Weddings at Living History Farms.
A living history museum with a reconstructed 1876 town inside it, renting eight separate venues from five hundred dollars. An 1871 barn, an 1870 Italianate mansion, a Prairie Gothic church with its own dressing room. And one rule about alcohol that quietly decides what time your wedding can start.
A 500-acre living history museum in the Des Moines suburbs
The Venue
Why Living History Farms photographs the way it does.
Start with that rule, because couples find it late and it is structural. Alcohol is prohibited during the museum's regular operating hours, which run nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, Tuesday to Saturday, May through October. Professional caterers holding a liquor licence may serve outside those hours. So an afternoon wedding in high season is a dry afternoon, and a wedding with a bar starts after four. That is not a detail, that is the shape of your day.
What you get in exchange is a backdrop nothing else in Iowa can match. The 1876 town of Walnut Hill is a reconstructed period town, and the venues sit in and around it: the Flynn Barn, built in 1871 and on the National Register with a new roof in 2022, the 1870 Italianate Flynn Mansion whose porch and lawn you can rent and whose interior is available on request, and the Church of the Land, a Prairie Gothic building with a piano, a sound system and a dressing room.
The pricing is published venue by venue and quoted as a four hour minimum with an hourly rate after that, which is worth reading carefully. The Murray Conference Center is $500, the Gazebo, the Mansion porch, the pavilion and the front lawn are $600 each, the Flynn Barn is $1,000, the Church of the Land $1,100 and the Learning Center $1,350. Additional hours run from $125 to $337.50 depending on the building, so a long wedding day is priced by the hour rather than bundled.
Guides that cover this venue
If this one is not quite right
What you actually need to know
- Guest capacity
- By building. Church of the Land 130 seated, Flynn Barn 160 seated or 280 standing, Learning Center 156 seated or 330 standing, Gazebo and Flynn Mansion lawn 180 seated each, MidAmerican Pavilion 88, Murray Conference Center 55 seated. The Front Lawn is about seven acres if you are bringing a tent.
- Ceremony sites
- The Church of the Land year-round, or outdoors at the Gazebo, the Flynn Mansion porch and lawn, or the Front Lawn from May to October. The church is the one with a dressing room and a piano built in, which makes it the least work.
- Reception spaces
- Flynn Barn from May to October with banquet tables, round tables, chairs, string lights, lanterns and a small stage. The Learning Center year-round, with a Great Hall under skylights, a Celebration Room and a kitchen. The Murray Conference Center for something small.
- Getting ready
- The Church of the Land includes a dressing room, which is rare at this price. Elsewhere, ask, and plan to arrive ready.
- If it rains
- Depends entirely on which building you booked. The Church of the Land, the Learning Center and Murray are year-round and enclosed; the barn, the gazebo, the mansion lawn, the pavilion and the front lawn are May to October and largely outdoors. If your ceremony is outdoors, name the indoor fallback and find out what it costs, because these are separately priced rentals rather than one venue with a wet-weather room.
- What it costs
- Four hour minimums: Murray $500, Gazebo, Flynn Mansion porch and lawn, MidAmerican Pavilion and Front Lawn $600 each, Flynn Barn $1,000, Church of the Land $1,100, Learning Center $1,350. Additional hours $125 to $337.50. A non-refundable fifty percent deposit applies against the final bill, and members and non-profits get ten percent off.
- What's included
- Setup and teardown of the museum's own tables and chairs, trash removal, and on-site staff during your event. The Flynn Barn adds string lights and lanterns and a small stage; the Church adds a piano and a sound system. The Front Lawn is the exception worth noting: you provide electricity and restrooms yourself.
- Parking
- Paved parking at the Church and the pavilion, dirt or grass at Murray. One genuinely easy mistake: the Murray Conference Center is reached from the Douglas Avenue entrance, not the main Hickman Road one. Put the correct entrance on the invitation.
- Where guests stay
- None on site. This is the Des Moines metro, so hotels are close in every direction.
- End of night
- Priced by the hour rather than fixed, so your end time is what you have paid for. Decide the real length of the day before booking, because extending on the night is not the same as buying the hours up front.
- Vendor rules
- Caterers come from a preferred list, and outside caterers are allowed provided they carry liability insurance. The named preferred caterers are Gateway Market, Machine Shed, Urbandale Hy-Vee and Main Street Cafe & Bakery. Alcohol must be served by a professional caterer holding a liquor licence, and only outside museum operating hours.
Worth knowing early: It is an open museum with visitors in it. During operating hours, nine to four Tuesday through Saturday from May to October, the public is walking the 1876 town, and costumed interpreters are working. Your ceremony is not private and your portraits will have strangers in period clothing in the background, which some couples will love and others very much will not. Combined with the alcohol rule, the practical answer for most weddings is to start late in the afternoon and let the museum close around you.
The four places worth your time
The 1876 town of Walnut Hill
After four, once the museum closes
A whole reconstructed period town is a backdrop no other venue in this guide can offer. It is also full of visitors until closing, so the frames worth having are the ones taken in the hour after the gates shut.
The Flynn Mansion
Late afternoon
An 1870 Italianate house on the National Register, with a porch you can rent and an interior available on request. Ask about the interior early, because a period house in evening light is worth more than the lawn in front of it.
Inside the Flynn Barn
Evening
An 1871 timber barn with string lights already hung. Shoot toward the doors while there is still daylight outside, then let the lanterns do the work once there is not.
The Church of the Land
Ceremony hour
A Prairie Gothic church with a piano and its own dressing room. Small, so shoot from the back to hold the whole room, and use the dressing room in the morning because it is the only prep space here with a door.
Your day, hour by hour
At Living History Farms
Full Wedding GalleryPhotographing Living History Farms
Alcohol decides your start time
No alcohol during museum hours, nine to four in season. If you want a bar at the reception, the reception starts after four. Every other timing decision follows from that one, so settle it before you choose a ceremony hour.
The town empties at closing
Visitors and costumed interpreters are in the 1876 town all day. Book the portraits for after the museum closes and you get a period town to yourselves; book them for two in the afternoon and you get a period town full of other people's families.
Every space is a separate rental
Eight venues, eight prices, eight seasons. A ceremony at the gazebo and a reception in the barn is two rentals, and the rain plan may be a third. Price the actual combination rather than the headline five hundred dollars.
Check which entrance
The Murray Conference Center is off Douglas Avenue, not the main Hickman Road entrance. It is the kind of detail that puts a third of your guest list in the wrong car park.
Living History Farms Questions
What couples ask about this venue.
How much does a wedding at Living History Farms cost?
Each venue is priced separately as a four hour minimum: Murray Conference Center $500, the Gazebo, Flynn Mansion porch and lawn, MidAmerican Pavilion and Front Lawn $600 each, Flynn Barn $1,000, Church of the Land $1,100 and the Learning Center $1,350. Additional hours run $125 to $337.50. A non-refundable fifty percent deposit applies.
Can you serve alcohol at Living History Farms?
Only outside museum operating hours, which are 9am to 4pm Tuesday through Saturday from May to October, and only through a professional caterer holding a liquor licence. In practice that means a wedding with a bar begins after four in the afternoon during the season.
How many guests can Living History Farms hold?
It depends which of the eight venues you book. The Learning Center takes 156 seated or 330 standing, the Flynn Barn 160 seated or 280 standing, the Church of the Land 130 seated, the Gazebo and the Flynn Mansion lawn 180 seated each, and the Murray Conference Center 55 seated.
Is the museum open during weddings?
During operating hours, yes. Visitors and costumed interpreters are in the 1876 town nine to four, Tuesday to Saturday, May through October. Weddings held later in the day have the site to themselves as it closes.
Can you get married in the Flynn Mansion?
The porch and lawn of the 1870 Italianate mansion rent at $600 for four hours, and the interior is available by request. Ask about the interior early rather than assuming the lawn is all that is on offer.
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