Venue Search #2: Clark's Cove Farm in Walpole, ME

It's been a couple days since my last contribution to "The Groom's Take", and part of this has been dealing with my job as an adjunct instructor and working with my students on their first drafts of the semester. Always a time of the year where stress and tensions are high and I need to be able to keep a level head to help them through it. Since it's the weekend now and I have some free time with my poor fiancée putting in extra hours at work (I'm cooking family recipe crèpes for supper tonight to make that up to her), I'm going to catch up with documenting the venues we visited last weekend. Now that Greystone Manor is no longer an option (see the update on that post for more information), these venues take on even greater importance.

On Saturday, September 12th, 2009, Katelyn and I drove my car (leaking radiator coolant all the way) to Clark's Cove Farm in Walpole, Maine.

Clark's Cove Farm is another private residence, located near the Maine coast. Katelyn found it through online listings and we were so entranced by the laid-back, casual tone of the website that we knew we'd have to go check it out.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of a dreary day for our visit (and the radiator coolant issue wasn't helping), but we were very impressed by our guided tour from the owner, Tim Cheney. Clark's Cove Farm as a venue consists of a barn building, some waiting rooms and two apartments attached to the barn, a carriage house that can host up to six guests (perfect for those guests coming from out of town), an apple orchard, and the owner's personal residence.

One reflection that both Katelyn and I had on this venue is that it is quintessentially representative of Maine life. Growing up here as a Mainer, I used to go apple-picking every fall as the weather cooled down and the leaves began to change colors. Having free reign over this expansive property, including the orchard, would be a great way to show people from out of state what Maine has to offer.

We are going to be visiting the venue again in a few weeks to get a better sense of the color we could expect for an October wedding, but the types of trees on the property pretty much guarantee beautiful foliage. If we are lucky enough to have a nice day for the wedding ceremony, we would be able to choose just about any location on this expansive plot (including pond-side, orchard-side, and a few grassy areas near the barn) to have the actual ceremony. The amount of options available in terms of choosing a perfect spot in a single location is very appealing for us.

However, if the weather decides not to cooperate with us, we face potential issues with this venue in terms of having indoor space to accommodate everyone. There is a barn space that is well-shielded (and will be the main reception room), but our current wedding guest list goes well over 100 people and we wouldn't be able to have that many people sitting comfortably indoors. Similar to Greystone Manor, we would need to have a tent in mind in order to ensure that all of our guests would be able to witness the ceremony--an expense that adds considerable cost.

One of the most palatable features of Clark's Cove Farm is also a feature that makes the decision difficult for us to make. Renting Clark's Cove Farm as a venue allows us to use the apartment space and to have the freedom of choosing any decorations, caterers, photographers, and whatever else we need for the wedding. The rental fee is more than reasonable for the location and what is offered, but Katelyn and I will be pushing our wedding budget to secure the venue as well as get food, chairs, and all the other smaller things that will be needed for the ceremony. We haven't spoken to any of the local vendors in the area (recommendations for local business are only provided upon rental agreement), however, so we might not be facing as much expense as we are imagining.

The one thing that is difficult to convey in writing about this venue is that it has a certain something, a "je ne sais quoi" to use the language of my ancestors. It feels magical, it is supremely well-maintained, and the owners of the venue are so kind and amenable to requests. When we were finished looking at the venue, Katelyn and I had both fallen deeply in love with it and could vividly imagine our wedding day at the location.

Since it was the first venue we really fell in love with, and since Greystone Manor is now no longer an option, we do need to visit a selection of other potential venues in order to prove to ourselves that our love with Clark's Cove Farm is legitimate and not a result of just wanting to have a venue chosen so that we can be done with all of the headaches involved with looking for a place to get married. For my point of view (since I can't speak for Katelyn), I believe that Clark's Cove Farm is probably the best venue we've seen so far, and I would be willing to shell out more money (which is a tough call to make when I'm currently making so little) in order to secure this venue for our wedding.

As I've mentioned in this entry, we will be returning to the venue sometime around the end of September and beginning of October to take more pictures and get a better sense of the level of fall foliage we can expect for October 2010. At that time, we will have visited a few more venues in person and will hopefully have a better sense of how we feel about Clark's Cove Farm with a couple weeks under our belts from the first impression.

Let Katelyn and I know what you think about this venue by leaving comments on this blog entry in the comments box below. Your viewpoints and opinions may very well help us decide where we're going to stage this whole crazy wedding thing.

For more information on this venue (and better pictures than our dreary rainy day photos), visit http://www.mainereceptions.com/ or http://www.clarkscovefarm.com/. Walpole, ME is located about an hour and fifteen minutes from Portland, an hour and twenty minutes from Lewiston, and two hours and ten minutes from Bangor.