Wedding DJ at Black River Farms in Bethlehem, PA

The Space

Black River Farms is a family run vineyard and winery on 20 acres two miles south of downtown Historic Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, owned by Andy and Kris Warner since the operation was established in 2009. The first vines went into the ground in 2010, and the tasting room did not open to the public until 2017, so the buildings and grounds a couple sees today grew up around a working vineyard rather than the other way around.

A 9-acre vineyard grows 14 varieties of grapes, tended alongside gardens and free-range chickens that give the property the feel of a working farm rather than a polished event lawn. A 200 KW solar array powers the operation and gives it a negative carbon footprint, a detail that matters to some couples choosing a venue and is worth knowing going in.

Capacity & Layout

Black River Farms seats 75 guests, a number that puts it squarely in the range of a smaller, intimate wedding rather than a large ballroom affair, and one that shapes how many round tables or a single long table layout will comfortably fit. The tasting room anchors the indoor footprint, with an outdoor patio and the vineyard itself extending the usable space when weather cooperates, giving a couple the option to move guests outside for part of the day.

Because the property became a wine trail stop and public tasting room only in 2017, and a distillery producing WARDOG Spirits sits alongside the winery, a couple booking here should plan a layout that works around active production spaces rather than a room cleared and built solely for events. The patio faces the vineyard, so ceremony and photo locations naturally orient toward the rows of vines rather than a separate garden.

Amenities

The bar pours the farm’s own house wines alongside WARDOG Spirits products from the on-site distillery, and food service runs to cheese plates prepared in house, with couples typically bringing in outside catering for a full reception meal. The property is wheelchair accessible, worth confirming directly for guests who need it.

Gardens and free-range chickens are part of the working farm a couple’s guests will walk through, and the outdoor patio is the main gathering point outside the tasting room, though it carries real weather limitations in the colder months that a couple should plan around for a late fall or winter date. Regular hours run Monday and Thursday from 2 to 5pm and Friday through Sunday from noon to 5pm, closed Tuesday and Wednesday, hours worth checking against any private event booking.

Location & Getting There

The farm sits 2 miles south of downtown Historic Bethlehem, close enough that guests staying in town have a short drive rather than a long haul into the countryside, which matters when a wedding party is splitting time between getting ready downtown and the ceremony out at the vineyard. Lehigh Valley International Airport is the nearest airport for anyone flying in for the day.

Black River Farms has belonged to the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail since 2018, placing it among a known circuit of regional wineries rather than a standalone stop, which can help out of town guests get their bearings. Indoors, the tasting room offers a contained, enclosed space suited to a controlled sound setup, while the outdoor patio and vineyard rows open the sound into open air, so a DJ working here plans two different setups, one for the tasting room’s hard surfaces and one for the open patio facing the vines.