The venue search finally concludes with our visit to The 1812 Farm of Seacoast Maine in Bristol, Maine. Join us for the last venue search write-up!
In retrospect, as I look back at our history with the 1812 Farm of Seacoast Maine (hereafter referred to as simply "1812 Farm" for the sake of my fingers), I feel that it is perhaps the most tragic of our venues. It was one of the first places we contacted when we began our venue search, but due to a whole host of reasons (none involving the venue or owners) we were just never able to visit until we went down yesterday. Perhaps if we had seen it earlier in our travels, we would've placed it in our front-runner position and we would be looking at a completely different result today (but more on that later). Nevertheless, we were finally able to visit the 1812 Farm, and it lived up to its billing as a very nice venue in the Damariscotta region.
The 1812 Farm is about ten minutes away from Clark's Cove Farm, and there are some similarities. The 1812 Farm also features a barn for the reception area, though it is much larger than the barn at Clark's Cove Farm and comes furnished with chairs and tables. The barn reception area is very cool, with candelabra and a neat cupola in the ceiling. This reception space is very well-kept and can accomodate a good number of guests as well as a dance floor area.
The owners of the 1812 Farm also run catering, so you can use in-house catering or they do allow people to use caterers from off-site. This convenience is very nice and is a great asset for the venue in terms of how flexible you want to be with your food.
Since we were trying to get an all-in-one venue, however, it was necessary to move into the back yard and check out the 1812 Farm's ceremony sites. While there is a lot of space in the yard and the owners are flexible as to where you can have your ceremony if you decide to do it outside, this is one area that was not as strong in our opinions. The 1812 Farm is located on a main road, which means that traffic noise can be an issue even though there is a fence set up to try and block that noise pollution for the back yard area. As we were walking around, an ambulance darted past on the road with sirens blaring; again, if this happened during our vows, it would be an interruption.
Aside from that, while the yard at the 1812 Farm certainly is pretty, it doesn't possess very interesting characteristics. There is a pond in front of the ceremony site, which is nice, but there isn't a lot of variety to the type of space, which makes it difficult to plan out where wedding photographs would be taken in terms of trying to work with the natural aspects of the venue instead of the venue buildings.
I'm having a little bit of trouble discussing the 1812 Farm because it is a very strong venue and perhaps the only reason we're not strongly considering it is because we were prejudiced by our earlier visit to Clark's Cove Farm. In many ways, the venues are similar, especially since each venue offers a barn-type reception area, a deck area, and outdoor ceremony space. Since the venues are located just ten minutes from one another, they are also in the same general area of Maine as well. Had we not known about Clark's Cove Farm or had we visited 1812 Farm earlier in our search, there is a good chance we would be getting married here.
However, because of the order in which we saw the venues and because by the time we called 1812 Farm they only had October 16th and October 30th available (though this may have changed by now, so don't quote me on it!), getting married in Bristol, Maine just wasn't going to work out for us. I do feel a little guilty, because a good part of me knew this even before we met up with the owner yesterday on-site. I feel bad for not disclosing that even though her venue was perfectly nice and a great place to get married, there was perhaps a 0.01% chance of us doing so. But I am glad that we went to see it in person, because I would recommend it to somebody getting married in this area.
The last bit of information I'll leave with you, readers, is that you should be sure to call the 1812 Farm in advance if you are planning on visiting. The venue is very popular and part of the reason that we weren't able to see it very early on is because they do seem to have a lot of weddings going on. If you contact them in advance and plan for a slower Sunday instead of a busy Saturday, however, your chances of being able to plan a meeting increase greatly.
More information and photographs of The 1812 Farm of Seacoast Maine can be found at the venue's website, http://www.the1812farm.com/ordereze/default.aspx. The 1812 Farm of Seacoast Maine 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.
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