Top 10 Key West Wedding Venues

If you are planning to tie the knot in Key West, Florida, make sure your piece of paradise becomes a unique moment in time you will cherish for a lifetime by choosing one of these 10 most popular Key West wedding venues.

1. Mallory Square
2. Key West Sunset Sail Wedding
3. Key West Botanical Gardens
4. Key West Beach Wedding
5. Casa Marina
6. Ernest Hemingway House
7. San Carlos Institute
8. Southernmost Point
9. Southernmost House
10. Key West Butterfly Conservatory

Mallory Square Wedding

Key West, Florida and gorgeous sunsets are synonymous so it is no wonder that one of the most popular Key West wedding venues is available nightly at Mallory Square dock in Old Town. As the sun dips below the horizon, you and your beloved will exchange kisses to the cheers and applause of hundreds of onlookers. The special treatment is not reserved for weddings, however. The crowd cheers everynight when the sun disappears.

Key West Sunset Sail Wedding

If public weddings are not your cup of tea, Key West Sailing Adventures offers a popular Key West wedding venue that is just the opposite. If you like, the only sound to be heard during your wedding could be the lapping of waves against the bow of a sailboat or yacht as you cruise the Florida straits off Key West. One of the most popular Key West wedding venue options is their two-hour Wedding at Sea. Key West Sailing Adventures also offers a three-day, two-night wedding/honeymoon cruise from Florida to the Bahamas.

Key West Botanical Gardens Wedding

Another popular Key West wedding venue is the Key West Botanical Gardens. This lush mini-rainforest bills itself as the "only frost free botanical garden in Florida". The garden society offers traditional weddings during the day, but more popular are the nighttime ceremonies where couples exchange vows beneath the stars, stroll on the nature trails, and dance the night away under palms swaying in the tropical Florida breeze.

Key West Beach Wedding

A wedding on a Florida beach is a romantic dream for many couples and the beaches on the island are popular Key West wedding venues. There are two main public beaches where the majority of beach weddings occur. Smathers Beach is the more picturesque and stretches for a couple miles on the south side of the island. Higgs Beach only runs for a few blocks, but it has a pier and a large pavilion that can host weddings. Unfortunately, these two beaches face south, meaning sunset weddings are practically nil. But depending on the time of year, beach sunrise marriages have become popular Key West wedding venues. South Beach, situated at the Atlantic end of Duval Street, is only about 100 feet across and has a restaurant on site as well as a pier. The beach is popular with tourists that end up there after walking down Duval Street. It is also popular with locals. Playwright Tennessee Williams visited South Beach daily when he resided in Florida.

Casa Marina Wedding

When Henry Flagler built the overseas railroad from the Florida mainland to Key West, he realized he needed accommodations suitable for the affluent travelers he was transporting over 120 miles of open water. The result was the spectacular Casa Marina resort. The Casa Marina has been a popular Key West wedding venue almost since it opened in the 1920s. The resort boasts the island's largest private beach and has a staff assigned solely to wedding planning. The historic main building practically shouts old Florida elegance and charm. A wedding on the pristine beach here, followed by a reception in the expansive ballroom, will preserve a one-of-a kind memory of a bygone era.

Ernest Hemingway House Wedding

Author Ernest Hemingway spent a great deal of time in Florida and resided in Key West for more than ten years. His home is now a popular Key West wedding venue. The home is literally in the shadow of the Key West Lighthouse and only a few blocks from the Southernmost Point, another popular Key West wedding venue.
The tropical architecture with a Spanish flair lends a romantic aura to the Hemingway themed weddings with such names as "Romance in the Afternoon" and "The Cat's Meow", named in honor of Hemingway's famous six-toed cats.

San Carlos Institute Wedding

If a wedding against a backdrop of Spanish colonial splendor is your fantasy, then the historic San Carlos Institute should be on your list of popular Key West wedding venues. The San Carlos Institute was originally built as a Cuban heritage center and housed a theater, school and civic center. It was the centerpiece of a critical moment in the move for Cuban independence in 1892 when patriot Jose Marti delivered a rousing speech there during a visit to Florida. After years of decay, the Institute underwent a magnificent restoration at its location on Duval Street in the heart of old Key West. If you are looking to spice up your ceremony with a Latin accent, don't miss this popular Key West wedding venue.

Southernmost Point Wedding

"Key West Casual" doesn't just mean wearing tropical shirts and sandals. It's a way of life on the island. Even still most weddings have some degree of formality, even at the beach. But for a completely casual and spontaneous ceremony, the Southernmost Point can't be beat. This popular Key West wedding venue is only for those who are looking for a quick ceremony and photo opportunity. The location is very busy, but sunrise is generally an excellent time for a tourist-free express ceremony. This is one of the few locations where photographs can be made most of time at either sunrise or sunset, since the point faces south, east and west onto the open water of the Florida Straits.

Southernmost House Wedding

Less than a block from the Southernmost Point is another popular Key West wedding venue, the Southernmost House. The opulent, grand Victorian mansion, set on a tropical beach, makes for a storybook wedding. The house is a grandiose bed and breakfast and offers many options for weddings, ranging from reserving the entire mansion to just a single part of it such as the Oceanfront Deck, the Southernmost Veranda or the Hemingway Salon, all popular Key West wedding venues.

Key West Butterfly Conservatory Wedding

Billed as the number one destination wedding location in the Florida Keys, the Key West Butterfly Conservatory has indeed become one of the most popular Key West wedding venues. The conservatory has a gazebo inside used almost exclusively for weddings and the facility only books weddings after closing to ensure privacy. And for a romantic coup d'etat, a butterfly release is arranged to coincide with the completion of the ceremony.