Zilker Park Clubhouse

I cannot adequately explain how amazing our wedding celebration was at Zilker Park Clubhouse!! I'm holding a star since we received an email saying we got our deposit back Aug 12th and I still haven't seen the funds in my account- but besides that issue it's definitely got a 5 star rating! We actually got married a month prior in MA, but needed to celebrate the occasion with all our friends who live here with us in TX. This event space was perfect for a party on a budget. The view- I mean, come ON, was just incredible, and the backdrop for everyone's photos! People could not stop talking about how phenomenal it was. The process of getting the place was a bit tricky, as I could not navigate their government website to select the date and missed the cut-off time before having to do the lottery. Luckily, not a lot of people were begging for dates in August as the venue does not have air conditioning- so the heat was a bit brutal (but that's Texas!)- but we got it no problem! I ended up calling and the person I spoke to was very helpful.Speaking of air conditioning- or lack-there-of- we ended up renting some swamp coolers (huge cooling fans that run off of ice- but a LOT of ice!!) to help with the heat. There are ceiling fans and a few industrial fans included- but those don't help too much in August! I had a hard time figuring out what exactly we needed- so I'm going to add a quick "plug" for Preferred Climate Solutions our of Hutto, TX. They worked ZPC before and knew how to set things up. Brett even had an extra swamp cooler from an earlier event he let us use.Moving on- because this place doesn't require use of specific vendors- it made it that much affordable. We hired Slab BBQ to cater and Pixster photo booth for fun. For drinks, we filled out the necessary paperwork (some cheap $10ish permit? I can't quite remember) and we're able to just bring in a few kegs and boxes of wine from PartyBarn. Everything went off without a hitch! Good to note- the place provides a bunch of tables. Two huge round ones, a few smaller round and rectangle ones, and some nice cocktail tables we used on the patio. (The cocktail tables and one rectangular were good enough condition to go without tablecloths- the rest require coverings.)For lighting- it was definitely important to us to get string lights on the patio. I realized last minute that getting a few hundred feet of lights was going to be trickier than I initially thought- since I had to consider ones that connected and could manage the power of 300 ft of lights. I used Americanpartylights.com- it worked out great! They included zip ties which is important since it's against the park rules to use tape (holds better anyways.) I found a great diagram of ZPC patio for the light arrangements and measurements (photo included.)It was a perfect celebration and I HIGHLY recommend this space for any event! It has such a cool vibe even without decorations, your set up can be minimal and still look amazing. Plus... that VIEW!

BEAUTIFUL PERFECT location for a wedding! And VERY AFFORDABLE!! Last year I was looking for a nice, but affordable location for our wedding, our wedding would be in January of this year(2020) and we were worried about having bad weather if we did our wedding outside! After being so stressed, I remember finding this location randomly and calling to see if they had any openings in the month of January, luckily they did at the end of the month on the 31st and I looked up photos and reviews and just had to book it right away!!! Easy to find, a lot of parking space, and just beautiful. I felt so blessed to have found this place. My wedding was just so beautiful!

Looking back on my wedding photos, I'm extremely happy we got to have this space for our reception. It was a really cold day, which definitely helped, but the rustic nature of the building shines in our photos.

Actual things said to me during my wedding here a couple of weeks ago:"I just texted all my friends telling them they all have to get married here.""I've been coming to Austin for 9 years and have never seen a view like this.""This view of Austin is best seen from here.""Why didn't I know about this place?"To say the least, the view of Austin from Zilker Park Clubhouse is breathtaking. I went to a wedding here last fall and knew immediately it is where I also wanted to get married. Very much in my style, cool and casual, and a great spot to show off my favorite city.It is an old boy scout lodge turned into a party rental space run by the city. Staff is not provided so be prepared to do everything yourself, or do what I did and hire someone to take care of everything for you.The booking is screwy though. I took my friend's advice and just called, because we had missed the 7 month out deadline for the lottery. 6 months ahead, you can just call and ask what dates they have available. Luckily, there was one night in November available. So if you want to get married here, be prepared to plan it quickly, because you can't book more than 6-7 months in advance. The upside is the cost is about 1/4 the price of most wedding venues.

Not sure if views like the ones at Zilker Clubhouse are common in Austin, but I have to imagine the scene overlooking Downtown Austin from the courtyard of Zilker Clubhouse is one of the most beautiful visuals in the city.My friend got married at Zilker over the weekend, and I doubt they could have found a more beautiful location to say, "I do." Or, "sure... why not?" Or, "fuck, I guess so...." Those are all suitable options for confirming a wedding vow, yeah?If you're planning a special event--perhaps a wedding or anniversary--I strongly recommend you try to get your grubby little paws on this place for the evening. From what I understand, it's such a popular destination, you need to enter a lottery just to be granted permission to use it. Act quick, but try not to book the spot in November. It was windy as a mother fucker in that piece! Seriously, I think I saw Ross Perot get blown across Town Lake during the strongest part of the wind storm.

We got married here last week on September 12, 2015. You cannot beat the patio and the view of the Austin skyline. If you want to get married here, you have to be very DIY because the clubhouse itself is not a wedding venue. It belongs to the city and is just a venue for you to do what you please. Many people may be turned off by this, but I loved the freedom to hire whoever I wanted. We hired Pascal's Catering, and they were above and beyond awesome. I can't rave about them enough. I wrote a separate review about them.The site itself includes the clubhouse, which has a kitchen and male and female restrooms, and the patio. The clubhouse provides a lot of tables and chairs, if you want specific numbers, look on the website. We got married inside the clubhouse, and had the reception on the patio. The total number of guests was about 75, and that is an extremely comfortable number for the venue. It's not the greatest venue for huge weddings due to limited space. The buffet was set up inside the clubhouse after the ceremony ended. A huge warning ... the clubhouse is not air conditioned. Lucky for us the temperature dropped into the 80's on our wedding day, and so we did not have an issue with this. But, people have rented swamp coolers and AC units etc for those hot summer days, I've heard.Booking the clubhouse was a bit of a pain. You can book it first come first serve 6 months in advance. Other than that, there's a lottery system if you want to book 10 months out. We did the first come first serve ordeal. There were a handful of dates in Sept that hadn't been reserved already by the lottery system. So, on the first Monday of each month, you are able to show up at COA office and reserve your venue on a first come first serve basis for the 6th month out. For example, I wanted Sept 12, so I showed up on the first Monday of March 2015 and stood in line to book the date. I believe the office opens at 8 am, and I showed up at 6:30 am to wait in line. Other people had the same idea and came early to wait in line for their dates as well. Luckily for all of us in line, we all wanted different dates :) A couple that showed up after me wanted the same date. They showed up at 8:00 AM when they thought the office was opening, not anticipating that people would show up earlier. They were disappointed. I felt terrible for them, but excited for us! Moral of the story is, if you can, show up early and wait in line if you REALLY want this venue. I didn't have any back ups, and I was wiling to be flexible on the dates as long as I got the venue.The building is very rustic, and we received SO many compliments on the venue and the view of the Austin skyline. The clubhouse is extremely affordable to rent, and you get your deposit back if you don't do any damage. They have extremely detailed information on their website. I cannot recommend this place enough!

Spectacular, personified! My first experience here was this past Saturday, and it couldn't have been any more perfect for the wedding reception hosted. The best part is clearly the elevated view of downtown, and I can't imagine that were you to try, you could top it from anywhere else. It's a perfect framing of our charming city, and was the ideal scene for the celebratory dance party that cropped up here. It is in a sense a reflection of the best of Austin, casual and stunning, accessible and clever. Apparently you need to book it about seven months out to have any hope of landing the place for your event, but as someone who spent one fine evening here, let me tell you that it's worth it. Unforgettable.

What a fantastic place! I just went to a birthday party here last night and was just stunned at the great views of the City and the perfection of the facilities for a party. It can accommodate about 150 people comfortably and has a kitchen, parking for 100 cars and a huge deck overlooking the skyline of Austin. Its also easy to get to. The building is old, with limestone and timber construction - very rustic and homey. Not fancy, just grand.The only drawback I could see was the weirdness you have to go through to book this place. I tried to get info on the web and they don't tell you the price. They do describe the fancy footwork you must go through to get into the "lottery" to reserve the place:(from the parks website)"How to Reserve:Because of the popularity of the facilities, requests for reservation are first accepted in writing seven (7) months prior to the requested date. These requests will then be submitted into a "lottery" and a "blind drawing" will take place to selected the tentative reservations. (i.e. the "blind draw" will be completed in August for March dates.)Letter must include your name, address and phone numbers, requested location(s) of reservation, number of guests expected, three (3) dates in the month you request a reservation in order of preference, if you plan on serving or selling alcohol. Letters must be received between the 1st and 20th of the month.Mail or deliver your letter between the 1st and the 20th of each month seven (7) months prior to the month requested. Letters postmarked or received before or after the dates listed will NOT be included in the draw."So -- I guess letters received on the 21st of the month will be tossed. What is UP with that??

I had my October wedding at The Zilker Clubhouse and it was fantastic.Pros:- The view y'all. You can't even believe it.- The price. Compared to other places in Austin - so low!- Customize your event. Some of the bigger places will lock you into certain caterers or florists or photographers. At the Clubhouse you get to plan every detail to your liking!Cons:- Booking is difficult. As I understand it, they just changed their policies shorty after my wedding, so I won't go into details here because I don't want to give you bad information. My advice is to call the city to get the details straight. It can be complicated, but I think it is entirely worth it.- It's an old building, which comes with some problems. For instance, the DJ we booked had worked at this venue before and he knew that sometimes the breakers blow with all of the music and lights. He came prepared. The breaker did blow at some point during our dance party, but it was actually one of the sweetest moments of the night, because all of our friends just kept dancing and singing the song that had been playing while they flipped the breaker back on. It was off for maybe 60 seconds and then smooth sailing :)I loved having my wedding at the clubhouse. It has that perfect Texas backyard party feel to it and it made me feel at home.

Went to a wedding reception here Friday. What a gorgeous venue! I didn't even know it existed. Why so amazing? Huge patio, rustic inside perfect for reception and the MOST incredible view of downtown Austin. Sure, it was hot as hell but that's a function of the date (late May) rather than the venue. This could be a great place for just about anything -- an outside party, a wedding, a fam reunion, a dance -- really versatile. It was gorgeous to watch the sun set outside, cool breeze blowing, dance floor hoppin', enjoying a cold glass of sangria and just being really happy about living in Austin, TX.