The Best Venues for Your Connecticut Spring Wedding!

It’s that time of year again… engagement season! Hundreds of thousands of couples are taking that exciting step forward in their story to make their union officially official. After the champagne has been had, the confetti tossed, and the cheeks back to normal after the palpable smiling, you get ready to dive into planning. First up: your Spring wedding venue!

The real first and most important step is mulling over the ideas in your head to determine where exactly you would like to host this monumental day. Once you’ve had the opportunity to explore options granted to you, you will have a better idea of just WHEN you should notify your friends and family to break out their dancing shoes to come to celebrate with you. Connecticut has quite a list of exceptional venues set in a variety of locations to fit your personality and needs. We are here to give you, our faithful readers, a list of the best of the best. Since many of our Spring wedding couples are gearing up for their day, we’ll start there!

Spring Wedding Venue Must-Haves and Considerations

• Tenting Capabilities: Every year, it seems like winter creeps further and further into what should be the warmer months. April showers should bring May flowers, but often times we are still seeing snow showers in April and we haven’t wrapped our minds around it yet. The reality is: a Connecticut wedding can impose unexpected weather! Even with a light drizzle, rain can put a damper on some big plans you’ve made. Make sure your space can accommodate a tent if your guest count is on the larger side and you’re aiming for any aspect of your ceremony or reception to be outdoors. This makes Plan B is just as perfect as Plan A.
• Indoor Rain Plan for Small Guest Counts: If you’re hosting a more intimate celebration, you may feel comfortable shifting part or all of your event indoors in the case of inclement weather. Consider what this plan might look like at your potential venue, and whether or not that’s something you would enjoy or be able to customize with your design team!
• Availability: Many locations have a strict season, particularly May (think Memorial Day Weekend, which is the unofficial start to summer) through November, so be sure to double-check you can host your wedding during the time frame you most desire.
• Noise ordinance: Because a portion, if not all of your event can take place outdoors, it’s important to note the noise ordinance of that town to coordinate the end of the event time appropriately. While getting shut down due to noise is a sign of a great party, we’d rather you be dancing until the very last song!

Top 10 Locations Perfect for Your Connecticut Spring Wedding Venue!

Penfield Pavilion

Located in Fairfield and set right on the beach, this venue features a covered patio overlooking the water, creating the perfect backdrop to your event — I mean PERFECT. It’s even better for those cozy, outdoor dinners with your nearest and dearest. Set for up to 180 or 300 guests depending on event style, the venue offers some rentals and heat or AC depending on the time of year!

The Lace Factory

Centrally located between New York and Boston in the quaint, quiet town of Deep River, the Lace Factory is the most beautiful industrial location in the state. There are a few settings within the venue perfect for every moment of your wedding day, including the courtyard just outside for a ceremony. Guests can even enjoy scenes of the Connecticut River when arriving by the Essex Steam Train (oh yes!!), adding further to the charm of this venue. Ideal for up to 200 guests to celebrate all night long or the opportunity to design distinct spaces in the main space for your ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, and dance floor for a small guest count!

Mine Hill Distillery

Roxbury is one of those small towns of Connecticut filled with plenty of history and the nicest people! It also has a special venue in the Mine Hill Distillery, a location boasting four different buildings and riverfront scenery ideal for small intimate dinner parties up to large weddings under a tent. Elliott, the man behind this idea will be one of your dearest friends by the end of your time with this venue. An 1872 train station that has been given some love brings the right level of history and design together in one place.

Eolia Mansion

Located right in Waterford, this may be one of our favorite mansions in Connecticut (there are a few to brag about!) because of it’s exquisite drive up. The estate is surrounded by perfectly cared for gardens and shrubbery at every turn, including its two picturesque ceremony settings. Between the venue’s stained glass and floor to ceiling windows are acres of lawn that lead to the Long Island Sound. Perfect for smaller guests, but no more than 150 and offering few tables and chairs and a covered stone patio for even more entertaining opportunities. A few of our favorite Eolia Wedding galleries are located right here, but be sure to check out the blog to see the versatility of this sweet spot!

photos: Katie Slater Photography

Wadsworth Mansion

Built in 1900 as a country summer residence, the historic mansion in Middletown has been sustained for elegant, personalized weddings. Their doors are open to intimate celebrations throughout their multiple rooms or large weddings for up to 200 guests. If all your friends and family will be joining you, their rolling green lawns and the postcard-worthy backdrop of the mansion make for the perfect tent setting. You can check out all the ways we’ve loved on the Wadsworth Mansion here!

photos: Brigham & Co. Photography

Audobon Greenwich

One of the best Fairfield County venues with 360 degrees of immaculate views. Their picturesque barn is perfect for an intimate crowd of up to 90 guests, accompanied by an idyllic lawn perfect for cocktail hour or a ceremony. As if the Audobon Greenwich in’t perfect enough, they are also exclusively catered by On the Marc, a Connecticut and New York staple for creative, flavorful food! Nothing says farm to table quite like this Connecticut wedding venue!

Mayflower Grace Hotel

Perfect for the more intimate event with your nearest and dearest, this Washington space boasts charming settings throughout their hotel. We’re thrilled to revisit this venue, and will surely include it on some lists aside from our Spring wedding selections as they’ve just added a gorgeous custom Sperry Tent to their back lawn overlooking the pond!

There isn’t one area of this entire property that isn’t dripping in natural beauty, especially when it comes to their gardens! The lush Shakespeare Garden is the most perfect ceremony backdrop, but this can be your backdrop should you opt to host a grander wedding with more of your loved ones. Set for a more intimate affair, treat your guests to a scrumptious and memorable menu in their Garden Room, set perfectly for up to 40 guests. For a slightly heartier guest list, their tent is the perfect location, and if I may say so, one of our favorite tents ever. You know how much we love a good tented wedding! You can see it here!

photos: carla ten eyck photography

J House

While Connecticut houses some of the most natural settings perfect for any aesthetic or vision, it also has some modern spaces up its sleeves. The J House in Greenwich is one of the newer, more contemporary locations that offer the coolest settings for your ceremony and reception for up to 150 guests. From open terraces completely untouched by any surrounding buildings or skylines to their open-air patio specked with greenery and soft lighting. With all the outdoor possibilities, J House mirrors the number of opportunities to host your event indoors in one of their upscale restaurants or dining spaces! The beauty here is the flexibility to make it your own. The different moments of your day are 10x more memorable with a venue as unique as this one here!

The Hickories

The Hickories is a gem of a venue and for many reasons one that we like to assimilate ourselves with. As a working farm growing fresh, organic vegetables, fruits, and flowers, The Hickories is dedicated to sustainability, all of which can be used in some capacity for your event. Farm to table was never so literal (or delicious)! Choose from their rustic 1800s barn, the farmhouse lawn, or their one-acre trout pond as the perfect setting for one of your life’s biggest memories!

Florence Griswold Museum

Home to a variety of Impressionist and contemporary artists, this Old Lyme museum offers many perfect choices for your event. You have the option to enjoy the indoor atmosphere surrounded by classic art and well-curated exhibits or the views of the Lieutenant River from the stone patio or Miss Florence’s charming garden — or both! It is a Spring wedding, after all, and Mother Nature can be unruly. One of our favorite weddings was set at the FloGris on Hurricane Irene back in the day. We’d love to tell you about it sometime or you can check it out here! photos: carla ten eyck photography

Though the list stops at 10 there are many, many venues throughout the state that would be perfect for a Spring wedding. You may seem them again in future seasonal posts because they lend the perfect level of personality and unique opportunity for couples to bring their story to life for their wedding day! And don’t think this is where it all ends in our beautiful New England state. Keep reading for more venues based on your season. You never know where you might fall in love!