The Cloisters

We are so happy that we were able to have our wedding at The Cloisters! We visited in the fall and were enchanted by the historic building, the castle/medieval feel, and the variety of spaces available to use (the outdoor garden/courtyard, the amphitheater, and the entire house inside). Walking through the building feels like going back in time or in a fairy tale. It is so nice that when you rent the space you have the entire house to work with. The staff at the Cloisters (Annie, Sarah, Victoria) were also incredibly nice, responsive, and accommodating in planning a wedding in pandemic times. Victoria really went above and beyond during our rehearsal (actually helping run the rehearsal and making sure we all knew where to stand and when to enter, which was incredibly helpful). Victoria also helped with hanging decorations and making a few last light centerpieces - I wouldn't have expected that at all and was really touched by her help. When we had some last minute rain she also was patient bearing with our indecisiveness about whether to move the ceremony inside or not and helping to get chairs upstairs at the last minute. Would highly recommend working with both the staff at the Cloisters and the beautiful venue. Thank you for such a beautiful and memorable wedding! <3

the venue is too small to accommodate over 60 person wedding comfortably. handicap accessible is not true with three steps per floor. there is a list of caterers and as a guest, I am not sure who ours was but they were TERRIBLE. they did not even smile during the whole event and everything was very bland. i could not even eat the hordevres offered (vague fajitas, meatballs and cheese with fruit - mostly melon).

I don’t know if this venue actually needs my positive review because the photos speak for themselves. The castle is amazingly beautiful. It was the perfect setting for our perfect day. We had a themed wedding that the Cloisters Castle served as the perfect backdrop for. Other than the gorgeous look of the venue though the staff was extremely helpful and accommodating to our needs. We couldn’t recommend having your wedding at this hidden gem in the heart of Maryland more.

The venue was lovely, in a great location, and also a great price. The venue staff was great to work with. We worked with Sarah the most, and she was always responsive within 24 hours and accommodating. We probably went to the venue about 10 times to go over day of events as well as look around. They also host multiple open houses throughout the year where you can meet most of the vendors including caterers, day of coordinators, flowers, etc. There is ample space for the bridal party to get ready, and multiple bathrooms throughout the building which was nice. We had a Christmas Harry Potter wedding, and the venue was perfect. They decorate the entire building for Christmas already, so saved us a lot of decorating! It is also BYOB, so if you were looking for a venue where you could bring your own alcohol, this place is great. The only thing I wish was different at the venue is that the main room is split into two rooms. So if you have a large wedding of over 70 people, they will have to be split up and the people in the other room will not be able to see the couple in the main room. Overall, great experience. This venue would be lovely in photos any time of the year.

Words can't explain how gorgeous this castle is. We had a Harry Potter themed wedding and it looked amazing. There were some hiccups along the way, but Annie and Sarah worked with us to come to good compromises. All of my guests kept asking how I found such a beautiful unique location. I highly recommend The Cloisters if you want a gorgeous wedding.

There is no other place like the Cloisters Castle. It is such a unique and interesting venue. As many times as we visited it following booking it for our wedding, we were still finding new beautiful details that we missed the last time we were there - different patterns in the glass windows, a wishing well hidden in greenery near the front entrance, details in the woodwork or the paintings on the walls, a hidden windmill in the back, or even new staircases we had never seen before. The staff there is small but mighty and they keep the place looking gorgeous through any season we saw it (our wedding was in October, but we also visited in the spring, and summer for open houses). Honestly a very reasonable price for all of the magic of the place. We barely had to decorate. It's a fairy tale castle, what more could you want?

Magical, Spectacular, Enchanting! This venue is AMAZING.The guests went crazy taking photos and touring the building to check out all of its great features. The ability to have the wedding either indoors or outdoors is a great relief in case of bad weather, both the interior and the exterior of the castle are gorgeous with many unique photo ops and you will not have to decorate much, the staff are extremely friendly and accommodating, the second level has the perfect rooms for getting ready before the ceremony, the castle is so romantic in the evening your guests will rave about how beautiful, fun, and memorable this venue is! Annie and Sara are incredibly responsive, flexible, professional, and helpful in answering any questions. Highly recommend!

All of our guests were floored by this venue — the pictures online don’t really do it justice. There’s tons of space that you have access to so you can customize your wedding any way you would like and you get the entire property to yourself during the allotted time. You get the space for 1 hour of rehearsal and then 9 hours of wedding on the Big Day (3 of which have to be set-up) but you can pay for additional hours if you’d like. It has a bit of a romantic history too, if you care to read up about that on their website. At the end of September, we had the most perfect weather for our outdoor ceremony and dinner. To top it all off, our wedding photos look like they’re straight out of a fairytale. There are so many beautiful places to take photos that we were fighting the sunset to get all of the beautiful locals in. The staff was lovely to work with and it’s surprisingly affordable for what it is. I’m so glad we chose the Cloisters for our wedding.

Amazing Place- from the moment we walked into visit until we packed out last bag the Cloisters was perfect.. Annie is welcoming and even help us figure out how best to use our resources. Our Day was perfect.. even thought she was off work the day of our wedding she stopped by to make sure everything was perfect.. the staff was friendly and helped us with decorations.. I can't say enough how wonderful the castle was.. if they are available book it.

If I could put O stars I would!!! I flew over to see the place, and they were so cold..The rooms are ALL EMPTY and they don't keep the place clean and up to date. I was scared to even use their bathroom. The courtyard was beautiful, but they have so many restrictions that as a bride you can't decorate or do practically anything. Online it says 2000 for a wedding during the week( on Here comes the Guide) (https://www.herecomestheguide.com/maryland/wedding-venues/the-cloisters) They told me it would be 4,600 for that same deal. The price online is just to attract customers. The woman working there showed me their calendar for that summer and let me take a picture so I can decide on the exact date... I was the ONLY bride in the month of August. When I called them that Monday, they didn't answer the phones ALL WEEK. After many voicemails from my bridesmaid and I, I finally got a call back on Friday. She didn't apologize for it getting back to me after a whole week. I told the lady that there's barely any options for me to plan a wedding and I would just like to have the ceremony since I can pay by the hour instead. She told me they are overbooked and I told her that it's not true, she can't lie to customers. I saw the calendar and I was the ONLY bride that month. I explained that the reason why they won't get brides is because of all the restrictions , horrible customer service , and that they won't work with them at all. She was so angry she blew up and hung up the phone. That's the manager of the location.

The venue itself is absolutely breathtaking. Pictures do not do it justice. Also Annie, who runs the Cloisters is amazing, easy to work with, and dedicated to making your day the best it can be. The staff was immensely helpful. My guests were astounded by the location, grounds, and castle itself. Very much worth the money :)

My husband and I are not a traditional bride/groom. We knew we didn't want a church wedding since we are aethist, and the idea of a generic hotel wedding didn't thrill us. We searched high and low before we found this gem located right outside of Baltimore. I mean, who doesn't want to get married in a castle! There are some problems with the service. It's a do-it-yourself kind of place, all you get from Cloisters is the venue, everything else is on you. You have to coordinate all of you vendors, etc. Don't expect to have your emails answered EVER, and if you call chances are you will get the voicemail. They might call you back in a day or two, or they might not. Regardless, the reasonable price and gorgeous venue, make the service issues worth it.

My mother and I went to a bridal show and were looking at Vendors all day. Before we left my Mom pointed out a booth for The Cloisters, I was hesitant of going over and looking because I had been talking to people all day... I'm so glad I did though! What a beautiful place! We ended up having our wedding there on 5/18/13. The venue was definitely a conversation piece among guests. We got married in the courtyard surrounded by beautiful gardens. I'm in love with this place and would recommened it to any one who wants a "fairy tale wedding". The employee's are very helpful and acommodating and just want to make your day go as smoothly as possible.

The Cloisters is absolutely lovely. If you look at the photos on their website, you'll get a good idea of the architecture and aesthetic of the place. One of the most overlooked features, I think, is the windmill out back. I gather it was donated to Baltimore by a family that had the money and the whimsy to build themselves a castle using period-appropriate building materials and methodology. We knew about it because my now-husband went there as a child, when it was home to the children's museum that has since become Port Discovery. Aside from its beauty and convenience to the city, we decided to get married at the Cloisters because it was a fraction of the cost of most other places we considered. We paid just less than $3000 for a Friday evening in April, because it wasn't a weekend and was slightly before the "wedding season" took off. Chairs and tables are there to begin with, which again helped keep costs down. You do have to work from a pre-approved list of caterers, which can be expensive, but they all know a great deal about the venue and thus can be profoundly helpful as you plan. Recommended to all.

Cloisters Castle was the perfect venue for my new husband and I to celebrate. I really liked that there are so many rooms to use - we had dinner in one room, dancing in another, and it was great because we knew not everyone was going to be dancing. With this setup we ensured that those who opted out of dancing could still talk to other guests without being drowned out by music. Since you have the entire place to yourself for the whole event, your guests can roam around the castle, check out different floors and mingle. Having tables and chairs included in the rental price was perfect - no need to worry about those! They also had a closet of items you could borrow from to use as centerpieces, or to supplement whatever you were going to bring in. We honestly went really light on the decorations because the castle is so pretty all by itself. The long list of approved caterers ensures you can find many options to work within your budget. Annie and Kimi were by far the easiest people to work with - we absolutely adored them! Professional yet laid-back, friendly and funny. Annie actually called me a few days before my wedding to see if we wouldn't mind if a tent that was going to be setup for the wedding the day before could stay - and by the way, we could use it free of charge. It was absolutely perfect. For the day-of stuff, the rep was around but at that point the caterer was really running the show and setup. We just didn't want to leave! I'd hang out at that castle every weekend if I could. All of our guests loved that it was different than your average ballroom wedding and we've seen tons of pictures of people posing with the suits of armor! In short - lots of setup options, very little extra decorating to do, perfect people to work with.

The staff is so personable, the grounds and mansion are beautiful and so private! We paid in full a year in advance and they gave us 15% off--just ask! They let us bring stuff a couple days before, store stuff over night afterwards and gave us the full fun of the place ALL day. That gave us an opportunity to take pictures before the ceremony and have a 5 hour reception. We were worried after hurricane Sandy a few days before our date that they wouldn't have power...NOT an issue whatsoever. They had power AND reassured us that they have never closed for a storm. They have a backup generator and great plans for bad weather. I was very comfortable with them through the whole process. Next to the Pantry as our caterer, they were our favorite vendor to work with. All our guests were in awe of the place and we used the upstairs for a photobooth, sign in book, etc so people really got to explore the WHOLE mansion.

I had my truly fairy-tale wedding here in October ...it was magical, everyone was friendly and helpful!

This was the one venue that we could both agree on. My husband didn't want a church wedding and I started looking at historic venues. The Cloisters has a wonderful story, has a room big enough to fit all 87 of our guests and a staff that made everything so pleasant. We got married in April so there was a risk of rain but The Cloisters have several different options that account for weather. Our ceremony was in the garden and the flowers were so beautiful. I'm so happy that we got to get married on a beautiful day at such a remarkable venue.

The Cloisters Castle is the perfect venue for a romantic wedding. The staff is helpful and the grounds are stunning. The only downside is it is a smaller venue. We had 135 guests at our wedding and it was crowded. Also, there is no air conditioning so it was a little stuffy inside and our wedding was in April. But it was still completely worth it!

The venue is perfect!! I am very old school and we were having a Celtic themed wedding so it fit perfectly. Mrs. Anne was a lot of help although sometimes hard to get a hold of. You do have to use a caterer from a list that they have but I had no problems in fact it made it easier to choose. There are open houses constantly with all sorts of vendors. I would recommenced this venue to anyone that wants a true fairy tale wedding!!

The Cloisters is the most beautiful venue I could imagine for a wedding. It's truly a fairytale setting. You can get married in a castle! Not only is it beautiful, if you're willing to get married on a Friday night like we did, or a Sunday, it's very affordable. All of the rental fees go to support the arts in Baltimore, so it's your supporting a good cause as well. Annie, who manages the Cloisters, also helped us out tremendously when we had a disaster with our hotel a week before the wedding. The Chase Suites, over booked their hotel and told us 7 days before our wedding, that they could no longer accomodate us or our guests. We had over 20 rooms booked! Annie convinced their corporate manager to book us at the Embassy Suites ( a much nice hotel) and got them to pay for the difference in cost for all of our guests. She was amazing and saved our wedding. I would love to have an excuse to have another event there. It's so beautiful.

The Cloisters is a fabulous and unique venue for a wedding ceremony and reception. The staff were very accommodating and helpful in making my wedding a success even though Hurricane Irene forced us to move the wedding from starting at 6:00pm outside to 12:00pm inside. Without their flexibility, our wedding most likely would not have taken place on August 27.

Our wedding was beautiful and the Cloisters played a major part in that! All of our guests adored the venue and its' uniqueness. I had planned for our ceremony and reception to both be outdoors but it ended up raining that day, although we did get to have a shortened version of our ceremony outdoors in the cloistered garden. Afterward, our reception was indoors. And it was super hot, as was to be expected with no AC in August. I knew this going in and I figured the beauty of the venue was worth being a little hot but my advice is to make sure you are really ok with that before booking the Cloisters in the summer months, because if you aren't, you will not be happy with the heat indoors. Staff at the Cloisters were always friendly to us; definitely more of a laid back style there though so don't expect anyone to fawn all over you and your wedding. Overall, I would totally recommend the Cloisters!

The location was perfect, lots of parking, the staff was fabulous to work with. Best of all- the venue was breath taking. Our guests are still talking about what a fabulous venue we had- definitely a very memorable location.

The Cloisters castle was such a unique backdrop to our event. Plenty of room for all of our guests and we used the different rooms for different parts of the wedding. The ceremony was outside in the beautiful courtyard, the bars and food stations were in other rooms, the cake went in another part, and we even had a photobooth room. I loved our location!!