A: The Boutique Wedding Package allows for up to 60 guests in addition to the wedding couple.  Wedding Couple is not included in the Guest Count.  Ages 1 and over are included in your guest count.  Babies in arms under age 1 are not included in your guest count.  Folks attending any part of your wedding day are included as guests - eg: someone who only attends the ceremony and then departs prior to the reception beginning is included as a guest.  Vendors who are providing a service and then departing are not included in the guest count.  There is no "minimum" guest requirement.  The average wedding we host has about 35 - 55 guests. Our pricing remaings the same no matter the guest count.

A: We love pets, but we don't allow them at your wedding celebration. We have learned that this involves at lot more stress for the couple and ends up taking away from the wedding day experience by adding a whole extra layer of logistics.  To protect your peace on your wedding day, we'll ask you to leave your pets safely at home.  We do not include pets in the ceremony or reception portions of the wedding day, including acting as ring bearers for your ceremony.

A: The Boutique Wedding Package includes light refreshments for your guests to be served during cocktail hour.  For dinner service, couples will hire the caterer of their choice to drop off a meal at the venue 30 minutes prior to meal time.  Golden Horseshoe staff will receive the delivery at the kitchen door.  We will unpack your delivery and place your meal in the heated chafing dishes on the buffet table.  We include chafing dishes, sternos, serving utensils and all set up and clean up of the buffet table - all you need to provide is the meal itself.  Golden Horseshoe staff will make all announcments including seating guests for dinner, and calling each table one at a time through the buffet line. Golden Horseshoe staff will refill food on the buffet table as needed during the dinner service with any additional items that may be in the kitchen.  Couples may choose any caterer that they wish.  We provide a list of our favorite local caterers on our FAQ page. We do not allow self - catering or potluck style catering.  Food must arrive already prepared and ready to serve.  Kitchen space is not available for meals to be prepared onsite. Due to the size of our kitchen area, a plated meal style reception is not available - buffet style only.

A: The Boutique Wedding Package includes Ice Water, Lemonade, Sweet Tea, Hot Coffee and Tea, Cream and sweeteners for your entire event.  All ice is provided for your event. Light refreshments for your cocktail hour are also provided and include: A fresh seasonal fruit platter, a Veggies and Ranch Dip platter, a Cheese and Grapes platter and a Cannolis and Italian Cookies platter. Sparkling Apple cider (1 glass per guest) is provided for your toast.  Your 3 tier wedding cake and a separate boxed anniversary tier are included.  Cake service is included (this is a wedding term for the cutting and serving of your cake to guests during the reception - some venues charge extra for this - we include this in your package for no extra charge). 

A: Couples may choose to add Beer, Wine and Champagne to their celebration (no hard liquor).  An ABC license is not required as this is deemed a private party by invitation.  GHI staff will place your beer in enamel beverage tubs with ice, and will open your wine and place a stopper in each bottle for easy self pouring. Wine will be displayed on our small bar, and we will provide all wine glasses and bottle openers  We will take care of refilling / restocking the beer and wine throughout the event.  When guests arrive at the venue prior to the ceremony, our non alcoholic drinks will be available for them (sweet tea, lemonade, coffee, tea and water) and alcohol will be introduced immediatly following the ceremony during cocktail hour.  Alcohol is not required, and we are happy to host "dry weddings". Couples will want to bring some simple snacks with them to eat in the dressing rooms as they prepare for the ceremony, and will also hire a caterer to drop off a per-prepared meal (see above question for full details on that).  Couples are welcome to hire a bartender if they would like to but it is not required.  Guests are welcome to self serve.  

A: Golden Horseshoe Staff will take care of making all announcments and introductions.  There is no need for a DJ and we actaully find they can be intrusive at an intimate event, so DJ's are neither requireed or allowed here.  Couples may provide a playlist link for any portion of the day that they would like to curate themselves (Guest Arrival, Ceremony / Special Dances, Cocktail Hour, Dinner and Reception).  Golden Horseshoe has music available onsite for any portion of the day that you don't want to personally curate.  We are happy to take care of having music playing softly in the background. For your ceremony and special dances, a GHI staff member will be running the music and can soflty fade out songs when you reach the altat, and also when your dances have ended.  We will download any playlist links provided to us, to our in house device and will take care of playing music at the correct times throughout the day.

A: Pricing for all of our wedding packages is located right here on this page.  Scroll up to see the exact pricing for your wedding package.  There are no hidden fees. We LOVE keeping things easy and simple for our couples, so all the information you need is right here on our website.  Our pricing remains steady throughout the year - we do not raise prices during busy seasons - we are busy the entire year and offer the same great service for October that we do for January. We aim to keep our pricing as affordable as possible for all couples, and are unable to offer additional discounts on the posted package pricing.

A: The first floor of the Golden Horseshoe Inn is handicapped accessible. This includes a ramp to the right of the building that leads from the parking lot to both the outdoor wedding deck and the indoor reception room and restrooms.  We have 2 first floor restrooms, and one of those has been expanded to accommodate a wheelchair.  Our second floor (where dressing rooms 1 and 2 are located) is only accessible via the staircase which is fairly steep due to the historic nature of our building (circa 1827).

A: You'll want to provide a catered meal for dinner.  This will be dropped off at the venue.  Your catering team does not need to stay - we can handle the rest for you.  You may want to provide alcohol (Beer, Wine and Champagne are allowed).  You may want to provide soda pop (we'll chill your cans and place them in an iced beverage tub for guests). You'll probably want to hire a wedding photographer (we offer an in house package for our 2027 couples that can be added on, or you are welcome to choose your own photographer - see our FAQ page for local favorites). Some couples bring a guest book.  Some couples bring guest favors (small gift for each guest like candy). We've got the rest covered!

A: Couples will fill out our READY TO BOOK A DATE form to reserve a date.  A $500 retainer is due along with a signed contract, to complete your reservation.  The intial retainer is deducted from your balance and is not an additional fee.  Additional payments of $500 are due at the 12 month, 6 month and 3 month marks prior to your wedding date.  Your final balance is due 3 weeks prior to your wedding date. Payments can be made with the credit or debit card of your choice via an electronic invoice we will send you.  All payments are non-refundable once made.

A: You can take a look at all our available dates right here on our website AVAILABLE DATES page.  Once a date is chosen and reserved by you, that is your date.  We are not able to offer date changes.  If a new date needs to be chosen, you'll need to pay a new retainer for that date.  For this reason we suggest checking your date with all your VIP "can't get married without you" guests, to make sure that date works well for everyone, before you complete your reservation.

A: We are located right in the Blue Ridge mountains between the two larger towns of Charlottesville and Harrisonburg.  We are about 30 minutes from either of those towns.  Many of our couples and their guests choose to stay at nearby Lydia Mountain Lodge which is located about 10 minutes from us. They offer lodge style rooms as well as free standing cabins.  They have many cabins to choose from with a variety of occupancies from 2 person to 10 person lodging.  The closest hotel to us is the Ruckersville Holiday Inn Express which is about 15 minutes from us.  You can also look up the plentiful Airbnb options for our town which is Stanardsville, Virginia 22973

A: We have 17 paved spots and 5 gravel spots for a total of 23 parking spots directly across from the building.  Additional overflow parking is available in the field at the end of our parking lot.  Our staff parks in the field on wedding days to be the example for overflow parking.  Typically a couple can divide their guest count in half to get the number of vehicles expected on the wedding day since most folks attending the wedding will be couples and families and traveling together.  So a wedding with 60 guests will have about 30 cars, and a wedding with 40 guests can expect about 20 cars etc.  Overnight parking is not permitted.  Small shuttles are permitted (30 person shuttle etc).

A: Our brides tend to arrive first in the morning and will be given a private ceremony walk through.  Later in the day we'll have a quick full rehearsal with the groom and wedding party (bride will remain in her dressing suite since she has already had her walk through).  The rehearsal will only take about 10 minutes and will be run by your GHI wedding planner.  Many of our couples choose not to have a wedding party, or to have a very small wedding party.  For groups with just a few people walking in the processional, we can skip the full rehearsal and each participant will be given a private walk through upon arrival at the venue.  A Golden Horseshoe wedding planner will organize your wedding party just prior to the ceremony beginning and will be in charge of making sure the correct pairs are together and the couples enter with the correct spacing between them. We highly suggest keeping your processional easy and simple for the most stress free event.

A: All payments are non-refundable once received.  All payments are good towards one date only. Although we do not require it, we highly recommend that you obtain Event insurance from your personal reputable insurance agent to protect against tragic events, acts of God, illness or any other circumstance that may cause you to cancel or postone your event.

A: The Boutique Package allows arrival at 12pm with hair and makeup completed offsite at your hotel or accommodations, and time provided to dress and do final touch ups at the venue.  For larger groups this often works best to do hair and makeup offiste as our onsite dressing suites fit a smaller group of about 4 people comfortably.  The Golden Horseshoe package offers an expanded arrival time of 9am along with breakfast pastrics, juice and fruit in the dressing suite. The Boutique Wedding package includes a bouquet, a btouonniere and cake flowers.  The Golden Horseshoe package includes those items as well as additional flowers for your wedding party. The Golden Horseshoe package includes a S'mores station after dinner.  Those are the 4 differences between the 2 packages (Early arrival, breakfast, Expanded wedding party flowers, S'mores station)

A: Cake and Flowers are both included in your package.  Either element can be declined if you prefer to provide your own. A credit would be placed on your bill if we do not provide cake ($125 credit) or flowers ($240 credit).  Cake flavors are chosen from a provided list (see full details HERE if you'd like) and we do not offer a cake tasting appointment. Our amazing baker will have the cake safely to the venue on the wedding day, and your GHI team will add cake flowers from the floral delivery.  You are welcome to provide a cake topper if you wish.  A separate 6" anniversary tier is included and is boxed for you to take home.  Each tier of your cake will be the same flavor for ease of serving to guests. Our staff will cut and serve cake to your guests after your special "cake cutting" moment. We are not able to provide a dairy free, vegan or Gluten Free cake. Couples may bring cupcakes for their guests with special dietary needs to be served in lieu of cake. For flowers, couples may provide a color scheme and likes and dislikes and our florist will take care of everything else - this is perfect for a low maintenance couple who are excited about thier flowers but not wanting to be super specific about them. Couples providing their own cake or flowers must have those items delivered to the venue on the actual wedding day, and items must arrive ready to use (no assembling or arranging onsite).