About this vendor
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Amenities + details
Ceremony Area
Covered Outdoors Space
Dressing Room
Handicap Accessible
Indoor Event Space
Outdoor Event Space
Reception Area
Wireless Internet
Liability Insurance
On-Site Accommodations
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
Settings
- Backyard
- Barn
- Estate
- Historic Venue
- Tented
- Trees
Venue Service Offerings
- Bar & Drinks
- Cakes & Desserts
- Destination Weddings
- Food & Catering
- Planning
- Rentals & Equipment
Reviews
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4.7
out of 5.018 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 8
Karen was so lovely and easy to work with. She has such a calm, “can do” attitude. And obviously the house, barn, and gardens are gorgeous
5/5 We fell in love with the Duportail House the first time we set foot on the grounds for a tour of the venue. We booked our date that day! Karen Pecora, who serves as the event c...
oordinator for the site, was a pleasure to work with and made the whole process easy. She was very quick to answer the many questions we had leading up to the big day. She played an integral part in coordinating the ceremony setup as we made a last minute change of location for the ceremony due to the weather. We originally envisioned our ceremony taking place on the porch of the house however due to the constant mist throughout the morning and rain the night before, we opted to change the location to the barn that we had rented for our cocktail hour. It ended up being perfect and we didn’t have any regrets on the decision. We were still able to take pictures on the front porch and do everything else that we wanted without having our guests sit in any mud through the ceremony. The venue was perfect in many ways and we loved the flexibility that it offered. There are numerous picture perfect locations on the grounds itself (bridge where we had our first look), the house, and the barn! We loved that the house has sooo much history and that the money toward the cost of the venue is used to help preserve that history. I would definitely recommend this venue for any event, but especially a wedding! No upcoming event? Just go see the venue for its beauty alone!
My husband and I had our wedding reception at the Duportail House on 10/22/2021 and we absolutely loved it. I fell in love with the home’s historic charm from the moment I laid eye...
s on it, and it was such a unique and elegant venue for our day. We had about 120 guests, and so many complimented the house and how perfectly it was suited for our event. Fortunately for us, we had a picture perfect Fall day for our wedding, and the colorful foliage and sunshine only enhanced an already beautiful site. We held our cocktail hour inside the house and out on the lawn, we used the patio as our dance floor, and we had a tented dinner on the lawn. Space heaters kept everyone comfortable and everything was truly seamless. Kate was such a pleasure to work with throughout the entire planning process, and she went above and beyond to ensure that our day went off without a hitch. I highly, highly recommend booking the Duportail House for your wedding day!
After two unfortunate “Covid” cancellations, we hosted our wedding ceremony and reception at the Duportail House on May 23, 2021. It was a magnificent day. Kate was extremely hel...
pful and easy to work with. She was available by email for questions, had recommendations based on her years of experience, and was present from start to finish to make certain that everything ran smoothly. Our food was Glatt kosher and Kate was happy to abide by our request to hire an outside caterer who was not on the venue’s preferred vendor list. We chose to have the ceremony on the front lawn and used the Federal Barn for our Tisch (pre-ceremony gathering with food, drink, and festivities). Dancing took place on the patio. Though the neighborhood imposes some noise restrictions, our six-piece band placed their speakers in the solarium as an accommodation. This actually provided more space for dancing.
The architecture of the Duportail House is breathtaking, each room housing some authentic, historical touch. Even the bridal suite was a trip back in time. The grounds in spring are inviting, lush and green, making our photograph session remarkably beautiful. The day was unseasonably warm, but Kate made certain fans were available for the tented porch and dining areas. Guests were able to cool down in the house itself, as well. Our 66 guests were extremely impressed and we could not have asked for a more perfect celebration!
My wife and I just had our ceremony at Duportail House and absolutely loved it. Kate was wonderful to work with the past few months, always answering our questions and giving great...
suggestions. The day was relaxed and organized with her help. The location was beautiful behind the barn for our ceremony and offered so many different scenic and rustic photo options. The inside of the home is also one of a kind for photos. We are so happy with our choice at Duportail!
We hosted our wedding reception at Duportail and it was an absolutely magical experience. From first arrival, Kate led me around the beautiful historic house (which barely needs an...
y decor - the house is a decoration itself!), showing how we could use the antique spaces for eating, dancing, and socializing. The day-of Kate was on point the entire time and helpful for whatever we needed. We had a small reception of about 40 people and everyone fit comfortably, even during COVID. The outdoor space was fresh and quiet. It was everything we could have asked for and more at an amazing price point.
I cannot speak more highly of this venue! We booked our venue for June 2020. As the pandemic hit, we realized this date might not happen. Kate helped us pick a second date right aw...
ay for no added cost. When we decided to go with that date (August 2020), it was a seamless transition in our contract.
Like a lot of couples getting married in 2020, we decided to do a mini ceremony on our original date and Kate let my family use the venue and have our ceremony in front of the beautiful house. She went above and beyond to make sure that day was special.
In August, Kate make sure that we were following all protocols and helped us navigate planning a wedding with so many restrictions. With everything going on, it still felt like the most normal day and we did not feel like our wedding was missing anything! It was safe for our guests and staff (50 people), and it was fun at the same time.
Words cannot describe how perfect this venue is. It is absolutely stunning. There are so many different options and it is not a cookie-cutter venue at all. They were so accommodating to all of our details and requests. I've heard horror stories from other venues in the pandemic, but I like to think that we still had our fairy tale wedding because we chose to go with Duportail House! I wish I had more events to plan so I could go back.
Having our wedding at The Duportail House was one of the easiest decisions we had to make for our wedding. Right when we pulled up and met Kate, we knew it was the perfect spot. We...
got so many compliments about how beautiful the venue was, and we’re even planning on going back to see the new barn once it’s finished restoration!
A few things to keep in mind if choosing this venue. We decided to do the full DIY option and chose our own caterer because the list of “preferred caterers” was too expensive for our budget. We were told about a month before the wedding that we needed to purchase insurance for the event since the insurance for the caterer wouldn’t cover the event itself (we had our own servers). Second, if you’re getting married in the summer, be aware that there will likely be other events around your wedding date. There was a wedding the day before and day after our Saturday wedding which led to some stress from the wedding the day before not picking everything up and we had to be sure to make sure everything was perfect when the wedding was over for the event the next day since the event the day before did not clean up well. Finally, Kate allowed us to store some of our wedding supplies in her office and the barn the day before which helped cut our setup time the day of a lot. One thing we wish we did was label our stuff because when we came to setup the day of the wedding, it took a while to find our stuff which was mixed in with the decorations from other weddings happening that weekend.
Aside from the few minor gripes, if we had to do it all over again, we would choose the Duportail House in a heartbeat. Kate was great and making sure we were ready for the event and was helpful at providing tips the day of to make sure the wedding went smoothly. The grounds are simply stunning and the value couldn’t be beat!
From the rustic barn, the large lawn and the perfectly quaint from porch the DuPortail House was the prefect location for our big day! We had our speeches and first dance on the f...
ront porch and couldn't have asked for a more picturesque backdrop for these special moments!
The director Kate was great to work with and made great recommendations for our wedding to flow smoothly. Our 85 guests fit well into the house and the house had so much character ...
we needed barely any decorations. We used the barn for cocktail hour which worked out really well. The property and house were a great backdrop for photos. Small warning: we had two cars in the parking lot broken into at night when everyone was inside the house. Other than that, everything went perfectly.
This venue was absolutely perfect for our wedding. The grounds and inside the house and barn are stunning. We had a small wedding of 50 people and the size was perfect. That being...
said, we were at a wedding back in April with over 100 people and that was comfortable too. Our guests couldn't stop talking about how pretty the site was. Kate, the site manger is very knowledgeable and accommodating.
The Duportail House was the perfect fit for what we envisioned our wedding to be. We had our wedding ceremony and reception here in November and absolutely loved the venue. We did ...
get lucky with the weather and turned out to be a perfect day. The property allowed us to have some amazing pictures and can’t wait to get the rest of them from our photographer. Since our wedding was in the fall and on the Sunday, the rental prices were reasonable in our opinion. But make sure you know what you are getting with that price.
That being said, there was some negative experiences with the Duportail House:
• We paid for additional 2 hours before our contracted time frame so that we could get everything done a head of time but when we arrived the venue was not cleaned from the wedding the previous day. We were unable to start decorating and had to wait until that was done. So we paid extra to sit around and wait for it to be cleaned. We’ve e-mailed, called and even stopped by during open house hours and have not heard back.
• Venue staff can be little difficult to work with at times. You get mixed answers to your questions and makes things confusing at times.
• Venue has maximum capacity of 160 guests. In our opinion, the only way you can have that many guests here is if you rent an additional tent on top of the patio tent they have. This is costly but does not increase how many guests you can have. Also, plan on having to rent additional tables for your reception and chairs for your ceremony.
• Planning out a seating chart can be rather difficult because the venue has 4 separate rooms for seating and is not an open floor plan.
• Parking on site is very limited (50 cars) and wound up being more difficult than it should have been. You are not allowed to park on the street or side streets even though no signs are posted. You’d think they offer suggestions on parking since they do weddings all the time but offered little advice on this. They suggested having a shuttle service; however you’re limited where you can park off-site. If you have hotel rooms reserved, you won’t have a problem but since all our guests were local it was a bit of a nightmare.
• Our guests commented that the location of the bathrooms made it difficult to get to during the reception. They are located towards the back of the house. Which is right next to the kitchen and backdoor that was being used by the catering staff to move stuff in and out of the kitchen and their trucks.
I’m so happy that we chose Duportail House for our wedding and reception. We planned on having small wedding with 50-60 people tops. My husband and I worried that our wedding party...
would feel swallowed up if we went with a traditional large venue. I loved the rustic elegance that Duportail offered and it was perfect for my little wedding. Kate Fry was great and was always very prompt with her responses to my numerous emails. On the day of, Kate couldn't make it and sent her friend Wendy to oversee our day. Wendy was such a sweat heart and helped guide us through our day with ease. It was pouring rain on our wedding day, so our outdoor wedding turned indoors and I didn't even care once I saw how beautiful the ceremony turned out in front of the historic hearth of the home. Duportail will always have a special place in my heart.
From our very first visit at the DuPortail House I knew this was the perfect place to hold our wedding. We had a wonderful ceremony in the barn and moved onto the reception in the ...
historic home. Kate and Wendy were amazing! Kate was away on business the weekend of my wedding but Wendy jumped in feet first and did absolutely wonderful. She was so in tune with what Kate and I had discussed that I almost forgot it was Wendy taking care of us on the day of. We were also pleasantly surprised that we were allowed to bring our dog into the home. Having a venue that allowed our dog was at the very top of our wish list and the DuPortail House met every wish on that list. Guests are still talking about how beautiful the venue was and how helpful Wendy was. I would highly recommend the DuPortail House for any wedding theme. Classic, rustic, historic, the DuPortail House is such a neutral beautiful space that any bride would be happy with this location. I am actually sad that I will no longer be working with Kate and Wendy! They made the planning a breeze and helped ease the stress of planning a wedding. If I could do the wedding all over again I wouldn't change a single thing. The DuPortail House is amazing!
The Duportail House is the perfect setting for anyone who wants a rustic, homey setting, or just doesn't want to get married in a hotel ballroom. It is a beautiful historic house t...
hat can easily be transformed with your flowers and place settings to look how you would like it. The walls are beige, so any color will pop in there and look great.
The grounds are even more beautiful and provide unique backdrops for pictures. There is the beautiful front porch with black iron embellishments, an old barn, a small gazebo, and little bridge further out back. We had our ceremony at a church, but it would be an awesome place to have held the ceremony as well.
It is a little small, so don't pick this place if you have more than 90 guests. And if you have more than 50, you will probably be splitting the dinner seatings between two rooms. We had 70 guests split pretty evenly, and it was fine. Dinner is only about an hour, so it's not a big deal. There is a great covered patio for dancing, and a lot of people seem to get an additional tent for out back.
Duportail House was a great location for our small outdoor wedding. We had ~50 guests, and had the ceremony and lunch outside. Dancing was on the tented patio, and food and the b...
ar were inside. Kate was our coordinator and she was great, very helpful. I would recommend Duportail to anyone looking for a venue that can accommodate an outdoor wedding and has a backup indoor plan.
Overall had a good experience with the venue.
Beautiful, historic house. Has 3 indoor rooms and a large tented patio. Has tables and ~150 chairs available to use. Site coordi...
nator is flexible and willing to help you find solutions of how to work out what you want in the space.
Beautiful grounds with gazebo, old bridge and stone barn for pictures.
Does have some limitations. Although they advertise they can hold more, really only good for weddings of 120 or less (unless you don't leave space available for dancing).
We loved our wedding at the DuPortail House. We had a wonderful experience with this venue. We did an all outdoor wedding. Ceremony was on the porch and reception under a tent. ...
The historic house was a beautiful setting for our wedding. Kate, the house manager, was a fabulous and helped make our day spectacular. Check it out!
Contact
297 Adams Drive, Chesterbrook, PA
Duportail House's photos