Cape Cod venue guide
Updated
A Cape Cod wedding is almost always a weekend away. Most venues here are resorts, inns, and hotels from Sandwich to Provincetown, plus a resort on Nantucket, and nearly all of them have rooms. Your guests arrive, check in, and stay where you get married.
We've gathered details on 8 Cape Cod and Nantucket venues. 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.
$22k
Typical estimate
The median cost for Cape Cod & the Islands venues that include their own catering.
$19k–$29k
Typical range
A fairly narrow range, with the inns and hotels at the low end. The resorts cost more than most of it.
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 Cape Cod & the Islands venue that can host 100 guests, shaded by its own estimate on the same scale as the Massachusettsguide's map; grey ones don't publish a venue-with-catering price. Outlined dots are venues in neighbouring regions.
Narrow it down
See which Cape Cod & the Islands venues fit your guest count and budget, and why
Guests
By budget and guest count
How many Cape Cod & the Islands 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 | $15k | 3 of 7 | 5 of 7 | 7 of 7 | 7 of 7 |
| 100 guests | $22k | 0 of 7 | 4 of 7 | 6 of 7 | 7 of 7 |
| 150 guests | $29k | 0 of 7 | 0 of 7 | 5 of 7 | 6 of 7 |
| 200 guests | $37k | 0 of 5 | 0 of 5 | 1 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, 1 more venue comes in under $15,000 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 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).
$22k
typical for venues with catering
$19k–$29k
where 80% of these 7 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.
Everyone stays where you marry, and the rooms are part of the plan. Nearly every venue here has rooms, far more than the rest of the state, so the room block is as big a decision as the reception. Most also say what happens to an outdoor ceremony if it rains, which matters by the water. Spaces tend to be smaller than on the mainland, and a good share gets added on top of the food and drink price, so ask for the full total.
Of the venues here, compared with 34% across Massachusetts.
See venues with rooms on siteOf the venues here, compared with 69% across Massachusetts.
See venues with a rain planThe most guests a typical venue here says it can hold.
See venues that fit your guest countTypical service charges, admin fees, and tax, compared with 26% across Massachusetts.
Compare full estimates, fees includedWhat kind of place
Resorts in Brewster and South Yarmouth, and one on Nantucket, near the water and with plenty of rooms. The easiest full weekend. Ask how many rooms you have to book and whether other guests share the grounds.
4 of 8 venues here
Find venues like theseInns in Sandwich, Dennis, and Provincetown. Smaller and more personal, and some give you the whole inn. Ask how many guests the inn sleeps and where everyone else will stay.
3 of 8 venues here
Find venues like theseA golf club in East Falmouth and a garden restaurant by the Sagamore Bridge, for couples who'd rather keep the wedding and the hotel separate. Ask about a nearby room block.
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 inn earns it back on the menu; a restaurant 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.
Before you tour
Resorts and inns often want you to fill a set number of rooms, sometimes for more than one night. Know what you're agreeing to before you sign.
See venues with rooms on siteSummer traffic over the bridges can be slow on a Friday, and Nantucket means a ferry or a flight. Give guests a realistic travel time, and consider a date outside the busiest weeks.
See venues across the regionMost venues have a backup for a beach or lawn ceremony. Ask where it is, whether it holds your whole guest list, and when they decide to move inside.
See venues with a rain planof venues that say either way (7 here)
at 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. 5 of the 8 Cape Cod & the Islands venues we track charge differently depending on the day, and 1 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.
5 of the 8 Cape Cod & the Islands 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.
1 of 5
would bill you above what your own 100 guests come to, by about $4k typically.
At your guest count most of these floors are already met, so at most of these venues what you spend is what you chose. The ones that don’t clear are the first to ask about.
Cutting 20 guests takes $3.3k off the bill, even though they actually cost $3.3k — 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 Cape Cod & the Islands venues that publish their fees, the middle result is 31%, with most landing between 21% and 32%.
Administrative fee4 venues
22%
Charged instead of, or alongside, a service charge — and usually taxed as well.
Sales tax6 venues
7.0%
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 examples cover resorts, inns, a golf club, and a restaurant. Open a venue to see its pricing, capacity, spaces, vendor rules, and other planning details.
South Yarmouth · Up to 190 guests
Guests can stay on site, and the whole property is yours
$35–50k · Venue Fee + Catering
See pricing and policies
East Falmouth
Outdoor ceremony, with an indoor space if it rains
$25–35k · Venue Fee + Catering
See pricing and policies
Sagamore · Up to 200 guests
Helps you plan the whole wedding
$15–25k · Venue Fee + Catering
See pricing and policies
Dennis
Guests can stay on site, and the whole property is yours
$15–25k · Venue Fee + Catering
See pricing and policies
Sandwich · Up to 150 guests
Outdoor ceremony, with a plan if it rains
$15–25k · Venue Fee + Catering
See pricing and policies
Nantucket
Helps you plan the whole wedding
Food & Bar Est.
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.
