A Modern Family Gets Married at the Hawthorne Hotel

We recently received this lovely thank you email and photos, and thought you might enjoy sharing with us.

As a point of information, Christine is Christine Turner, who is our Assistant Director of Catering, and is the person that does the planning with the couples who are married here (as do Karen Cotton, our Director of Catering, and Laura Abraham and Lindsay Otis who are Catering Sales Managers) and Britony is Britony Wells who on occasion is a Wedding Coordinator for us.

Every wedding that is booked here at the Hawthorne Hotel is handled in this professional manner -- by a Sales Professional who is skilled in helping our clients make the best choices for their special day and who will make sure every detail is committed to a written record, and by a Wedding Coordinator who is highly talented at managing the actual wedding reception itself.

We believe it takes two differing skill sets to handle these very different jobs -- both are equally important on our team, and both are the best in their particular field.

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Christine and Britony,

We would like to thank you again for making our special day that much more amazing. Our wedding was everything we dreamed and so much more because you both were a part of it. Everyone we speak to, if they want to get married in Salem, we tell them the Hawthorne Hotel, Christine and Britony. You gals were amazing.

We would love to extend a seasons greetings to you and all of your family. Stay warm and enjoy every moment with the ones you love during these holidays that bring us so close together.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Years!

Warmest Wishes,

Gina and Rebecca C
Niamh and Conor

Wow, a Great Post on Another Blog

. . . about a winter wedding here at the Hawthorne Hotel. Be sure to play the slide show at the very bottom of this post to see LOTS and LOTS of views of the Hawthorne Hotel.

http://staciekirkwood.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-to-remember-at-hawthorne-hotel.html

Nice work by this photographer, Stacie Kirkwood. Thanks so much!

Juli

Thank You Notes Like This Delight Us

In order to read this more clearly, just click on the image.



Juli

Candy Station with Cake and Coffee

Wedding clients vary regarding how they wish to have their wedding cake served to their guests. Some opt for the more formal table service, and some would prefer a self-serve buffet. Often the cake station is combined with a coffee station, and sometimes the coffee station will be upgraded with whipped cream, shaved chocolate, cinnamon sticks and the like to make it just a little bit fancier.

In the case of this guest, they opted for a cake/coffee station coupled with a candy station. I hope you enjoy this peak at a different part of our set up. I know the guests at this wedding really enjoyed it, because I barely had a chance to take photos before they were right there, choosing their favorites with great glee!

Juli
 
 
 

A Different View of the Ballroom

We received this email recently and thought you might enjoy reading it. I especially enjoyed seeing this fresh view of the Grand Ballroom, which was set with a sweetheart table, and gold ballroom chairs.

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Hi Christine,

I wanted to thank you again for helping us plan such a beautiful wedding! Everything ran just as smoothly as I was hoping (thank you, Claire!). The ballroom looked gorgeous and I couldn't have been happier. I attached some pictures from the night (the files are large so I need to send in multiple emails) - feel free to use some on the blog! If you do post any, please give credit to our photographer - Black Thumb Studio (Jeff Turner).

Thank you again to everyone at the hotel for making our night so special!!

Courtney and Jeff
 

Photo courtesy of Black Thumb Studio (Jeff Turner)

Wow! A Beautiful Wedding Photo at the Hawthorne Hotel

 

This is one of those photos that says what a thousand words cannot describe. What a handsome couple, too!

I hope you enjoy it.

Juli

A Very Different Wedding

We just received this photo and email today, and wanted to share it with you, fair blog reader. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Juli

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Hi Laura,

Bob and I wanted to thank you for all your help with the wedding planning. I can't imagine having to do any of that without you. The ceremony and reception was perfect! I can't believe how elegant it all turned out. The food was excellent and everyone loved the Belhaven! Thank you so much! You ROCK!

Jen R

A Lovely Start to Our Week!!

This email arrived in Kristie Poehler's mailbox this morning. Kristie is our Regional Director of Sales and Marketing. She shared, and I thought you might like to see it too, since it is about a wedding here at the Hawthorne Hotel.

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From: Nancy @hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, November 08, 2010 10:46 AM
To: Kristie Poehler
Subject: wedding 11/6/2010

Good Morning Kristie!

Well - my daughter and her fiance's wedding on Saturday at the Hawthorne was just superb!!

The professionalism of the staff, absolute attention to detail, delicious meal and hors d'eouvres - what more can a family ask for for their daughter's wedding!
From prior to the ceremony until the very last hour - the staff was available and there to assist us in whatever requets we had, be it simple or not so simple and they did with style!

Again, thanks to the staff at the Hawthorne who were so involved in this glorious day - we commend you all!

Sincerely,

Nancy & Bart (parents of Jessica)

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Nice! Thanks so much for taking the time to write to us.

Juli

Professional Photographer's Photos of Wedding on 10-10-10

The couple that were married here on 10-10-10 were so gracious. They had their photographer send us some photos from their wedding, so that I could share them with you here. I hope you enjoy these.

Juli

A Great Look at a Hawthorne Hotel Wedding

Wedding on 10-10-10 at the historic Hawthorne Hotel -- it doesn't get more memorable than that. Here is a complete look at that wedding, courtesy of the wedding photographers:

http://mrdrewphotography.com/blog/2010/10/brittany-lukesalem-ma/

If you love photos of weddings, this is the blog post for you.

Juli

Another lovely "THANK YOU" email

We just received this very nice email. Of course, we always take full credit for excellent weather! :-)

Juli

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Dear Christine, Liz, etc. -

For once I am at a loss for words, which is a rarity!!

EVERYTHING was beyond perfect!!! I did not hear even a peep of negative from anyone, all I heard was how gorgeous the venue was, the food was superb, the staff was excellent, the weather, etc. (and especially the candy) was the best they have experienced at a wedding!

From the beginning of our planning until the check-out on Sunday morning I could not have asked for more, it was beyond a pleasure working with everyone and could not have pulled of the wedding of the year without you!!! (LOL) I don't know what to do now with all my free time!

THANK YOU soooo much for everything!!!

Susan & Matt

Where were you 57 years ago?

I love old photos. They tell such terrific stories. Here are two photos of a wedding reception that took place in the Hawthorne Hotel 57 years ago. I got to meet this couple, who are still very much in love, when they came to visit the hotel from California recently.

I took their photo and blogged about them on our regular Hawthorne Hotel blog. But I think their wedding photos, which they were kind enough to share with me, belong on our wedding blog.

I hope you enjoy seeing them, and their note to me. To make any of the images on our blog larger, just click on the image itself.

 
 
 

I hope to see you here.

Juli

Fall-Themed Wedding

This past weekend we had a wedding that certainly got in the spirit of the Fall Season in Salem, Massachusetts. See for yourself.

Juli

This week we received a lovely thank you email and photo of a recent wedding. I thought you would like to see it as well.

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Hi Laura,

I'm sorry I couldn't send this email to you sooner! I wanted to wait to send my thank you to you once we'd received our wedding photos, so I could send you one of our favorites from the reception! I can't thank you enough for all that you did to make our wedding the beautiful and memorable event that it was. From the planning, to the food, to all the little details, you and the rest of the Hawthorne were wonderful. We've received many compliments about the food and the atmosphere that I wanted to make sure to pass on to you. Everyone raved about both!

From our first meeting with you, you made Jeff and myself feel comfortable and excited about our choice to have our wedding at the Hawthorne. I look forward to coming back in the future for an anniversary visit!

Thanks again!

Becky

The groom's family is from Canada, so we flew the Canadian flag in their honor on their wedding day.

If you have a special request for a flag or flags to be flown, do let us know in advance, as we take these requests in the order we receive them.

I hope you enjoy seeing another Hawthorne Hotel wedding, and sharing in this couple's happiness.

Juli

A (Very) Unique Wedding Cake

Looking like a birch tree in a forest of ferns, this wedding cake is one of the most unusual ones we have seen lately. The initials "carved" in the "tree trunk" are of obvious significance to this happy couple.

We just love getting to look at so many unique ideas here at the historic Hawthorne Hotel, and we especially enjoy sharing these ideas with you, fair blog reader.

I hope you enjoy getting to see these ideas too!

Juli

Great Photos of Steph & Greg's Wedding

This post will round out the series of posts we did on Steph and Greg's wedding. If you want to know more, see the prior posts on the subject.


Here is a link to their wedding photos, which are awesome. I really love their photographers' different take on wedding photos, and there are some lovely photos of the Hawthorne Hotel in this album as well.


http://joshuabehanblog.com/?p=1260


I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as we did.


Juli

Wedding in a Week

Earlier in this blog I noted that a couple had booked their wedding reception just one week before their wedding. Here are some photos from that wedding that took place this past Sunday.



Not every wedding that takes place at the Hawthorne Hotel needs to be a large wedding, as you can see from these photos. Casual, small weddings also take place here, and our experienced staff is so well-versed at what they do, they can handle even something like a "wedding in a week" as we did for this happy couple.

This wedding reception took place in our function room called Sophia's. It is a lovely room with windows on two sides, and a beautiful crystal chandelier. This wedding was for about 50 guests, and there was still room for a dance floor, a bar, the DJ and the cake table.

If you are planning a smaller wedding, and thought that the Hawthorne Hotel was only for larger, "grand ballroom" weddings, you may want to think again!

If you want more information, call our catering staff at 978-825-4358.

I hope to see your wedding reception, here at the Hawthorne Hotel.

Juli

Beautiful "Pink-Inspired" Wedding in Hawthorne Hotel's Grand Ballroom

The palest shade of pink on the bride's gown carried through the entire color palette for this wedding, as you can see by these photos here.

Meet Susan and Ryan. Such a handsome, beautiful couple! I had a rare opportunity to photograph them at the sweetheart table before the reception actually began.


Tables were named for all the streets that the happy couple have had as part of their lives -- between the two of them they have lived on every one of the sixteen streets. What fun!

The beautiful flower arrangements were done by Pepperberry Flowers. The florist is a family friend, and it certainly shows in the absolutely exquisite arrangements that perfectly match the bride's colors.

I hope you enjoy this look at another color scheme in the Grand Ballroom of the Hawthorne Hotel.

Juli

Wedding in a Week!!!!

Wow, we booked a wedding this Monday (yesterday) that will be taking place this Sunday! Wedding in a Week!! I'm going to take some photos to put right here, to show you that with the help of the excellent Hawthorne Hotel Catering, Banquet and Culinary Team members, your wedding can come true quite easily.

Juli

Chef Steve Recognized for His Efforts

Every wedding has its own story. Every guest has their own reason for choosing our hotel for their event. It is really nice to read a thank you note like this one, recognizing our Executive Chef, Steve Nelson, for his efforts.

It made me smile to read it, and I thought you might enjoy seeing it too.




Thanks, Chef Steve, for all that you do to make our guests happy!

Juli

Another very thoughtful THANK YOU email!

This email was for Steph and Greg's wedding, which we have profiled from start to finish right here on our blog. It was sent by Steph and Greg to Christine Turner, our Assistant Director of Catering (Christine was their wedding planner)and Liz Dube, our Banquet Manager (Liz ran their wedding)

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Christine and Liz -


First off- I cannot say enough to either of you about how beautiful our wedding was thanks to your hard work. Everything from start to finish was so wonderfully handled. Thank you for always being so quick to respond to my numerous questions and always being there with great advice. Honestly, we never felt like just another wedding. Your care, attention to detail, and experience made us feel like our wedding was important to you. I spent a lot of time on the details (as you know
:-P ) and your team took what I had imagined and made it a million times more incredible. I haven't stopped hearing from our guests how wonderful everything was- the details, the ballroom, the staff, and the food. Additionally, Robyn and the front desk team did an incredible job. Robyn worked so hard to help us set up our room block and work out easy ways for Greg and I to get ready on the wedding day. This attention to our wants, needs and dreams made the planning so much easier. Thank you for everything.

While I am still awaiting our photos, our full highlight video is up. I sent Juli the short preview a few days ago. I will send along photos when we have them.
http://vimeo.com/14137546

Again- for everything- thank you. We feel blessed to be starting our marriage on such a wonderful note.

I didn't have Liz's email so if you could forward this to her as well, that would be most appreciated!

Greg and Stephanie

Some ideas for Memory Boards Instead of Guest Book

Our Ballroom Without Embellishments

 
 

If you are wondering what our Ballroom looks like when it is set for a wedding that has no "extras" here are a couple of shots that should help you. This is with "our" chairs, regular (not upgraded)linens, no chair covers, no fancy tall flowers, and the dance floor set in the middle, with a DJ for the entertainment (not a band.)

The room is great looking just 'as is' but it certainly does lend itself well to upgrades -- it is really up to you.

I hope this look might be helpful for you.

Juli