UPDATE: AS OF FALL 2018, THE LOVELY OWNERS OF GOLDEN LAMB BUTTERY HAVE CHOSEN TO MOVE ON TO DIFFERENT GOALS, AND THE BUILDING AND PROPERTY ARE NOW FOR SALE. IF SOMEBODY BUYS THIS, WEDDINGS COULD COME BACK!
A Farm Wedding Venue in Brooklyn, Connecticut
One of my favorite places in the “Quiet Corner” of Connecticut is the Golden Lamb Buttery, a farm wedding venue and stylish restaurant. A peaceful place in the rural hills of Brooklyn, Connecticut, it’s a far cry from Brooklyn, New York! It’s a nice escape from busy city life into a world of quaint farm-to-table dining in a stylish barn in the middle of nowhere (almost!).
Get-away to one of the best “Farm-to-Table” experiences!
Whether you’re dining with friends to celebrate your parents’ anniversary, or having a wedding at Golden Lamb Buttery, you can expect amazing cuisine, garden-fresh tomatoes and vegetables from their garden. I am obsessed with their scrumptious quiche, and roasted potato and root vegetables. Wedding guests are often delighted at steaming hot dishes that Katie hands over to the buffet servers through the windows, LOL. Here’s their dinner menu, and lunch menu.
Yes, the food at the Golden Lamb Buttery tastes as exciting as it looks! This is the perfect peaceful place for a lovely dinner to celebrate your special occasion.
Love the Golden Lamb Buttery’s layout for private dining and weddings!
The Golden Lamb Buttery’s main barn, where the restaurant is, is split. There is the main large breezeway that serves as a dance floor. It’s surrounded by wooden farm tables in corners. The other side of the barn has rooms with more farm tables for guests to sit for dinner.
You have to visit this place to see what it’s like. I love the cozy rooms for intimate dinners with family and friends. Although main dance floor and stage isn’t visible from some of the rooms, I always see people having a great time eating, visiting eachother, and then hanging out on the deck. Guests who are obsessed with history will probably be absorbed in the vintage posters, photographs, news articles that decorate the barn walls. It’s covered in history!
Some quick candids in the doorway to one of the rooms where the bride or groom can get ready for the big day. The Golden Lamb Buttery is filled with antiques and vintage photographs. There’s no need to string up much wedding decor!
Abundance of Spots for Wedding Portraits
The Golden Lamb Buttery is its own neighborhood. There are over 1000 acres of rolling fields, stone walls, pond, and woods. You don’t need to go very far for a sweet spot to get once-in-a-lifetime bride and groom portraits. There’s a pond that’s a longer walk down the hill, but one of the most popular spots is the flower garden across the street.
Golden Lamb Buttery has one big red barn where the restaurant is, that says, “Hillandale Farms”. Walk across the street to the flower garden which is next to a smaller red barn. 
Grooms often get ready on the top floor of the barn, which has a porch looking out over to the pasture where horses, donkeys, and sheep graze. If you walk around to the gravel driveway in the back of the barn, you might be lucky to see one of the donkeys trot over to visit you!
If you’re here for a wedding or event, remember that this is an authentic farm venue and expect all the features to a farm wedding, where there are animals! There’s barnyard air here and there, views of the pasture from the back porch, sight of sheep peacefully grazing. “Nestle” the donkey might be happily plodding along the stone wall eager to get a pat on the head!
Instead of wedding guest favors, a lot of couples choose to give their guests a fun hayride around the farm, accompanied by acoustic guitar music.
Wedding Flowers from the Garden!
If you love SIMPLE stuff like me, you’ll love the fact that the Golden Lamb Buttery provides a colorful mix of flowers from their garden across the street. Enjoy the bursts of fresh, happy colors in mason jars and vases. You’re welcome to add your own, as one of my clients did. Lydia made her own tissue paper flowers and stuck some of them in some vases. These following images are typically the type of colors you’ll see adorning a Golden Lamb Buttery wedding.
Outdoor Wedding Ceremonies at Golden Lamb
Wedding couples love holding their marriage ceremonies under the large tree by the big barn. There’s shade. And you can hang little jars with flowers, cloth, or decor from the tree branches if you really want. But this tree is like a nice, simple altar. The officiant for Lydia and Joe’s wedding was justice of the peace, Fred.
Wide Open Spaces for Memories
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved huge, expansive wide open spaces out in nature. Maybe it’s because I feel claustrophobic in a bustling city, or is it because you can enjoy the little fun things in nature, like blowing dandelions?! One of my favorite moments was this transition between Lydia and Joe’s “first look” and the family portraits before the ceremony. I simply just had this couple walk back across the street to the edge of the field near the ceremony area for some shots, and then let them meet their daughter there. As a wedding photojournalist, I’m always scouting for moments like this that you would want captured without interruption from a photographer!
Memories from candid moments like this, I know cannot be created ever again. Life is short, and to be lived out abundantly! Because Golden Lamb Buttery is such a rustic wedding venue, so many couples from all over choose this place to be the place of memories. It has its own charm, and I’m not sure if I can fully describe the charm this place has. I guess you’ll have to put this on your bucket list for this summer! View Golden Lamb Buttery hours and directions at http://www.thegoldenlamb.com.
