Find Your Bend Oregon Wedding Venue
If you are recently engaged and planning a 2024 wedding— congratulations! There are so many incredible venue options in Bend, Oregon to host your celebration. Central Oregon is a destination for weddings because it is an incredible place to host your family and friends for a long weekend. It is truly a destination in and of itself, with plenty of places to stay, dining options, and ways to play outside.
As professional wedding planners, we’re here to walk you through the venue selection process. It can be intimidating to make such a big decision, but it’s so exciting to start researching wedding venues in Central Oregon.
The two biggest determining factors to find your Bend wedding venue are budget and guest count.
Brasada Ranch Wedding. Photo by Rosemary & Pine.
Start by talking to all “stakeholders” involved in your wedding. This means budget contributors beyond you and your fiance. Work together to develop a budget range and a guest list. Some venues are better suited for smaller groups. For example, Skyliner Lodge is best for 60-90 people, Aspen Hall has a maximum capacity of 150, and Loloma Lodge is the most comfortable with around 100 guests at the most.
If your guest list exceeds 250 guests, your options will be more limited, but locations like the Sunriver Great Hall or the UUF of Central Oregon would be perfect.
What city will be your hub?
Rock Springs Ranch Wedding. Photo by Natalie Puls Photography.
After determining affordability and guestlist, your next question should be: What city in Central Oregon do you want to be the “hub” — meaning the place where people stay, perhaps the location of your rehearsal dinner, and other wedding weekend activities.
Sunriver is a very popular place for vacations with abundant rental homes and recreation like biking or river floating. You can also easily drive up the Cascade Lakes Highway for hiking. Sunriver Resort is the quintessential place to get married in Central Oregon!
Bend itself is an obvious choice: it has the most lodging, restaurants, activities, and transportation options. You are only a 30-45 minute drive to all the other “hubs” to enjoy, so you get the best of both worlds! The bad news is that there aren’t very many venues within Bend city limits, so your guests may need to drive to the wedding or you might consider providing transportation. Our favorite venues within 15 minutes of downtown Bend are: Aspen Hall, White Aspen Creative, Tetherow Resort, and Rock Springs Ranch. Don’t forget, rideshare options like Uber or Lyft are only available within Bend city limits.
Redmond or Terrebonne offers high desert landscapes, restaurants, and access to gorgeous hiking at Smith Rock State Park. There are several venues east of Redmond, like Brasada Ranch or Juniper Preserve, that might be a good fit for your guests who don’t stay on property. We love planning weddings at Ranch at the Canyons in Terrebonne and highly recommend our full service planning package to hire and manage the vendor team needed to execute an incredible day at this “blank slate” venue.
Sisters, Oregon is the cutest, and busiest, little summer town. Our favorite place for a rehearsal dinner, The Open Door, is in Sisters. There are also incredible venues like FivePine Resort, Long Hollow Ranch, and Pole Creek Ranch.
Camp Sherman is a 1 hr drive west of Bend, and it sure is worth the trek! Nestled along the Metolius River, this idyllic little community has nostalgic summer camp written all over it. Two of our absolute favorite venues in Central Oregon are located here: House on Metolius and Lake Creek Lodge.
Lake Creek Lodge Wedding. Photo by Kayla Cindy Photo.
Do you choose a DIY venue or a resort venue?
As we have written about extensively on the blog before, venues can be divided in two categories: DIY venues and Resorts. Here are the key differences between them:
DIY Venues…
Are “blank slates” when it comes to infrastructure: tables, chairs, dance floors, lighting, etc. Some DIY venues offer furniture on site, but typically do not include the staff to set it up.
Require a huge vendor team. You will be bringing in the entire team to essentially build a restaurant in the woods, at a barn, or at a city facility.
Are not necessarily cheaper. Although their venue fees are typically quite low, the cost to bring in additional materials and vendors can really add up!
Allow a lot of creativity. It is so much fun to customize a blank space to perfectly reflect the couple’s vision and personality!
Warning: some DIY venues are much more expensive than resorts because their site fees are so high. When site fees are $10,000-$20,000 and only include the empty space… That is a recipe for a 6-figure wedding.
Resort Venues…
Typically include an indoor option for a backup weather plan, which is a huge advantage
Require all food and beverage to be provided by the on site restaurant/bar. This means that the per person price for dinner or drinks tends to be higher than an outside catering company (i.e. $13 per signature cocktail instead of your ability to buy the liquor yourself and have someone serve it).
Provide all furniture and staffing on site.
Can offer lodging on site.
Tetherow Resort Wedding. Photo by Tram Tan.
Once you have your budget and your guest list, you can confidently navigate researching the perfect wedding venue in Bend. Start by looking at our suggestions here to see if they can meet your budget and capacity, then consider if you like the location, and finally, discuss if you want to have a resort venue or a DIY venue. We hope that this guidance can help you start finding the Central Oregon venue you are envisioning for your wedding reception!