Wedding Ceremony Information

• We include an experienced professional wedding officiant with every wedding. Howard and Jeffrey Petersen are the primary non-denominational wedding officiants. They have combined experience of well over a 2,500 wedding ceremonies officiated, and have written a guide on how to conduct wedding rehearsals. You may bring your own wedding officiant, we are happy to assist them.

• We can host more than one wedding in a day, but the weddings do not overlap.

• Weddings include chapel, gazebo, and grounds. If there is inclement weather, the wedding may be performed in the chapel. The chapel is always ready for a wedding.

• We include venue coordinators in our Gold and Diamond Wedding Packages to help ensure your wedding goes smoothly.

• The bridal cottage dressing room is included in all wedding packages except the Elopement/Small wedding packages, for the bride and bridesmaids to get dressed. Groom and groomsman arrive dressed.  If you are having a wedding reception, the groom and groomsman may get dressed in the banquet hall; however, it is easier to arrive dressed.

• The bridal cottage is for getting dressed only and is available one hour prior to ceremony for the Silver and Gold Wedding Packages. The cottage is available one hour and 30 minutes before for the Diamond Wedding Package. We ask all ladies to have their hair, makeup, and nails completed before arriving.

• Elopements may add the cottage for a fee of $75, available 30 minutes before the ceremony.

• We set aside time slots the evening before the wedding for rehearsals.  Rehearsals can be done on other days also.

• The flower girl(s) may drop flower petals, but celebratory materials, such as: bird seed, rice, confetti, glitter, and other materials may not be throw. Bubbles are permitted.

• We do not provide decorations for the gazebo or chapel.  The chapel and grounds are naturally beautiful, rarely do couples bring in decorations for ceremonies. Some couples provide pew decorations, there are eight pews, and typically a decoration is attached by clamp, ribbon or rubber band. Gazebo chair rows may be decorated. Couples may provide simple decorations for the gazebo, such as attaching flowers to the front two posts or above the frame in the gazebo. Anything else requires permission.

• Chapel in the Pines has traditional wedding music and offer a few popular wedding songs. If you prefer to bring in your own music, please bring the music on a CD and or flash drive following these instructions. Our staff will coordinate the music for the ceremony.  If you bring a Flash Drive, it must be formatted in FAT32 format. We  recommend using a blank flash drive as all files will be erased and music files must be in MP3 format. Please, no file folders. Our DJ system cannot open a file folder.  Please test your CD or flash drive in our music system before your big day.

• Silver, Gold, and Diamond wedding ceremonies are typically around 15-20 minutes, there is time for pictures after the ceremony.

• For Elopement, Silver & Gold packages, final payment is due 30 days before your wedding.

• Pictures maybe taken anywhere on the grounds, there are many locations throughout the property.

• Standard time frame for Friday and Saturday Diamond Wedding Package during the wedding season is:

  • 10:00 AM Access to banquet hall

  • 3:45 PM Use of bridal cottage, chapel, grounds, & gardens

  • 5:15 PM Wedding ceremony begins

  • 5:45 PM Guests enter banquet hall

  • 5:45 PM Bar opens

  • 6:45 PM Introductions

  • 7:00 PM Dinner

  • 10:30 PM Bar closes

  • 11:15 PM Music stops

  • 12:15 AM Lights out

• For our Diamond Package, couples who want to extend these hours before or after their allotted time, can purchase extra hour(s) at $500 per hour. Couples can reserve up to 1 hour past the ending times, music and lights out.  When time is blocked off prior to the wedding, we then block off other weddings from being scheduled prior, we can host more than one wedding in a day, but weddings never overlap.