Running Hare Vineyard Wedding: How to Get There, Park & Get Home

Running Hare Vineyard is a 291-acre working vineyard in Prince Frederick, Maryland, built around a Tuscan-style Villa and a separate open-air Hilltop Pavilion, hosting weddings for up to 250 guests. It's genuinely close to DC and Annapolis on paper — but it's also rural Southern Maryland with no on-site lodging and, by the venue's own admission, only two hotels nearby. That combination means most guest lists end up scattered across a couple of hotels and some B&Bs, driving rural roads at night after an open-bar reception. Here's what the venue offers, what it costs, and how to actually get your guests there and home.

About Running Hare Vineyard

Running Hare Vineyard sits on 291 acres of working vineyard and farmland in Calvert County, and it's one of the featured properties in our Maryland wedding venues guide — this is the deeper look at what a wedding here actually involves. The property is built around two genuinely distinct event spaces:

• The Tuscan-style Villa — the main space, a ballroom with a soaring cathedral ceiling, crystal chandeliers, drop-pendant lighting, and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the vineyard, plus a covered portico for cocktail hour. This is the space that carries a full-size wedding, up to the venue's 250-guest maximum.
• The Hilltop Pavilion — an open-sided wooden structure offering 360-degree views of the vineyard, valley, and sunset. It's the intimate option, seating roughly 60 guests (up to about 80 in a seated configuration), better suited to a small wedding, rehearsal dinner, or welcome party than a large reception.

The signature ceremony spot is a custom-built pergola set directly among the rows of grapevines, with paved paths lined in roses and a vine tunnel leading up to it. Couples who've hosted close to 200 guests describe the Villa handling a larger celebration comfortably — so the 250 ceiling is a real working number, not a theoretical maximum.

Where Is Running Hare Vineyard?

Running Hare Vineyard is located at 150 Adelina Rd, Prince Frederick, MD 20678, in Calvert County, Southern Maryland. The venue's own marketing describes it as a short drive away from Washington DC, with more specific figures putting it at roughly 55 minutes from DC and 40 minutes from Annapolis.

That's genuinely convenient on paper — well within single-trip driving distance for most of a DC or Maryland-based guest list. The complication isn't the drive itself; it's what's waiting once guests arrive, which is where the real planning starts.

How Much Is a Running Hare Vineyard Wedding?

Wedding packages at Running Hare Vineyard start at $6,971 for 50 guests, per Wedding Spot's detailed venue pricing. As with most vineyard venues, expect the total to scale up with guest count, date (peak season and Saturdays command a premium), and any catering or bar upgrades layered on top of the base package. The intimate Hilltop Pavilion rents separately, starting around $1,350 for a three-hour block — a useful option for a rehearsal dinner or welcome gathering the night before. For an accurate figure, get a specific, current quote directly from the venue for your actual guest count and date, since packages and minimums shift year to year.

The Guest Transportation Reality

Here's the detail that shapes everything else about planning a wedding here, and it comes straight from the venue's own site, not outside speculation: Running Hare states there are two major hotels nearby — Springhill Suites and Holiday Inn Express — along with a few small bed & breakfasts, a detail it shares right on its own wedding page. Two hotels, for a venue that can host up to 250 guests. Do the math and the transportation picture comes into focus fast:

1. Lodging is genuinely limited. Two major hotels and a handful of small B&Bs can't absorb a large wedding's full guest list in one or two convenient spots — guests end up spread across whatever rooms are available, sometimes in different towns if the nearby hotels book up.
2. This is rural Southern Maryland, not a hotel corridor. Unlike a DC or Annapolis wedding where guests might walk or grab a quick rideshare between hotel and venue, Prince Frederick's roads are genuinely rural and often unlit at night.
3. Open bar + scattered guests + dark rural roads. That's exactly the combination that makes "everyone just drives themselves" a real safety risk, not just an inconvenience — nobody wants to navigate unfamiliar country roads back to a hotel after a full evening reception.

Guest Shuttle & Wedding Party Transport

This is precisely the scenario a coordinated shuttle plan is built to solve. Rather than leaving guests to individually navigate rural roads after dark, a scheduled shuttle running between the venue and the small handful of nearby hotels means:

• One coordinated pickup and return, rather than dozens of guests each deciding independently whether they're okay to drive.
• A driver who already knows the route between the vineyard and the Holiday Inn Express or Springhill Suites, instead of a guest relying on GPS on unfamiliar country roads at 11pm.
• Multiple return trips through the evening, since a wedding runs for hours and not everyone wants to leave at the same time.
• Wedding party transport handled separately from the guest shuttle — moving the couple and bridal party between getting-ready locations, the pergola ceremony site, and photos around the vineyard, on the day's actual schedule.

Given how limited the nearby lodging genuinely is, this is worth planning at the same time you're securing your hotel block. By the time you're locking down rooms at the two nearby hotels, you already know roughly how many guests will need a way back at the end of the night.

Where Guests Stay

The venue's own recommendation is straightforward, since there aren't many options: Springhill Suites and Holiday Inn Express, both in Prince Frederick, plus a handful of small bed & breakfasts in the surrounding area. Both hotels sit only a few miles from the vineyard — a short drive, and an easy shuttle loop to run through the evening.

For guests who want to extend the trip, the venue itself points toward Solomons Island, a short drive further south, known for fresh local seafood. It's the same stretch of Calvert County waterfront covered in our Calvert Marine Museum guide — worth flagging to out-of-town guests who want to make a weekend of the visit rather than just attending the one event.

Making a Weekend of It in Calvert County

Because the venue sits in a genuinely scenic corner of Southern Maryland — and because the drive from DC or Annapolis is short enough to make a weekend worthwhile — a lot of couples build a two- or three-event weekend around the wedding rather than a single afternoon. The Hilltop Pavilion's smaller footprint makes it a natural fit for a Friday-night rehearsal dinner or welcome gathering on the same grounds, so out-of-town guests can settle in the night before without a second drive out from the city.

If you're planning multiple events across a weekend, the transportation math compounds the same way the lodging math does: each gathering is another set of trips between the two nearby hotels and the vineyard, and another late-night return on rural roads. A single transportation plan covering the whole weekend — rehearsal dinner, wedding day, and any farewell brunch — keeps the logistics from turning into a nightly scramble, and means guests can enjoy the vineyard's wine without anyone worrying about the drive back. Coordinating that plan alongside the venue's own vendor recommendations, and timing golden-hour photos among the vine rows into the schedule, is what turns a spread-out rural venue into a smooth weekend rather than a series of separate drives.

Frequently Asked Questions