Southern New Hampshire venue guide
Updated
Southern New Hampshire is the part of the state closest to Boston, from Nashua and Bedford across to Exeter and the harbor at New Castle. The venues are inns, wineries, country clubs, and event halls with gardens, and most of them handle the food, the bar, and the staff themselves. It's the easiest part of New Hampshire to plan from a distance, and the easiest for guests to reach.
We've gathered details on 8 venues in southern New Hampshire and the Seacoast. Pick a starting point and Sage will rank them for your day, with cost estimates wherever the venue publishes its prices.
What should you budget?
Use − and + to reprice every figure below.
$32k
Typical estimate
The median cost for Southern New Hampshire & the Seacoast venues that include their own catering.
$31k–$33k
Typical range
A narrow range: most venues here price the day as a package with the food included, so their totals land close together.
These are our estimates, not quotes from the venues. They include service charges and tax when a venue lists them. Your date, guest count, bar, and rentals will all change the final total. Guest rooms aren't included.
Every filled dot is one Southern New Hampshire & the Seacoast venue that can host 100 guests, shaded by its own estimate on the same scale as the New Hampshireguide's map; grey ones don't publish a venue-with-catering price. Outlined dots are venues in neighbouring regions.
Narrow it down
See which Southern New Hampshire & the Seacoast venues fit your guest count and budget, and why
Guests
By budget and guest count
How many Southern New Hampshire & the Seacoast venues come in under common budgets for the venue and food, at the guest counts couples plan for most. Each row counts the venues that can host that many guests and publish a full price for the venue and the food, so the list gets shorter as it grows.
| Guests | Typical venue and food | Under $15,000 | Under $25,000 | Under $35,000 | Under $50,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 guests | $32k | 0 of 6 | 1 of 6 | 6 of 6 | 6 of 6 |
| 100 guests | $32k | 0 of 6 | 1 of 6 | 6 of 6 | 6 of 6 |
| 150 guests | $32k | 0 of 5 | 0 of 5 | 4 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| 200 guests | $38k | 0 of 5 | 0 of 5 | 2 of 5 | 4 of 5 |
Our estimates for the venue and food, including service charges and tax where the venue lists them, on a Saturday in peak season. Not quotes. A typical figure is shown only where at least five venues publish a price. On their cheapest published date, usually a weekday or a winter month, 2 more venues come in under $25,000 for 100 guests.
How venues price weddings
Pick one to see what its price contains, what it leaves for you to buy, and what it typically comes to.
You get the venue, food, and other vendors
A package covering the venue and food & beverage, plus at least three things you would otherwise hire and pay for yourself — a coordinator, a DJ, the florals, the cake, the invitations.
$31k
typical for the package
$24k–$31k
where 80% of these 2 venues land
And then you still buy
want the fewest decisions and the fewest separate contracts to sign.
What you’d still need to find out
Bundles differ a lot between venues so know exactly what you’re signing up for and what’s flexible.
You pay for the space and their kitchen
Venues publish their price in two ways: as a site fee plus a per-guest menu price, or as a bundled package (venue + food).
$32k
typical for venues with catering
$32k–$33k
where 80% of these 4 venues land
And then you still buy
don’t want to worry about sourcing a caterer or any outside catering fees.
What you’d still need to find out
Whether drinks are inside the menu price or billed separately, and what the service charge and tax add at the end.
You buy the space, then the food
You hire and pay a caterer yourself. Any fee the venue charges for letting an outside kitchen in is already in this figure.
$13k
typical for the venue rental
$13k–$13k
where 80% of these 1 venues land
And then you still buy
want a specific cuisine, a caterer you already love, or real control of the food budget.
What you’d still need to find out
What your caterer will quote, and whether rentals, staff and the bar come through them or the venue.
The venue does more of the work, and the date changes the price. In the rest of New Hampshire most venues rent you a barn and leave the food to you. Here most of them quote the food, drink, and staff in one price, and most say what happens if it rains. A weekday date saves more here than across the rest of the state. What you give up is somewhere for guests to sleep: few venues here have rooms, so plan on a hotel block.
A typical weekday price against the same venue on a Saturday, compared with 21% less across New Hampshire.
Compare weekday pricesOf the venues here, compared with 41% across New Hampshire.
See venues with a rain planTypical service charges, admin fees, and tax, compared with 14% across New Hampshire.
Compare full estimates, fees includedFood and drink priced separately, compared with 56% across New Hampshire. The rest include food or sell a package.
See venues that charge for the spaceWhat kind of place
A historic inn in Bedford or Exeter, with gardens for the ceremony, a kitchen that handles the food, and rooms for the family. Ask how many rooms you can hold and whether other events share the building that day.
2 of 8 venues here
Find venues like theseVines, a barn, or a private estate in Derry or Amherst, often yours alone for the day. Ask who does the food, what the rental includes, and what time the music has to stop.
4 of 8 venues here
Find venues like theseA golf club on a hill in Nashua, a seaside club by the harbor in New Castle, or an event hall with gardens in Hampstead. Room for a big guest list and most of the day in one package. Ask what the package covers and what gets added at the end.
4 of 8 venues here
Find venues like theseThe same wedding costs different amounts at a barn and at a hotel — and so does the shape of the bill. Four ways to look at it, for 100 guests.
The venue rental across every venue that charges one as its own line — whether or not they also sell you the food. Just the room, nothing else.
Every venue that itemises a rental, including the ones that cater. Venues quoting a single package over the room and the meal never name a room price, so they aren’t here — and this is a part of a bill, not a whole one, so it can’t be subtracted from the next chart.
The whole bill — the room, the meal, and the fees on top.
Venues behind each figure in brackets. A venue can be more than one kind of place, so it may appear in more than one row.
Every bar is one whole bill, so what changes across the list is the split. A winery / vineyard earns it back on the menu; a event center charges you for the space.
Only the venues that price the room and the meal separately, with how many in brackets.
The floor, not the bill — what you owe before anyone has chosen a menu. A food and beverage minimum, a bar minimum and a fee for bringing your own caterer are the same move in three costumes, so they are added up per venue and shown together.
Only the venues that state a floor, with how many in brackets; silence is not a zero. A venue that says it has no minimum is counted at zero rather than left out. None charge an explicit outside-catering fee — in this corpus the minimum does that job instead.
What changes the shortlist here
Venues here charge a lot more for a Saturday than for other days, and some also charge less outside summer and fall. If your date is flexible, ask each venue for its Friday, Sunday, and off-season prices before you pick.
Compare weekday pricesOnly the inns here have rooms. Everywhere else, guests will need a hotel, so hold a block early, especially near the coast in summer, and ask the venue which hotels its couples use.
See venues with rooms on siteMost venues here have a backup for an outdoor ceremony. Ask where it is, whether it holds your whole guest list, and when they decide to move inside.
See venues with a rain planat least, of all venues (8 here)
at least, of all venues (8 here)
at least, of all venues (8 here)
a planner, insurance, security or similar, of all venues (8 here)
What affects the cost of your wedding
Wedding venue pricing is seasonal. 7 of the 8 Southern New Hampshire & the Seacoast venues we track charge differently depending on the day, and 7 charge differently depending on the month. Every figure below compares a venue with itself, so it says what moving your date does — whatever kind of venue you pick, and whatever the size of your wedding.
Day of the week
Months you’d consider
Peak months are selected to start. Tap any month to compare.
Saturday, peak season
The most expensive date most venues sell, and the date almost every published price assumes. Choose a different day or month to see what typically comes off.
Not every line on a quote moves. These are the ones that do, measured at the venues that move them.
The venue rental
What they charge for the space itself.
5 of the 8 Southern New Hampshire & the Seacoast venues that can host 100 guests put a floor under what you spend — a minimum on food and drink, or a headcount they bill for. It is the one charge that feels worse the smaller your wedding is, and it is rarely made clear on other platforms that show venue pricing.
4 of 5
would bill you above what your own 100 guests come to, by about $13k typically.
Below their floor, inviting fewer people doesn’t lower the bill — so at a wedding this size the floor, not your guest list, is what you are paying for.
Cutting 20 guests takes $0 off the bill, even though they actually cost $2.4k — because of the minimum spend
A venue can set more than one.
What gets added at the end
Every pricing model carries them. At the 6 Southern New Hampshire & the Seacoast venues that publish their fees, the middle result is 22%, with most landing between 20% and 31%.
Sales tax6 venues
8.5%
Set by the state, and charged on the service charge too at most venues.
Dots are sized by how many venues charge that rate. The gold line is the median rate, and every fee has its own scale: read the spread within a row, not across them.
Places worth a closer look
These include two historic inns, a vineyard, a seaside club, a hilltop golf club, and an event hall with gardens. Open a venue to see its pricing, capacity, spaces, vendor rules, and other planning details.
Bedford · Up to 210 guests
Outdoor ceremony, with an indoor space if it rains
$25–35k · Venue Fee + Catering
See pricing and policies
New Castle · Up to 250 guests
Helps you plan the whole wedding
$25–35k · Venue Fee + Catering
See pricing and policies
Nashua
Weekdays (Mon–Thu) cost 66% less than a Saturday
Under $5k · Venue Fee Only
See pricing and policies
Derry
Outdoor ceremony, with an indoor space if it rains
$10–15k · Venue Fee Only
See pricing and policies
Derry
Weekdays (Mon–Thu) cost 38% less than a Saturday
$25–35k · All Inclusive
See pricing and policies
Exeter · Up to 100 guests
Outdoor ceremony, with an indoor space if it rains
$25–35k · Venue Fee + Catering
See pricing and policies
Describe your guest count, your budget, and anything you can’t compromise on. See a ranked list of venues, with why each one fits, trade-offs, and what to double-check.
Sage the Date reads each venue's own published details, including pricing, catering and alcohol rules, music curfews, rain plans, whether you get the whole property, and how many guests each space holds. Every estimate uses your guest count. When a venue doesn't say, we tell you instead of guessing.
Before you book
Sage reads each venue's own published pricing and policies, puts different kinds of quotes on the same footing, and estimates the cost for 100 guests. If a venue doesn't say something, we treat it as a question to ask, not a no. Venues can't pay to appear or to rank higher here.
