On Sunday, September 13th, 2009, Katelyn and I visited the majestic Lucerne Inn in the town of Dedham, Maine.
Growing up in Maine and living in the Bangor area for the past seven years, the Lucerne Inn was one place in the area that had legitimate "name value"; that is, if somebody mentioned the name to you, it conjured up images of expense and grandeur. To my surprise, seeing the inn for the first time on my journeys out to Blue Hill while Katelyn and I were still dating, it wasn't as secluded or rustic as I would've believed. This was only the first of many misconceptions I had about the location, misconceptions that were addressed through our meeting with the inn's co-owner, Rhonda Jones.
The Lucerne Inn is a very pretty venue, with many rooms for lodging and a nice, upscale feel to the décor. Through our discussions with Mrs. Jones, I was surprised to find that the cost of using the Lucerne Inn for a wedding ceremony and reception was far less than I'd expected. Of the venue options we'd looked at to that time, it had the lowest rental fee for the location, though this did not include the catering and other amenities that we would be locked into for using the location.
One really nice thing about the Lucerne Inn is that practically anything we need for the ceremony and reception is included in the rental. There are indoor and outdoor locations to hold the ceremony (though the indoors locations would prove problematic in terms of guest numbers) and there are two separate locations to hold the reception: one indoors, one on a tented deck. This level of flexibility is very attractive for an all-inclusive location.
One thing that Katelyn and I have been trying to avoid in our venue search, however, is pretty well exemplified by a location like the Lucerne Inn. While pretty, the inn does nearly a hundred wedding ceremonies a season. No matter how much we would be able to try and put our own personal spin on this venue to make our wedding special, we would end up using a venue location that is very well-traveled. And even though there is some level of convenience conveyed upon us by being able to have catering and everything taken care of on-site, we are also locked into the venue's pricing for food and would not be able to take advantage of the competition of shopping for catering.
The location of the Lucerne Inn is also a double-edged sword in terms of being simultaneously beautiful and ugly. The beauty comes from the surrounding lakes and mountains, which make for beautiful panoramas from the inn grounds. The ugliness comes from the fact that the inn is located directly on Route 1A, one of the busiest roads in this part of Maine aside from I-95. Since the inn is literally right on the road, any amount of traffic traveling by would be audible during our ceremony, and if a passing tractor-trailer truck would decide to pull his horn during our ceremony, we might get cut off in the middle of reading vows. The inn is also kept open to other guests even during wedding ceremonies, so there is a chance that the event would not have the intimate, private feel that we're looking for from a ceremony together with our friends.
Taking into account the number of out-of-state guests we're looking at as well, the Lucerne Inn presents problems. It is far cheaper for people to fly into airports in Manchester, New Hampshire or Portland, Maine than it is for people to fly into the local airport in Bangor. Even after landing in Bangor, visitors would still face a 20-30 minute drive to reach the inn, depending upon traffic.
The Lucerne Inn certainly is pretty and would feature some great fall foliage come October 2010. And while the venue rental is far less expensive than I would've imagined given the "name value" of the location, it would come at the sacrifice of a personal ceremony. Katelyn and I will obviously never forget our wedding because it will be one of our most special days spent together, but having the ceremony at such a popular venue would hurt some of the personalization we're looking for.
We're not completely ruling out the venue, but our search continues. Be sure to leave comments for the two of us with your insights and opinions so you can help us figure out where to say "I do"!
More information and photographs of The Lucerne Inn can be found at the venue's website, http://www.lucerneinn.com/. The Lucerne Inn is located two hours and ten minutes from Portland, one hour and fifty minutes from Lewiston, and about twenty minutes from downtown Bangor.
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