General Event Space
| Maximum Capacity: 225
Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum offers a particularly beautiful and gracious setting for wedding ceremonies, receptions, and other functions. April through October, the gardens and arboretum are especially lovely. Our wedding tent, with beautiful bluestone patterned flooring, is situated on the lawn overlooking sunsets and Narragansett Bay.
The first floor, terrace, and porches of the mansion may be used for the cocktail portion of your reception. For dinner and dancing guests move into our tent, which accommodates approximately 225. Only one wedding is held each day.
The house is built of stone, in an English Country Manor style, and most of the furniture dates back to the original house. The house is long and narrow so that all the main rooms look out onto Narragansett Bay, with large doors opening onto porches, balconies, terraces and gardens. Most of the main rooms in the Mansion are still as they were in the early years of this century. In all of the rooms except two, the wallpapers are original, and the two bedrooms which have been re-papered have been decorated with fine quality reproductions of the originals.
Supported Layouts and Capacities
Banquet - 8 per
Capacity: 225 People
Reception
Capacity: 225 People
Features
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Atmosphere/Decor:
Most of the main rooms in the Mansion are still as they were in the early years of this century. We know from photographs and descriptions, that the furniture in each room is still as Bessie McKee arranged it in the early 1900's.
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Special Features:
The house is not air-conditioned but on warm days the breeze off the bay keeps the mansion quite comfortable. The first floor of the mansion is accessible to the physically disabled.
Outdoor Venue
| Maximum Capacity: 225
Our wedding tent, with beautiful bluestone patterned flooring, is situated on the lawn overlooking sunsets and Narragansett Bay.
Supported Layouts and Capacities
Reception
Capacity: 225 People
Features
-
Atmosphere/Decor:
Can be used for dinner and dancing.
-
Special Features:
All rental fees include Events tent with clear sides, hard surface floor and lighting. List of approved caterers available.
Events may be held outside as weather permits. April through October, the gardens and arboretum are especially lovely. The North Garden is an extension of the house and was originally designed with formal pathways and parterres. The family called it the Sunken Garden and began construction on it in 1910. The pathways and box hedges are gone but long borders of blue, yellow and white flowers have taken their place. This garden is the site for outdoor wedding ceremonies and summer concerts. It is also the perfect place to sit and watch the boats on the Bay.
Blithewold's 33 acres overlook Bristol Harbor and Narragansett Bay. Summertime visitors can stroll through the gardens and watch the sailboat races at the same time just as guests at Blithewold have done for the past 100 years. The sweeping 10-acre lawn stops at the water's edge and is the perfect setting for more than 1500 trees and shrubs that grow along its borders. There are nearly 300 different kinds of woody plants in the collection, which contains both native and exotic species.
Blithewold has enjoyed an ongoing relationship with the Arnold Arboretum ever since 1926, when staff botanists visited here to see the Chinese toon tree (Cedrela sinensis) in bloom for what was believed to be the first time in this country. Blithewold's Bamboo Grove is a magnet for adults and children alike.
Supported Layouts and Capacities
Features
-
Atmosphere/Decor:
The sweeping 10-acre lawn stops at the water's edge.
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Special Features:
More than 1500 trees and shrubs. Visitors enter the grounds through the Rose Garden where 100 year old climbing roses grow on the fence that encloses the garden.