The Belvedere Estate Wedding Venue in West Michigan
As a Southeast and Mid Michigan wedding photographer who’s photographed 70+ weddings, I’ve had the opportunity to travel across Michigan to work at some of the most beautiful wedding venues.
Heading into my fourth year of wedding photography, I work with couples who want a wedding day rooted in joy and intention. Your wedding day will be a beautiful blur of smiles, hugs, and dancing the night away, and you want images that make you remember even the smallest moments that happened on your day. My specialty is in providing couples with a gallery that gives them the gift of looking back and remembering it all; filled with a mix of digital, film, and drone photography. But this all starts with choosing a venue.
Selecting the perfect venue is the first step in bringing your wedding day vision to life. You’ll want to choose a venue that is not only in alignment with your vision, but one that has an excellent team in place to bring the vision to life.
On Michigan’s west side is Belvedere Estate. Belvedere Estate is a private, timeless venue that isn’t far from Lake Michigan. Featuring private getting-ready spaces, outdoor ceremony spaces, and a stunning view of the rolling green hillside of Saugatuck, the Belvedere Estate is the perfect place for your celebration.
About Belvedere Estate Weddings
Belvedere Estate Saugatuck is just one singular wedding venue space. They only host one wedding at a time, ensuring the focus truly stays on you and your experience. The estate serves as both a ceremony and reception space, with guests able to explore inside and outside. This venue has a few different spaces (more on that below), but overall can host up to 250 guests outdoors and has the ability to host smaller micro-weddings of less than 80 inside the house itself. With Italian inspired gardens for a refined and peaceful touch, this space is ideal for couples with a larger guest list and a desire for a whimsical, garden inspired wedding day.
The smaller of the two spaces is inside the manor. The estate feels like a walk through time as it’s still decorated with period appropriate artwork and furniture. The architecture of the space is Prairie-style using masonry walls, quarter-sawn oak trim, and a green tile roof. The furniture gives this space a more homey feel and your guests will love the views of the outdoor terrace and pond.
You can check my availability for your Belvedere Estate wedding here!
Belvedere Estate Saugatuck Wedding Spaces
The Gardens
The garden is the biggest space to host guests for a wedding, and is where I spent the bulk of my time when working at the venue. As mentioned before, this area can hold up to 250 guests and is where you can expect to have your ceremony and reception. Your ceremony will be set up for the manor, fountain, and gardens to be the backdrop. Your reception will be set up nearby in the green space. I highly recommend a tent for your reception, especially living in Michigan. While generally summer weddings have great weather, Michigan rain storms can be a bit unpredictable.
This area is quite large and in the sun, so I recommend having fans or parasols available for guests throughout the summer. With most of your day happening outside, you’ll want your guests to be comfortable especially in the heat!
I would love to capture your wedding day here! Contact me so we can talk about your wedding day vision!
Outdoor Terrace
From your ceremony, your guests will be ushered to cocktail hour on the outdoor terrace. Ideally, your guests will stay outside on the terrace, but indoor spaces are available. This patio is usually home to a DJ booth to play background music during cocktail hour. Your guests will love the opportunity to stroll the grounds while listening to music!
You could also utilize this space for an evening rehearsal dinner!
The Great Room
Used more for rehearsal dinners and micro-weddings of 80 guests and under, the Great Room is used as a reception type space. There are a few ways to set this space up for your event, so I highly recommend working alongside a planner that offers design expertise.
My 3 Favorites Things About Belvedere Estate Saugatuck
Onsite Accommodations
There are so many great things about the Belvedere Estate, but there are a few favorites that make me love coming back to work there (which I’d love to again- let’s connect here about your Belvedere Estate wedding). The Saugatuck area is a popular summer destination for Michiganders. You can have a wedding weekend experience at The Belvedere Estate by booking their onsite accommodations for the weekend. With ten guest rooms, you can have your wedding party, family, or guests stay onsite with you for an unforgettable wedding weekend.
Local Destinations
As previously mentioned, Saugatuck is a popular summer destination. With it being right on the water, there are parks and harbors all over the small town. I know when you think of “destination wedding” you probably think of Italy, France, or Mexico, but Saugatuck is its own special destination. The downtown area is full of local restaurants, shops, and sweet treat stores, and a lot of it is waterfront. Next to Saugatuck is Holland, which is equally waterfront with a nice downtown area featuring local restaurants and shops! It’s a great Michigan getaway and is the perfect getaway for your guests.
Golden Hour Portraits
With where the estate is located, Belvedere Estate has the most perfect golden hour for your wedding day. That warm, buttery light streams both over and through the trees during cocktail hour. With guests strolling around and sipping on a cocktail, you’ll have the perfect opportunity to slip away for 10 minutes to create some golden hour portrait magic. Realistically, golden hour portraits really don’t take more than that. As the light shifts, we want portraits to document the moment but we also want to get you back to your reception to enjoy!
Belvedere Estate is the perfect wedding venue for you if you want a garden and European inspired wedding day. If you’re planning your wedding here, I’d love to connect and check availability for photography services.
Belvedere Estate Wedding Cost
Belvedere Estate has a few different packages and is a venue rental only (no catering or bartending onsite). Their main package for venue rental, not including any planning or coordination starts at $7,400.
The listed amenities include:
- Getting Ready Suite use
- Rental of Ceremony Space
- Reception Space
Belvedere Estate Wedding Venue Details
- Location: 40 minutes southwest of Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Address: 3656 63rd St, Saugatuck, MI 49453
- Phone: 616.377.9517
- Website: belvedereestatemi.com
- Capacity: The Gardens can host up to 250 guests; The Great Room can host up to 80 guests
- Events: Ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception
- Amenities available: Couples get access to the onsite getting ready suites, coordination & planning services available to add on
Let’s start planning your Belvedere Estate wedding today! Contact me here.
Belvedere Estate Vendors
- Venue: Belvedere Estate
- Planner: Seamless Planning
- Decor: @charm.decorhouse
- Content Creators: BRoll Bride; Content by SRJ; Currently and Always
- Florals: Happy Hens Farm
- DJ: Ace Wedding DJs
- Stationery: Evermere Collection
- Live Art: Abundance Live Wedding Art
- Hair & Makeup: Pretty Committee
Photos in this post were provided by myself, Catie Eovaldi Photography and include film & digital photography. Looking for more venues? Check out this blog post: Michigan Wedding Venues!
