WEDDING: (venue) Stonehurst - Robert Treat Paine Estate

Stonehurst is an old historic home designed by Frederick Olmsted and H.H Richardson so the outside is constructed of huge stones with a Gothic Revival flair to it. The house itself and grounds are beautiful (especially for a spring wedding). It's technically a museum so there are plaques on the walls that explain the architecture, reasons behind decorating choices, and more about the family in general. Since the fiancee and I are huge nerds, we had a blast visiting here!

Sloping lawn

The function director, Marcia Goodwin, is an amazing wealth of knowledge as well as hilarious. I had read other posts that said that she's mean and rubs people the wrong way but I found that though she may be gruff, she knows what she's talking about and has plenty of advice to share. She knows vendors, prices, what's a good deal, what's too expensive, and how to get a church to let us have a wedding where we're not parishioners.

Main dining room

Bay window in dining room

Another shot of the dining room

Wall in the dining room

Seating area in the front foyers

Front Entrance

View from the front entrance

Stonehurst - Robert Treat Paine Estate

Location: Waltham, MA

Capacity: 150 guests

Site Fee: $2800 for a Friday, $3500 for a Saturday, $3200 for a Sunday

Food: accepts most caterers

Alcohol: Open bar only. Town of Waltham doesn't allow cash bars on public property.

Front staircase

The stairs yet again

PROS:

• Stone patio outside that overlooks a sloping green lawn is very pretty and would be perfect for the cocktail hour.
• Amazing inside and outside photo ops.  
• LOVE LOVE LOVE the front staircase for the formal wedding photo. 
• Several giant fireplaces that are gorgeous.... really, just amazing architecture and decorations that are fun to look at.
• You get Marcia who will help you coordinate everything. 

Bay window - I think this is near the bar

Cut-through room between food and seating

Bar staging area

Fireplace in the room where the food would be set up

CONS:

• Apparently, our nice little 110-130 person wedding has turned into 150+ <EEK!> and this place can only accommodate 150. 
• Even with 150 people, the dining tables are separated into 2 different rooms. The fiancee didn't love the idea of having 10 tables in the main dining room and another 5 in the foyer. Granted, there's a giant open doorway between the 2 rooms.... I actually thought that it might be nice to let our friends sit apart from our (mostly my) families

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  At the top of the stairs 

  

  Cool table upstairs

  
  

  

  Bridal bathroom

  
  

  

  View from upstairs window