Planning a New Hampshire Lakes Region Wedding
📸@apmnhphoto
You have decided to celebrate your wedding in New Hampshire’s beautiful Lakes Region, now what? Whether you are here for the rustic barn aesthetic, the mountain lodge feel, the quintessential New England foliage in the fall, the summer camp vibes, the lake view, or maybe a mix of all the above – the New Hampshire Lakes Region wedding industry has so much to offer you.
Just a short ride from Boston – a New Hampshire Lakes Region wedding is a perfect choice for a manageable getaway for you and your guests to get out of the city and enjoy a celebration surrounded by the natural beauty of New Hampshire. We have many blogs discussing the specifics of wedding planning, so for this article we aim to highlight what may be specifically related to your New Hampshire Lakes Region wedding.
Decide on the vibe
What about New Hampshire’s Lakes Region speaks to you? You can pull from your inspiration in your choice of venue, décor/theme, or even where you encourage your guests to stay. Think mountain resort lodging or cabins by the lake – each aspect of your event/weekend is an opportunity to pull from what you love about this wonderful area.
At Cold Spring Farm, we try to cover all that Lakes Region weddings can offer by providing a modern barn wedding venue with a rustic feel overlooking our horse pastures and an expansive mountain view. Just a quick ride down the hill to Lake Winnipesaukee, we can suggest some amazing accommodations right on the water in Alton for you to take advantage of your proximity to fishing, boating, swimming, and all things lake life.
📸@destineeleblancphotography
Plan for the weather
If you are familiar with New England, you know the weather can be unpredictable. Outdoor weddings are amazing when the weather cooperates in your favor, but it’s wise to think about every possible situation in advance. We suggest choosing a venue with a backup plan (or creating one for yourself.) Check to make sure what the indoor option is in the event of inclement weather, and how that option would affect your setup. At Cold Spring Farm, we allow you to make the call as late as 1 hour before your guests arrive on whether to move the ceremony indoors. If we move indoors, our staff will quickly set up chairs and an arbor on the dance floor for you. We also have ~75 clear umbrellas in stock in case you’d like to move forward outside despite the threat of rain. We will stand by to dry benches and run umbrellas out should it start to rain during the ceremony.
If you exceed the capacity at your venue for the indoor ceremony option, check out Showcase Rentals or Lakes Region Tent and Event for their rain plan tent offerings.
Find Local Vendors
Great vendors are an essential part of a seamless wedding day. We believe that hiring locally owned wedding vendors not only has a positive impact on the community by keeping your investment local but also helps ensure a more personal experience overall. When choosing to support a small, locally owned business, you are typically working directly with the owner(s) who see you as a cherished client and will work diligently to uphold their business and reputation – often resulting in much greater attention to detail. As a New Hampshire Lakes Region wedding venue serving 100+ events over the last 5 years, we are often asked about our favorite local vendors, which you can find here.
Refine the details
So much personality can be infused into the details of your day. Consider the décor, favors, food and drink offerings, and activities and how each can speak to who you are as a couple or the overall theme you are pulling inspiration from. If you are big hikers, consider naming your tables after hikes you’ve done together instead of numbering them. (Bonus points for NH hikes!)
New Hampshire is home to many farms that produce all kinds of wonderful products! Consider a locally produced favor like maple syrup, honey, jam, or even cider donuts!
New Hampshire farms are not limited to tasty treats – we are also home to some amazing local flower farms! Shepherd’s Gate Flower Farm and Winnipesaukee Woods Farm grow their own blooms, and many of our wonderful local florists source their blooms locally as well. Some of our flower farms offer bulk buckets of blooms for you to arrange yourself if you want to keep it local while adding your personal design touches. There are many ways to include the spirit of the Lakes Region in your beautiful New Hampshire wedding. If you are planning with us here at Cold Spring Farm, we can’t wait to learn about your vision and do what we can to help bring it to life.
Thank you so much for stopping by our blog! We use this space as a platform to share inspiration and helpful information, and to support our fellow small business owners. To support other locally owned wedding venues, we link several of them who are doing amazing work to each of our blog posts.
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