$36,500
May through October Saturdays
- 12-hour estate access
- Full property exclusivity
- All five spaces
- Up to 200 guests
Couples typically spend $38–48K total day-of (with catering, florals, photography).
1897 Italianate Estate · Brandywine Valley, Pennsylvania
Twenty-two weddings a year. Forty-two acres. One ceremony at a time.
Where the boxwood parterre meets the south lawn at the edge of the Brandywine River.
Starting at $24,500 · Featured in Brides, Garden & Gun, Junebug
We do not do storybooks. We do not do themes. We do not do the word "magical." We do a Saturday in September with one hundred and forty-five people, your grandmother in the front row, and the boxwood parterre under late-afternoon light. We have done this two hundred and sixty-eight times. We would like to do it for you.— Eliza Foster-Whitaker, Owner
The Estate
Five spaces. One estate. Yours for the day.
The Conservatory
Up to 80 guests
Glass-walled, west-facing. Built 1925. The ceremony space when the weather turns.
The Boxwood Parterre
Up to 200 guests
Formal garden installed 1902 by the Olmsted firm. The outdoor ceremony site.
The Library
60 standing
1897 original. Walnut paneling, working fireplace. Cocktail hour or rain-plan reception.
The South Lawn
Up to 200 seated
1.4 acres at the river's edge. The reception space, tented or open-air.
The Carriage House
Getting-ready suite, 12 people
1897 original. Bridal suite, groom's suite, full kitchen, private courtyard.
Real Weddings
Ten weddings. Photographed and published in full.
Each one with the photographer credited, the planner named, the budget range stated, the guest count and the timeline on the page. Some intimate — forty in the conservatory in February. Some at full estate — one hundred and ninety-five on the parterre in October. None aspirational. All documentary.
Eleanor & Thomas
An October parterre ceremony, a jazz quintet under the tent, a late-night fire in the library. Photographed by Sera Petras.
Read this wedding →Margaret & David
A May Friday — small, deliberate, family-style. Photographed by Esther Funk.
Read this wedding →Anne & Catherine
A candlelit conservatory ceremony in February. Forty guests, dinner in the library.
Read this wedding →
Pricing
Published pricing. No quote form. No surprises.
$30,000
Same access, lighter market.
- 12-hour estate access
- Full property exclusivity
- All five spaces
- Up to 200 guests
Saves $6,500 against Peak Saturday.
$24,500
November–April Saturdays. Candlelight season.
- 12-hour estate access
- Full property exclusivity
- All five spaces
- Up to 200 guests
The estate at its quietest. The conservatory at its best.
What's included? The estate, all five spaces, the bridal and groom suites, parking, the on-site venue manager, and the gardens. A complete breakdown lives on the pricing page — there is no quote form, and there are no surprises.
Availability
Open Saturdays in 2026 and 2027.
Open
Held
Booked
May 26
Jun 26
Jul 26
Aug 26
Sep 26
Oct 26
Nov 26
Dec 26
Jan 27
Feb 27
Mar 27
Apr 27
The Family
Three generations of refusing to let it fall.
My grandfather Henry Foster bought the manor in 1962 from an absent owner who had let it fall into ruin. The roof had come through on the conservatory side. The boxwood was eight feet of brambles. He paid forty-six hundred dollars at a courthouse auction.
My parents began the restoration in 1981. They worked in stages — roof first, then walls, then the gardens — and it took them seventeen years. My mother insisted on hand-knotted plaster instead of drywall. My father re-poured the boxwood beds himself.
I took over operations in 2002. I had been a lawyer in Philadelphia and I came home for a Christmas dinner where my mother said the house was getting too expensive to keep. I decided that day to open it as a private wedding venue. Ben and I were married here the spring after.
We host twenty-two weddings a year. Not twenty-four, not thirty. Twenty-two. The number is a discipline, not a marketing claim. It is what one estate can do well without becoming a factory.
My grandfather never imagined this. He just refused to let it be torn down.
Find Us
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.
1892 Brandywine Manor Road · Chadds Ford, PA 19317
Forty-two minutes from Philadelphia. Ninety minutes from New York. Two hours from Washington, DC. Thirty minutes from Wilmington. The drive from Philadelphia is the prettiest forty-two minutes in the region — through Wyeth country, past the Brandywine Battlefield, along the river itself.
Philadelphia · 0:42
New York · 1:30
Washington DC · 2:00
Wilmington · 0:30