Venue Search #1: Greystone Manor in Cape Neddick, ME

One of the "fun" things about getting engaged is that you then need to figure out where the hell you're going to have the wedding.  A number of considerations need to be made, ranging from how many people will be able to make it to the venue (particularly when you have a groom from Maine and a bride from Michigan) to how much money you can afford to put down.  Oh yeah, you need to make sure that it's the kind of place that will be memorable for years after the ceremony and suitable for the tastes of the couple too.

On Saturday, September 5th, 2009, Katelyn and I visited our first potential venue: Greystone Manor in Cape Neddick, ME.

This lovely 1850's-era manor is located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in Cape Neddick, ME, just a few miles away from York Beach.  It is a privately-owned property and one of my college friends just happens to be a member of the family that owns it.  We visited him for his yearly end-of-summer party and to gauge the suitability of the manor for our wedding.

As you can tell from the above picture, Greystone is a fairly imposing building and has great exterior beauty.  Numerous weddings are held here every summer, though not many are held in our target month of October.  The grounds here are quite expansive, with plenty of room for parking on the opposite side of the building and a spacious yard area where this photo is taken from.

Katelyn and I had rose-tinted goggles on when we came down to Greystone, having been regaled with stories about how many bedrooms are located in the manor and how we could host a good number of people in the manor on the weekend of the wedding.  This was a great selling point for us initially, as we have many guests coming from outside of Maine and the idea of being able to host them all at the wedding location is definitely appealing.

However, upon viewing the interior of the building, it became clear that this was not a venue that we could use to host our out-of-town guests.  There are no bedrooms on the ground floor, making it a difficult situation in regards to hosting older guests who may have trouble negotiating the stairs.  Also, while there are many beds in the manor, there are an equal number of mattresses without frames in spare rooms that would not be the most comfortable accomodations for our guests.  The manor is certainly well-equipped to host casual parties (like the one we were attending), but there is a bit of a difference in levels of formality from the exterior to the interior.  This changed our thinking about the manor from an all-in-one venue to a venue for the ceremony and reception only with guests looking for accomodations in the surrounding York area.

The ground floor itself is very well-furnished and has a good tone to it, but this also has the double-edged effect of ruling out the interior of the building from being a ceremony site in the event of inclement weather.  Most wedding parties rent out a large tent for their reception/ceremony rain site, and this is the same plan we would have to put into place if we decided to have our wedding at Greystone.  The cost of renting tents, chairs, and tables is definitely something that needs to be considered even though my relationship to the family of the owners could result in somewhat favorable rental rates for the venue itself.

One major selling point of Greystone in actuality is the view that you have from the premises.  There is a good amount of rocky beach area (no sand) on the property and there is a panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean and York Beach.  Katelyn woke up for sunrise on the second day we were at Greystone and snapped the following shot of sunrise, just to emphasize the coastal beauty of the location.

At the end of our weekend at Greystone, Katelyn and I had mixed reactions to it as a suitable venue.  We were a little disappointed to find that we would not be able to use it as an all-in-one solution to host people from out of state as well as have the ceremony and reception.  The extra costs involved in making sure that there would be a rain-date option to have the ceremony were also a bit of a negative for us.  However, there is no denying that Greystone is a beautiful manor and is located on a remarkable piece of property, perfect for any self-respecting coastal wedding.  There is also a lot of flexibility in this venue because you are not locked into any local vendors as some venue sites try to do.

In many ways, Greystone was a great first venue visit for us because we were able to get a sense about what we would need and what we could work with as we investigated further sites.  We are still in talks with this venue about potentially hosting our wedding here while we further assess the costs of the ceremony.

Note: Since Greystone Manor is a private residence, there are no real website locations to get information about the property.  A quick Google search, however, can help you find some blog and photo sites from other couples who have used Greystone for their special days, to help you get an idea of what it offers.

UPDATE: I was just informed today (Tuesday, September 15th, 2009) that Greystone Manor is now completely booked up for 2010 weddings.  Just wanted to pass the word along in case other couples reading this were interested in booking the venue for next year.