Sans Chocolat

I’m planning a wedding in Massachusetts — specifically, in the Boston area, Massachusetts.  It’s not going to be the typical wedding and I’ve got a lot of offbeat resources (so far) we’re just not going to use for all over the North Shore region, some into the Central Massachusetts region, and some in the South of Boston area.  Why not share the vendors we’ve come across?  I’ll be updating this page a lot, and I’ll try to do it so that the newest updates are at the top of the page.  If you have any questions, email me at pahoehoe12 (at) yahoo (dot) com, or leave a message in the comments and I’ll email you!

Caterers

I’ve moved this content to Bukisa!  Please go here to see my reviews: Massachusetts Wedding Vendors: Caterers

Venues

A quick note about searching for venues: If you don’t know where to start, try looking for an area caterer.  One of the first searches I did was for vegetarian catering because I wanted to see if anything like that was available.  Not only did I find a neat caterer, but the caterer ever so kindly included a list of their preferred venues.  Or, if you don’t know any caterers in your area, find a historical venue in your area — they’ll usually have a list of preferred caterers.  Then check out each of those caterers and see if they have any preferred venues.  Then those venues will lead you to even MORE caterers, which will give you more venues.  For starters, look at this giant list of venues. And I don’t even know if that caterer is any good!  Here’s another giant list of venues, but this one’s unaffiliated with a caterer, and sorted by area code.

Camp Kiwanee, Hanson, Massachusetts

This is our venue!  After all that effort looking for places in the North Shore region, we went with a place that’s south of Boston instead.  Please read my review of it here!

Robbins Library Reading Room, Arlington, Massachusetts

Pros: It’s a beautiful, beautiful room in an old library, built in the Italian Renaissance style.  It’s right next to the town hall, with a garden in between, so you could conceivably get married in the garden and have your reception here, or vice versa.  It’s pretty affordable, as far as wedding venues go, at $200-250/hour.

Cons: It’s super small, holding only 50 for a seated dinner, and 90 for a ceremony.  It’s in the main part of town, so there are no panoramic views or anything, and parking is limited.  Also, because it’s a library, you can only have it after regular library hours, so that limits your time.

Thoughts: Unless you’re having a small wedding and you’re a well-known bookworm, this venue isn’t worth it for a wedding.  There are a lot of regulations and not a lot of flexibility.  But if you ARE a well-known bookworm, I can’t think of any better library to have a wedding in.

Museum of National Heritage, Lexington, Massachusetts [UPDATE 3/6/09: their website is down, and I'm not sure why.  I'll keep checking back with them]

Pros: Visiting the museum is free, so your guests could walk through the museum while you’re getting your pictures done and learn about U.S. History. That’s pretty cool.  Although we’ve never been in person, the website tells me that it’s beautifully landscaped and on quite a bit of land, so that’s another thing it’s got going for it.  And as far as I can remember, it was fairly inexpensive to rent, coming in somewhere in the $1000-2000 range, but I don’t have the exact figure.  There’s an auditorium so you can get married inside and then move to the conference room for the reception, or you can get married on the grounds somewhere and move inside afterward.

Cons: It has more of a business feel than a wedding feel, like it’s better suited to conferences.  Also, the function coordinator is hard to get a hold of and kind of rude on the phone.

Thoughts: Super cool if you’re a history buff, and probably pretty unique.  They ARE a non-profit museum, though, so be prepared to DIY.

Codman Carriage House, Lincoln, Massachusetts

Pros: This place has the most beautiful garden I’ve ever seen, which is what that picture above is showing.  It’s called the Italian Garden, and has fragrant plants, a reflecting pool, and two Italian arbors.  I felt like I was stepping into A Midsummer Night’s Dream when we visited.   The garden is behind a beautiful old historic home, and the giant meadow in front of the home and carriage house is gorgeous as well.  And it’s right down the street from Walden Pond and the Concord town line, and we all know how much I love Concord.

Cons: The beautiful historic home is off limits; the carriage house is where you can have your reception, but it’s small (holds 75 for dinner) and carpeted, so you’d have to rent a dance floor.  If you want more guests, you rent a tent and place the tent adjacent to the carriage house on the gravel driveway.  If you’re serving alcohol or your event ends at night, you have to have a police detail at your wedding.  The local train runs directly past the Italian Garden — you can’t see it, but you better not schedule your ceremony during train times.  And there’s no air conditioning in the carriage house, and only two windows.

Thoughts: It costs $1600 to rent, including the carriage house and gardens.  If you can afford it, and if you don’t mind the gravel on the driveway, renting a tent and dance floor is the way to go.  But if you’re just going to use the gardens and have the reception elsewhere, it doesn’t seem worth it.  Seth and I almost booked this place, it was so beautiful.  It was ultimately too small for what we wanted, and too big for our budget.

Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Boylston, Massachusetts

Pros: This place has a couple of different spaces for weddings, including the Orangerie pictured above, which is a very pretty greenhouse.  Also, because it’s a garden, you’ll have to do minimal decorating, even in the winter.

Cons: It’s quite expensive for a low-budget wedding, coming in at $4800 for four hours.  I believe this is one of the more popular wedding venues, so you’d have to book early.  Also, we never visited, so I can’t tell you more.  The price alone was enough to deter us.

Thoughts: If we had the budget for it, we would have gone to see this place in person and gotten more information.  Their website isn’t the best in terms of details, and if I recall, they had some restrictions on holding a wedding on the grounds.

Essex Conference Center and Retreat, Essex, Massachusetts

Pros: The setting is beautiful.  They take good care of their grounds and gardens, and are all about the outdoor wedding.  You can rent out the entire conference center for your wedding and have some of your guests stay with you that weekend, which is pretty awesome.  The best part for me was knowing that they’re open to any kind of marriage, traditional or non-traditional.  Also, they’re committed to the environment.

Cons: The price, I believe, was $3000 for use of the grounds and tent.  There are no indoor weddings, and you have to use their caterer which could be expensive but I don’t know since I didn’t ask for a menu.

Thoughts: Another place that was out of our budget but looked amazing.  This was my top choice for a while.  Oh well.

Winnekenni Castle, Haverhill, Massachusetts

Pros: It’s a castle, and it’s set back from the road, and it has a great big meadow for a front lawn.  You can’t get more picturesque than that.  It has a built in dance floor and lots of windows.  It’s cheap for a castle, coming in at $200/hour during the wedding season, and $200 for a four hour block during the off season.

Cons: It’s ugly on the inside.  The walls are mauve colored and the flooring looks cheap, and that picture above is the most flattering view of the room.  If you stood in that corner where the round stairwell is, you’d see that the room just kind of merges into a long hallway, and some of your guests would have to sit over there.  Also, although the front lawn is gorgeous, it has a giant bronze deer statue in the middle.  When you’re driving up to the castle, your first view is of some really run-down outbuildings.  There’s a caretaker who lives on site in one of the outbuildings, and she’s just awful.

Thoughts: I wrote plenty about this already, right here.

Parish Center for the Arts, Westford, Massachusetts

Pros: It’s quite pretty.  It looks like an old church from the outside, and then you walk inside and see those old wood floors and high ceilings and stained glass windows.  The price is more than reasonable, at $40 an hour, and there’s no minimum for events.  Also, in addition to this big room, there’s a smaller room off to the side, and an upstairs gallery type of room, and a kitchen, so there’s plenty of space to run around.  It holds 100-125, depending on your table arrangement.  I’m not sure if that includes room for dancing.  Also, it’s handicapped accessible.

Cons: It’s super popular for everything, including play groups and school theatre shows and yoga classes and whatnot, so they might not have your date available.  Also, that means that things get dinged up.  Every year in August, they refinish the floors and repaint the hall, so if you have a wedding here in June, it’s not going to be as beautiful as it looks in this picture, but in September it will look like this.  In addition, the windows do not open, and they have no air conditioning.  Heat, yes.  Air conditioning?  No.  In addition, there’s no outdoor space here.  It’s right across from the green on the main street of the town, so you could have a quick ceremony on the green and then walk here for a reception, or have the ceremony onstage inside and have your people all seated at their tables.  Or have your ceremony here and then go elsewhere for a reception.  Oh well.  And the last bad news of the venue is that they give you the space and you do everything else.  They have some tables and chairs, but I’m not sure if they have everything you’ll need, and you have to do the setting up and cleaning up.

Thoughts: It’s super cute.  It would take some finagling to get everything right.  I’d be more inclined to have a smaller (50-75 people) reception here, or a larger ceremony here and have the reception somewhere else.  Basically, I could give or take it.

Veasey Memorial Park, Groveland, Massachusetts

• Pros: Quaint.  It’s an old church and home, and it’s full of interested details like a glacial rock fireplace and this refurbished chapel, among other things.  It has lots of character.  It also has lots of indoor (for up to 100, I believe) and outdoor space, including several places for a ceremony, walking trails, a mini playground for the kids, and a pretty good view when the leaves are all up.  It’s cheap to rent at about $1000 for the whole building and grounds for 5 hours, and they have varying price levels depending on what you want and for how long.  It’s set back from the road, and has quite a bit of parking.
• Cons: It smells a little funny because it’s old and it was used as a camp and a women’s shelter for a while, and buildings apparently don’t give up that scent easily.  Also, it’s not suitable for an outdoor reception because the ground is so uneven and your guests will be walking up and down mini rolling hills.  It’s a public park, which means people can come and walk around whenever they want, including during your reception.  The staff said they’ll keep people away from your wedding, but can’t stop them from walking on the trails, so watch out for wedding crashers.  Also, there’s only one staff member, and it’s a non-profit, so don’t expect the kind of service you’d get at a hotel.
• Thoughts: That blue carpeting in the refurbished chapel reminds me of school, and not in a good way.  Also, the staff member was a bit disorganized, which gives me pause.  I think if you were going to DIY everything, this would be an excellent place.

The Lodge at Fort Pond, Littleton, Massachusetts

• Pros: They quoted us a great price: $450 for the entire day!  They have two big rooms for use.  One is shown in pictures on the website, one is not.  They’re right on the lake, secluded, and they have enough space for an outdoor ceremony.    They include (rectangular) tables and chairs for 100 people, and they have a big professional kitchen.  You can decorate any way you want.  Their contact person is nice and generally responds very quickly.
• Cons: They’re kind of rustic, in a homey way.  The second of the two rooms is VERY rustic — dark pine ceilings and walls, fluorescent lighting.  I believe they’re going to redo the lighting in that room in the next year or so, but don’t quote me on that.  Their outdoor space is small, and there are cabins encroaching on your view, so it’s not the most scenic place ever.  You’d have to do some cleanup if you want the outside to look somewhat romantic (i.e. removing plastic lawn chairs, draping fabric underneath the deck, etc.).
• Thoughts: This place is good for a more casual, more DIY wedding.  They’re not going to cater to your every need, but they’ll probably try to help however they can.  They seem nice, and it’s hard to find a better price.

The Stevens Estate, North Andover, Massachusetts

• Pros: Beautiful location.  The house itself is gorgeous from the outside, and gorgeous on the inside, and there are woods everywhere.  The outdoor ceremony site is very pretty as well.  It’s somewhat low-priced, coming in at $1200 for the mansion only and $1800[NOTE: It looks like they raised their prices to $3800 for the entire mansion, see comments for more details] for the mansion and grounds, including a big tent.  They also have a pool, so if that’s your thing, you can get your guests in the pool (for an additional fee).  China and linens are included .
• Cons: The have a tent permanently set up outside, so if you’re not using the tent, it’s still going to be set up right outside the function room door.  I mean, we’re talking 10 steps away.  The tent is pretty ugly, as most tents are.  The function room was an addition onto the house, so it doesn’t have the character the house has, and it looks like it won’t hold more than 100 people.  Dancing would be in another room.  Also, we went during an open house and left our name with the staff, who promised the function coordinator would get back to us, but he/she never did.  I normally wouldn’t put that under cons (because you never know what might’ve happened), but I’ve read many bad reviews of this place due specifically to the function coordinator, so I’m chalking it up to that.
• Thoughts: The bad reviews I’ve read throw me off.  It looks like it could work, but we haven’t talked to any staff people, so I don’t know if it’s the same regime or what.  Also, there are some extra fees that I wasn’t crazy about: $25/hr for the day-of coordinator with a 2 hour minimum; $150 for a bartender for 4 hours, and it’s required that you have 1 bartender for every 50 guests, and it’s required that you have an open bar. I believe it’s a town ordinance.  Also, the town is a beer/wine only kind of town, so no hard liquor for your wedding.

Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, Massachusetts

• Pros: Cute!  Quirky, full of fun.  The museum is a small stone building that used to be a waterwheel.  It’s got lots of neat architectural details like old, wrought-iron chandeliers and exposed beam ceilings.  It’s cheap at $900 for use of the grounds and inside, and $1200 if you’re going to use a tent.  The facility coordinator is somewhat eclectic, but very nice and seems like she would be helpful.  There’s enough space for a small outdoor ceremony or a small outdoor reception, or both if you have a cocktail hour indoors so the caterers can set up the reception outside.
• Cons: Rental cost doesn’t include tables or chairs, so that doubles the price right there.  There’s a weird sort of smell that comes from the water right behind the museum (I think) — it’s not noticeable anywhere but in the parking lot.  Also, the museum is right next to the commuter rail; you’d need to make sure your outdoor ceremony isn’t scheduled for a time when the commuter rail runs.  It’s not a busy railway on weekends (once every 4 hours, I think), but it could be a problem.  And finally, you can’t have a wedding at the same time that the museum is open, and it’s open in the middle of the day on weekends.  That means night weddings only.
• Thoughts: We loved this place.  We almost put down a deposit for it, but then changed our minds about what we wanted our wedding to be like.  It’s pretty popular, not only for weddings but for other local functions, so plan far in advance and be flexible with your date.  Also, there are only two windows in the main gallery, but even though there’s not a lot of natural light, it feels open and airy because of the cathedral ceilings.  Just saying.

Concord Scout House, Concord, Massachusetts

• Pros: Price!  $90/hr with a 5 hour minimum for your event.  That includes the use of the hall, tables and chairs.  This place is an old-fashioned dance hall, so it’s pretty and quaint and kind of vintagey-feeling.  Seth and I never went to see it, so I can’t say much for how it looks in person.  However, in the picture above, the photo-taker is standing on a stage — see the website for more pictures of that.  But the price and website alone were enough to make me fall in love with this place.  Their website is quite detailed about what you can and can’t do, and the pricing and everything, and their contact person responds quickly.
• Cons: No use of the outdoors.  Period.  You’d have to have your ceremony elsewhere, or inside (possibly on the stage?), and then break it down to have the reception.  Also, you’d need to tell your guests to wear non-marking shoes, since it is a dance hall and they’re trying to keep that nice old vintagey feeling.  Also, this place is popular for dances (obviously) and church group meetings and birthday parties and whatnot, so book early.  They have time limitations for night parties, so it’s better suited for a day reception because you can’t dance all night.  And finally, you need to do your own cleanup.  They give you the space and you have to do everything else.
• Thoughts: I can’t say much about it, but their website and contact person make me feel like this place is good for people who have OCD tendencies when it comes to event-planning (like me).  It’s certainly worth checking out if you want a neat, offbeat venue.

Andover Town House, Andover, Massachusetts

• Pros: Price!  $650-$750 for a wedding here, including tables and chairs.  They can seat 150 banquet-style, which is nice.  Usually you don’t see that pricing for that size wedding.  The house itself looks pretty.  Again, this is a place Seth and I haven’t visited but came across online.  Their contact person is quick to respond and gave me a nice PDF packet of information with some more pictures than just the one on the website.
• Cons: Another place with no outdoor property to call its own.  They also have a stage where you could possibly have the wedding, and the contact person said you could use the park down the street.  This one isn’t as exciting as the dance hall because their website isn’t great.
• Thoughts: Couldn’t hurt to check it out, right?  It looks promising.

Alfalfa Farm and Winery, Topsfield, Massachusetts

• Pros: It’s a winery.  It’s awesome thinking about getting married at a winery.  It looks pretty and happy and sunny and fun, and they have an indoor space and an outdoor space and they can hold about 80.
• Cons: Well for starters, they haven’t updated their events page on their website since 2006.  Then, when I contacted them, they got my name wrong (by calling me “Christina.”  I hate that.) and wouldn’t answer my question, which was “How MUCH?”  Instead, they asked how many people we were having, so when I told them, they said their space wasn’t suited to our wedding size and still didn’t give me a price.  Even though I could have cut my reception down to their size.  I felt like I was given the major brush-off.  And as the kicker, Seth was driving to a friend’s house and passed by the place which was right next to the highway.  Not near the highway, or by the highway.  It was next to it.  We live next to the highway; we don’t want the dulcet tones of the highway on our wedding day.
• Thoughts: I’m willing to give this place the benefit of the doubt on their communication skills.  But judging from the proximity to the highway, it might be better suited for a barbecue than a wedding.

Concord Museum, Concord, Massachusetts

• Pros: It’s a museum, it’s in Concord.  It fits 80-100 people (depending on your type of reception).  Did I mention it’s in Concord?  Right near the Orchard House and The Wayside and the Old North Bridge and the Minuteman National Park and Walden Pond and the Ralph Waldo Emerson House?  Isn’t that enough?  Well, I suppose if you must know, there is an outdoor area available that can accomodate more people.  Oh, and the contact person is helpful and responds quickly.
• Cons: Parking can be an issue if you have too many people.  If you want an indoor reception, you shouldn’t have dancing because the acoustics are so good that the sound of your feet gets magnified.  And I don’t know the price.  Oh, and it’s right by the road.  It’s not a terribly busy road, and perhaps the outdoor event site is far enough away from the road that it doesn’t matter, but I wouldn’t know because we haven’t visited in person.
• Thoughts: I’m undecided.  Maybe if I had a better picture and more information on the website, I would be more inclined to go with something.

Thoreau Center, Concord, Massachusetts

• Pros: It’s in Concord.  That’s a big pro right there.  It also has 2896750302576768402 things to do that you can see on their brochure, like two swimming pools, several walking trails, and lots of sporting equipment included in your rental cost. They have a tent that you can use, and picnic tables, as is evidenced from the picture above.  They can also accommodate up to 500 people.  They’re on the high end of inexpensive, at $28 per person with a minimum of $2200, and they offer discounts for groups over 175 people and for events held in the fall from mid-September on.  That’s nice.  If you use the contact form on their website, someone gets back to you quickly.  There’s plenty of parking.
• Cons: No partying until the wee hours; they close at dusk.  There’s no indoor facility, so if you get unseasonably cold weather, you have to stick it out in the fully-enclosed tent they own.
• Thoughts: The contact person said that prices will change, and the price she quoted me is from last season (2008).  They’re putting together some “all-inclusive” packages, which makes me think that things are not as all-inclusive as they appear at first.  I’ve never been to this place, but I would be willing to check it out if it wasn’t out of our price range.