Stone Acres Farm Weddings
There’s a moment at most venues where you can feel the seams. The transition from cocktail hour to reception, specifically. At a Stone Acres Farm wedding, that moment has a footbridge.
It’s a small thing. But it changes what’s possible.
The cocktail hour here happens on an actual lawn, under trees, just outside the manor house. And it works in a way that genuinely surprised me the first time I worked here. There’s something about grass underfoot and open sky overhead that loosens people up.
Then there’s the food and drink service, which moves the way it should: unhurried, considered, the kind of thing you notice when it’s done right. That’s not an accident. The venue’s culinary sensibility runs through everything they do here. The farm itself is still working land. What grows on those 63 acres has a way of ending up on your guests’ plates.
By the time everyone starts making their way across that footbridge toward the reception tent, the energy hasn’t just held, it’s built. Then you hold the couple back. Let everyone else cross first. Give them thirty seconds on that bridge alone, the fall light coming through the trees, their wedding still happening somewhere just behind them.
That’s a frame. Stone Acres Farm is a place that earns its photographs before you’ve even stepped in front of a camera on your wedding day.
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Vibe and Features |
Outdoor, farm/garden atmosphere, plant life, tent reception |
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Guest Capacity |
250 |
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Location |
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Similar Venues |
Lord Thompson Manor, Lion Rock Farm, Inn at Mystic, StoneHurst at Hampton Valley |
Video Tour of Stone Acres Farm
Click the link below to view my video tour of Stone Acres Farm, complete with an interview with one of its co-owners.
A Little Background on Stone Acres
Stone Acres Farm has been part of the Connecticut landscape since 1765. It has an interesting history as a wedding venue here in the southeastern part of the state.
It survived the Revolutionary War, used to be a dairy farm, and has maintained some family ties over time.
Its current chapter starts in 2015. Its current chapter started in 2015, when restaurateur couple Jane and Dan Meiser joined a team of investors to purchase the property.
Their connection to 85th Day—the restaurant group which owns local Mystic-area staples Oyster Club, The Port of Call, and Engine Room—is what gives Stone Acres its culinary identity.
The farm is still working land, which means the farm-to-table ethos isn’t a marketing phrase. It’s just how things operate.
Venue Vibe and Features
The manor house anchors the property and sets the tone for the day. Most of the getting-ready activity happens upstairs, where the light is better and the space gives you room to actually breathe. It’s elegant without being precious, the kind of room where people relax into the morning rather than performing it.
Outside, the grounds are genuinely well-kept. This is a working farm, but you wouldn’t describe it as rustic in the rough sense. The landscaping is deliberate: flowers, mature trees, stone walls, vines.
The ceremony courtyard sits between the manor house and the reception tent, open-air and framed by greenery that does real work in photographs.
The cocktail hour traditionally takes place on the lawn just outside the manor house, which is where the day shifts. Guests gather, food comes out, the couple circulates.
Then the footbridge.
The reception tent is large enough for up to 250 guests and feels more considered than most. The catering runs roughly up to $225 per person, which reflects both the culinary pedigree behind it and the quality of what actually arrives at the table. Stone Acres has multiple preferred caterer options, but the 85th Day connection is worth knowing about when you’re making that decision.
The whole property flows in one direction: manor house to courtyard to lawn to bridge to tent. That linearity is a quiet gift. The day has a shape to it before you’ve made a single planning decision.
Wedding photography that’s equal parts cinematic, imaginative, and supportive.
I’m Terrence and I’m a wedding photographer. Let’s talk about your wedding plans. Just click the button to visit my contact page.
Real Stone Acres Wedding
Mary and Ted found this venue the way a lot of couples find the places that end up mattering to them. It wasn’t through a vendor list or a wedding blog, but through a meal. One of Stone Acres’ summer dinner events on the property was enough to convince them. When you’ve eaten well somewhere, surrounded by that much open land, it stays with you.
They were a quieter couple. Reserved in the way that sometimes reads as understated until you’re paying close attention, and then it reads as something else entirely. Deeply settled in each other. The kind of pair where the most interesting things happen in the in-between moments: a glance, a stillness, the way they stood next to each other without needing to perform it.
The ceremony is what I keep coming back to. Their adult children stood in a line holding a long ribbon stretched between them—the whole family physically present, holding something together. Then Mary and Ted took a pair of scissors and cut it. A ribbon cutting ceremony symbolizing a new chapter begun together. It’s one of those rituals that could feel theatrical but didn’t. It felt earned. The light was good and I was in the right place to help them preserve that moment.
Photos from their day were published in Connecticut Bride magazine: a real wedding, not a styled shoot, which matters more than it might sound. If you want to understand the difference, I wrote about that here.
Wedding Vendor Team
- Venue: Stone Acres Farm (Stonington, CT)
- Hair Stylist: Beehive Salon
- Makeup Artist: Lorna Made Me Blush Artistry
- Jeweler: Rumanoff’s Fine Jewelry
- Jewelry Designer: Tacori
- Dress Shop: The Plumed Serpant Bridal
- Shoe Designer: Valentino Garavani
- Florist: Verdant Floral
- Caterer: 85th Day
- Bakery: Zest Fresh Pastry
Their Stone Acres Farm Wedding Photos
Photographer’s Notes
The manor house is where the day starts, and it’s a genuinely good place to start. The window light upstairs is soft and directional, the kind that doesn’t require much intervention.
The ceremony space opens into deep greenery with real depth in the backdrop. Layered, natural framing that rewards a longer lens. There’s dimension there that shows up in the final images in a way guests might not consciously notice but will feel. The uniqueness of the center landscaping makes it all the more interesting visually.
The reception tent at night is honest about what it is. The ambient light is workable (I bring my own to fill it out) but the tent doesn’t pretend to be a ballroom. What it gives you instead is atmosphere. That photographs.
On portrait locations: the property is generous. The footbridge, the manor house exterior, the tree line, the open lawn; there’s enough variety that the images don’t all look like they were made in the same ten square feet.
Two things worth knowing before you book. The ceremony is fully outdoors, which means weather planning isn’t optional, it’s part of the conversation you should be having with your vendor team early. And spring and summer are when this property is at its best. The grounds are maintained with real care, and when everything is in bloom, the whole place operates at a different level.
If you’re still evaluating photographers for this venue, or any venue, how a photographer thinks about and works with light will tell you more than their Instagram feed ever will. I wrote about that in more detail here. And if you want to understand how I approach a day like this one from start to finish, the Approach section of the site is the right place to start.
About the Author
I’m Terrence Irving, a Connecticut-based wedding photographer with an engineering background and a thing for cinematic storytelling.
I photograph weddings throughout New England and beyond, and I write about venues, process, and the craft because I think engaged couples deserve better information than most of the internet is giving them.
Stone Acres Farm attracts couples who care about the details: the food, the setting, the way a day is designed rather than just executed. If that sounds like you, there’s a good chance we’re already speaking the same language.
If you’re planning a wedding here and want to talk about photography, I’d love to hear about it.
Learn More About Stone Acres Farm
Start your conversation with the venue using the links below.
Writing for a friend.
VERY upscale wedding.
Definitely! Thanks for the comment.