Wedding reception inside Floral Display Hall at Lauritzen Gardens
Lauritzen Gardens' Great Hall and conservatory are built from glass, stone and water, and all three throw sound straight back into the room. Set up a sound system the usual way in there and dinner gets loud, toasts get hard to follow, and the dance floor turns to mush the moment the music comes up. The fix mostly comes down to where the speakers point, and we'll walk you through it below.
Why we wrote this
Quick intro, since you're trusting us with advice: I'm Elliott Harris, co-owner of Alternative Wedding DJs. I got my degree at the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Arizona. Spent time as a recording engineer at Can Am Studios in LA (where Dr. Dre did some of his best work). Then family brought me back to the Midwest, and now I hop around Nebraska and Wisconsin DJ'ing bars, clubs, and weddings and managing our team of DJs.
Through decades of experience, I've learned why a room fills or empties. So with my experience and our team's feedback, I'm gonna share everything I can (from a DJ's perspective) to help you have an easier time throwing the best celebration possible.
Our Nebraska team plays weddings all over Omaha and Lincoln, including Lauren & Jacob's indoor ceremony here on 9/12/2022 and Tyler & Dominic's outdoor ceremony on 9/7/2024. DJs: DJ Jak_E, DJ Yascoe, DJ Nick the Quick, DJ Fly Cuts and more. And we have notes!
So we're gonna take that insight and deliver it to you on a wheelbarrow full of peonies, so you can skip the rookie mistakes and get the best night, with the least stress, out of your venue. Here we go…
Dancefloor strategy
The Great Hall and the Marjorie K. Daugherty Conservatory have high glass ceilings, stone and water features. None of that absorbs sound. Without a plan, the music bounces around the room and the vocals wash out.
Our fix is coverage. We aim the speakers down at the crowd and away from the glass, and we use more speakers at a lower volume instead of two big ones turned up. The back tables hear the toasts clearly, and the floor still hits hard once the dancing starts.
The booth goes right next to the dance floor, with a solid wall behind it where the room allows. Speakers throw sound backward as well as forward, so a glass wall behind the booth sends all of it back into the room. We also keep our gear off the plant beds and water features.
The exact spot depends on which spaces you book and how they're set that day, so we settle it with you once your layout is locked.
Size the dance floor for your crowd, not the room. A floor that's too big looks empty even with a full guest list, and people hang back at the edges. Put your dancers at the tables closest to the floor and the people who came to talk a little farther back. We go deeper on room setup in our 7 steps to make a dance party post.
You can get married in there too
Lauren & Jacob’s indoor ceremony on 9/12/2022
Our gig with Tyler & Dominic’s outdoor ceremony at Lauritzen Gardens 9/7/2024
Lauritzen rents its spaces à la carte, so you can book a ceremony only, a reception only, or both, in whatever mix of indoor rooms and outdoor gardens fits your day. A common setup is a ceremony out in the gardens, then dinner and dancing indoors. If the weather turns, the venue can move the ceremony inside to the Floral Display Hall or the Great Hall.
What matters to us is the flip. If the ceremony and reception are in different spaces, there's a window while guests move and staff reset, and that window needs its own music so it never goes silent. If they share a space, the room has to go from ceremony to reception fast. Either way, we plan the audio around that handoff so there's music the whole way through.
Cocktail hour
The Marjorie K. Daugherty Conservatory is the obvious spot, and the venue also points to the Mediterranean patio and the Cindy and Mogens Bay Gallery for gathering.
If your guests will be spread across more than one space, tell us which ones, so we can put a speaker where people will actually be standing.
We keep the music low enough to talk over while guests wander the gardens, then lift the energy as you move toward dinner.
If your guest count is big
The venue lists the Great Hall at up to 320 guests, with room to spill into the café and the Floral Display Hall at 250.
Past about 250 guests, a glass room needs extra speakers spread out toward the back. Otherwise the far tables get muddy sound and drift off the floor. If your number is climbing, tell us early and we'll scale the system to match.
Insider info: Wi-Fi, load-in, parking, end time
Wi-Fi is the one thing I flag every time at Lauritzen. The house connection isn't reliable. At one wedding in the hall, the mother-son dance came up and the song wouldn't play because it was still buffering. We got it sorted, and now we bring our own hotspot and download every song onto our gear before we walk in.
Load-in is through the side of the building, which is a much easier push to the room than the front. We bring our own power strips and confirm where the power drops sit relative to the booth during the walkthrough.
Guests won't be circling for a spot. The venue lists parking for 350 cars in the main parking gardens, plus 200 more in a lower-level lot.
Evening indoor rentals run from 6 p.m. to midnight, and the venue charges a fee for every five minutes you're on site after closing. Questions on any of this go to the rental coordinator at rentals@lauritzengardens.org (at the time of writing this).
FAQ
Can we use any DJ at Lauritzen Gardens, or is there an in-house company? You can use any DJ or band you want. The only exclusive vendor is the caterer, Abraham Catering. Your DJ, band, florist and photographer are all your choice.
Can we have the ceremony and reception at Lauritzen Gardens? Yes. Every rental space is booked à la carte, so you can do a ceremony only, a reception only, or both. The venue can move an outdoor ceremony inside if the weather turns.
Does Lauritzen Gardens provide a sound system? Plan on your DJ bringing the full system for the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. Some listings mention in-house sound, but we bring our own either way, sized to the rooms you book, because a glass room needs speakers placed for it.
How late can a Lauritzen Gardens wedding go? Evening indoor rentals end at midnight, with a late fee for every five minutes past close. Tell us your hard stop and we'll build the timeline backward from it, so the big moments and the peak dance stretch land before the lights come up. If you're deciding how long to make the reception, read our case for a 5-hour reception.
Getting married at Lauritzen Gardens?
We have a team of Omaha DJs ready to go. Meet our Nebraska wedding DJs, then tell us about your day.