Venue guide · Misselwood preferred vendor

Misselwood Wedding Guide (2027)

Updated September 2026

Misselwood is a historic mansion on the oceanfront edge of Endicott College in Beverly. It is one of the most beautiful sets of grounds we play. We have done about 122 weddings here, are one of the venue's preferred vendors and had the privilege of DJing Misselwood's twentieth anniversary. Here's everything you need to know before you book.

Where can you get married at Misselwood?

Most venues give you one beautiful spot. Misselwood gives you four, all on one property and a short walk apart: the lawn on the water for the ceremony, the house for getting ready and portraits, a walled courtyard for cocktails and the tent for dinner and dancing. Here is what each one is like and what to plan for.

The lawn on the water. Walk around the side of the house and the whole ocean opens up in front of you. The lawn slopes down to a rocky shore, there are sailboats on the water and, on a good evening, a sunset that turns all of it gold. The ceremony chairs curve toward that view with the arch set against it. Guests arrive in the upper courtyard at the front of the house and come through a small opening beside it to reach the lawn. It is the most photographed spot on the property and also the loudest: wind, boats and surf, which is why the ceremony needs microphones. If the weather turns, the ceremony moves into the tent.

The house. Ivy climbs the brick and the front door opens onto slate steps. Inside are panelled rooms, a winding staircase and tall windows that look out over the water, which is where the wedding party gets ready and where the portraits happen. There is a bathroom in the house for guests who need one during the ceremony.

The fountain courtyard. Cocktail hour is in a beautiful walled courtyard with a fountain in the middle, string lights overhead and the ocean right beside it. It has its own bathrooms. Guests reach it by walking down from the ceremony, through the tent and out the other side. It is where a jazz trio or a string trio sounds best.

The tent. Dinner and dancing happen under a tent on the lawn, with a draped ceiling, chandeliers and string lights. It glows from the inside once the sun goes down. The dance floor is always in the middle, the tables ring it, the sweetheart table sits on one side and the DJ sets up directly opposite. It is a white room until the lights come on, which is why we tell every couple here to budget for uplighting.

Bring microphones to the ceremony

This is the one thing we tell every Misselwood couple. The lawn is beautiful because it is on the water and the water is loud: there is wind, boats go by, the surf runs underneath everything and an airport sits nearby. With close to a hundred guests or more, the back rows will not hear the vows unless whoever is speaking is amplified.

Most couples book live ceremony music. Even then, our DJ sets up a separate outdoor sound system on the lawn with wireless microphones for the officiant, the readings and the vows, plus music for guest arrival and the processionals. Couples who book live music and skip that system to save a line item regret it by the second reading.

The party is in a tent, so plan for it

There is nothing tricky about the sound at Misselwood. The reception is a tent and a tent needs enough power and enough speakers, which is our job.

Two house rules shape the night. The first is volume: Misselwood keeps it down for the neighbors and the subwoofers are what the neighbors notice, so the party runs on clean sound rather than sheer weight. The second is the clock: Misselwood ends every event by 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays and by 10pm on Sundays, so plan the dance set to finish before that. Ask your coordinator for the current decibel limit when you book.

Budget for uplighting

You might be on the water at a historic mansion with grounds like these, but dinner and dancing are inside a tent and a tent is a blank white room. Uplighting is what dresses it. We suggest something neutral through dinner, then once the house lights dim the same fixtures start changing color and the room goes saturated with the music.

How guests flow through the event

Guests arrive in the upper courtyard, walk to the lawn for the ceremony, then migrate down to the tent and through it to the fountain courtyard for cocktails. Dinner and dancing are back in the tent. It is one property and the walks are short, so the schedule does not lose time to transitions the way a city venue does.

Music follows the guests. Strings or a jazz trio play the ceremony on the lawn or cocktail hour on the patio. Sometimes the DJ runs a satellite speaker out there instead. The DJ is always in the tent and plays background music there during cocktails, because some guests always drift in early.

Load-in is nothing you need to plan around. Vendors drive up to the house, take the gravel road down to the tent and park across the street at Endicott College.

What a Misselwood wedding costs

Misselwood quotes on request, so treat this as a planning range and confirm it with the events office. What the wedding marketplaces list:

• Tent reception site fee: from $7,000. It covers the tent, tables, chairs, glassware, set-up, clean-up and parking.
• Ceremony on the lawn: from $1,000.
• Bar service: about $41 a head.
• Catering: from Misselwood's approved list only. It is the largest line on the budget.
• The house: not part of the tent rental. The wedding party gets it for two hours before the ceremony.
• Season: the tent runs Memorial Day weekend through mid-October, so there is no cheaper off-season on the lawn. Smaller weddings use the house year round.

For the 125 to 175 guests most couples bring, plan on $40,000 to $60,000 for the site, the tent, the food and the bar, with entertainment, flowers, photography and attire on top.

Avoid these three mistakes

No microphones at the ceremony, for the reasons above. Booking live ceremony music and turning down the DJ's ceremony sound system, which is the same mistake in a different coat. And skipping uplighting to save money in the one room on the property that needs it most.

A moment we still talk about

How the night ends

After the last song, guests walk back up to the courtyard under the string lights. By then the tent is the only light left on the property and the water has gone black behind it.