I'll guide you through the day
with a calm, easygoing approach
so you spend less time posing
and more time celebrating
—with photos you'll treasure forever.
1601 Main St, Walpole, MA 02081, USA
Avenir
by Saphire Event Group
We've shot Approximately
25
weddings at
Avenir
Sunsets at
Behind building and behind trees - no visible sunset.
Avenir
Outdoor Photography Rating:
7 out of 10
Only ceremony area for pictures, and limited planting and variety. Car port is perfect cover for outdoor pics in the rain.
Indoor Photography Rating:
10 out of 10
The ballroom is its own statement piece. It's so large with the domed ceiling and columns, it's just perfect.
A photography perspective on this venue
Avenir by Saphire Event Group in Walpole, Massachusetts is a modern wedding venue that blends elegant architecture, including its domed ballroom ceiling, with beautiful outdoor spaces. The landscaped grounds provide great options for golden-hour portraits, while the clean, contemporary interiors create a beautiful backdrop throughout the day. Avenir is a private, one-couple-at-a-time property, so you have the entire venue to yourselves during your wedding. As a wedding photographer, I love the natural light, clean design, and variety of scenic locations that make it easy to create timeless, authentic images. The venue has a dedicated bridal suite, a backup indoor ceremony room, and a separate cocktail-hour space with a huge bar. The staff is experienced and consistently on top of their game, and the food is genuinely excellent. The menu is similar to other Saphire properties, but they do it exceptionally well. Seriously, make sure the Tuscan Chicken is an option. There is also plenty of on-site parking, and Route 1 is nearby, giving you plenty of convenient hotel options for your guests.
Ceremony
Avenir has an amazing outdoor ceremony location right next to the building, surrounded by beautifully manicured gardens and a dedicated contemporary trellis. You can customize the trellis with your own floral design or leave it as-is for a cool, understated "less-is-more" look. The ceremony area faces west from the guests' perspective, toward a tall wall of trees that helps block the direct sun and creates beautiful, filtered light. From a photography standpoint, that's a huge advantage—you get a ceremony setting that is essentially shaded, which makes for consistently flattering photos.
If you're getting married in the off-season, dealing with inclement weather, or simply prefer an indoor ceremony, Avenir also has a dedicated indoor ceremony room. That's a huge plus if a random cloudburst rolls through. You don't have to move tables and chairs around or sacrifice your reception space to accommodate the ceremony. Everything is already set up and ready to go.
What if it rains?
Actually, Avenir is a great spot for a wedding if it rains. They have a dedicated indoor ceremony room - so you're not having to push the reception tables around and create an aise wtih chairs. It's already taken care of. As of the writing of this, that ceremony room is honestly a bit boring, but Saphire Event Group is always upgrading and updating (constantly) so seriously go check a week from now and it's probably completely different.
Best part is that large overhead structure at the entrance to the building. It could be pouring buckets out and we could get you, your wedding party and family outside under that entrance and just face you towards the side of the building and you'll get amazing pictures with trees, flowers, etc behind you. It's like being guaranteed outdoor pictures regardless of weather. Very few venues can say that.
Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter
Avenir is absolutely a year-round wedding venue that works in every season. Saphire Event Group is meticulous about the landscaping, so from early spring through late fall, the gardens are beautifully maintained with fresh plantings, clean, mowed grass, and plenty of opportunities for pictures. The ceremony location faces west/southwest toward a bank of tall trees that generally stay green through September before the fall foliage starts showing from late September through mid-November. In the fall, they add fresh mums and keep fallen leaves to a minimum around the ceremony area to maintain a clean, polished look.
Winter weddings, colder days, and rainy weather work just as well thanks to the indoor ceremony options, gorgeous ballroom, impressive entryway, huge covered portico, and back cocktail-hour area. Each space offers its own unique photography opportunities regardless of what's happening outside.
The Dance Floor!
Avenir's dance floor is... G R A N D! First, it's huge, so there's plenty of room for literally every guest at your wedding to get out there and dance. If your wedding is a bit smaller, no worries—they can bring the tables in a bit to make the room feel more intimate. It's completely scalable. And just look at those columns, the domed ceiling, and the chandeliers. This is a room your guests won't soon forget. Stand in the center of the dance floor and you can actually hear some pretty cool echoes from that domed ceiling. This may be one of the coolest dance floors on the South Shore. Even the pearl-white floor itself is unique.
From a photography standpoint, lighting this space can be challenging for newer or less experienced photographers. A single on-camera flash can get swallowed up by the height of that ceiling. I get the best results using two off-camera flashes on poles at opposing corners of the dance floor. That gives me balanced light across the room, natural-looking skin tones, and enough power to keep the background from disappearing into darkness.
It gets even more challenging when a DJ starts throwing hard-colored party lights onto the guests. Suddenly everyone can look green, then blue, then red. With my approach, I can overpower much of that colored light with flash so skin tones stay natural throughout the night. When you consider how much of a wedding reception happens on the dance floor, having a photographer who understands how to light this room properly makes a real difference.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What makes Avenir a great place to get married?
It's grand. It's exclusive. It's memorable. The food is amazing, the staff are the best in the business. The owners are meticulous. The understanding weddings and do it better than anyone. It's a Saphire Event property. They rule this area. They are at a level above any other venues. You absolutely can't go wrong here.
2. Where are the best places for wedding photos at Avenir?
Their gardens are small but offer a TON of variety from walls of greenery to shrubs, flowers, trees, hidden benches and more. You get a ton of variety without having to walk far. Literally turn your bodies this way and get a whole different look.
3. What's the best time of day for portraits at Avenir?
Family and wedding party pictures would typically occur either immedaitely following "First Look" or direclty after the ceremony during cocktail hour unless you built in a gap between a church ceremony and arriving on property.
Regardless, at some point just before or near sunset I'll take just the two of you outside again for those soft-light intimate shots. It should only take like 10 minutes but these are the shots you hire me for. These are the jaw-dropping, tier enducing, OMG shots. You won't get a sunset at Avenir as the sun goes behind the trees, but you can absolutely get those rays of sun peeking through the leaves and giving that whimsical wedding look.
4. Is a first look a good idea at Avenir?
Absolutely! The first look gives you a chance to truly see each other. Express your thoughts. BE together for a moment - away from everyone else. Now you get to enjoy your own cocktail hour. Now it's not such a whirlwind. You're not as rushed, so less anxiety. Totally worth considering.
For the traditional "I want to see her coming down the aisle", let me give some perspective. First, when she gets there you need to just shut up and get married. You can't stop and talk. At a first look you can. Second, that heart-fluttering HOLY CRAP feeling when all your guests stand and you realize this is real, this is happening! That feeling doesn't go away just because you already saw each other. It actually may be enhanced.
5. What happens if it rains on your wedding day at Avenir?
In all my years, I've only had maybe a handful of weddings that were 100% completely washed out. It's so rare it's not worth discussing. Yeah, maybe the ceremony gets moved indoors. Maybe the family and wedding party pics are on the dance floor but there will almost certainly be an opportunity between drops to run outside for a few pics of the two of you.
6. How much time should we set aside for wedding photos?
I typically like an hour, but I'm SUPER efficient. It really comes down to how large your group is. How many in the wedding party? How big is your family? Are there divorces with step family? Are there grandparents? Do you want to include aunts, uncles, cousins? The smaller the group the easier it is obviously.
7. Can we stay on schedule without feeling rushed?
This is my super power. You could be WAY behind schedule, then it comes time for the family and wedding party pics and poof, you're back on schedule. I can be amazingly efficient to power through all those combinations so you can lower the anxiety and not lose any of your wedding.
8. What's your favorite photo location at Avenir?
The ceremony location is perfect and just to the left of it is a cool little spot with some trees, a little bench and some colorful flowers. It offers that woodsy vibe and it's only steps away, so super easy.
9. Have you photographed weddings at Avenir before?
I wouldn't be talking about it otherwise - absolutely. There's a benefit to knowing the flow of things. Where you're allowed to go and where's off-limits. Knowing where the shadows will fall and knowing what will be in bloom. Even just knowing how the staff approaches the day and their personalities. It all helps make the entire day run smoothly for you. There's an unspoken "nod and wink" between me and the day-of coordinator keeping everything perfect so you get the most out of the day.
10. What should couples know before getting married at Avenir?
Best thing is you're in good hands. There are some venues that are clueless, this is not one of them. You'll be catered to and pampered the entire time. Seriously, this is a venue where you can put the anxieties aside and just relax into a perfect day. I've got no red flags here. It's ALL good.
11. How many guests does Avenir work best for?
It's a big room, which is unique for our area. It can easily hit 200 or more guests. Obviously talk with them if it's even more, but they can absolutely accommodate larger weddings. Smaller weddings can actually look very natural and comfortable as well. You won't get lost in the size if you're under 100. The curtains help soften the size and keep it intimate for any amount of guests.
12. Is Avenir good for indoor and outdoor weddings?
Surprisingly good actually. Avenir has a dedicated indoor ceremony set up always available for split second "oh crap" cloud bursts and pictures under the front entryway will keep you dry while getting outdoor pictures regardless of the weather.
13. Where do you usually take family photos?
Just to the side of the ceremony spot. It's quick, easy and extremely convenient for your family and wedding party to head in to the cocktail hour space after pictures.
14. Is sunset really worth stepping away from the reception?
At Avenir the sun sets behind the treees, so you're not going to see it. Regardless, I always like to head back out around that time for the romantic soft light that makes for really awesome pictures. You won't get a sunset, but you'll absolutely get all your favorite shots you'll fall in love with during that mini-session close to sunset time.
15. What makes photographing weddings at Avenir unique?
The domed ceiling over the dance floor is amazing but it's so high that other photographers may find it difficult to to get good light of things happening on the dance floor. The flash just gets lost up there. I've mastered this venue and always get perfect light no matter what.