The Maidstone Club: Field Notes on an East Hampton Wedding Venue
Sutton took the long way to the Maidstone Club. He was behind the wheel of a 1960s Mercedes SL that belongs to one of his new mother-in-law's closest friends, and he wanted a few more minutes alone with Charlotte before cocktail hour. That drive is one of Charlotte's favorite memories of the whole day. Behind them, the rain that poured down during their ceremony at St. Luke's had already cleared.
Charlotte and Sutton married on September 7, 2024, with the ceremony in the village and dinner under a tent at the club. For Charlotte's family the Maidstone was already part of the story. In her words, it was "a setting that already held so many great memories for so many generations of my family." These are our notes from that day, written for couples who are starting to picture a wedding there.
WHAT THE Maidstone Club IS LIKE
The Maidstone Club was founded in 1891, and it describes itself as a private, family-oriented country club in the village of East Hampton. It sits on Old Beach Lane. There are two golf courses along the Atlantic shore, a 9-hole and an 18-hole, both originally laid out by Willie Park Jr. The club also keeps 19 grass tennis courts, croquet and paddle tennis courts, seasonal beach facilities, and banqueting facilities for its members.
That last part matters most for a wedding. This is a members' club, and the events team works for the people who belong to it. A wedding here usually comes through a member family. For Charlotte, that family history was the reason to be there in the first place. Her grandfather bought a house in East Hampton in the 1950s, and the friends at her wedding included people whose grandparents had been friends with hers.
HOSTING A WEDDING AT A Private Club
The best thing a private club gives you is a team that knows the place and has seen it under every kind of sky. Charlotte credits the club's event coordinators, working alongside Ashley Douglass Events, for the way the day ran once the ceremony began. "Once the ceremony kicked off, everything just fell into place and we just got to enjoy," she told us.
Clubs tend to have house habits, and they are worth using. The Maidstone has a signature drink, and Charlotte's grandfather always took it with a double float of rum. Charlotte and Sutton served it his way, next to a mezcal margarita named for their cat, Smoky. Ask the coordinators what the club is known for, from a cocktail to a dish, and fold it into the menu.
Planners matter here too. A club team handles the property, the kitchen and the staff, and an outside planner like Ashley Douglass carries the design, the outside vendors and the weekend around it.
WHERE THINGS Happen
The ceremony. Charlotte and Sutton married in town at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, where her parents and many of her relatives married before her. We wrote separate notes on getting married at St. Luke's in East Hampton. A church ceremony followed by a short drive to the club gives the two of you time alone in the car, and we recommend building it into the timeline on purpose. Couples have also married on the club's own lawn above the ocean, so ask the coordinators what's possible for your date.
The reception. Their dinner was under a Sperry Tent on the club grounds. A tent is a blank room, and the design team filled this one with light. Social Decor made chambray blue lampshades, and MJ Tablescapes hand-painted a candle for every table. Sag Harbor Florist kept the flowers all white. Charlotte called the look "coastal modern."
Portraits. Our gallery from the day has garden portraits and post-ceremony portraits made on the club grounds. Give yourselves half an hour at the club before you join cocktail hour, and ask the coordinators early which parts of the property are open to a wedding party.
TIMING, WEATHER AND THE Rain Plan
September on the East End can turn quickly. Charlotte told us it had been a summer of sunny weekends, and then the forecast for her wedding day called for rain. She downloaded every weather app she could find. Her advice to anyone after her: don't.
The rain plan had to be decided the morning of the wedding. Sutton made the call, "go forward, no rain plan," and it held. The downpour lasted less than twenty minutes and came while everyone was inside the church. When they walked out, the sky had cleared and their friends were throwing petals. A tented reception gives you that kind of flexibility, as long as the decision on sides and flooring has a deadline everyone agrees to.
OUR WEDDING AT the Maidstone Club
Charlotte and Sutton met at Vanderbilt on her first night of freshman year, and they had been together nine years by the time they married. They spread the weekend over three nights: a backyard rehearsal dinner at Charlotte's parents' house, a welcome party by the ocean with wood-fired pizza from Rolling in Dough, and the wedding on Saturday.
Under the tent, Chevy Chevis and her band played. Their first dance was "All Your'n" by Tyler Childers, for their years in Nashville, and Charlotte danced with her father to Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey." Sugar Sugar Custom Cakes made two flavors: chocolate with fresh strawberry, and vanilla almond with Swiss meringue. The after party belonged to their college friends, with Jeremy Torres on the decks.
Read the whole day in Charlotte and Sutton's Maidstone Club wedding, and see more in the full Maidstone Club gallery. For other places to marry on the East End, our Hamptons wedding venue guide covers more ground.
PLANNING A MAIDSTONE CLUB Wedding
Charlotte wanted "one big, fancy dinner party with all the people we loved the most," and she held it in a place that had hosted her family for generations. By the last few songs, the dance floor belonged to the friends who had known the two of them since Vanderbilt.
We're Trent and Dara, and we've been photographing weddings out east since 2010, on 35mm and medium format film alongside digital. BRIDES named us one of the 50 best wedding photographers in the world, and our work has been featured in Vogue and Over the Moon. More on how we work in the Hamptons is on our Hamptons wedding photographer page.
If your family has a long history at the Maidstone, or you are about to start one, we would love to hear about it. Reach out and tell us your date.