I wish I could give The Mansion at Bayou Golf Course 10 stars (and I'm not typically a gushy person and am quite picky). I cannot recommend the Mansion more highly! Although all of our wedding-day vendors were top-notch and fantastic and we'd book them all again in a heartbeat (except Barbur Boulevard Rentals---but that's a different review), booking our wedding at The Mansion was the best wedding-day choice we made. I will forever be indebted to my husband for finding The Mansion online and encouraging me to go out and look at it. The beauty of the location is unbeatable, as is the excellent help you'll get from the owner, and the GREAT value! There's not much "out there" about The Mansion, so hopefully I can help educate you about how wonderful it is (it's the least I can do).
If you're looking for a Portland-area location for a wedding and/or reception, this place is perfect. We had our wedding and reception outdoors, but inside the Mansion is beautiful as well and quite spacious due to a recent renovation in which the Mansion was modified to be used for events. The fact that the inside is so beautiful also makes it a suitable back-up plan in the event Mother Nature doesn't cooperate with your plans to have an outdoor wedding.
The mansion is gorgeous (inside and out) and serves as a wonderful backdrop for the wedding and reception. The neatly manicured and nicely landscaped yard is HUGE and features a pond with a small waterfall, a gazebo, and adorable pathways. Nothing could be more perfect (or meticulously prepared for each event). There is a beautiful and spacious bridal room equipped with lots of natural light, lots of mirrors, and lots of hanging space. There is also a very nice groom's room, but I'm not as familiar with that but it seemed nicely decorated and very suitable for the men. All of our bridal party and parents actually got ready onsite and the rooms worked out great (the hair and makeup girls actually commented on how perfect the bridal room was for their purposes).
For Portlanders, the drive to McMinnville goes fast and is beautiful and fun (I feel the drive added to creating the perfect wedding-day experience--driving through the beautiful countryside and cute little towns). Also we were able to use Portland-based companies (and one Wilsonville company) for all of our rentals, flowers, music, photographer, videography, cake, and catering. This made it convenient to work with the vendors and also gave us a large selection of vendors. The extra drive added a little extra cost to these vendors charges (usually about $50-$75 per vendor), but the value you get from renting The Mansion definitely outweighs the few dollars of extra cost for these vendors (especially when you consider that tables, chairs, and linens are included in the venue cost and one site can be used for the wedding and reception).
I would highly recommend The Mansion based on the beauty alone (and the value), but the added (and unexpected) bonus was all of the great help we received from the owner, Irmi, along the way and especially the day of the wedding. Irmi is INCREDIBLE!! After booking the venue, we probably visited the mansion 5-6 times before the wedding day (sometimes to show the Mansion to out of town family and sometimes to work on details of the wedding). Irmi was always willing to accommodate us, give her ideas (without being pushy) about what she had seen work well, and offered to help where she could. I always felt like she was pleased we stopped by and happy to talk about our wedding. She was also very responsive (and cheerful) with emails.
On the wedding day, Irmi was running around, helping my family get decorations put up, her husband, Greg, helped hang the flower arrangement from the gazebo, and she let us use a golf cart as a get-away "car." Irmi also helped by providing stain remover when I had a little wedding dress stain-catastrophe before our photos or the wedding had even started. All of this was done cheerfully (as though it was her honor to do it), without complaint, and without additional cost. Honestly, I felt like Irmi did as much to help us and to make the day perfect as she would have done if we were her family. Such an unexpected blessing!
It's hard to write a conclusion for the setting for the wedding of my dreams, but all I can say is check out The Mansion at the Bayou Golf Course. You won't be sorry!
P.S. I tend to be more noise conscious than others, but was a little concerned about potential noise since the garden is near a country road. If you're noise conscious like me, do NOT worry about noise. It will not be a problem. There are bushes and other sound barriers between the road and the garden and the garden is some distance from the road. I only noticed traffic noise on site visits if I remembered to listen for it and there wasn't THAT much traffic anyway so I felt comfortable with the noise as it was. However, on the day of the wedding, I did not hear a single traffic noise (except when we took a couple of photos at the edge of the property). The combination of music and people chatting made any noise from the road indetectable. So, if you're noise conscious like me, don't worry about this. It will NOT be a problem.
