My wedding ceremony and reception were held recently at CCFM and I think this is a great place to get married for the right bride. The reception barn is rustic and makes a great backdrop for the right style wedding. The rest of the campus is absolutely beautiful and there are several locations for scenic pictures. My wedding ceremony was at the grape arbor which was stunning. All our guests commented on how beautiful the location was.
A few things to keep in mind:
1. The price for this venue is amazingly reasonable! But you get what you pay for. The venue is 100% self service. You must set up and take down your own chairs, tables, decorations, etc. (Venue provides chairs and tables plus chairs for the ceremony). They also moved picnic tables closer to the barn for our guests to sit outside... but basically we did all the setup ourselves.
2. I highly recommend paying the extra $100 for the "Bridal Suite." This is basically just a meeting room with a bathroom and small refrigerator, but it is air conditioned and was a nice place for myself and bridesmaids to store changes of clothes, etc.
3. The barn is absolutely not air conditioned. The museum staff will provide extra fans for hot days. Since I got married in August, there is always a chance of very warm weather, which we had. I was originally told that by turning on all the fans and keeping the barn doors and windows open we would get a really nice cross breeze and it would not be too warm. In reality, the cross-breeze was only moderately helpful in cooling off the barn. This is the only thing I am disappointed about, but I knew that I was gambling with the weather when I booked the venue. Unfortunately, I lost.
4. Make sure you provide receptacles for cigarette butts. This seems reasonable, but I was told 3 days before the wedding that if any cigarette butts were found outside the barn, our deposit would be lost. I'm not sure if this was even in the contract so beware.
5. Again, this is a wonderful venue for a Budget Bride because you are able to provide and serve your own alcohol... but only beer and wine. This was not a problem for me at all.
6. Good venue for kids. There was a playground and animal cages near the barn and the kids liked checking out the farm animals and playing on the playground (everything was far enough away that there was no farm animal smell). read more