Winstead Inn in Harwich Port, MA

avborges

Has anyone been to a wedding or had their own wedding in Winstead Inn?  We have a small budget and I love the idea of a clam bake under a tent with our closest friends.  Anyone has any suggestions or comments?  

ainoff

Just wondering if you decided to work with the Winstead Inn? We are pretty seriously considering having our clambake/tented wedding there in Oct. 2014 and was wondering what you experience was like. Any info would be greatly appreciated!

jjr80501

We had the most amazing tented wedding at the Winstead in June 2012 and I would certainly recommend it - can't believe it's already been 2 years!!  It was certainly not as budget friendly as we had imagined (or had hoped!) having to bring catering, set up a tent/flooring, etc., but it really was everything we had dreamed about for a casual beach wedding!  One large caveat was that the Winstead Inn required that we rented the whole property (both the Beach Resort and Inn downtown) and different rooms had 2-3 night minimum stay requirements.  Even with our 100 person guest list, it wasn't too difficult to coordinate this, but it did add a bit of extra stress trying to make sure that the Inn rooms were booked so we wouldn't have to cover the costs of any un-booked rooms (on top of their general facilities fee).  Given the intimate size of the property, it makes sense why they had this requirement, but if we didn't have guests coming in for the weekend, that requirement certainly would have made things cost prohibitive.  The Winstead Inn staff (Doug, Ann, Greg) were absolutely amazing and couldn't have been more welcoming and accomodating all weekend, we really felt like we were at home and enjoyed having all of our guests at the beach and Inn location downtown.  Other things I'd mention...  the Winstead required that we bring in extra bathrooms (we rented a bathroom trailer which worked out really well), and the Harwich town ordinance required that our band end at 10pm (really not a big deal for us since our ceremony started at 4 and we did a casual after party down the street at the Port).  Also, getting power for the band (Splash! from Wilson Stevens were incredible) on the beach proved slightly difficult, but we worked with Connie Nye Clark of the Perfect Plan for day-of services (she went above and beyond!) and vendor recommendations and she was absolutely CRITICAL in ensuring that all of the many moving pieces came together day-of (and in preparation + after!)  We used Sperry Tents (gorgeous + impeccable installation/service, but pricey!) and Chapins Catering (they were FANTASTIC! - the food was awesome and they walked it down to the beach from their prep/cook tent on the side of the Inn).  For rentals (linens, tables, chairs, silverware, bar-ware, etc.), we used Rentals Unlimited and they made things very easy to coordinate.  We considered a lot of other venues too, so if you have any specific questions feel free shoot me an email and I'd be happy to help...   jessicaskrine@yahoo.com.