City venue guide

The 10 best wedding venues in Nashville

Nashville weddings divide between the downtown core and the neighborhoods either side of it. Downtown holds The Hermitage Hotel's Russian walnut ballroom, the stained-glass lobby of the 1900 railway terminal now trading as Union Station, the rooftop and riverbank at The Bridge Building, and The Cordelle's walled garden a few blocks south of Broadway. West of the core, Cheekwood tents its Swan Lawn inside 55 acres of botanical garden, while Riverwood Mansion, Clementine Hall and 14TENN cover East Nashville, Sylvan Park and The Nations. Couples who want water and space drive out to The Estate at Cherokee Dock on Old Hickory Lake.

Researched and last reviewed 2026-08-16. We have no commercial relationship with any venue listed.

No. ICheekwood Estate & Gardens

No. I

Cheekwood Estate & Gardens

Botanical garden estateBelle Meade, west NashvilleUp to 350 tented on the Swan Lawn

Fifty-five acres of botanical garden built around a limestone mansion finished in 1932, which Bryant Fleming designed as a Colonial Revival country house and laid out the gardens for at the same time. Wedding rental of the mansion carries the Swan Lawn, the Loggia and the Wisteria Arbor, where an upper and lower terrace are split by a fountain and a double staircase. Tenting and flooring on the lawn are a condition of the booking rather than an upgrade, so build that into the budget from the first quote.

Tented dinners inside a 55-acre garden

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No. IIThe Hermitage Hotel

No. II

The Hermitage Hotel

Historic hotelSixth Avenue North, downtown200 seated in the Grand Ballroom; 300 for a reception

Open since 1910 and still the grandest of the downtown hotels, with Beaux-Arts detailing drawn from Italian and French Renaissance sources. The Grand Ballroom is just under 2,500 square feet of unobstructed floor beneath an ornate ceiling and Russian walnut paneling, and the Grand Lobby next to it — painted glass skylight, Tennessee and Italian marble — takes 300 standing. Choose it when the guest list should sleep, eat and dance inside one building.

Russian walnut ballroom, open since 1910

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No. IIIThe Union Station Nashville Yards

No. III

The Union Station Nashville Yards

Historic railway hotelBroadway at Nashville Yards, downtownAround 200 seated in the Grand Ballroom

The Louisville & Nashville railroad opened this Romanesque Revival terminal in 1900, towers and turrets included, and it has run as a hotel — now an Autograph Collection property — since the trains stopped. What a couple is really booking is the atrium: a 65-foot barrel-vaulted ceiling of original stained glass over gold-leaf medallions, bas-relief angels, limestone fireplaces and marble floors, with the Grand Ballroom seating roughly 200 alongside it. Demolition of the fire-damaged trainshed cost the building its National Historic Landmark title in 2003, though nothing about the lobby changed.

65-foot stained-glass barrel vault

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No. IVSchermerhorn Symphony Center

No. IV

Schermerhorn Symphony Center

Concert hallSoBro, downtown400 seated banquet-style; 500 for a reception

The Nashville Symphony's home, opened in 2006, has a mechanism worth understanding: the orchestra-level seats in Laura Turner Concert Hall lower into storage beneath the floor, leaving 5,700 square feet of exposed hardwood where the audience sat. Cleared, the room takes 400 at tables or 500 standing under 60-foot ceilings and eight nickel-silver chandeliers. Ten further rooms around it mean the rehearsal dinner, ceremony and reception can all happen without anyone moving buildings — and the acoustics are the best a live band will ever get in this city.

Concert-hall seats sink into the floor

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No. VThe Bridge Building

No. V

The Bridge Building

Riverfront event spaceEast bank of the Cumberland, downtownUp to 1,200 across four floors

Sited on the east bank of the Cumberland at the landing of the pedestrian bridge, this one sells the view back at the skyline rather than an interior. Four floors run from the main room's floor-to-ceiling windows down to a patio at the water's edge and up to a tented rooftop, with catering, kitchen and day-of coordination all in-house. Guests staying near Broadway walk across the bridge instead of driving, which quietly removes the hardest logistics problem of a downtown wedding.

Rooftop and riverbank on the Cumberland

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No. VIRiverwood Mansion

No. VI

Riverwood Mansion

Historic mansionEast Nashville300 and up

1833 Welcome Lane carries one of the oldest houses in the city — a two-story dwelling raised in the 1830s in front of an even earlier Philips family house, given its Greek Revival columned front in 1851 and renamed Riverwood after an 1859 sale. Marble fireplaces, chandeliers and old magnolias set the tone inside and out, and the gardens are planted to hold up across seasons with the interior taking the overflow when weather turns. Capacity past 300 makes it one of the larger historic properties within minutes of downtown; it has been listed on the National Register since 1977.

1851 Greek Revival columns, East Nashville

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No. VIIThe Cordelle

No. VII

The Cordelle

Victorian house and gardenRutledge Hill, downtownUp to 400 across the property

A late-1800s Victorian house on Lindsley Avenue, minutes south of Broadway and the Music City Center, paired with a plain modern hall and what the venue reckons is the largest private green space downtown. The usual run of the evening: vows in the garden, drinks on the covered patio, dinner in the Great Hall, with a loft and balcony entrance used for the arrival. Worth a look if you want an outdoor ceremony without giving up a downtown address.

Largest private garden downtown

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No. VIIIClementine Hall

No. VIII

Clementine Hall

Restored 1889 hallSylvan Park, bordering The Nations200 seated dinner; 300 for a ceremony; 450 reception-style

Built on Charlotte Avenue in 1889 and taken back to the studs in 2018 by the team behind Ruby, so the shell is Victorian and everything inside it is a decade old. Adelaide Hall is the main room — 200 at tables, dropping to 175 once a band and a dance floor take their share, 300 in rows for a ceremony — with the Little Bird Lounge, a walled courtyard done in a New Orleans register, and three dressing rooms behind it. The whole building reception-style holds 450, which is unusual this far from a hotel ballroom.

1889 hall rebuilt in 2018

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No. IX14TENN

No. IX

14TENN

Industrial loftThe Nations, west NashvilleUp to 275 seated; around 400 standing

White shiplap walls, exposed beams, industrial chandeliers and warm wood floors across roughly 6,000 square feet in The Nations. Nothing is bundled — no in-house catering, no closed vendor list, and the bar is BYOB — which is precisely why couples who already have a caterer and a bartender in mind land here rather than at a full-service address. Rentals come by the hour, by the day or across several days, and parking is free, which downtown cannot say.

Bring your own caterer and bar

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No. XThe Estate at Cherokee Dock

No. X

The Estate at Cherokee Dock

Lakefront estateLebanon, Old Hickory LakeUp to 300 depending on layout

Thirty-five to forty minutes east of downtown, on the shore of Old Hickory Lake, stands a 13,000-square-foot Southern Colonial house built in 1960 and known locally as Reba McEntire's former home. Ceremonies go by the water, in the gardens or in the courtyard; receptions land in the converted stable, in a glass conservatory ringed by planting, or under a tent on the lakeside lawn. A guest house, pool and private dock come with the property, so this is the one to pick if the wedding is really a weekend.

Reba McEntire's lakefront house

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Marrying in Nashville?

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Tell us where you’re marrying in Nashville, Tennesseeand we’ll build the invitation around it — the venue’s own colours, an illustration of the building if you want one, your map and timings already in place. One link for every guest, with live RSVPs.

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Planning a wedding in Nashville

The license comes from the Davidson County Clerk: you start the application online, then both of you appear in person with photo ID and proof of a social security number, pay $99.50 in cash or $101.49 by card, and walk out with a license valid for 30 days — no residency rule, no waiting period, and $60 off the fee if you bring a notarized premarital-course certificate. Avoid the first weekend of June unless you have already locked rooms: CMA Fest fills downtown hotels months ahead and pushes rates into the $350 to $975 range, which lands squarely on your guests. If your ceremony is downtown, budget for shuttles rather than parking — the venues sit inside the Broadway hotel walking radius, but garages fill on event nights and the pedal-tavern traffic on Lower Broad makes drop-off times unpredictable.

When to marry — Mid-April through May and the back half of October are the two working windows: April carries the year's lowest humidity, the summer heat generally breaks by the second week of October, and July, August and a 74-percent-humidity September are the months outdoor ceremonies regret.
What it costs — Venue rental across the Nashville area commonly runs $5,000 to $15,000, with the historic hotels and estates sitting above that, and reported all-in totals for the city usually land between $30,000 and $60,000 — guest count moves that figure far more than which venue you pick.

Once the venue is settled, the next thing most couples deal with is telling everyone. A digital wedding invitation carries the address, a map, your timings and a live RSVP on one link — which matters more than usual when guests are travelling to Nashville and need directions, and plenty of notice.

Questions

Marrying in Nashville: your questions.

How much does a wedding in Nashville actually cost?

Venue rental alone across the metro typically runs $5,000 to $15,000, with the downtown hotels, Cheekwood and the lakefront estates sitting at the top of that band and above it. Reported all-in totals for Nashville weddings usually fall between $30,000 and $60,000, and the single biggest lever is the guest count, since catering and bar scale per head while the rental fee does not. Almost no Nashville venue publishes prices, so expect to request quotes individually and compare what each fee includes — tables, chairs, coordination and kitchen access vary wildly.

Can a couple from outside Tennessee — or outside the US — get married in Nashville?

Yes. Tennessee imposes no residency requirement and no waiting period: you file the application online with the Davidson County Clerk, both appear in person with photo ID and proof of a social security number, pay $99.50 in cash or $101.49 by card, and the license is valid for 30 days. Be clear about what that gets you at home, though — a Tennessee marriage is a legal marriage, and most countries will register it on the strength of the certificate plus an apostille from the Tennessee Secretary of State, but some jurisdictions still require the civil ceremony to take place before their own registrar. If yours is one of them, do the civil formality at home and treat the Nashville event as the celebration; confirm with your consulate before you sign a venue contract.

When should we get married in Nashville, and when should we avoid?

Mid-April into May and the second half of October are the reliable windows: April has the lowest humidity of the year, and the summer heat usually breaks by around the second week of October. July and August sit in the nineties, and September is the muggiest month on the calendar, which is hard on an outdoor ceremony and harder on guests in suits. Skip the first weekend of June entirely — CMA Fest takes over downtown, hotel rooms run $350 to $975 a night, and your guests will be competing with the festival for beds and taxis.

Which Nashville venues can handle a large guest list?

The Bridge Building goes furthest, with up to 1,200 spread across four floors and the rooftop. Schermerhorn Symphony Center clears its concert-hall floor for 400 at tables or 500 standing; Clementine Hall takes 450 reception-style; Cheekwood holds about 350 under tenting on the Swan Lawn; and Riverwood Mansion and The Cordelle handle 300 to 400. Anything above roughly 250 seated narrows the field quickly in this city, so start venue conversations before you set the date rather than after.

Keep looking

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Marrying in Nashville?

Want an invitation designed for your venue?

Make ours for Nashville See the designs

The 10 best wedding venues in Nashville

Researched and last reviewed 2026-08-16. We have no commercial relationship with any venue listed.

Want an invitation designed for your venue?

Planning a wedding in Nashville

When to marry — Mid-April through May and the back half of October are the two working windows: April carries the year's lowest humidity, the summer heat generally breaks by the second week of October, and July, August and a 74-percent-humidity September are the months outdoor ceremonies regret.

What it costs — Venue rental across the Nashville area commonly runs $5,000 to $15,000, with the historic hotels and estates sitting above that, and reported all-in totals for the city usually land between $30,000 and $60,000 — guest count moves that figure far more than which venue you pick.

Want an invitation designed for your venue?