to-be alike.
It’s a versatile and imaginative space for wedding ceremonies, special moments and memories that last a lifetime. Read on to learn more about these beautiful gardens.
The English Walled Garden – fit for a fairy tale
Patterned after traditional English gardens, Meadow Brook’s English Walled Garden is a riot of color, combining mixed perennials and annuals that spill on to path from spring through fall.
Relatively little is known about what was planted here during Matilda’s lifetime. Today, the Meadow Brook Garden Club lovingly tends this garden, planting current garden has been planted with flowers typically found in English walled gardens: peonies, roses, hydrangeas, daisies, day lilies and so much more.
The Oriel window set above the English Walled Garden is a type of bay window that resides in an upper floor and is supported from below by corbels or brackets. They were developed in the Middle Ages in England to make the most of scarce sunlight. This Oriel window was Frances Dodge’s own delight – a beautiful reading space within her bedroom suite.
It’s a captivating space that feels out of a fairy tale. The English Walled Garden offers a long, lingering walk along the stone path and offers some of the loveliest views of the estate.
Matilda’s very modern Rock Garden
If the English Walled Garden is a classic example of traditional estate gardens, it is daringly and delightfully paired with Meadow Brook’s most unusual garden—the Rock Garden.
This nouveau garden was the first to be constructed on the estate, and was designed by English landscape architect Arthur Davidson in his original 1928 landscape master plan for the estate.
Davidson described the garden as an outcropping of rocks winding in and out with some forming steps. The garden was to be planted with drifts of veronica, lavender, vera and dianthus, with “flower pots dotted here and there long the course.” Davidson described his meandering garden design with a wistful tone, saying, “the picture is ever changing from blue to soft pinks and ending in yellow at the bottom steps.”
The Rock Garden is considered a very modern garden, even in today’s terms. It is one of the largest of its kind in Michigan; planted among the rockery are alpine plants, dwarf conifers and cascading varieties of perennials and summer annuals. It was a flight of whimsy on Matilda’s part. While inspired by grand English estates, Meadow Brook Hall is by no means a replica of these spaces and is itself a uniquely American endeavor.
A Special Space for Special Moments
Situated charmingly among the estate’s west gardens, the Rock Garden and English Walled Gardens can be viewed from the Sun Porch and encompass the Tea House raised on a wooded ridge. Every view from this area is a lovely one filled with unique details and perspective of the historic mansion.
Today, the area is a beloved setting for couples getting married—primarily as the scene for a First Look or as a backdrop to a romantic wedding ceremony.
The space can feel expansive or intimate depending on the setting you choose, offering multiple background options for your event. The steps and platform leading up into the Tea House offer an elevated location to exchange vows, and an elegant marble statue completes the space.
Whether you’ve dreamed of a fairy tale wedding, an outdoor garden wedding or anything in between, Meadow Brook is sure to deliver the entertaining spaces, inspired cuisine and first-class service for an incredible wedding ceremony and reception. For more information about being married at Meadow Brook, contact our events team at mbhevent@oakland.edu.
