A Comment on the Chocksett Inn; Sterling, MA

Today’s featured wedding venue is the quaint and charming Chocksett Inn, located in Sterling, MA. We’ve had the opportunity to photograph more than a few times and we have to give it a great review. This is a venue that you not only have to see for yourself, but as a photographer you have to experience first hand. www.chocksettinn.com

We will start with the bridal suite and the getting ready areas. This is a small country inn, so you expect cramped little rooms, but the bridal suite is a good size and what it lacks in grandeur it makes up in window light. It is a corner room so there is always ample light for window light portraits or if you choose to limit your strobe use it makes for great ambient light.

Now to the outside garden where, weather permitting, the ceremony is usually held. Tall hedges surround the entirety of the garden and there is a very simple white arbor at the entrance and a matching gazebo at the end. I must tell you that I am not a fan of gazebos and on my first visit to Chocksett I probably had a sardonic “oh, wow, gazebo …. great” reaction; and I must further preface this by stating that I am of the wise-cracking, cynical sort by nature. Anyway, although I wouldn’t have designed the spot with a gazebo, brides usually like them and we found ways to make it work with our style. Back to the garden as a whole, with the tall hedges there are clean backgrounds to be had throughout the ceremony location, which is a definite plus for a photographer. Although you don’t have a large variety of portrait spots, the hedged in area allowed us to work a variety of different shots in a relatively short time period.

A recent addition to the Chocksett Inn is a grand ballroom. A very large spacious room with ample opportunities to set up strobes and work the scene any way you so cho0se. There is a foyer area with some nice windows looking into the ballroom, which allowed us to play around a little bit to make some interesting images. This room is a nice compliment to the garden area and gives the Chocksett Inn a well rounded appearance as a whole.

Visually the Chocksett Inn is simple and charming and has many opportunities for making great images.

Thanks for reading – Rich