HIGHLANDS RANCH MANSION Weddings
Gallery of Highlands Ranch Mansion Wedding Photos
Highlands Ranch Mansion Wedding Cost
Outdoor Space at Highlands Ranch Mansion
Indoor Spaces at Highlands Ranch Mansion Wedding Venue
Highlands Ranch Mansion Wedding Information
Highlands Ranch Mansion Wedding Venue Locations & Spaces
Phone: 303-791-0177
Highlands Ranch Mansion wedding venue is one of the most beautiful and spacious wedding venues in the South Denver Metro area. It’s a sprawling 27,000 square foot Tudor style mansion that looks like a castle with a turret and a lot of nice stone work. It’s one of the best castle wedding venues in all of Colorado. It is filled with historic details and a ton of charm and it’s huge so couples who are hoping for larger wedding celebrations should be able to host a wedding at Highlands Ranch Mansion with their maximum capacity of 250 guests with 142 parking spaces. It’s not just the interior of the Highlands Ranch Mansion that’s large, they also have an enormous outdoor area full of gardens and beyond the gardens there is quite a bit of open space despite this being located in a neighborhood setting. This is a historic wedding venue here in Colorado. It’s been around in some form since the late 1800’s and has passed through the hands of cattle ranchers, oil tycoons, and other private families throughout the years. They only host one event per day at Highlands Ranch Mansion so you and your guests will get exclusive use of the mansion and the grounds on your wedding day.
In Colorado, most wedding venues base their wedding rates on the time of year or the day of the week that you decide to host your wedding with the least expensive prices reserved for weddings that take place mid-week or during the off season. The Highlands Ranch Mansion pricing does take into account what your wedding date is and charges accordingly. Highlands Ranch Mansion considers the peak season to be May through October and December. At that time of year, you can expect to spend between $4,000-$7,300 depending on which day of the week you go with. If you are able to host your wedding during the off peak season from January-April or November, you’ll save a bit of money with rates from $2,900-$6,200.
When you book your wedding at the Highlands Ranch Mansion, you will get 5 hours of event time with 3 hours for set up and 2 hours for clean up. If you need more hours, they do allow more hours to be purchased. They do also charge a separate damage deposit to reserve the venue for your wedding. Highlands Ranch Mansion holds their own liquor license so you will be required to buy your alcohol from them, but other than that, they are pretty flexible on allowing you to choose all of your own vendors. Some venues require you to choose from their list of caterers, but the Highlands Ranch Mansion will allow you to go with your own caterer provided they can comply with their requirements and you may have an extra fee.
Because the Highlands Ranch Mansion is so large and has so many different and unique spaces, I thought I’d share some photos of the various areas and a brief description of them below to help you get an idea of what is available at this grand wedding venue.
I’ll start with some photos and information about the outdoor space at Highlands Ranch Mansion. I love that as your guests park and walk in, they’ll see this grand castle and know they’re in for a truly magical evening as they make their way in for your celebration. The exterior is well maintained with plenty of flowers and gardens. In fact, the Highlands Ranch Mansion is known as a great place to take portraits because it’s so beautiful on their grounds. In particular, I appreciate that Highlands Ranch Mansion has a wide variety of choices for where you can opt to set up your ceremony.
Highlands Ranch Mansion Front Veranda
The front veranda is one of my favorite areas of the Highlands Ranch castle. When I photograph winter weddings at the Highlands Ranch Mansion and can’t rely on the gardens being grown in, I really love that the castle itself makes for a lovely backdrop for wedding portraits. There are also a couple different covered porch spaces on the front veranda with cool arches which I’ve found make a great portrait spot. Many couples also use the front veranda as a cocktail hour space or even for smaller ceremonies. The maximum capacity on the front veranda is 225 guests.
The West Lawn at Highlands Ranch Mansion
The West Lawn is one of the most popular areas of Highlands Ranch Mansion to set up a wedding ceremony during the warmer months. It’s great for larger ceremonies and I really love that the castle provides such a pretty backdrop for your wedding. You can seat up to 250 guests on the West Lawn.
The East Lawn at Highlands Ranch Mansion
Alternatively, you could set up on the lawn that is located on the northeast side of the mansion right next to the nice garden area. In this space, you will still have the mansion as your backdrop but the lawn is a little more enclosed and secluded feeling than the larger expansive West Lawn. My pro photographer tip if you are having trouble deciding between the two is to visit at a similar time of year before your wedding rolls around to see what the lighting is like around the time you want to host your ceremony. This assumes you are planning in advance and are able to do that, but if you have the luxury of time, it could help you decide what feels better to you.
The Front Circle Drive at Highlands Ranch Mansion
You can also use the Mansion as a backdrop when you set up your ceremony on the Front Circle Drive. I prefer the lawn so that you can get a little separation between your ceremony and the castle for photography reasons, but I could also see that at certain times of the year being on the more solid, perhaps less muddy hardscape of the Circle Drive might be better for some couples. If you have family members with mobility issues it could be beneficial to be closer to the mansion as well. You’ll be able to host a ceremony with 250 guests in this space too.
Historic Gate Wedding Ceremonies at Highlands Ranch Mansion
For something a little more off the beaten path at Highlands Ranch Mansion, you might consider setting up your ceremony in front of the historic 1930s iron gate to the north of the mansion. There are trees growing along both sides of this gravel path. This option is better for smaller ceremonies as the driveway is not super wide and there isn’t as much space to create an aisle there. Still, imagine walking down the aisle from the mansion with the castle as your backdrop if you host your ceremony in this more secluded outdoor area.
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Marian’s Garden at Highlands Ranch Mansion
Although you cannot host a ceremony in this space, when it’s in full bloom at certain times of the year, it’s a gorgeous location for some of your wedding photos. It’s nestled next to the circle drive and the east lawn. I’ve actually used this area before for portrait sessions on non-wedding days because it’s so pretty.
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Highlands Ranch Mansion Back Patio
Heading over to the opposite side of the mansion, we can explore some of the spaces on the south side of the castle. The back patio is another great place to host a cocktail hour although you might also consider al fresco dining there on nicer days. It’s a little bit wider than the Front Veranda and also will get more sunshine. I think I prefer the look of the Front Veranda, but both spaces are nice. The Back Patio also has better access to the Great Hall if that’s important to you. You’ll be able to fit up to 200 guests on the back patio.
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The Back Garden & Gazebo at Highlands Ranch Mansion
To the south of the Back Patio there are the Back Gardens and Gazebo at Highlands Ranch Mansion. These gardens are another nice potential photo location depending on the location of the sun and the nice open grassy lawn with gazebo makes yet another gorgeous outdoor wedding ceremony space at Highlands Ranch Mansion. Seriously, how is it that there can be so much variety all at one wedding venue? If you care about being able to see some mountain views, this area of the Highlands Ranch Mansion has the best views since there are less trees blocking them. However, I wouldn’t say that the Highlands Ranch Mansion is your best place to book if mountain views are really important to you since they are rather small looking so far off in the distance with plenty of suburban houses in between.
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Now that we’ve gone over the main outdoor areas at Highlands Ranch Mansion, let’s move to the interior and talk about some of the awesome rooms you’ll find inside this seriously awesome castle. There are some rather retro rooms found there as well as more traditional grand castle type of spaces that you would expect to find in a historic Tudor castle. If you’re a bit of a history buff, after reading and seeing the photos below you find yourself wanting to know more about these rooms, Highlands Ranch mansion has a great page on their site with more details about each of the rooms in the castle.
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The Great Hall at Highlands Ranch Mansion
I’m starting with the Great Hall because that’s where the majority of wedding receptions take place inside the Highlands Ranch Mansion. This space is really cool because it’s a fusion of new construction connecting the historic mansion with the old carriage house in back creating one enormous great room with soaring ceilings with exposed beams perfect for wedding dinners and dancing. Despite being partially new, they did a great job maintaining the charm of the carriage house with original rustic brick wall along one end. The space along that brick wall can be used as additional table space for larger receptions or for a place to set up a buffet table.
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The Solarium at Highlands Ranch Mansion
The Solarium at Highlands Ranch Mansion is actually my favorite interior room at the castle. It’s such a beautiful, soothing shade of light green (almost a mint color) and has a bit of an art deco feel to it. There is a ton of natural light coming in from all of the south facing windows which I always love in a room. I photographed my brother and sister in law’s wedding ceremony inside the Solarium for their winter wedding when it was just too cold to host a ceremony outside and it was such a nice indoor wedding. The space is a teensy bit more of an elongated skinny shape than I would prefer (it’s 17.5 x 70 feet to give you an idea of what I mean by that) and I found it a bit tight to move around and get various angles, but it can fit up to 150 people with shallower aisles than you’ll find at most weddings. I think it would actually be an awesome space to host your wedding dinner if you are doing a smaller wedding and it can fit up to 80 guests at round tables.
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Highlands Ranch Mansion Living Room
This is actually the first space your guests will likely feast their eyes on when they step inside the Highlands Ranch Mansion. It’s a really great meet and greet style of room because it has this grand fireplace and cozy rugs and furniture and I also really love all of the arched doorways. I think I’m most obsessed with the herringbone wood floor and the wood beams running across the ceiling. This room is the room I think best matches the “Tudor” look of the exterior of the castle. You won’t be able to host a dinner or formal events in this space, but it’s perfect for just hanging out as a nice room for your guests to use when they first walk in.
The Dining Room at Highlands Ranch Mansion
This room also has herringbone wood floors (LOVE!) but it’s not the largest space so it’s typically used as a place for your caterer to set up the buffet dinner or just one of many free-flowing spaces during cocktail hour.
The Library and The Card Room at Highlands Ranch Mansion
The library is your classic, dark wood paneled cozy library room with tons of books (obviously;) The cardroom is located on the ground level to the west of the solarium and is often used as one of the private getting ready spaces on wedding days. To be honest, I didn’t get a chance to explore this room much on my previous visits as my couples used different rooms to get ready in so I may have to come back and fill in with some photos and descriptions after a future visit.
The Master Suite at Highlands Ranch Mansion
The Master Suite at Highlands Ranch Mansion is one of my absolute favorite getting ready spaces that I’ve encountered in any wedding venue in my whole entire career. A huge reason why it’s one of my favorites is that it’s both super plush and stylish but also large. I love that there is space for the wedding party to frantically run around while I capture the chaos of the wedding prep part of the day. Usually these spaces are packed to the gills meaning they’re overheated and I have very little room to move around making my angles more limited. But this is not a problem at the Highlands Ranch Mansion and I love the bridal portraits I was able to create in these connected rooms. Also, the bathrooms on the 2nd floor of Highlands Ranch Mansion are absolutely fabulous with the most well kept, vintage style you’ll find almost anywhere. Just a quick note, Highlands Ranch Mansion rents out these rooms for portrait sessions so if you are ever looking for an indoor option for your bridal photos prior to your wedding day and want to keep your dress from touching the ground outside this might make a great, unique place for that kind of session. These rooms and bathrooms are beautiful, but it’s not cheap to rent the space for portraits.
The West Bedroom at Highlands Ranch Mansion
My brother in law actually used the West Bedroom instead of the typical Card Room at Highlands Ranch Mansion to spend his wedding prep time in. This room has some of the best views in the entire mansion and you can see both the mountains to the west and downtown Denver to the north from the West Bedroom.
I hope this guide to weddings at Highlands Ranch Mansion has been helpful for you in deciding if you want to schedule a venue tour. I think it’s a great Colorado wedding venue, particularly for couples who need a larger space and who like the idea of getting married in a castle but don’t want to fly to Europe for the real thing. I’d love to be your Highlands Ranch Mansion wedding photographer. I have experience photographing both weddings and portraits here and have been photographing weddings all over Colorado since 2006. Please check out the WEDDINGS page of my website and get in touch to tell me about you and your wedding plans.
Address: 9950 East Gateway Drive Highlands Ranch, CO 80126
