Every other venue in this guide is a place. This one is a pilgrimage. The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum on Whitehead Street in Key West — the Spanish Colonial house where Hemingway wrote through the 1930s, pool, gardens and all — rents its grounds for elopements and intimate celebrations, with packages starting at $1,100.
The setting does the work that décor budgets do elsewhere: a walled tropical garden in the middle of Old Town, the lighthouse a block away, and the famous polydactyl cats — descendants of Hemingway's own — wandering the property as they have for decades. They will be in your photographs. Plan to love that.
City: Key West, Florida
Guest count: Elopement and intimate-celebration packages (no guest cap published)
Outside catering: The venue doesn’t publish a catering policy on its website — ask before you plan around outside food.
Published prices: Packages from $1,100
Venue’s own website: The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum
The practical notes, such as they are
The practical notes are short because the museum publishes a starting price rather than a menu: packages begin at $1,100, and no guest cap is stated for the elopement offer, so your first email should pin down how many people “intimate” means in their terms and what the $1,100 tier includes. Museum venues also keep museum hours and museum rules; a ceremony there bends around the public's day, which for most couples is a fair trade for that garden.
At $1,100 to start, it's cheaper than the resort packages a few blocks away — and your grandchildren will know where the wedding was.
Before you book, ask
- What does the $1,100 starting package include, and what's the guest limit?
- What time of day can ceremonies start, given museum hours?
- Is there a covered option if it rains?
See how it stacks up against the other South Florida venues, or browse all 38 in the statewide guide. Two companion reads: how elopement packages actually work, and what a wedding photographer costs.
Facts checked October 30, 2026 against the venue’s own website. Prices and packages change — if the venue’s site and this page disagree, the venue is right and I’m out of date.