Venue guide

Moraine Farm Wedding Guide (2027)

Updated October 2026 · Photos by Shane Godfrey Photography

Moraine Farm is a historic estate on Wenham Lake in Beverly, reached by a winding dirt road through the trees. It is a really picturesque place to get married. We have done more than 60 weddings here. Here's everything you need to know before you book.

Where can you get married at Moraine Farm?

Moraine Farm keeps the whole day on one estate, every space a short walk from the next. You come in on a winding dirt road through the trees. Then the whole property opens out toward the lake.

The field by the lake. The ceremony happens on an open field to the right of the drive. You can face the historic tea house, which is really picturesque, but most couples turn the other way. They face an old fieldstone wall, only about knee high, with the water right behind it. You end up looking at nature, the wall and the lake. There is power in the field, so the ceremony sound plugs in right there.

The tea house and gardens. The tea house sits among the flower gardens, and it makes a beautiful frame for photos even when the ceremony faces the lake.

The back terrace. After the ceremony, guests walk about 100 feet to the patio behind the house. You can see the lake from here, the bar sets up on the edge of the patio and there is a screened gazebo beside it. Guests have the run of the grounds and the terrace, with the house open for the restrooms.

The tent. After cocktails, everyone crosses the estate road and walks down the lawn to the main tent, a good 150-foot walk from the terrace. It is a real road, but there is no traffic: the only people on the property are the wedding guests and the vendors. Dinner and dancing both happen here. The tent has a real floor, bistro lights and clear sides. It is up from May to October. The venue lists it at up to 250 seated.

How guests flow through the event

Ceremony on the field, cocktail hour on the back terrace, then across the estate road for dinner and dancing in the tent. Everything sits within about 150 feet of everything else. Any guest who can manage a short walk across the lawn will have no problems here.

The music follows the same path. We usually play half an hour of background music as guests arrive, then the processional and the recessional. Some couples book a straight DJ. A lot of them add live music for the ceremony. Then the musicians move to the terrace while guests do, so the music never stops.

Plan on three sound systems

Moraine Farm spreads the day across three spaces, so the sound has to cover all three. For a DJ-only wedding that means three systems:

1. The ceremony field. A separate system with microphones for the officiant, the vows and the readers.
2. The back terrace. A satellite system that pipes in background music for cocktail hour.
3. The tent. The main system, with the DJ, for dinner and dancing.

With live music you still want the microphones on the field and the main system in the tent, plus a satellite on the terrace running a playlist for cocktail hour.

Load-in is easy. Vendors roll right up the dirt drive and hand-carry gear to the ceremony field, which is not far at all; a cart with all-terrain wheels rolls straight across the grass. Then you drive further down the road, past the house on your right. The road bends left, with plenty of parking out back.

Light the tent: plan on 24 uplights

The DJ always sets up in the tent. We always advise uplighting in there: a tent is a blank white room that needs some decor to come alive. Uplights on the tent poles and around the dance floor give it warmth and color. For full coverage around the tent's perimeter we suggest 24 lights. Eighteen is the minimum we recommend.

Here is our own phone video of a tent we uplit at Moraine Farm:

Move the ceremony into the tent if it rains

The field is the first choice. If it rains, the ceremony moves into the main tent, the same tent that holds dinner and dancing.

Plan the last dance before 11 p.m.

Events at Moraine Farm must end at 11 p.m. Volume has never been a problem for us here and the staff have never measured our levels with a decibel meter.

A moment we still talk about

The groom loved Van Morrison and Zac Brown. We have a live recording of Zac Brown's "Free" that runs straight into Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic", so we played it and our owner, Greg, grabbed his horn and started ripping the horn lines on "Into the Mystic".

The groom was shocked. He came running over, literally crying. The first time he heard that medley was at a live Zac Brown concert and it had blown him away. We didn't know that and he didn't know we were going to play it. He was hugging Greg and weeping on his shoulder while Greg was still holding his horn.

These are the moments we live for.

What a Moraine Farm wedding costs

Prices are as of October 2026 and subject to change. Moraine Farm quotes on request, so treat this as a planning range and confirm it with the venue's events team. What the public listings show:

• Venue fee: $2,000 to $7,500, by day of the week. It covers five hours plus 30 minutes for a ceremony. The tent, tables, chairs, linens, china, glassware, staff and parking are included.
• Ceremony: from about $750 in peak season.
• Catering: Fireside Catering, in house. Dinner runs $97 to $112 a guest.
• Bar: packages run $32 to $39 a guest for five hours.
• Service charge: 18%.
• Guest minimum: 75.
• Season: May to October, when the tent is up.

For about 150 guests on a Saturday, the venue, food and bar come to roughly $25,000 to $35,000. Entertainment, flowers, photography and attire are on top.