Glen Manor House, located in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, is a rare mix of history and stunning views that will make your wedding day an experience that your guests will never forget. A wedding at Glen Manor offers full use of this French chateau, sitting on the banks of the Sakonnet River, just a few miles away from where it meets the Atlantic.
We will break down everything you need to know about planning your wedding at Glen Manor and walk you through how the house would be utilized for your special day, and cover some tips and details that you should know before planning and booking Glen Manor.
The History of Glen Manor House
Glen Manor House was built in 1923 and was designed by the famous architect John Russel Pope, whose other works included the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. He was hired by Henry A.C. Taylor, who owned a vacation home in Newport, but in 1882 had begun buying hundreds of acres of farmland in the Portsmouth area. Glen Farm became the family’s primary residence in 1906, and in 1921, started construction on a new family home as designed by Pope.
Unfortunately, Henry never saw the completion of his family home as he died shortly after construction began in May 1921. His only son, Moses, took up overseeing construction and, after its completion in 1923, Glen Manor House became the vacation home for Moses and his family. Moses passed away in 1928, but his widow lived in the house until her death in 1959.
In that same year, their son Reginald Taylor sold Glen Manor House and dozens of acres of farmland to the Sisters of the Sacred Heart to be used as a school. The school was closed in 1972 and was sold to the town of Portsmouth. The Portsmouth Historical Society runs the estate today.
Glen Manor House Location
Glen Manor House is located in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, just a short drive from the heart of Newport. It sits on a secluded piece of property on the banks of the Sakonnet River. Away from the main road and roughly fifteen to twenty minutes from the commotion of Newport, this French Chateau feels like a hidden, private spot just for you and your wedding guests.
Although we focus on Newport wedding venues, we make an exception for Glen Manor House. It fits the feel and charm of a Newport wedding venue with several benefits you won’t find at any venue located in Newport. The drive is short, roughly 7 miles, and you do not need to leave Aquidneck Island. Whether by car, bus, or trolley, you and your guests will barely notice the ride through Middletown and quaint Portsmouth.
Wedding at Glen Manor – Venue Features
Glen Manor House seems to encompass all of the best features of the other wedding venues covered on this site. There is often a choice between history or waterfront with many wedding venues, but not with a wedding at Glen Manor. Sacrifices always need to be made when choosing a wedding venue, but the sacrifices are small compared to other locations.
Historic
Although not located on famous Bellevue Avenue along the rest of the Gilded Age mansions, Glen Manor still embodies the history of that time period and captures the historic look and feel so many want on their wedding day. You and your guests will feel as though you’ve stepped back in time, and you can be assured that it will be an event that no one will ever forget. If your dream wedding is more “Downton Abbey” than a generic ballroom, this is a venue you must check out. Both inside and out, Glen Manor exudes elegance and old-world charm. The estate features pristine gardens, perfect for an outdoor ceremony or just for pictures. An expansive stone terrace with intricate carvings overlooks the gardens and the water.
On the inside is where your journey into the Gilded Age comes to life. Walking through the front entrance, you’re met with a marble entryway corridor. Large painted portraits hang from the walls of the Taylor family, similar to those found of the Vanderbilt family in the Breakers and Rosecliff.
To the right leads you into the first of three rooms for your reception, each with a large marble fireplace (which can be filled with candles). To the left is a sweeping marble staircase (great for pictures!) that takes you to the second floor with several dressing and seating rooms, just for you and your wedding party. This historic chateau looks every bit the part of a Gilded Age masterpiece and is the ultimate backdrop for your wedding day.
Waterfront
Wrapping around the side and back of the mansion are large stone patios overlooking the Sakonnet River. Stone steps lead down to a wooden dock extending out into the river, a perfect spot for pictures (weather and daylight permitting).
Although not technically the Atlantic Ocean, the river is vast and eventually leads out into the ocean just a few miles away. Unless looking it up on Google Maps, most would assume that it must be part of the Atlantic.
If you have your heart set on an oceanfront wedding, you should still go to Glen Manor and see it for yourself. Oceanfront venues don’t allow you to have water pictures like those you can take at Glen Manor on the dock. Also, taking pictures offsite is a great option, regardless of where your venue is, to get the best ocean pictures in Newport. We recommend some great spots here, even if you book an oceanfront venue.
One quick thought about waterfront venues, depending upon the time of year of your wedding, you may not be able to see the water for long or at all. Offseason weddings are an excellent option for numerous reasons, but one downside is the short days that limit water visibility. The cold weather also limits outdoor use, so even the sound of waves crashing will essentially go unnoticed.
Estate/Grounds
Similar to the waterfront feature, the estate and grounds are a more prominent factor during the late spring, summer, and early fall months. The gardens can be thoroughly enjoyed for a ceremony, for pictures, or even during the reception as a great place to take a break from the dancing and enjoy a drink on outdoor high-top tables or a celebratory cigar. Glen Manor does allow for the rental of outdoor heat towers so that guests can still utilize the stone terrace regardless of the weather.
Even if you don’t use the gardens for a ceremony or pictures, the seclusion of the estate is still a great benefit. This isn’t on a main road or in the chaos of Newport. There are no tourists in sight, and since this isn’t a hotel, no other people other than your guests and those you hired will be present. Glen Manor is only used for events, and there can only be a single event each day. Glen Manor’s sole use on your wedding day is your wedding.
Although Glen Manor is full of history and is awe-inspiring, it is not a tourist attraction the way that the mansions in Newport are. There won’t be anybody else walking around the grounds or taking pictures outside. It’s as if the Taylor family opened up their private residence just to host your special day.
Multiple Rooms
This might seem like a negative at first glance, but it’s actually a significant benefit on your wedding day. Like the rest of the Gilded Age mansions, Glen Manor was very large on the outside but was built and designed as a private residence during the 1800s. The rooms were impressive and quite large, but not large enough to be considered wedding ballrooms. These families entertained, but their circle of friends (the other elite families) was no more than a few dozen. They did not use these rooms to entertain 100-200 people with sit-down dinners, a dance floor, and a DJ. Just like in “Downtown Abbey,” the families of that time period entertained in sections of the house by utilizing a parlor, a library, and a dining room. Glen Manor House has a similar setup, which we will cover more in-depth later in this post in the walkthrough section.
Without relying on the outdoor space for dining, your ceremony would use one room for dancing and two adjacent rooms for dining. We’ll discuss the flow of the two dining rooms shortly (spoiler alert: it works really well), but having the dancing separated a bit from the dining adds a few benefits. First, it allows your guests a separate indoor space to hold normal conversations, especially those that do not want to dance, and you’re allowing them to engage with others without having to go outside or watch dancing the entire night. We all know people who would never step foot on the dance floor or have older guests who might be out there for a song or two but need a place to rest and enjoy catching up with others. The separate dining rooms are not entirely cut off from the dancing as large doorways remain open, making the flow between rooms excellent yet diminishing some of the sounds. The light can also remain on in the dining rooms without interfering with the dance floor. Although difficult for some to visualize, the multiple rooms floorplan is an excellent setup and brings a lot of added benefits without impacting the feel of the wedding negatively.
Ceremony – Wedding at Glen Manor
If you are looking to have a ceremony outside of a religious location, Glen Manor can host your ceremony as well. The garden is a favorite spot to do this, located just a few steps from the stone terrace on the right side of the estate. With the river serving as the backdrop for your ceremony and the meticulously manicured lawn and garden surrounding you and your guests, you’ll exchange vows in a scene usually only found in novels. It’s the perfect picturesque, secluded, quiet spot for your intimate wedding ceremony.
From there, guests can move into a cocktail hour while wedding party pictures are taken at different parts of the property. This is great because extended family and friends can be pulled aside throughout the cocktail hour for photos too.
We’ll discuss this more during the customization section, but Glen Manor has Chiavari chairs in different colors available for use indoors at the dining tables and also white garden chairs for outdoor ceremonies.
Don’t forget, that you can have your florist add arrangements to your ceremony to amplify the garden.
Staff
Glen Manor House is not a privately-owned wedding venue business. It’s currently owned by the town of Portsmouth and is a part of the Portsmouth Historical Society. This can impact several aspects of renting this space as a wedding venue, by in large, all positive.
Because it’s owned by the town, Glen Manor is not a one-stop shop for your wedding. The estate is an exclusive Russell Morin Catering & Events venue for all food, bar, linens, staff and planning. What does this mean? It means that there is still some separation between venue and caterer. You will have to use Russell Morin when booking Glen manor as a venue, BUT you’ll still have more flexibility than dealing with a private venue that does everything in house. We’ll cover this more later.
A house venue manager plus a Morin Event Success Manager are provided; outside planners are optional. Although not a wedding planner (i.e., they do not pick and pay vendors for you), the event manager at Glen Manor is SUPER helpful and alleviates much stress on your big day. They provide a lot of help leading up to and on the day of your wedding.
You can still hire a wedding planner to remove/reduce the contact and communication with the vendors you will have to do leading up to your wedding. Still, it’s not necessary and will reduce expenses substantially.
The other impact the ownership has on Glen Manor is the cost. We’ll cover pricing in depth soon, but in our opinion, it would cost substantially more money if privately owned. Although not inexpensive, it’s much more affordable than other venues we cover on this site which are either historic estates or waterfront.
When researching different venues, one thing you’ll see often is contracted food and beverage minimums. These come into play more often with venues that prepare the food themselves. If you are planning a wedding with 150+ guests, it’s not as big of an issue, but these can be very tough to clear with a smaller wedding. Oftentimes, couples are forced to add on extras to their wedding, such as tons of desserts, just to reach the minimum dollar amount contracted. When you separate the caterer from the venue, those hurdles disappear. For example, if a contracted minimum is $30,000, even if you reduce the number of guests, it will not result in a lower cost because regardless of the number of guests, you have to spend at least $20,000 on food and beverage. You should find much more flexibility here than many of the private alternatives found in Newport.
Customization
There are many ways you can customize your wedding at Glen Manor to make it fit your style. The event manager is very focused on helping you have the most magical day possible, so they’re very open and receptive to adding small personal touches. We outline some different possibilities:
- Chiavari chairs
The chairs, which are used for indoor dining, are available in a couple of different colors. Gold is the most popular. If applicable, white garden chairs are available for an outdoor ceremony.
- Fireplace decorations
The three large marble fireplaces are focal points in each of the three main rooms. These can be filled with lit candles (candles must be in glass holders), and the tops of the mantles can also be decorated. Greenery, flowers, and even pictures can be added to the mantle places during your reception. This adds ambiance to your wedding at Glen Manor.
- Glen Manor furniture
In some spots, there are pieces of furniture that are out of the way but can be used to add further details and personalization to your wedding at Glen Manor. I’m not talking about dining tables or high-top tables, but actual pieces of furniture that look as though the Taylor family themselves owned them. Your florist can add flowers or greenery to them, and they’re a perfect spot for things such as the card box and the guest sign-in book.
- Additional vendors
Although Glen Manor is an exclusive Russell Morin Catering & Events venue, they are open to bringing in additional vendors to add special and unique touches to your reception. A great example is bringing in Ben and Jerry’s to set up a sundae bar. It’s reasonably priced and you can pick five ice cream flavors to go along with a wide array of toppings. Just make sure that you remember to have some during your reception!
Price
As I briefly mentioned before, a wedding at Glen Manor House is not inexpensive but compared to other historic or waterfront venues, it’s very well priced. This is mainly due to the venue being owned by the town of Portsmouth and not by a private company or the city of Newport and the separation of the venue and the caterer as discussed above.
Wedding at Glen Manor Information
- Location: 3 Frank Coelho Dr, Portsmouth, RI 02871
- Contact and Rates
The cost for a wedding at Glen Manor In Season:
***Based on pricing from 2025. Pricing subject to change.***
Mid May through October
Monday to Thursday: $5,000
Friday: $10,000
Saturday: $13,000
Sunday: $7,500
The cost to book a wedding at Glen Manor in the Offseason:
November through Mid May
Monday to Thursday: $3,000
Friday: $5,000
Saturday: $5,000
Sunday: $3,750
The cost to have your ceremony at Glen Manor: $1,500.
As you can see, a wedding at Glen Manor is not inexpensive (especially In Season); however, when compared to the pricing at other venues on this site, it’s very well priced.
Parking
Because Glen Manor is not in the heart of Newport or close to any of the hotels in the area, you will more than likely provide transportation for your guests. Whether by bus or trolley, parking would not be a significant issue for you to worry about. However, if you have guests that end up driving, there is a ton of parking on the property. There are multiple lots, so much so that all of your guests could drive, and there would not be a problem handling the parking.
Glen Manor does require you to pay a fee (relatively small) to have a Portsmouth police officer present on the property. They help stop traffic for your guests and your buses/trolleys.
Pros of a Wedding at Glen Manor
We’ve covered several of the benefits of a Glen Manor wedding reception above, but let’s quickly recap some of the major ones.
Sacrifice less
You can have both a historic estate and a waterfront venue when you choose to have your wedding at Glen Manor. You’re not sacrificing one for the other, as is often the case with other wedding venues in the Newport area. You may not be in the heart of Newport, but a short drive is barely noticeable to you and your guests. Also, depending upon when your wedding is, you could pick a venue in the heart of Newport, and with the heavy traffic during the spring and summer months, it could take you 15-20 minutes to drive a mile or so. Heading out of Newport, but not over a bridge leaving Aquidneck Island, is not a risky drive at all.
Photos are stunning
You get stunning photos of the French chateau and the water. You won’t need to stop along Ocean Avenue or any of the mansions on Bellevue Avenue to capture stunning photos (you still can if you want). You’ll have the beautiful French chateau, the beautiful gardens, and the water to serve as the perfect backdrop.
Location
The location is a plus as it makes the experience more private and secluded, without leaving the Newport area too much and sacrificing the history or the waterfront features. You can also use the Manor as your ceremony location too (for an additional fe of $1,500).
Floorplan
The floorplan works really well for weddings, although it’s not the traditional large giant ballroom. The three rooms, plus the hallway/entryway, allow guests to hold conversations without having to yell or go outside.
Cost
The cost of a wedding at Glen Manor is much more reasonable than other venues, which are privately owned and located in Newport. The separation of venue and vendors can allow for greater opportunity to tailor it to fit your needs more precisely.
History dealing with vendors
Glen Manor’s site coordinator has extensive experience and will work well with Russell Morin Planning & Event Success Manager. Everyone is on the same page, so everything is perfectly set up by the time you show up on your big day.
Cons of a Wedding at Glen Manor
Some of the below cons will be the same as the pros above. It depends on what your heart is set on and your overall preferences.
Location/Transportation
This can definitely be a negative if you’re 100% sold on having a venue that is located in Newport. Also, choosing Glen Manor means the additional step of setting up transportation for your guests. It’s not difficult, and it’s an opportunity to add to the Newport theme by booking a trolley, but it is an added step and, of course, an added expense. If you have your wedding at a hotel, you don’t have to worry about this, but with a wedding at Glen Manor, it’s something you would need to plan for.
Not Oceanfront
Glen Manor does not fit the bill if your heart is set on an oceanfront venue. It is waterfront, and you do have closer access to the water via a large wooden dock which is an excellent spot for photographs, but it’s not oceanfront. Glen Manor is situated on the banks of the Sakonnet River, which leads to the Atlantic Ocean just a few miles away, but it’s not quite the same as oceanfront. This should come into play for weddings from May through September, when the weather should be nice enough for guests to spend a considerable amount of time outside, and there is daylight long enough to appreciate the view for an extended time during your ceremony and reception. There is no sound of crashing waves in the background or a strong smell of saltwater in the air. However, I would strongly recommend booking a visit to see Glen Manor for yourself and truly see if the lack of ocean water is really the must-have you may think it is.
Single Caterer
You are locked into Russell Morin as a caterer. It limits your ability to shop around and find the best quote and offer from multiple caterers. This would be similar to booking a private wedding venue that does everything in house, except you should have a bit more flexibility here in terms of food and beverage minimums.
Can’t book an all-in-one wedding package
Booking a wedding package at a hotel wedding venue helps to significantly reduce stress and the number of players involved in your wedding. In one or two contracts, you usually have the rooms, beverage, food, cocktail hour, reception, cake, and maybe even the ceremony and after-party all figured out and accounted for. Of course, there are downsides to this route, like lack of customization, usually a more generic reception ballroom, and much higher costs (including food and beverage minimum). However, if that stress reduction is worth it to you, then Newport certainly has some fantastic options.
Tips for a Wedding at Glen Manor
If considering a wedding at Glen Manor, we have some tips for your big day.
- Enjoy the cocktail hour with your guests, and use this time to pull guests outside to get pictures. Often, pictures are only focused on the wedding party, but the cocktail hour is a great time to get photos with friends and extended family.
- Use the mantel places and furniture to decorate further.
- Make sure to add candles to the fireplaces and along the tables.
- Use two long tables in the main dining room.
- Use DJ-provided accent lighting in the room with the dance floor
- Rent a trolley to transport your wedding party.
- Add high-top tables to the stone terrace and rent heaters if applicable.
- Add one unique experience to your wedding, like hiring Ben and Jerry’s.
- Designate someone you trust to handle tipping the vendors.
- Make sure your caterer includes extras such as champagne toast for everyone, vendor meals, and specialty seasonal cocktails.
Summary of a Wedding at Glen Manor
Glen Manor is a fantastic historical and waterfront wedding venue. Although it’s not located in Newport, it’s still one of the best venues in the area. The cost of the venue is more reasonable than some other locations, and it allows you greater flexibility in the choice of your vendors because the town of Portsmouth owns the estate. We would highly recommend reaching out to them and booking a visit to fully appreciate the estate’s beauty.
FAQ
How much does a wedding cost at Glen Manor?
The cost of a wedding at Glen Manor varies depending upon the time of year and the day of the week you’re looking to have your reception. Below is the price breakdown:
***Based on pricing from 2025. Pricing subject to change.***
Mid May through October
Monday to Thursday: $5,000
Friday: $10,000
Saturday: $13,000
Sunday: $7,500
November through Mid May
Monday to Thursday: $3,000
Friday: $5,000
Saturday: $5,000
Sunday: $3,750
Can you get married at Glen Manor?
Yes, you can have your wedding ceremony at Glen Manor House and your reception. This is most common for in-season weddings since the weather should be warm enough to take advantage of the beautiful lawn and gardens. It’s an additional charge of $1,500.
How many guests can you fit in at Glen Manor?
The total number of guests you can have at a wedding reception at Glen Manor depends on the time of year. The maximum number for in-season weddings is 175 guests since the outdoor patio can be utilized to seat additional guests comfortably. For out-of-season weddings, or those not choosing to use the outdoor, covered patio, capaity varies but we would suggest the maximum number to be 110-120 guests. Could you technically fit more than that? Yes, probably, but to have a reception with easy flow and movement for your guests, we would not recommend trying to squeeze more guests in. When taking advantage of the outdoor space, you can increase that number.
How far is Glen Manor from Newport?
Depending upon where precisely in Newport you are, Glen Manor House is roughly 15-25 min away with regular traffic. If you’re driving through downtown Newport during the summer months on your way to Glen Manor, the time of your trip could increase dramatically. Glen Manor is located on Aquidneck Island, so you do not need to worry about facing bridge traffic or the possibility that a bridge could be closed.
Who owns Glen Manor?
Glen Manor House is not a private wedding venue business. It is owned by the town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and is a part of the Portsmouth Historical Society.
What is the Glen Manor House floor plan?
We’ve included a link to the floor plan here. It consists of two rooms for dining, a space for dancing, a long marble entryway, an outdoor patio and terrace, and upstairs suites to be used by the wedding party.
