14 Best Wedding Venues in Annapolis and on the Chesapeake Bay (2026 Guide)

Annapolis is the most expensive place to get married in Maryland, and the reason is simple: it is a colonial capital on deep water, 35 minutes from Baltimore and 45 from Washington, with a finite amount of shoreline. Everything on the water is priced accordingly, and everything off the water is priced against the things on the water.

That said, "Annapolis" as a wedding market is bigger than the city. It runs from the South River up through Severna Park and Pasadena to the Magothy, and across the Bay Bridge onto Kent Island, where a cluster of bayfront properties gives you the same water at a slightly different price. We cataloged 36 venues across that area. Below are the 14 worth your time.

For what all of this costs statewide, see how much a Maryland wedding costs.

Quick context on Annapolis venue pricing

This is where Maryland's money is. Published venue packages in the Annapolis area run a median of $8,000 (n=5), against a statewide median of $4,500. That sample is small and we are flagging it rather than dressing it up, but the individual numbers tell a consistent story: a National Historic Landmark estate on the Bay at $25,750, an all-inclusive waterfront property listing $10,000 to $35,000, and a historic riverfront park at $8,000 to $10,600.

The corollary is that most of the good Annapolis venues do not publish anything at all. Only 5 of 36 do. Yacht clubs, the historic downtown inns, and the private estates almost universally quote by inquiry, so budget for a round of emails before you have anything to compare.

Waterfront estates and historic properties

1. Whitehall

A National Historic Landmark estate on 115 acres along the Chesapeake north of Annapolis, holding up to 500, published at $25,750. This is the top of the Maryland market and it looks it: a 1760s Palladian house on open water with flexible ceremony and reception space. If you have the budget and want the single most impressive address in the state, it is this one.

2. Historic London Town and Gardens

A 23-acre riverfront historic park in Edgewater on the South River, with gardens, historic buildings, a pier, and a waterfront pavilion. Packages run $8,000 to $10,600 and include a tent, tables, chairs, and event time, which makes it one of the few Annapolis-area venues where the published number is close to the real number. Capacity 80 to 125. Note they are already booking 2027 and 2028.

3. Celebrations at the Bay

A waterfront property in Pasadena on the Magothy with Bay views, gardens, and three event spaces, holding 50 to 400. All-inclusive packages run $10,000 to $35,000 and cover venue, catering, beverages, planning support, and table decor. For couples who want one contract instead of nine, this is the most complete package in the region.

4. Hidden View Farm

A 100-plus-acre English-style country garden estate in Crownsville with a meadow, a koi pond, and an Amish barn, holding up to 250. It is 15 minutes from downtown Annapolis and prices like it is much further out. The nature-forward setting is a real alternative if the nautical thing is not what you want.

5. Kurtz's Beach

A long-established Chesapeake waterfront venue in Pasadena with indoor and outdoor space for 75 to 240. It is a Maryland institution, informal in the crab-feast tradition rather than the estate tradition, and it does that better than anyone. Worth a look if you want the Bay without the black tie.

Downtown Annapolis

6. William Paca House and Garden

An eighteenth-century National Historic Landmark in the historic district, with a two-acre formal garden behind it. It is the most genuinely colonial setting in a city full of them, and the garden is the draw. Capacity is modest and the rules that come with a museum property are real, so ask early about vendor access and amplified music.

7. Fluegel Alumni Center

A waterfront venue on King George Street next to the Naval Academy, on College Creek, with multiple indoor and outdoor spaces and a wide capacity range from 10 to 350. It is the most flexible downtown room in terms of size, and the location puts guests inside walking distance of everything.

8. 1313 West

A newly opened luxury boutique hotel on West Street offering full-property wedding weekends: ceremony on the front lawn, dinner under a tent, and an afterparty in a private speakeasy lounge. The buyout model means your guests are already where they are sleeping, which in Annapolis is worth more than it sounds.

9. 134 Prince

A boutique hotel in a historic downtown building with a parlor room, dining room, and brick terrace, for weddings of 25 or fewer. This is the best micro-wedding address in the city. If you are having a courthouse or Naval Academy ceremony and want a real dinner afterward, this is the room.

10. Annapolis Maritime Museum and Park

A waterfront museum in Eastport with event space right on the water at the mouth of Back Creek. Eastport is a short walk or a short water-taxi ride from downtown, and the setting is working-waterfront rather than manicured, which some couples much prefer.

Across the Bay Bridge: Kent Island and the Narrows

11. Chesapeake Bay Beach Club

The best-known bayfront wedding property on Kent Island, and the anchor of the market on that side of the bridge. It pairs with The Inn at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club and Spa, which adds multiple ballrooms, on-site lodging, catering, and hair and makeup services for 70 to 310 guests. Together they are the closest thing to a one-stop Bay wedding resort in Maryland.

12. Maria's Love Point Bed and Breakfast

A waterfront bed and breakfast in Stevensville on the Chester River and the Bay, with exclusive use of the grounds and capacity to 275. It is a large capacity for a B&B property, and the exclusive-use model gives you the whole place rather than a room in it.

13. Silver Swan Bayside

A waterfront venue in Stevensville with a bayfront lawn and a private beach, aimed at small to medium weddings. This is the one to look at if you want an actual beach ceremony on the Chesapeake rather than a lawn overlooking it.

14. The River House at Queenstown Harbor

Just past Kent Island in Queenstown, on the Chester River, with all-inclusive packages and on-site lodging. Published pricing runs $3,999 to $40,000, which is the widest published range of any venue in the region and reflects a genuine range of package levels rather than a data error.

On the water, literally

Two Annapolis options do not sit on land. Admiral of the Bay runs wedding charters aboard yachts and schooners on the Bay for up to 240, handling catering, florals, and photography as a package. Watermark operates the downtown cruise fleet out of City Dock. A boat ceremony has obvious constraints, weather chief among them, but it is a genuinely Annapolis thing to do and it removes the venue-rental line item entirely.

Two things specific to Annapolis

The Naval Academy Chapel is not open to the public. It is one of the most beautiful ceremony spaces in Maryland, and couples find it, fall in love with it, and then learn that weddings there are restricted to midshipmen, graduates, and certain active-duty and faculty categories. If you are eligible, contact the Chapel Wedding Coordinator early, because it books more than a year out. If you are not, several downtown venues on this list are within a few minutes' walk of the Yard and give you the setting without the eligibility question.

Check the boat show dates before you set yours. The United States Sailboat Show and Powerboat Show run on consecutive October weekends and take essentially every hotel room in Annapolis with them. October is otherwise the best month in Maryland to get married, so this is a real conflict rather than a footnote. Commissioning Week in late May does the same thing. Our guide to the best months to get married in Maryland has the full calendar.

What to ask on the tour

Waterfront venues carry questions inland venues do not. Ask what the tent plan is and whether the venue owns the tent or you are renting it. Ask about wind, specifically, because an open Bay site in October gets sustained wind that a lawn 10 miles inland does not. Ask what the flooding history is: coastal flooding in downtown Annapolis and on the low-lying Shore is a routine nuisance, not a rare disaster. And ask whether the ceremony site has a hard indoor backup or a tent-only backup.

Our venue tour checklist covers the standard set, and what a wedding venue costs explains how to compare an all-inclusive quote against a rental-only one, which in this market you will have to do constantly.

See every Annapolis venue we have

This guide is where we would start. The directory has the full working list, with filters for price, capacity, and style, and it flags which venues publish their pricing.

Browse all 36 Annapolis wedding venues

Want to see which Annapolis-area venues fit your date, guest count, and budget? Start here.