Wedding Venues Knoxville TN // Knoxville is a city of two moods, and that is exactly what makes it such a good place to get married. Downtown you will find brick railroad depots, art galleries and a golden landmark from the 1982 World’s Fair. Drive less than an hour south and you are in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, with vineyards, country inns and lodges where the whole wedding party can stay.
We checked every venue below on its own website for current weddings, capacities and, where they publish them, prices. Scroll down and start planning your Knoxville wedding!
Written October 2026. Prices and capacities are the ones the venues published at the time; always confirm them when you inquire.
Wedding Venues in Knoxville
Historic buildings, galleries and gardens, all within a few minutes of downtown.
Jackson Terminal
Old CityUp to 200 guestsIndoor & outdoor
Jackson Terminal was built in the 1880s as a freight depot for the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, and you can still feel the scale of it: the main hall alone is 6,500 square feet. Many couples say their vows in The Station, a separate 1,900 square foot room, or outside on the patio and boardwalk before moving into the hall for dinner.
The wedding package is all-inclusive: catering and bar, decor, lighting, sound, staff and a day-of coordinator, with allowances for flowers, linens and cake. Photography, video, attire and the officiant are up to you.
The Standard
Old CityUp to 140 guestsIndoor & outdoor
Down the street on Jackson Avenue, The Standard fills a restored historic building with high ceilings and original details. It has more than 10,000 square feet and two large rooms, so the ceremony space can turn into the reception. Look out for the “secret” rooftop patio, and there is a bridal suite and a groomsmen lounge for getting ready.
The same team (with City Catering) also runs Jackson Terminal and The Press Room on North Broadway, a 1923 building that started life as a bowling alley before becoming a car showroom and a print shop. It holds up to 600 guests, so one inquiry gets you three very different looks.
Image by Alexandra Quinn Barlow
The Emporium Center
Gay Street, downtownUp to 150 seatedIndoor
Built in 1898 for a furniture company, The Emporium Center became Knoxville’s first true arts center in 2004. It is run by the nonprofit Arts & Culture Alliance, and because the galleries change with every exhibition, the art on the walls will be different for every wedding. Photographers love it for the light: original wood beams, brick walls, 18-foot ceilings and big windows.
It is also one of the most affordable options downtown. The rate sheet (updated January 2025) lists $275 an hour, billed for setup, the event and cleanup, plus a refundable $300 deposit, and you can bring any caterer and vendors you like. Tables, 150 chairs and a portable sound system are included, but there is no setup staff. The downstairs gallery seats about 150, though the center recommends 125 guests or fewer if the ceremony and reception share the room. Weddings can book the space at most once a month, so plan early.
Image by Magnolia + Ember
Knoxville Museum of Art
World’s Fair Park200 seatedIndoor & outdoor
The Knoxville Museum of Art sits in a modernist building by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, opened in 1990 and clad in Tennessee marble. Weddings take place in Bailey Hall, which can be booked together with the South Garden and the North Garden in the evening, and the museum is home to Richard Jolley’s “Cycle of Life”, a glass installation about 100 feet long.
Bailey Hall seats 200 for dinner or holds 250 for a standing reception. The museum lists wedding rates of $6,000 for a four-hour event from January to March and $7,500 in all other months, with extra hours at $500, and works with a list of approved caterers.
Sunsphere Events
World’s Fair ParkUp to 180 seatedIndoor
Nothing says Knoxville quite like the golden ball of the Sunsphere, built for the 1982 World’s Fair. Ceremony and reception happen on the sixth floor, with the bridal suite and cocktail hour on the eighth, and the windows look out over the city all the way to the Great Smoky Mountains.
Packages on its site range from $4,000 for a reception for up to 50 on the eighth floor to $8,000 for both floors, ten hours and up to 180 seated guests. Catering is in-house by Rosa’s Catering.
Ijams Nature Center
South KnoxvilleUp to 150 guestsIndoor & outdoor
Five minutes from downtown, Ijams Nature Center was established in 1910 and is now a wildlife sanctuary of more than 300 acres. The main wedding site is the Homesite, with a lawn, a pavilion and terrace gardens, and the fees help pay for the center’s education programs.
Its 2026 wedding guide is refreshingly clear: a ceremony and reception at the Homesite starts at $4,000 for eight hours, including a 40 by 60 foot tent with bistro lights and tables and chairs for 150. There is a micro wedding for up to 40 guests ($1,250), and elopements for 10 to 15 people start at just $50 for an hour in spots like Hayworth Hollow or the Keyhole. Weddings from December to March get a discount.
Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum
East KnoxvilleUp to 200 seatedIndoor & outdoor
The Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum covers 44 acres of the former Howell Nurseries and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Our favorite spot is the ivy-covered Stone Greenhouse, once a working greenhouse of the nursery, but you can also marry on the Stone Terraces next to the historic Howell House or in the Dogwood Center with its floor-to-ceiling windows. LeConte Meadow looks toward the Smokies.
The garden lists rental fees of $2,000 to $7,000 per space depending on the event, and elopements from $300 an hour. Ask for the current rates when you get in touch.
Historic Ramsey House
East Knox CountyUp to 300 outdoorsOutdoor
Built in 1797 by Thomas Hope, Knoxville’s first known builder, Historic Ramsey House is a pink marble and blue limestone home on more than 100 acres of meadows and gardens. All ceremonies are outdoors, and the house recommends a tent for the reception. A bridal cottage and a rustic cabin for the groom’s party are on site.
Its published rates are $1,000 for a half day and $2,000 for a full day on weekends, less on Wednesdays to Fridays. You bring your own licensed caterer and rentals, and the house does not provide planning, so this one suits couples who like to put a day together themselves.
Wedding Venues Near Knoxville and the Smokies
Lodges, vineyards and lakeside spots within about an hour of downtown, most of them with rooms for your guests.
Blackberry Farm
WallandUp to 140 overnight guestsLodging on site
If you dream of a whole weekend in the mountains, Blackberry Farm is the one. The estate covers 4,200 acres, and a wedding here means reserving all of its rooms, from historic rooms in the Main House to cottages and private homes. Couples say their vows on the Main House Lawn or at the “Steps to Nowhere”, both looking out to the Smokies, and celebrate in Bramble Hall, modeled on the barns and rural halls that once hosted harvest dances, or in a pavilion by a brook with its own fireplace.
Packages cover the rehearsal dinner through the reception, and three-night stays add group activities like guided hikes and farmstead tastings. Blackberry Farm does not publish prices, and its inquiry form already takes dates years ahead.
RT Lodge
MaryvilleUp to 200 guestsIndoor & outdoorLodging on site
RT Lodge began in 1932 as Morningside, a 26-room home on the wooded campus of Maryville College, and its Main House has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1989. (That is RT Lodge in our cover photo, by Rachel Fugate.) The lodge hosts one wedding per weekend: you reserve the whole place from Friday to Sunday, so the rehearsal dinner, a brunch, the ceremony and the reception all happen in one spot.
Cocktails are served on the lodge veranda, receptions take place in a Sperry tent, and the in-house chef cooks seasonal menus. It is now booking 2027 weddings and about 25 minutes from downtown Knoxville.
Dancing Bear Lodge & Appalachian Bistro
TownsendUp to 200 guestsIndoor & outdoorLodging on site
Dancing Bear Lodge sits on 38 wooded acres in Townsend, minutes from the Townsend entrance to the national park and Cades Cove. It has five event spaces, from a lawn with a gazebo for ceremonies of up to 200 to an open-air pavilion and a private room off the restaurant.
Guests stay in 31 cabins, villas and cottages, many with fireplaces, and the Appalachian Bistro has been voted one of America’s most romantic restaurants, which makes the dinner part easy.
Harper’s Vineyard
TownsendUp to 120 guestsIndoor & outdoor
Harper’s Vineyard is a working muscadine vineyard with mountains all around. Ceremonies take place in a field above the vines, under arches made by a local woodworker, and receptions move into a timber-frame pavilion with glass walls and glass garage doors. If it rains, the ceremony moves inside at no extra cost.
It is one of the few venues around the Smokies with clear prices: Saturdays run from $7,900 in winter to $10,900 in fall, Fridays and Sundays $1,000 less, including the pavilion, bridal suite, tables, chairs, sound and staff. It is booking 2027 and still had a few fall 2026 dates when we checked.
Blue Mountain Mist Country Inn & Spa
SeviervilleUp to 150 guestsOutdoorLodging on site
There is no chapel at Blue Mountain Mist: every ceremony happens outside, on the front lawn facing the Smokies or in the gardens and wildflower spots across its 60 acres. Receptions take place under a tent, with dinner from the in-house chef, and the spa can do hair and makeup.
The inn has 12 rooms plus five woodland cottages and can be booked out entirely. For couples who want to keep it small, its elopement package for two ($1,500) includes two nights, photography, a minister, cake and flowers.
Castleton Estate
LoudonUp to 200 guestsIndoor & outdoorLodging on site
Formerly known as Castleton Farms, Castleton Estate is a private, gated estate of 110 acres around a Greek Revival manor. You can choose between four settings: the Southern Gardens by the manor, the Tuscan Vineyard Gardens, a restored equestrian barn called the Carriage House, and the Woodland Gardens.
Packages are all-inclusive, with planning, design, decor and rentals, and the manor has bed and breakfast suites for the couple and family.
The Yacht Club at Tellico Village
Tellico Lake, LoudonUp to 250 guestsIndoor & outdoor
For a lake wedding, The Yacht Club at Tellico Village holds ceremonies right on the dock, with Tellico Lake and the mountains behind you, and has indoor space if the weather turns. Guests can even arrive by boat and tie up at the courtesy dock.
Catering and the bar are in-house, and tables, chairs, dinnerware and a dance floor are included.
Good To Know Before You Book
- Marriage license: in Knox County it costs $97.50, or $37.50 if you both complete a premarital preparation course in the year before you apply. It is valid for 30 days, there is no waiting period, and it works anywhere in Tennessee. You apply together at the Knox County Clerk (main office in the Old Courthouse on Main Street, plus several satellite offices).
- Weddings in the national park: every wedding or elopement in Great Smoky Mountains National Park needs a wedding special use permit. Apply 12 months to 30 days ahead; the application fee is $50.
- Park limits: outdoor sites allow up to 25 people (vendors and photographers count) for one hour; the historic churches in Cades Cove allow 50. Arches, tents, tables, amplified sound and throwing petals or confetti are not allowed, and drones need written approval.
- Permitted spots include Cades Cove, Newfound Gap, Kuwohi (formerly Clingmans Dome), the Foothills Parkway and Metcalf Bottoms. For a bigger group, the park rents the 1934 Appalachian Clubhouse (seats 100) and Spence Cabin (seats 40) through recreation.gov, roughly from spring to fall.
Looking for more ideas? Have a look at our favorite wedding venues in Tennessee, the best Nashville wedding venues and Memphis wedding venues, or read our guide to eloping in Tennessee.
And when you have found your venue, find the right photographer: browse wedding photographers in Knoxville and across Tennessee in our community.
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Photographers who shoot in Knoxville
Film-inspired photographers from our community, in and near the area. Tap one to see their work, or send them all your plans at once below.
Jason & Staci Messing
Juicebeats PhotographyKnoxville, TN, United StatesBoudoir·Couples·Family
Rachel Keohane
Rachel Keohane PhotographyGatlinburg, TN, United StatesBirth & Newborn·Kids·Lifestyle
Taylor English
Taylor English PhotographyChattanooga, TN, United StatesWeddings & Elopements
Tessa Cokkinias
Adelaide Street MediaNashville, TN, United StatesCouples·Family·Lifestyle
Wandering Creative
Memphis, TN, United StatesWeddings & Elopements
