We recently held our wedding reception at Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden. The garden is a beautiful setting and overall we were pleased with our choice. There are beautiful trees in the garden including a large Magnolia tree and a HUGE Ginkgo tree. The garden is really picturesque.
A few tips and things to be aware of when considering Lee-Fendall House
* You are required to rent a tent from a specific company and this adds about $1400 to the rental cost. I used this same company for my tables, linens, chairs, barware, etc and they're awesome-- but just be aware of the tent cost.
*Noise ordinances: 55 decibels or below-- they have a meter and will check it.
* An ABC license, tent inspection and permit and event insurance must be obtained-- this is not a Lee-Fendall thing, but more of a city/state law thing.
*If you do not use a caterer on their "approved" list (caterers must have done at least 5 events at Lee-Fendall to make it to the 'approved list'), the caterer must pay a fee and go through an approval process--again, not necessarily bad, just a hoop to jump through.
* Request that the lawn and garden be manicured the day before your event and have it put in the contract. I was under the assumption that this was part of the rental, but I showed up the day of my wedding reception to find the grass not mowed and garden not spruced up. I was very disappointed and even though they had 3 and a half more hours until the reception to correct this, my father and I were told they had "mowed last weekend" (which was a week ago since our reception was on a Saturday) and that this is their "normal mowing schedule" and that I was being "picky". I had the expectation that since we were paying several thousand dollars to use a property for an event, that the grass would at least be mowed. I was wrong.
Overall, we were generally pleased-Gorgeous garden and house!

We chose this location over the Army-Navy Country Club in Arlington because it is a beautiful and unique venue and was perfect for the garden wedding we envisioned. The facility is rustic and it would not be for everyone, but it suited us perfectly. The event coordinator, Emily Rusch was great to deal with, as well as John Christiansen, the Executive Director of LFHM. Both worked with us closely to take care of everything necessary (permits/insurance/required tent) and all fell together well. I would not hesitate to rent the venue if I were to do things over. The one caveat, that must be mentioned, is that the renter should ensure ALL bathrooms are functioning properly prior to the event.

We chose Lee-Fendall House first of all because it is gorgeous, and the natural beauty of the garden and the house needed no embellishment. The surrounding streets provided beautiful settings for portraiture and bridal party photographs, and we loved the natural alter of the two trees as the site of our ceremony. We gambled big by having an outdoor ceremony and reception, but it paid of BIG. We had perfect weather: 70s and sunny in June in DC, which can otherwise feel like a humid swamp. We also loved the flexibility of Lee-Fendall: we were able to provide alcohol of our choosing instead of looking at a tiered list that didn't have what we were looking for. Our guests loved the history of the house as much as we did, and Lee-Fendall made it easy to choose a great caterer, since they have a list of companies they work with regularly. That helped us make decisions in an area where there are about a million options for everything. Something to keep in mind is that Lee-Fendall is surrounded by private homes, so the music stops at 10 p.m., but the timing worked out really well for us and we would definitely recommend Lee-Fendall to other couples. :-)