The Crane Estate
About This Vendor
A Grand Seaside Estate
The Crane Estate is a wedding venue in Ipswich, MA. This stunning seaside property comprises over 2,100 and affords spectacular views of Crane Beach, the Crane Wildlife Refuge, and the surrounding salt marshes. The Great House, perched high above Crane Beach, is a triumph of the Country Place Era and provides the perfect setting for an extraordinary wedding celebration. The Crane Estate's Great House is available for exclusive use. Additional venue options are also available. Steep Hill Beach is ideal for couples looking to add a bit of sun, sand, and surf to their wedding ceremony. The two private lawns overlooking the ocean provide plenty of space to mingle, play volleyball and other games, and enjoy an informal clambake or barbecue reception. The Vegetable Garden, which features stone towers, wrought-iron gates, and a wisteria-draped lattice, is another stunning ceremony site. The Italian-style Barn, located at the base of Castle Hill, is a charming reception venue that pairs nicely with both Steep Hill Beach and the Vegetable Garden. It has a lovely post and beam frame, terra-cotta walls, and a green tiled roof and can accommodate parties of up to 140 people. Fireside Catering is the venue's exclusive catering partner. They believe that a commitment to quality begins with great attention to detail. They work closely with couples to design personalized menus made up of delicious seasonal dishes, all elegantly presented and served by professional, experienced staff. The Fireside Catering team can't wait to make your wedding at the Crane Estate a dream come true.
Amenities + Details
Covered Outdoors Space
Dressing Room
Handicap Accessible
Indoor Event Space
On-Site Accommodations
Outdoor Event Space
Reception Area
Liability Insurance
Wireless Internet
Guest Capacity
300+
Settings
Ballroom, Barn, Beach, Waterfront, Castle, Estate, Garden, Historic Venue, Tented
Venue Service Offerings
Planning
Awards and Affiliations
Pricing for The Crane Estate
Curious to learn more?
The Crane Estate Reviews
4.4 out of 5.0
35 reviews
5 Star
69%
4 Star
17%
3 Star
6%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
8%
The venue is absolutely stunning however the service by fireside catering is absolutely awful. The event staff was rude to my guests and myself along with serving food cold and forgetting to serve several guest tables.
We were absolutely blown away by the way everything came together at our Barn at the Crane Estate wedding in June 2023. From the delicious food and drinks from Fireside Catering to the incredible service (thanks to our bridal attendant and even...
t manager!), all of our guests had the best time. Despite a day of nonstop rain, we walked into the Barn completely speechless to see the vision we had planned with Maura come together in such a beautiful way. Both our families and and us as the couple felt really taken care of by the team who were so attentive (more than one staff member took the time to fluff my dress for me during cocktail hour) and the flow of the night was seamless. Maura was wonderful to work with every step of the way and the wedding day felt stress free knowing she was in charge. The Crane Estate offers beautiful natural settings (even in the rain), timeless elegance, and a Coastal New England feel. We just hope we know someone else getting married there so we can attend!
Two months later we are still SPEECHLESS. Our wedding was seamless. The ceremony and reception were pure magic. Crane Estate offers timeless, romantic beauty, incredibly helpful venue coordinators (Maura is a superstar), incredible food (Firesi...
de Catering), several site locations (gardens for first look, grand allee for ceremony, tent and ballroom for reception), and stunning views. My husband and I fell in love with Crane Estate in the dead of winter and watched it come alive with color for our fall wedding. We had the best time and the team was endlessly attentive - we even had someone making sure we got to try everything and that we had a fresh beverage in hand! Crane Estate is an absolute dream, and we are so happy it's a part of our history.
Any questions?
We had originally planned a 125 person wedding at the Barn. Then, COVID happened and our plans were upended. Maura and her team were wonderful every step of the way. She was incredibly supportive, communicative and flexible as we had to shift o...
ur wedding date, location (to the Great House and tent), redo our seating and reduce our numbers multiple times. Crane and Maura went above and beyond to make sure we had the best celebration. The food was delicious, the service was superb and they made sure our wedding was joyous and safe. It's a very personal decision whether to delay your wedding due to the pandemic, but we could not be happier that we celebrated with 40 close friends and family. And, we are forever grateful to Crane and Fireside Catering for supporting us through all the changes and hosting an amazing and happy wedding!
Any covid brides still rate 5 stars? How’s the real review time...
We got married at the Barn and it was incredible. Maura was FANTASTIC and the staff the entire night was incredible. I had so many people come up and were so impressed by the food, the staff and the ease of the entire day/evening. The Barn wa...
s the perfect location.
An amazing venue with amazing people! Maura truly made our wedding go off without a hitch and was incredible throughout the entire process of planning our wedding. Thank you!
We absolutely loved this venue. The whole property is gorgeous and there are so many wonderful areas to take photos.
We just got married at the Crane Estate on Memorial day weekend 2018. Maura McCarthy was excellent to work with. The venue was stunning and the food was amazing. The organizers keep things running smoothly. The weather was unseasonably cold. We...
were able to do the ceremony outside and then had cocktail hour inside the house and the reception under the tent. They recommended we rent heaters through them and I'm glad we did. The bridal attendant was outstanding. She was attentive, a good listener, and helped keep us on track for the schedule. She brought us our drinks, got me hand warmers since I was so cold, and made sure we got to try each of the appetizers even though we were busy doing photos. We had the most amazing night. The only down side to the whole venue was the liquor choices. We did not love the options for beer on tier 1 or tier 2 and it was very costly to order the custom drinks we wanted. In the end we just stuck with the lowest tier bar and since it was open bar I don't think any of our guests cared about what options they had.
Working with Maura from FireSide Caterjng in conjunction with the Estate was such an incredible experience! I CANNOT say enough about how lovely, hilarious, patient, communicative, and capable she was. She handles family meditation with grace, ...
made sure our wedding in The Vegetable Garden and reception in The Barn were exactly what we hoped for. Maura and her staff were impeccably organized and flexible and created a special set up just for our event. Later, during the reception Maura was on call and when some distant relatives expressed homophobia she was ready to help us stay enjoying our wedding and even to remove them if we requested.
Late night emails, over the top event outlines, familial disagreement, Maura can handle it all with grace, tact, and humor. Our venue was incredibly beautiful and magical and Maura was seriously the most outstanding cross between fairy god mother, family therapist, life coach, and Sarah Silverman.
Cranes was my dream venue, the vegetarian meals and apps were delicious, having a server dedicated solely to myself and my wife made our dining experience perfect, and Maura was truly truly truly more than I could have ever asked for in a coordinator. I just might go into events because I admire her so much :)
The view from the Crane Estate is just stunning. It's just a very special place to get married.
Sam, my bridal attendant, could not have been sweeter or more helpful. Jim, who worked at Crane was also just a lovely man.
Lastly, the food from...
Fireside was amazing, especially the appetizers. I received multiple compliments from our guests regarding the food.
We were just married at the Crane Estate on October 7, 2016 and had the most wonderful experience with both the venue and the Crane team! We worked with Maura, who was exceptionally responsive throughout out 8 month engagement and who ensured ...
every little aspect of our wedding was taken into consideration to ensure we had the most perfect day. She even took the extra step of reminding me that my job on the wedding day was to enjoy it (e.g. no need to micromanage while in a wedding dress - she had this;). Maura truly went above and beyond to make the day go smoothly and assist us through any small crisis - such as our arriving quite late for pictures. Additionally, we found the Crane-recommended vendors to be exceptional as well (and it was wonderful that everyone involved in our big day already knew and regularly worked with one another). It was such a relief to have such a great team to work with at such a strikingly beautiful location. Our guests were thrilled with the views, interesting history of our venue, and ability to move from room to room throughout the night (there was something for everyone). We will be recommending the Crane Estate to all of our friends/family and would 110% make the same venue choice if we had it all to do over again!
My husband and I recently got married at the Crane Estate and I could not have been happier with how everything turned out. The mansion is incredible and if you get married out on the lawn the back drop is stunning. All of our guests could no...
t get over how incredible this venue was and everything from the ceremony, to the cocktail hour to the reception was perfect. We could not have asked for a more perfect wedding.
The venue was stunning! We were still able to choose from a select list of caterers for our wedding and were not restricted to just one option. We were married on the lawn at the Great House with our cocktail hour and dancing on the back patio ...
and dinner inside the house. Fortunately, the weather was amazing because our rain plans would not have been very comfortable. They are rather strict on certain items so be sure to read the contract before you sign in case there is anything you have your heart set on. The wedding coordinators were wonderful to work with but our little interaction with the trustees and their staff was not as pleasant. Local accommodations for large groups are not available, your best plan is to rent a bus and transport people because as another review noted the roads are not easy to navigate at night.
The venue itself is absolutely gorgeous. Our coordinator, however, was not so great. About 3 months before our wedding our coordinator was changed. The first one was wonderful, she made us feel very comfortable and gave us everything we wante...
d. The second one was not so great. The day of she didn't do anything that she was supposed to and gave everyone, including guests and vendors, attitude. She would disappear for 45 minutes at a time and was not pleasant at all. The park ranger that they have walking around threatened to arrest our DJ if he played music one minute past 11pm. Thankfully we had awesome caterers who picked up the slack and we were able to have a beautiful and very fun wedding.
I do know that things at the Crane Estate are changing how they do things. They are now doing it as everything one stop.
Nothing more picturesque and beautiful than Castle Hill on the Crane Estate! If you want a combination of grand and homey, this is the venue. No extensive decoration needed - the venue speaks for itself.
Our venue coordinator was absolutely...
wonderful to work with! Available for venue visits. Totally advocated for us.
Concerns:
-strict rules with time, options for alcohol/beverage (pricey), rental pickup by vendors, etc.
We always knew we wanted to get married at Cranes. The great house and grounds can not be beat anywhere in MA. Our coordinator Danielle was amazing and so easy to work with. Danielle and the rest of the Crane Estate staff worked hard to make ou...
r day flawless. We highly recommend this venue!
Every reviewer on here is absolutely correct when they say this venue is amazingly beautiful and that there's nothing quite like it -- possibly for hundreds of miles.
But, I really want to point out that their staff is absolutely fantastic....
My family and friends were raving over the bar service they received, and the dining staff was really incredible. Throughout the night they really were on top of everything. Quite awesome!
Just got married at The Crane estate in Ipswich at the end of September. The day was beautiful and so was the location. The grounds and view of the ocean are magnificent, the Great House is elegant and grand, but the event manager and staff at ...
the estate are warm, down to earth and welcoming. We were able to totally let go once we arrived, because we felt confident things would go smoothly and they did. We had fun at our wedding and so did the guests!
Our wedding was perfect and that is in huge part due to the level of service that we received at the Crane Estate. We worked with Laura who made our day go seamlessly, despite the disorganization of our DJ, and despite our forgetfulness in giv...
ing her some last minute detail updates.
We had rain on our wedding date and they had begun to setup inside for the ceremony, but as promised, the whole staff was able to make the wedding happen outside when the weather cleared just half an hour prior to our ceremony start time.
The Crane Estate is wildly beautiful - there is truly nothing else like it. Our guests said that it was the most incredible wedding venue they had been to. Even the photographs our friends took look like pages of a Vogue fashion shoot. I am so happy to have had the ability to have my wedding at this amazing venue!
If you want an elegant, tasteful, classic wedding, this is the location. Not only are you getting married in the most gorgeous location (both architecturally and scenically), but it is staffed by true professionals! Francie was our wedding coor...
dinator, and she organized all the vendors, created a day-of timeline, let everyone know what they should do and when on the day of (which was important since we had no idea what we were doing!) and kept us on track so we weren't just wandering around. She is a pro and whatever we asked of her she did with grace and ease. As others have said, they come up with real alternate plans in case of rain that will be just as beautiful. In fact after our ceremony there was a little rain, and in what seemed like seconds Francie had everything rearranged to take place indoors. Seriously, if you want a wedding day that'll go off without a hitch, surrounded by capable professionals who know their stuff, allowing you to truly enjoy your wedding day in a gorgeous location, THIS is your venue!
Our experience with our reception at The Crane Estate was wonderful. Not only does this venue have a breathtaking view from The Great House, but the staff were very helpful and friendly. We highly recommend this venue!
We wanted a historical house for our wedding. The Crane Estate is by far the grandest and most well run that we saw. We knew we wanted it. However, it is a very very popular venue. This means it is more expensive and they are less flexible....
Most of the things they were inflexible on did not really matter to us (e.g. no dogs in the ceremony, no open flame, no sparklers, ceremony must start at 5pm and reception must end by 11pm). Our major complaint was that the Inn on site (where many bridal parties stay) is expensive and difficult to deal with. We ended up staying elsewhere (and unfortunately there are no hotels close by).
Overall though, I would not have had my wedding elsewhere. The venue was just spectacularly beautiful and all the guests were raving about it.
A gorgeous venue with a view that simply cannot be beat. The staff at Crane are professional and helpful and made planning the flow of our day a breeze. The only downside to this fantastic venue is a local zoning ordinance which prevents the ...
party from continuing past 11pm.
Since I was in 6th grade, I wanted to get married at the Crane Estate- and I did! It was a dream come true. The view of the Atlantic, the lush green alley and gardens, and the timeless mansion made for the most incredible backdrop to our cere...
mony and reception. Our guests took advantage of the grounds and wandered off to enjoy the views. Weather is important (and bug spray!) but luckily we had only a light passing shower after dinner-which resulted in a rainbow! The staff was attentive- though strict, which is understandable, since it is a landmark on conservation land. Go visit and you'll fall in love!
First off, this venue was lovely but just because it is lovely does not make it a great venue for your guest.
A friend of mine got married here in June. This place is hard to drive to. It's up quite the hill and really not great for night dr...
iving. We had to stay quite a ways away from the wedding because of the lack of local accommodations. This really came into play because a lot of the wedding guest traveled. I traveled 600 miles and wasn't even close to being the farthest away. The staff was incredibly rude to many of the guest. They bar was cutting people off after two drinks. Some people may need to be cut off after two drinks but this wasn't the case. I went to the bar to get a glass of water. Before they would serve me the bar tenders very loudly told each other that I was too intoxicated to be server. I had a BAC of 0 because I didn't get any champagne for the toast before:( i didn't realize that dancing and having fun made you intoxicated. They ended up following a friend of mine to the bathroom and accusing her of vomiting and being too intoxicated. She had to pee and was certainly not drunk!
The venue is unbelievably beautiful and I the bride looked so happy! And to be fair, that is the most important thing. I am so glad the terrible staff did not ruin her day but I would not want to go back to wedding here. If you are looking at this for a venue I would think twice. Guest want to have a good time and celebrate your marriage too but the Crane Estate made that very hard. This venue is more for a local morning or afternoon wedding where people wouldn't really drink and would be able to drive home safely.
Response from the Vendor on 08/06/2012
I am disappointed to hear that our venue did not meet your expectations. We want you to know that we strive to provide the best service possible to our guests, and to our clients so everyone has a memorable experience. Our mansion being set up...
on a 165 acre hill does create a breath-taking view of the ocean. The driving at night would only be upon the departure of the event in which our parking lot area is well lit; and our structured traffic flow is one way around the estate to ensure safety departing the hilltop. Our estate does have a B&B on site for the convenience of our guests, or we are happy to provide local area hotels within a 20 mile radius for everyone's convenience. All of our staff are trainined for alcohol service and we do strive to accommodate our guests with the utmost professional and expedient service. We do have a policy to not over serve individuals, but it is not our policy to cut guests off after two drinks. Our goal is to ensure the safety of all who are here to celebrate one of the most important days of our wedding couple!
Incredibly professional staff, breathtaking setting. I recommend this venue without any reservations!
While an expensive venue, I would not have changed a thing! The Crane estate is a wonderful venue for a wedding - they think of everything and were very attentive to every detail. All of my guests are still raving about the beauty of the site...
alone, not to mention the food, the service, and the overall atmosphere. I was managing most of the wedding details on my own, and would never have made it through the planning process without the help of the wedding coordinators! They think of everything!
For an enchanting, memorable and really special venue - look no further!
It's a undeniably stunning place to get married--look at any photos of the estate and you'll see why it needs no further comment here. But it also has a real rain plan that won't leave you soggy or in some drab conference room. It can handle ...
weddings of almost any size and make them feel at once intimate and grand. The staff is helpful, friendly and accommodating. Loved getting married here.
If you have guests coming in from out of town, especially from another country, Crane Estate is postcard picture perfect and a real treat. It is majestic, and very "Old New England," while still having modern amenities. The fees for your recept...
ion rental go to a good cause (preservation fund) and the staff is so helpful throughout the planning process. You can get married in so many spots on their grounds its just too beautiful and will take you a while to decide the perfect area. If you are blessed with perfect weather, you get to have your cocktail hour outdoors on the patio overlooking the rolling hills. It still takes my breath away.
Castle Hill was the most amazing venue. It is such a beautiful spot and provides so many places for fabulous pictures. I am from the area but live in the UK and planned my entire wedding from overseas. The staff at the Castle were extremely h...
elpful and very accomodating, esp given the fact that we never met face to face. The only problem with the venue is the time. They are EXTREMELY strict with time and will charge you for every minute that your wedding runs over. Just keep this in mind. Your day goes by faster than you can ever imagine an with a 5hr window at the Castle you are on a tight schedule. I would also recommend doing photos before hand to save on time.
Castle Hill has many pros: it's beautiful, you get the entire place to yourself (no worrying about hotel guests or gawkers), there is plenty of parking. Did I mention it's beautiful?!! My only issues were that it was expensive, even on a Sunday...
, and they are very strict about time - you can get extra time, but not past 11pm.
I was very happy with Castle Hill staff during the planning and on my wedding day. Our guests were very impressed with the setting, it is hard to beat in MA. The staff was available to answer my many questions throughout the process. My only di...
sappointment was that certain (little) details I requested and prepared ahead for the wedding didn't happen. All of the "important" stuff was covered, though. Don't expect them to go to extra lengths for you, but they will meet your expectations.
We recently had our wedding at Castle Hill, and everyone is still gushing about it months later! The setting was perfect and romantic and everyone had a blast. Our event coordinator for the estate, Ashley, was perfect and kept the evening mov...
ing. She was on top of things and made sure everything was how I wanted it. You do have to choose from their (long) list of caterers, but I actually found this helpful since I wouldn't have known where to start. Also, all the caterers are high quality, so you really can't go wrong. Castle Hill really made our wedding special and beautiful. It's a night we won't forget.
Castle Hill cannot be beat in terms of the beautiful mansion house with incredible view. This was my dream venue, and I felt so lucky to be able to have our wedding there. However, the cost is astronomical. They provide very little (and what...
they do provide doesn't match the expectation of what you should get for what you are paying) - all equipment must be brought in by outside vendors. They also have their own liquor license, and charge extremely high rates for the alcohol, adding significantly to the cost. They also charge a separate ceremony fee, tent fee, overtime fee, and they clearly charge the caterers a separate fee as well, which ends up getting passed on to the bride/groom. This is a lot of add-ons for a place that charges a very steep fee just to rent the space! All that aside, the place is just amazing and I would do it again in a heartbeat. There really is nothing else like it.
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The Crane Estate