Wedding Photographers & Videographers at Helen Black Miller Chapel and Social Hall, Mercer

A wedding at the Helen Black Miller Chapel and Social Hall in Mercer is a small, close gathering of the people you love most. The chapel is a restored historic church on the grounds of the Mercer County Historical Society, a short walk from the courthouse, and the upstairs sanctuary holds up to 120 guests in wooden pews. In a room this size your photographer and videographer are never far from the aisle, so your wedding photos catch the faces in the front rows as clearly as the two of you.

Your wedding ceremony takes place upstairs in the sanctuary, which has a pump organ and a Steinway piano. The historical society doesn't provide clergy or musicians, so you bring your own officiant and music, and the ceremony stays entirely yours. Live piano or organ in a small room also gives a wedding videographer warm, clear sound for the processional and the vows.

Downstairs there is seating for about 40 more people, which works for a small wedding reception or a light gathering after the vows. Food and drink stay on that lower level, and alcohol isn't allowed on the premises, so a larger party with dinner and a bar will need a second location. You can rent the whole building, the sanctuary alone or just the downstairs room, in four-hour blocks, and evening hours can be arranged ahead of time. Bubbles are allowed outside, which makes for a happy last picture of your wedding day as you leave.

• Call the historical society office to see the chapel and check your date; full payment holds the reservation.
• No parking is reserved for events, so tell guests to park around the courthouse.
• Walk the sanctuary with your photographer and ask the staff about decorations and photo and video guidelines.

A little about the Helen Black Miller Chapel

The building was consecrated as Grace Episcopal Church on South Pitt Street in 1883, then moved to Venango Street in 1895 and renamed the Church of St. Edmund the Martyr. The Mercer County Historical Society bought it in the early 1970s and moved it back to South Pitt Street. Its name honors a local woman whose life was devoted to vocal and instrumental music.